WEBVTT - Chasing The War 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.280 Third Squad is a podcast about war. All episodes contain 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.120 strong language and graphic descriptions of violence that may not 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.440 be suitable for all listeners. So I went down there 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:13.720 to bury him fresh out of high school. He was 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:19.840 a kid and his dad was about thirty eight, maybe forty. 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.239 He came up to me and said, hey, I try 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:26.280 to join as soon as I heard it happened. They 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.479 won't let me go over there. They won't let me 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.279 join them too old. And he goes like, hey, can 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.159 you promise if you can get over there, like can 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.720 you can you do something about it? And I was like, yeah, 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.199 I meanly, like that's all I want to do. So 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.720 then that like became my mission. Is like no matter 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:53.920 what I was, getting to Afghanistan, Ii'm Elliott Woods. This 0:00:54.000 --> 0:01:09.760 is Third Squad Episode nine, Chasing the War. There's no 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.760 barber pole outside the Straight Ahead Barbershop in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:16.880 but inside it's a throwback to the places where I 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:18.919 got my hair cut as a kid a few hours 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.160 from here. When we were young, there were old school barbershops. 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:27.240 There were, but like in that mid nineties period, I 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.160 think they like all faded and disappeared and nobody replaced 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.360 them with a long wooden bench where customers wait their 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.840 turn and a jar of combs bathing an ice blue 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:39.640 barber side. Straight ahead is a convincing replacement. It looks 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.240 like an antique barber chair. Yeah, they're both about a 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.480 years old, probably finished on myself. It's the centerpiece of 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.040 the barbershops. They're like, you have to have an old 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.640 chair like. The owner's name is Jeriic Fry. The first 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:53.720 time I met him, he was wearing body armor and 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:55.920 a helmet and getting ready to step out on patrol. 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.720 When sang for I was third squad squad leader. And 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.160 in the past decade he's gone from carrying a him 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.720 forward wielding clippers in his very own barber shop. His 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.320 body armor and helmet are actually on display next to 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.639 a shelf of straight ahead T shirts. As it happens, 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.600 I'm in need of a trimp. So when you look 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:16.720 at these scant resources of hair that I have on 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:18.400 top of my head, what are you thinking? What is 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.640 your creative vision for I think you get like pretty 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.160 tight at the bottom, like for a wand maybe even 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.560 like tapered out almost that sounds good. Fry has the 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.960 vintage barber. Look down. He's got a leather apron and 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.640 his own hair styled in a classic part with the waves, 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.040 but he still looks like a marine, square jawed and 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:41.760 clean shaven, and a little intimidate, which he says actually 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.079 helps put his regular clientele at eats. When I opened 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.840 my shop, I really wanted to draw the correct customers, 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:50.920 you know. I wanted I wanted the police. I wanted 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.560 the military, one of the good blue collar guys, you know, 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.080 like I wanted the good community in here. It's not 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.240 all about making money. It's you know, it's about the 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:00.200 people you affect and the the people surround your show with. 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.400 Greensburg is a rust belt city on the east side 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.800 of Pittsburgh with a lot of empty storefronts and a 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.720 few stately old buildings that call back to better times. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.079 Fry grew up in a smaller town called Irwin, about 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.160 ten miles closer to Pittsburgh. He moved back to the 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:17.120 area in two thousand and fourteen when he got out 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.000 of the core, and he's glad to be home. Pennsylvania's 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.080 great that people here are great families from here. I 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.880 wanted my boys to be raised here. Ford tells me 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:27.919 this area was pretty depressed when he was a kid, 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.920 but he says Greensburg has been making a gradual comeback. 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.600 He's proud that his barbershop is one less empty storefront, 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.280 and he loves his work. Your barber is not just 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:39.960 somebody to cut your hair. He becomes like a party, 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.720 like your family, your friend. You're probably gonna cut your 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.600 hair right before you get married. Uh. And then on 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.440 the flip side of it, you know it's a loved 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:50.960 one dies You're probably gonna be in here. You know 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.200 you're going to court, You're gonna be in here. So 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.160 I'm with you on like the facts and worst days 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:01.920 of your life. That's what I like about barbering. And like, 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.360 you can't walk into a barbershop and get a good 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.400 haircut and walk out and not feel better. That's true. 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.360 You can definitely walk out of a barbershop with a 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.000 bad haircut and not feel better, though, I just feel defeated. Yeah, 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:15.960 I mean that was one of the things that drove 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.800 me to be a barber, is that when I was 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:21.480 in the Marine Corps, you know, I'm getting a haircut 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:25.000 every single week for nine years, and there were so 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.919 many disappointing haircuts and like I just never understood it, Like, 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:31.960 how how is this your job and you're so bad 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.680 at it? Like, and I was like, I know I 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.560 can do better than It's like, I can provide a 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:43.359 better service than this. Yeah. After a year of COVID 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:45.880 buzz cuts at home, Fries managed to make me look 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.960 like a respectable citizen again. That looks great. I feel 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:54.840 like a new man, for I was twenty four years 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:56.760 old when we first met him. Sang In one of 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.320 the oldest guys in the squad. He was reserved on me, 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:02.799 but I picked up on his determination to do better, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:05.640 to constantly learn and improve for the benefit of the 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.880 younger Marines, and as far as he was concerned, their 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.880 lives were in his hands. Here we are back at 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:16.960 patrol base Fires. What's it like to be a squad 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.159 leader and have responsibility for these guys they're under You 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:24.120 don't ever control the Billit of squad leader carries a 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:28.360 lot of weight. Not only in charge of thousands and 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:33.320 thousands of dollars of equipment and ammunition, but you're in 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.520 charge of ten of the marines. Lives depend on how 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.480 hard you are on them and how strict you make 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.840 them follow and abide by rules and tactics. Even when 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:48.080 you get tired and lazy and the patrols keep dragging on, 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:50.320 you have to keep their head in the game. And 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.479 if you don't, if one of them lose their lives, 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.640 it falls on your shoulders. For I didn't start the 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.039 deployment with Third Squad. He came as a combat replacement 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.719 after the original squad leader, Sergeant Andrew Mottelski, got blown 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.480 up on June twelve, two th eleven. The platoon lost 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.160 almost all of its senior leaders to the mass casualties 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.320 in June, so when Fry arrived in July, the younger 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.040 Marines were still reeling. Boosting their morale and keeping their 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.239 heads in the game was a matter of life and death. 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:25.080 If one person in the squad's week, the squad will fail. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.160 So everybody has to pull their own weight. Everybody has 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.480 to know their job, the job below them, the job 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:36.640 above them. It's more like a family that everybody works 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.440 together real well. Everybody gets along real well, and if 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.240 you don't, you fail, And failure is not an option 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.279 out here because people won't go home. That It was 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.880 the end of July two thousand eleven when we were talking. 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.520 Third squad had a little more than two months to 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.039 go before the end of the deployment. So what do 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.840 you hope would be the end state for your squads accomplishments? 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.279 And in October what you hope that you guys can 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.760 get accomplished by that if you keep up phone, men, phone. 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.560 The only thing I really care about is getting these 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:10.560 guys home and getting home with all our limbs. Anything 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:16.800 other than that just a plus yea. In the relative 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.640 quiet of the vacant tattoo shop he shares the building with, 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.800 Fry tells me about his life before the Marine Corps, 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.000 growing up in a working class p A family. His 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.600 mom worked in the food industry and his dad worked 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:32.240 and still works at a company that manufactures granite countertops. 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.920 I called the Pennsylvania grind here in West Pennsylvania. Like 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:38.760 these blue collar guys, they're just getting this grind and 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.600 it's like good enough. They're never really happy, but like 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.200 they're just they're doing enough, they're paying their bills, and 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.480 they just grind away for these employers that just take 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:51.920 advantage of them. But fr I wasn't thinking about any 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.680 of that as a kid. I grew up and my 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:56.480 family always knew I was going to go to the 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:58.960 military of some sort. It's like my parents joker about 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:01.320 that all the time. Like I'd be building bombs and 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.160 weapons in the basement, and like I always had like 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:05.600 g I Jo's and would set him up in these 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.240 big elaborate battles, and always watched war movies and like 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.000 my whole life. But like I didn't know that I 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.679 was going to military. They did, though Fry's destiny didn't 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.440 become clear to him until his senior year of high school. 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.160 I was sitting on my back porch of my house. 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:23.480 I was thinking about what I was gonna do with 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:25.800 my life. And I didn't want to go to college. 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:27.880 I didn't want to get in that blue collar grind 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:33.040 and just worked till I was dead. And I like 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:38.480 had an epiphany. I just said, well, I'm gonna go 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:44.960 join the Marine Corps. He was seventeen years old. My 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.400 mind was made. I just wanted to go shoot weapons. 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.640 I didn't know what that meant, but that's all I said. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.000 After high school for I went to Paris Island, South 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:59.120 Carolina for bootcamp. It was June two THI and even 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.480 though President George Bush had declared mission accomplished in Iraq 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.920 two years earlier. In the Battle of Iraq, the United 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:11.880 States and our allies have prevailed. An outbreak of vicious 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.439 sectarian fighting was derailing plans for an easy excident. The 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.400 Almani Army, loyal to the Shiite Claret Mark Potter outsider, 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.319 was responsible from much of the violence outside Falluja and Ramadi. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:29.960 The whole time through boot camp, all they kept telling us, 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.439 the guys that signed up for infantry, they kept pull 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:34.320 once aside and they're like, Hey, you're going to war, 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:38.640 Like there's no question, there's no Within a year you 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.040 will be in Iraq, which, like is what I wanted, 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.600 you know, That's what I was looking for. When Fry 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.560 finished recruit training and got to his unit at Camp Lajeune, 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.720 North Carolina, he was surrounded by Marines who were fresh 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.400 home from the two thousand four Battle of Felujah. The 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.960 US and Iraqi forces launched a major offensive event Falloja Today, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.400 which was already notorious in the core for some of 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.160 the worst urban warfare since the Battle of Way City 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.280 in the Vietnam War. So some five thousand US Marines 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.480 and soldiers stage the ground assault, and even though Fry 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.800 got hazed by Felujha Vets, who were obviously struggling with 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.080 what they'd experienced. He still looked up to him. He 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.080 still wanted a piece of the action, and he prepared 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:25.199 for it with laser focus. I've really cared about my job, 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:27.960 and I studied it, you know. I would study machine 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.960 guns and tactics and everything constantly. I just tried to 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.680 make myself the best I could possibly be to help 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:42.080 the Marines around me. Fry was what's known in the 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.800 military as a hard charger. Nothing in his life came 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.080 anywhere close to his devotion to the core, not even 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.079 his wife, Kristen, who he married when he was only eighteen. 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.520 Fry was a Marine infantryman, and he had a single obsession. 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.400 I was looking for war. I was looking for the fight. 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:04.079 I wanted to connectic fight, not knowing exactly what that meant, 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.800 but I wanted it. But Fry kept missing the war. 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.400 In two thousand six, he participated in the evacuation of 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.880 nearly fifteen thousand Americans from Lebanon during the war between 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.120 Israel and Hezbollah from a U. S. Navy ship off 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.240 the coast. He heard the gunfire on shore and watched 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.520 Israeli jets zip across the sky and entire buildings turned 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.560 into mushroom clouds. But there was no combat role for 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.240 the Marines, and the experience left Fried Jones ng even 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.360 more for the real war, the one just across the 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.040 Syrian desert in a rock, where other Camp Lejun Marines 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.600 were taking part in a bloody campaign to retake a 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.920 town called Ramadi from al Qaida linked insurgents. This vated 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:49.280 city has become the operational center of al Qaida and 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:55.160 the symbolic heart of the Iraqi insurgency. Fried did end 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.280 up getting deployed to Ramadi a year later, but by 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.280 the time he got there the fire storm had already passed. 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.960 There was a few like little firefights, little pop shots, 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.560 some ideas found, but for the most part it was 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.200 very calm. I lifted a lot of weights and ate 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.439 a lot of food, and patrol a lot and stood 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.439 a lot of posts. But we weren't out there getting 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:20.120 in firefights, which is what I was looking for. Being 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.920 young and dumb, for I signed up to fight the dragon. 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.559 He wasn't interested in the hearts and minds counterinsurgency stuff. 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.600 So when the Ramadi hitch was over. He volunteered for 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.160 another Rock deployment, hoping this time he'd get his chance. 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.000 But when he got to his new base outside Felujah 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.800 in two thousand nine, the Dragon was sound asleep. We 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:45.720 were doing nothing but like humanitarian missions and some policing, 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:51.040 but mainly we had turned over the forces to Iraqi forces. 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.199 We were there just to support them at that point, 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:58.199 which was basically a huge letdown for all of us. 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:00.200 You know, we went over there and it was kind 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.240 of a waste of time. You know. The thing that 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.920 I had been chasing and heard about and read stories 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:10.720 and trained for, I wasn't able to do. Over the 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.320 course of five years in the Marines, Fry had spent 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.080 a combined fourteen months in a war zone where death 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.120 lurked everywhere, but he never got deep in the ship, 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.560 and he felt cheated, like a professional athlete stuck on 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.600 the sidelines. For I was at the top of his game, 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.240 hitting every benchmark of success in the Marines. He made 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.040 sergeant in less than four years, a rare feet in 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:36.400 the core. A sergeant in the Marine Corps is like 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.480 a god, like those are the guys you look up to, 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.280 like the new guys coming in like you don't even 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.120 talk to a sergeant, you don't even look at them wrong. 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.600 Sergeants serve as squad leaders in the Marine Corps, and 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:49.400 for I wanted to lead a squad in the thick 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.240 of combat in the worst way. But it didn't look 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:54.160 like he'd get another chance in a rock where the 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:58.880 American withdrawal was already underway. Obama's Afghanistan Surge, on the 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.640 other hand, was just ramping up. And when fr I 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.480 found out that the third Battalion, fifth Marines was slotted 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.600 for a deployment to sang In, he saw one more chance. 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.240 He requested and received a transfer from Campbell June out 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.880 to Camp Pendleton, and almost as soon as he got there, 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.800 he began tryouts for three fives elite sniper platoon. They 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:19.160 told us to get our packs and the way they 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.120 run the hooy to the top of the hill. Had 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.640 about ninety pounds in my back and I stepped in 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.520 a waddy like a runoff, and I hyper extended my 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:30.120 right knee and blew out my A C L, L 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.720 C L and both meniscus with one fatal swoop. The 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.200 injury was severe enough that Fry had to be pulled 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:38.920 from the line. So when three five shipped out for 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.600 Sangon in the autumn of two thousand ten, for I 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.160 wasn't with them. And initially it was I mean, it 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.200 was all anger, and it was like I was just 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.880 missing it, like I missed something, like I like, like 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.000 I said, I was chasing it and chasing and chasing, 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:53.600 and it was there. I was there, and then I 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.760 got hurt and couldn't do what I wanted to do, 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.160 you know what, like I thought I wanted to do 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.080 in my heart. While he was injured, Fry had helped 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:06.200 train young three five marines. Now they were in harm's way, 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.280 and the bad news started rolling in almost immediately they 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:14.000 deploy and I go in for surgery. I'm laying in 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:18.120 a hospital bed and my buddy Maloney, he came in 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:20.600 and he tells me that one of my marines was 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.200 the first to die in Afghanistan, Lancecople Sparks, was shot 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.680 and killed. He was one of my marines from my 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.640 machine gun squad that I was in charge of. And 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:33.440 that just crushed me because I'm laying there in a bed, helpless, 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:36.600 and I felt like I should have been there like 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.880 there that in my mind there was no question if 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:40.960 I should have been there. The fact that he couldn't 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.360 do anything to help the three five Marines and sang 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.600 In tormented fry. But there was something he could do 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.680 for the families of the dead back home. So as 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:51.600 soon as I was able to like bearweight at all, 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:56.440 I started doing funerals. Because three five suffered so many casually, 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.680 they were really getting beat up for I volunteered for 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:03.560 the her Guard, the small detachment that escorts marines remains 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.560 back to their families. I thought that if it's the 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.920 only thing I can do, is barry take these guys home, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:11.440 take them to their family, and put them in the 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.720 ground and give them the respect that I could. You know, 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:16.920 that was my responsibility that I had to do. That. 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.440 Part of his duty was pulling guard beside the caskets 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.720 during wakes and funerals. So the entire time that the 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:25.840 service was open and the people were allowed in, we 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.640 had a marine standing at the head of the casket. 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:30.720 Then we were in full dress blues the whole time, 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:35.520 and they stood there completely motionless. It would be like 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.840 an hour. We'd replace them, and we'd do a replacement. 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.120 Ceremonies you walk up and you slow salute, and then 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.280 you take his place, you take charge of the post. 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.080 As you're there, you can't talk, you can't do anything. 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.800 People are crying on you, they're thanking you, they're you know, 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.280 they're asking you questions, and you can't really talk. You 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.080 gotta You're just there as a statue. Whenever they weren't 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.760 on casket guard frying, the other Marines did their best 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.320 to comfort the families. So we're going and meeting their 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.720 families and meeting their kids, and meeting their wives and 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:09.520 their fathers and and and they're asking you these questions. 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.480 And you don't necessarily know the Marines that you're burying, 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.240 but you know who they are. You know, all Marines, 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.320 and especially anybody that gave their life for their country 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:25.080 willingly mainly for their brothers. They deserve that respect. And 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.480 it was it was very, very difficult because all I 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.000 wanted to do and my power was be over there. 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.760 Friday had five funerals in a matter of a few months. 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.400 It wasn't combat, but being so close to so much 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.679 anguish was viscerating. It was the hardest time in my 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.520 life as far as mentally goes. I really got into 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.000 drinking heavily. I mean I was probably almost drinking a 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.639 fifth night just to sleep. The funeral that really gutted 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.560 him was for a three five marine from Texas who 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.200 was killed by a sniper and sang it on December six, 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:03.159 two ten. His name was Private first Class Colton Rusk. 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:06.840 So I went down there to bury him, fresh out 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.760 of ice school. He was a kid and his dad 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:16.520 was about thirty eight maybe forty, And he came up 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.760 to me and said, hey, I tried to join as 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:20.480 soon as I heard it happened. They won't let me 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.000 go over there. They won't let me join them too old. 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.639 And he goes like, hey, can you promise if you 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:28.720 can get over there, like can you can you do 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:30.800 something about it? And I was like yeah, I mean 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:33.439 like that's all I want to do. So then that 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.600 like became my mission. Was like, no matter what, I 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:47.600 was getting to Afghanistan, we'll be back after the break. 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.520 So when PFC Rusk's dad said can you go over 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.919 and do something about this? Were you thinking I'm going 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.080 to go over there and get revenge or were you 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.359 more thinking I'm gonna go over there so that the 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.440 next PFC Rusk comes home. I mean initially, like all 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:40.520 that reaction, it all starts out as anger, you know, 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.119 like when you see people die that you know some 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.840 asshole shot him for whatever reason or blew them up. 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.359 It's anger at first, but then when it settles in, 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.920 like your right mind comes around, it's that you want 0:19:55.000 --> 0:20:00.600 to bring people home for I was desperate get deployed 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.240 to sang In as a combat replacement, one of the 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.199 Marines who would be sent over to fill in for 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.840 three fives wounded and dead. There was a problem though, 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.240 because of his knee surgery. He'd actually been put into 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:16.200 the pipeline for medical separation. He was a broken weapon, 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.000 and the courts didn't want him anymore. But marines are 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:23.840 trained to adapt and overcome, and that's exactly what Fried did. 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.320 It was before the Marine Corps switched to digital, and 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.119 when you switch units, you get your medical record and 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:33.680 you have to take it to that next medical facility. 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:36.439 So when I took my paperwork to the next medical 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:38.600 facility for the next unit, I pulled all of my 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.600 surgery paperwork out of it and then turned it back in. 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.399 So as far as anybody was concerned, I was full duty. 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:53.280 That never happened. Three five came home while Fry was 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.480 healing up and getting back in shape. Over their seven 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.000 months tour and sang In, the battalion had lost twenty 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:02.280 five marines a hundred and eighty four more were wounded, 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.000 with thirty four of them losing at least one limb. 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.320 Now was one fives turning the meat grinder. Stuck back 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:12.080 at Camp Pendleton in the late spring of two thousand eleven, 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:15.520 for I read one fives classified combat action reports from 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:19.119 Sangon with a mix of horror and frustration, like the 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:21.879 ones about a six day stretch of catastrophic I E. 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.560 D strikes in June two thousand eleven that robbed the 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.440 patrol based fires Marines of their squad leaders and their 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.399 platoon sergeant, leaving them with almost no experienced leadership at 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:33.679 the squad level. As soon as I saw that, I 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:35.600 knew I had to go. There wasn't an option. I 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.119 didn't care if I had to sneak on a plane 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.040 to go over there by land ticket. I was going 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:46.280 there to help them. For I made a bold move. 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.560 He took his request directly to the most senior enlisted 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.800 man out of the nearly five thousand strong Fifth Marine regiment, 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.720 a pretty much unheard of leap in the chain of command. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.119 But Fry had met the sergeant major at Rusk's funeral 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:01.480 and he was pretty sure he made a good impression. 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.280 He was like, Starring, Fry, you're a good marine. You know, 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.000 we want more of you around. If you ever need 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:11.160 anything from me, don't hesitate to ask. And I noted 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:14.840 that and kept that in my pocket. And when this 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:17.520 came up, I said, that's the only guy I can 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:19.719 go to if somebody can get you there, like he 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:21.720 can just call the order right there, and you're going 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:25.520 to go. So I went to the regimental office and 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.959 walked upstairs to his office, and he technically had an 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:33.199 open door policy, which like they all technically do, but 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:36.040 you don't ever go in a starry major's office. Sergeant 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:41.560 majors are scary. This one, Regimental Sergeant Major Ernest ho Pe, 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:43.960 was six ft three and looked like he could rip 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:45.760