WEBVTT - Nothing to Lose 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.600 Third Squad is a documentary podcast about war. Every episode 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:07.720 contains strong language and descriptions of violence that may not 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:12.360 be suitable for all listeners. I do remember when they 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:14.120 gave us a briefing of like, yeah, we're going to 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.640 sing in and they pulled out the pictures of fires 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:19.200 of our PV that we were going to and there 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.640 was sucking bullet holes all over the walls, and I 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.760 was like, holy fuck, you know what I mean, Like, 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:27.840 if you ever thought this was a game, it fucking ain't. 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.000 This is life, dude. This is where we're going, and 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.360 there's no there's no backing out. He signed up for 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:38.800 this ship. Let's go. I'm Elliott Woods. This is Third 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:57.920 Squad Episode five, Nothing to Lose. Tommy and I are 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.920 in South Dakota now to visit Third Squad veterans Brian 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:05.800 Shearer and John Bollinger. We drove miles north from Houston 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.720 across Pancake Flat, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska to get here, 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:12.240 and it was a welcome change of scenery when the 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:17.640 Black Hills erupted from the horizon just outside a rapid city. Unfortunately, 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:19.800 we were on the interstate, so there were a lot 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:23.679 of billboards cluttering the view, including a lot of military 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.080 recruiting billboards. There's another one, Marines Fight to Win, a 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.880 billboard that says Marines fight to win in all capital letters. 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.040 It's got a group of Marines on a firing line 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:37.080 dressed in desert camouflage, looking down the barrel of their rifles. 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:41.679 There hasn't been a draft since the Vietnam War. Today's 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.759 military is known as the all volunteer Force, which means 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.560 the military has to get people to enlist by choice. 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.760 The easiest people to recruit are teenagers, and the military 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.360 knows just how to lure them in with forty ft 0:01:54.360 --> 0:02:00.840 glossy billboards and commercials that look like video games, like 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.480 this one from the late nineties, where a marine fights 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.160 a dragon with a sword on a bridge made of lasers, 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:12.880 a trial by fire. It is a wight of passage. 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.640 The marketing is like a precision guided munition aimed directly 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.600 at the most vulnerable part of the adolescent male psyche, 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.800 the part that wants more than anything to become a 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:32.680 real man. A few the proud the marine, but Brian 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.760 Sheer he didn't need to be sold. He came to 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.680 the recruiter with his mind made up, gung ho and 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.600 ready to see the world beyond South Dakota. I didn't 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.280 have anything to lose, right, you know, like not that 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:46.120 that's a great way to out and look at look 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.640 at life. But I wasn't married and have kids, like 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.880 I've made a will. I gave my PlayStation to my 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.160 brother like that was. That was like the extent of 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.360 my fucking belongings. You know what I mean. You gotta 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.639 be eighteen years old to sign your life over to 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.519 the Middle Terry, but there's an exception with your parents signature. 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.880 You can join at seventeen. It's like a permission slip 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.720 for the most insane field trip imaginable. That's what Brian 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.240 Shearer did with his parents permission. He committed himself to 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.519 four years in the Marines before he was old enough 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:20.000 to vote or buy a pack of cigarettes. He shipped 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:22.280 off to boot camp a week after he graduated from 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.840 high school in two thousand nine. Eventually he wound up 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.320 in third Squad with John Bollinger, training at Camp Pendleton 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.840 and deploying to Sangon in two thousand eleven. Shear grew 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.760 up here in Rapid City. He's six ft tall with 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.840 dark hair, that's almost always under a baseball cap, and 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.840 he wears square toed cowboy boots that make him seem taller. 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:43.800 When I was growing up, I was in the recruiting 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.000 office all the time. It's been the same in the 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:51.200 mall forever. And they've got Army and Navy and Air 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:52.880 Force and all that ship and the Marines are tucked 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:54.720 like way in the back. I was doing pull ups 0:03:54.760 --> 0:04:00.000 in the Marine recruiting office when I was like eight. Yeah, 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.120 you do like X amount of pull ups and you 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.920 get a poster or some ship. I've had all the 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.160 posters of like the dudes and the fucking grass all 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.600 like cam be painted out and you know what I mean, 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.600 just that kind of ship. John Bollinger was an eager 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.760 recruit too. I wasn't really thinking. I just wanted to fight. 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.720 That's what I wanted to do. I mean, plain and simple, 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.760 Like I was joining the Marine Corps because I wanted 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:30.760 to fight. And I didn't care if I was shocked, stabbed, 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.480 blown up, freaking whatever, you know. I was just like, 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:39.600 I'm gonna fight. I'm gonna fucking do it. Bollinger, whose 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.640 grandfather was a Marine, grew up about three miles away 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.400 from Sheer and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The guys call him Bow. 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.159 He's small and has a scruffy beard and smudged glasses, 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.080 but his baggy clothes hid a chiseled frame. He was 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:56.200 eighteen when he went to talk to the recruiter, so 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.760 he didn't need to get his parents involved. And I 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.640 signed a contract to be had a army ranger. And 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.599 then see if this is where I sucked up. I 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:07.520 talked to the Marine Corps recruiter. I was just I 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.080 was actually went over talk ship to him and I 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.240 was talking all this ship and he's like, well, you know, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.120 you can be in the army, but you know what, 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:16.560 you have the Marine Corps. And I'm like what And 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:22.679 he's like a lifetime of pride and I'm like I'm tough, 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.960 and so yeah, I joined the Marine Corps. Like you know, 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.640 you fell for that ship, fell for that ship. Shear 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.760 and Bow are both thirty now. They're both married with 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:37.000 two sons, and they both live in South Dakota. Shares 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.679 back in his hometown Rapid City, and Bolinger lives about 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:44.120 forty five minutes away in a smaller town called Spearfish. 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:46.120 Tommy and I met up with the two of them 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:54.280 at Bow's house one morning in mid March. The deployment 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.599 brought these guys together like brothers, and for a while, 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.120 after Bou moved to South Dakota, they saw at out 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.680 of each other. They worked on wildland firefighting crews together 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.360 along with another third squad veteran Taylor Moody, But then 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.320 life got in the way. Shear kept the adrenaline up 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:12.479 by getting a full time job with the Rapid City 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.840 Fire Department. If there is a hell, it's sitting in 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.520 a fucking cubicle. Bo developed a fascination with trees and 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.520 became an apprentice arborist for a company called the tree 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:25.039 Wise Men. On a day to day basis, I play 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.920 the lorax as Bo and shearers families grew work in. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.240 Parenting didn't leave much time for socializing, even with old 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.040 buddies from the core. By the time we meet up, 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.480 it's been so long since they've seen each other that 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:39.640 Bo has to give Sheer a tour of his house, 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.440 which he's lived in for almost three years. Look at 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:49.000 you moving on up? Yeah, nice man, We'll Congratsude's yeah, 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:51.599 I can check out the new new crew we go to. Hey, 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.240 now you gotta move. See we're not good friend where 0:06:55.279 --> 0:07:00.279 people left right, we're people with families that can say again. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.800 Sheer was Third Squads designated marksman or d M. He 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.800 carried a special M sixteen rifle with the suppressor and 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.080 scope called a Mark twelve, designed to take out enemies 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.400 at long range. He grew up shooting and hunting and 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.560 wanted to become a d M even before he joined 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.880 the Core. I joined to fucking stacked bodies, Like I 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.440 knew what I wanted to do. Not in a crazy way, 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.360 like does that make sense to like, not in a 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:31.200 psycho way of saying that, but like that was my 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:37.080 perception of what the military was, and that was what 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:42.680 I could do. Bo was Third Squads radio operator. It 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.760 was his job to call in medevac helicopters whenever Third 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.360 Squad Marines were critically wounded. It was also his job 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.160 to call in fire support like air strikes and mortars 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:56.200 whenever they got in trouble. It's like, hey, fires were 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.040 in a gunfight. This is where I'm at. The enemies 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.120 this far out in this direction or next to this building. 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.560 Fucking get a gut on target, you know, like we 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.400 need it now and there are different roles. Bow and 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.800 Shearer developed unique perspectives on the war and on the killing. 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:15.800 Sharer learned what the enemy looked like through a high 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.960 powered scope. Bo learned to imagine the battlefield from the sky, 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.760 broken into grid squares and dotted with rooftops, he could 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:28.000 make entire buildings disappear along with the people in them. 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.200 They performed these tasks in a fixed area of operations, 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.559 or a O. That's the term used to describe the 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.520 patch of ground that the peb Fires Marines were responsible 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.920 for where almost all of Third squads missions took place. 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.880 Even for someone like me who's been there, picturing the 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.640 peb Fires AO is kind of tricky, and I want 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:49.560 to get a clear sense of the scale and the 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.320 important landmarks. So after we eat some breakfasts with Bose 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.079 sons and his wife Hannah, I asked sharing Bow to 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.640 draw maps for me. I can already tell that my 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:07.640 maps like ship, I'm already drawn too big. Shears makes 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.719 it in some blue for the river. You gotta get 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:12.120 that river, dude. They don't draw the canals and the 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.920 Mississippi and ship and blue. I'm gonna get lost. Third 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.719 Squad had nicknames for the canals that splintered off from 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.480 the Helmand River. They called the largest one. The Mississippi 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:26.559 is a big main canal split off here I'll drive 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.079 it was about waste on bowse map. The Helmon River 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.440 dips down from the top right corner, which would be 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.640 the northeast, and then it turns back up to the 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:40.720 top left corner in a gentle curve. The Mississippi splits 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:42.760 off from the Helmont and snakes down the middle of 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:46.559 the page, dividing the AO and half. They also had 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.280 nicknames for the fields, the clusters of houses, and the 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.640 other terrain features in the a O ten years out 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.439 from sang In. Those nicknames roll off sheer and bows 0:09:55.480 --> 0:10:00.960 tongues as if they were there yesterday, PM Parkway. That 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.320 was fucking him our village. Come down to the six 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:08.040 eleven up. Here's code is a near the bottom center 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.080 bow draws a few little blocks surrounded by a big square. 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:16.439 I'm doing shrink down fires, not to scale Bard of memory. 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.959 This is patrol based fires. Bow draws the guard posts 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.160 on each corner and a squiggly lined around all of 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.640 it to mark the concertina wire on the outer perimeter. 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.199 I think you had a pretty good map. I think 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.959 you got a pretty good map. Looking at Bow's map, 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.920 I'm blown away by how small the peb Fires AO 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.440 appears mile and a half. I was I was going 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.400 to go a little bit further than that. I bet 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:46.559 it was the direction from fires. Yea roughly click is 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.120 military jargon for a kilometer just shy of two thirds 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.640 of a mile, so that means the AO was less 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.280 than two miles across. I walked farther than that with 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.680 my dog most days. It's crazy to think that such 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.640 a small and sparsely populated area could generate so much bloodshed. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:09.560 And PP Fires wasn't an island unto itself. It was 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:12.200 part of an archipelago of outposts up and down the 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.920 Helmond River, each with its own a O, patrolled by 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.040 a similar group of young marines and resetting every night 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:20.760 with a new crop of I E. D S and 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:24.680 Taliban fighters. But both says a lot of the time 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.360 the pp Fires AO could seem pretty boring. Oh no, 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:34.080 we just like mosy like seriously, that was what we did. 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.280 Was just mosey around the AO, mosey and occasionally get 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:47.359 into full blown gunfights. Mission was to conduct coin counterinsurgent operations, 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:52.480 so that would be talking to people, getting information, this 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.400 kind of thing. But our secondary mission, I would say 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.199 to that, or even primary after we started getting hit 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:04.679 was is to locate, close with and destroy the enemy. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.000 Every once in a while, they'd bring a marine from 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.600 Psychological Operations who would blast music from allowed speaker to 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.680 piss off the Taliban. Yeah, you're just playing like Britney 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:18.800 Spears and Taylor Swift Hey fucking hated Taylor Swift Man. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:29.080 It's just patrol until you got into contact basically, and 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.120 then find it out until it ended, and then walk 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:35.800 home or go find more contacts. Uh. Well, it depended 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.120 depending on where we were at for AMMO and where 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:39.560 we were at in the a O and where we 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.080 were at in the day. So if they break contact 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.839 for lunchtime and we've still got you know, our AMMO, 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.360 we're not going to go home. We're gonna go try 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:51.280 and find a spot, set up an ambush and wait 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.400 for him to come back out from their lunch. Because 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.520 that's something the Taliban does, is like they stopped for lunch. 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.040 They're like, You're like, oh man, it's fun out of 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:05.920 his gunfight with you. But I am famished. Yeah, I 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.959 gotta go prey and eat some bread. Can we meet 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:14.439 up in an hour? Both starts drawing again, using a 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.160 number two pencil to mark tree lines that the Taliban 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.560 used to hide their movements and set up ambushes. They 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.160 also use them for cover when planting I e. D s, 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.240 like the ones that caused the mass casualties in June. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.160 So where where was the attack on the ninth? O'Brien 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.640 was here? Here? This was O'Brien. Bow points to a 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.040 spot just to the left of Peb Fires where he's 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.839 drawn a tree line next to a small canal. That's 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:43.200 where he found that the little chunk of O'Brien's leg, 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:46.600 because it was in the canal they were on that 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.880 they were on that canal just outside the perimeter of 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:54.400 peb Fires. Bow marks three bridges across three canals. I 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:57.480 remember waiting across those canals, but I never set foot 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.720 on the bridges. No one did after June twelve, when 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.079 Joshua McDaniels was blown in half after crossing the last 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.480 of them, the first in a chain of explosions that day. 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:09.800 Are we going to put all the down just? Yeah? 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:11.600 Do you? I mean everybody got hit that day, Rich 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.800 and Lopez fucking just start making excess, dude, it was 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.680 every I mean, Roman was here. The paper around the 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:25.640 bridges fills up with shears red exes, Leone Clemens, Taylor 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.440 casualties of the four I E. D S that went 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:34.800 off on June twelve. Frankie stepped on one single. I 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:36.760 list the names of the wounded off to the side 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:38.640 under the date of each attack to try to make 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.680 an accurate record. Gonna run out of run out of 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.600 room on that paper there, but Shearers running out of 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.800 paper to his ex is also marked the Marines who 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.400 suffered traumatic brain injuries that day. Did you get a 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.120 TV at that? Yeah? I got, I got me. That 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:59.160 was Alonso and me. You got to hit that day too, 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:05.000 didn't you, Yeah, Brian Sheer basically everybody, basically pretty much 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.800 everybody that was a bad day. Right there. When Sharon 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.600 Bow finished tallying the dead and wounded, they're seventeen names 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.920 on the June twelfth list. Then they started talking about June. 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:18.960 Sheer starts making a new group of exs next to 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.440 an area shaded green and labeled good Field six more names. 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.520 Each one of these exes marks a friend and after 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:34.119 those three days in June, the war became personal. Everybody 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.080 was the enemy, and therefore I want to destroy my 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.040 enemy because I want to stay alive. I want to 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.400 kill everybody. Sharing bo, tell me the higher ups relax 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.960 the rules of engagement or r o ees basically how 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.080 much force they were allowed to use whenever they got 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:52.280 into a fight. Okay, so are r o e s. 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.640 We're fucking terrible when we first got there. Tell people 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:57.760 what our rules of engagement are? Rules of engagement A 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:00.640 terrible pretty much. If we weren't getting shot, we couldn't 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.600 do ship. So we were getting ambushed a lot. We 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:05.960 were getting a lot of I D s and everything 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.160 like that. And after after June, it kind of became 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:13.120 like the Wild West, because you know, I take shitty 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:20.200 things to change things. After the twelve and and the nine, 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.720 there were no r o e s. The r o 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:30.040 e s were two. Our discretion and hurting people do 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:35.440 hurtful ship. And hurtful ship is what we did, what 0:16:35.520 --> 0:17:22.879 we really did. We'll be back after the brink. Good morning, 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:28.160 Good morning man, I got you some donuts, you got 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:33.400 chocolate and like some ways for speed Crean style. That's awesome. 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:35.840 I met up with Bow and Sheer together, but I 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.040 also spent time with each of them alone. Today I'm 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.000 hanging out with Sheer. We're both hunters, so I asked 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.440 him if we can go out together one morning before dawn. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.000 He picks me up in his well worn Nissan Frontier 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.240 and we drive up into the Black Hills. So just 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.840 give me a quick couple sentences of rundown of what 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.480 we're gonna do this morning. Well, if the fucking weather 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.440 would have been right, we were gonna be driving through 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.159 some fresh snow looking for cat tracks and then setting 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.520 up and doing some stands and haunting some mountain lions. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:20.040 But it's sucking dry. There's a nicy crust on top 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.919 of the last patches of snow, so we're probably scaring 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:27.200 every animal within earshot into the next county. Goddamn almost 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.119 sapience Locker Around the last time Shear and I went hiking, 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:33.680 he was also dressed in camo and carrying a rifle 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.160 with a big scope. Dude, I love being out here 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.240 and getting behind behind a gun. You know, it just 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.479 feels good. DoD never mind you at all or connect 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.600 to at all too p in the Marine Corps or 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.000 being in Afghanistan in any way does it feel familiar 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:54.199 at all? You know, it's like really weird, like but 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.880 people like stack rocks um for fun or some ship. 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.320 I don't know. But sometimes you'll be walking in there, 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:03.280 all the woods and you just see like stack rocks, 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:05.639 like like what they used to do over you fucking singing, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.919 and you're like, Jesus, fun drives, Why why did they 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.040 stack rocks and sang it? Well? That because that was 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:17.280 like an indication to them where they're e d s 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.920 or an indication of like the locals and themselves are like, hey, 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.280 this area has how you d s in it. It 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:31.800 turns out Afghanistans never very far away. Hunting predators like 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.600 mountain lions is a whole different game than hunting prey 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.879 animals like deer and elk that are all flighting, no fighting. 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.720 Because I do love on cats though, because you're not 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.080 you're not top dog, you know what I mean. Like, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.840 so coming out by yourself and hunting something that could 0:19:50.840 --> 0:20:00.240 just as easily on you, I love it. I love it. Yeah. 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:03.800 Shearer tries to call in a mountain line with an 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.119 electronic call that sounds like a porcupine, kind of like 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.439 blasting Taylor Swift to lure in the Taliban, but he 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.600 doesn't find any takers, so he packs up his gear 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:21.080 and we hiked back down to the truck. Is this 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.399 your high school? Is high score here, Stevens. I got 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.359 into a lot of trouble here back in Rapid City. 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.000 Shear gives us a tour of his hometown. Um, kind 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.560 of the main man artery through town. Actually our our 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:35.879 downtown fire station. Is that one right there? You can 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.679 see the training tower kind of great or the tans 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:42.280 are right Yeah, that's where I was, um all last year. 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.480 Oh is this a dirt track? Yeah, this is dirt tracks. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:50.800 So I saw it back there on the corner, right 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.440 right on the right there near the fire station. He 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:56.200 pointed out that there's a vet center there too that 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:00.360 says Readjustment and Counseling Services. I don't know, never kind 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:04.080 anywhere near that place. I don't do anything like that, 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:07.040 and I never have. I had to. I had a 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:12.560 really good transition out, man. Um, there's just the whole 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.040 sit around in a circle and fucking kumbayah like it 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.240 just you know, it works for some people, man, it 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:22.760 really does. But I find that everyone just deals with 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.960 their own ship, their own way. Like my way of 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.720 dealing with stuff is not to like talk about it. 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:44.600 Shear's house is tucked at the end of a quiet street. 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:46.719 His wife, Courtney, is at work when we show up, 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:52.040 but his mom's here, very nice to meet you. She's 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:53.760 going to keep an eye on six year old Bow 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.040 and three year old Rent while we visit with Bryant's. 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:57.639 Looks like the boys have been kind of hard on 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.840 the floors. Okay, so I the house is in the 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.440 midst of a major remodel. So the place is totally gutted, 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:07.840 torn down to the studs. In some parts big remodel, 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.760 there was a big like load bearing wall. Here you 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.800 can actually actually see you can see where the wall was. 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:16.720 There's lots of light from a big picture window that 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.320 looks out on the Black Hills to the west, where 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.879 Black Elk Peak towers over the horizon. That's the highest 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:27.120 point east of the rockies. Next to the window, there's 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.880 a wide table that's spilling over with Courtney's impressive plant collection. 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:36.840 Let me Shears Pride enjoys his garage, which he calls 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:39.760 his shop. This is where he hangs trophies from his 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:43.000 hunts and where he's rebuilding an old muscle car. So 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:46.680 this is a seventy eight Camaro and it's I don't 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:50.280 know what, six different colors, and I love it and 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:54.280 I love it for that because it looks like ship. 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:56.800 The Camaro is almost ready for the dirt track down 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.360 the street where he plans to race it his old 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:02.080 hunting trout. It's parked in here too. I love it. 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:05.240 This is my girl. I think I actually got it 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:08.000 after we were right after we got back. I think 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:10.280 this is what some of my deployment money went to, 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:13.720 what little of it there was. The truck's got a 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.360 special license plate with a purple heart metal on one 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:19.399 side and the words combat wounded tell us about the 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:24.120 license plate. So I'm not I'm not that I don't 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:28.760 like like the recognition of like, oh I got a 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:33.120 purple heart plate, that's who I am. You know that's 0:23:33.119 --> 0:23:36.760 not what it is. Um. This truck costs like seventy 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:41.399 bucks to register, and that ship's like fifteen. So it 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:45.720 really it really came down to that. You just sit 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:48.840 comfortably and I'll adjust to you. Down in Sharer's basement, 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:51.040 we pop a couple of bush lights and sit down 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:53.240 to talk about Sangin and what he's been up to 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:57.119 for the last decade. Kick your feet up, Tommy Ques 0:23:57.200 --> 0:23:59.480 up some clips from the first time I interviewed shere 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:02.240 back at Pepe Fires when he was twenty years old. 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:04.919 What do you think about the Taliban in terms of 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:07.399 them as fighters and what they're trying to do? The 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:12.080 Taliban or cowards um they hide among the population and 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:17.120 they use innocent civilians as pretty much shields and buffers 0:24:17.160 --> 0:24:18.760 so that we can't get to them. They know are 0:24:18.800 --> 0:24:21.000 are we'se. They know what we can and can't do, 0:24:21.880 --> 0:24:25.240 and they use that to their advantage and our disadvantage. 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:29.320 And they're just their cowards. Are they as more sophisticated 0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:31.960 than you thought they would be. They're good at what 0:24:32.000 --> 0:24:34.119 they do. They know how to emplace their ideas, they 0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:39.440 know how to attack from multiple positions, and they're really 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:43.719 able to maneuver on you, but mainly because they can 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:45.800 blended him with the populace and they, I mean, they've 0:24:45.840 --> 0:24:49.720 been fighting forever, so wouldn't it's nothing you wouldn't expect. 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:56.399