WEBVTT - Keep Pushin’ 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.320 Third Squad is a podcast about war. Every episode contains 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:10.080 strong language and descriptions of violence that may not be 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:21.120 suitable for all listeners. I remember this night, about ten 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:25.360 years ago. I was walking down this brick street in Charlottesville, Virginia, 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:27.720 where no cars are allowed, so there are big trees 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.280 where there used to be traffic, and there are tons 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:35.320 of bars and restaurants with outdoor seating. It was a 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:37.879 perfect summer night, and the whole place was packed with 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.320 beautiful young people out having a good time, people about 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:45.480 my age. Part of me wanted to grab a drink 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.760 and join them, but this much bigger part of me 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:51.519 wanted to flip over a table and scream, do you 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:58.400 have any fucking idea? There's a war going on? We 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.040 all know how the Afghanistan war ends. Now I've concluded 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.560 that it's time to end America's longest war. It's time 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.800 for American troops to come home. The Afghan government and 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:14.640 security forces collapsed under a Taliban van. The pandemonium outside 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.640 Kabbal airports of Taliban fighters have flooded the capitol. Afghan 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:22.440 officials troops have surrendered Bodroom Air Base to the Taliban. 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.279 We just learned that the presidential palace was officially handed 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.520 over the Taliban presidents maybe former president now as Traf 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:34.000 Ghani leaves town Taliban fighters behind the desk of the 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.360 presidential Palace. I did not, nor did anyone else, see 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:39.800 a collapse of an army that size in eleven days. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.800 Seeing the images of Afghan's hugging the landing gear of 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.759 an Air Force C seventeen as it lifted off from Kabul, 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.440 it's impossible not to remember the Americans plummeting from the 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.480 burning towers almost exactly twenty years earlier, and you can 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.440 see the two towers a huge exposure out rating to 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.120 pray on all of us get out of the m 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.440 and for a lot of people, these images are going 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.320 to be the gruesome book ends to America's longest war. 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:13.120 But me, I'm stuck between the book ends. I'm Elliott Woods. 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:16.399 I'm a veteran and a journalist. And there's this one 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.880 MBD I did back in two thousand eleven that I 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:23.520 can't stop thinking about. In a part of Afghanistan called Sangin, 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.080 with the squad of strung out marines who lived in 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.520 mud brick buildings surrounded by barriers, filled with dirt and rocks. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.200 It was my fourth MBD in Afghanistan in two years, 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:35.079 and I didn't know it at the time, but it 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.000 would also be my last, and I could never have 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.760 known that I was documenting the final days of one 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.160 of those Marines. This is the story of that marine 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:56.040 and his squad, Third Squad, Episode one, Keep Pushing. I 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.480 landed and sang in on a V twenty two Osprey 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.359 and July two thousand eleven, took an armored gun truck 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:06.920 out to a dusty outpost. That's where I met the 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.360 twelve Marines of Third Squad for the first time. My 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:14.120 name is Jeffrey Lopez. Got the catch, We take off. 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:20.880 Brian Sheer, Michael Minor, Taylor Moody, Emmanuel Mendoza, Michael Joseph Dutcher. 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.600 They were officially Third Squad, first Platoon, Blackfoot Company from 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.600 the first Battalion, Fifth Marines, or one five for short. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.040 They were infantry, the riflemen and machine gunners known in 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:37.200 the core as grunts, and their home base was Camp Pendleton, California, 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.560 but they came from all over the United States, Asia, 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:47.080 in California, California and Repid City, South Dakota, North Carolina, Watertown, 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:53.840 New York, Missical, Texas, Home Park, Illinois, Asheville, North Carolina. 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.120 Most of them were fresh out of high school, and 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.240 I could hardly be leave how young they looked. They 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:03.600 could be sitting in the street that right here, just 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.720 waiting for us fucking push out of the opening book 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.280 unless you just do the comes over. They were at war, 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.680 but they still acted like kids. Sometimes when the guy 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.440 is running to the left building left the building seven, 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:23.240 So you're all angry and stuff, do you know, hug No, 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.520 I'm going in fucking patient. You're making You're making my 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:32.040 combat recording sound really immature. This is supposed to be war. Guys. 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:34.839 I brought an old film camera with me to take 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.800 their portraits, and I also brought an audio recorder, and 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.760 whenever we had a break between patrols and sleeping I 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:42.680 try to pull one of them aside for a sit 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.200 down interview in one of those stuffy mud brick rooms, 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:50.440 which wasn't always easy. My name is h and Matthew Fort, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:55.280 and I was born Stone. So from this point forward, 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.159 if you guys are gonna stay in here, and you 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:02.680 should make as little noise as possible, Okay, said no? 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:11.560 Bell girl, no farting? Can you handle that? Okay? They 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:13.880 were bone tired and they didn't always know quite what 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.200 to make of me or my questions. But they were cool. 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.440 I guess I was a welcome diversion. Was fun. Yeah, 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.719 it's it's pretty fun. It's kind of fun where it 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:26.320 really wasted one night and you do a bunch of 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:31.360 stupid ship it's fun to talk about. Firefights are fun. 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.520 I enjoy firefights. You drop bombs on people and kill 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.640 bad man. That's that's what we're here for. Still, it 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.200 didn't take me long to see that the excitement barely 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.039 covered up the dread. If you could describe saying it 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.919 in a couple of sentences, what would you say, Probably 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.120 one of the worst places on earth right now. I 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.480 could hear the stress and exhaustion in their voices. They 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.320 were far from home and in full blown survival mode, 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.120 and all they had was each other. Everything you do 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.600 out here is fair, fella, Marines in yourself. I love 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.479 my Marines. Those are my boys, and I just don't 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.400 want anything to happen to them. I want to keep 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.520 them as safe as I possibly can. And what I'd 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:16.120 like to consider the most probably one of the most 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.920 dangerous place on Earth. Sang In is a rural district 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.479 in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, which shares its name with 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.720 a wide river that forms way up in the Hindu 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.760 Kush Mountains. Most of Helmand is a scorched waste land, 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.480 but the river cuts a sliver of green from north 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.480 to south across the desert. It's a lifeline to Sangon's farmers, 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.880 whose main cash crop is poppy, the key ingredient in heroin. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.800 And when Third Squad first showed up and sang In, 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:46.280 the scenery kind of blew their minds. Everybody thinks, you know, 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.320 when they think of Ghanistan, they think the Middle East. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.719 They think of some big, giant, hot desert. But like 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:53.880 it's not like that. You wouldn't expect how green it 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:55.880 is when you get out here. It's amazing that you 0:06:55.920 --> 0:07:01.080 see flowers blooming everywhere, big fields of green crops and 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.680 grass and trees. The reads an hour twelve ft tall, 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:06.719 and there's bamboo that's even duller than that. Like you 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:09.240 just walked across open, huge fields like you would see, 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.679 Like been to France before, so those huge open fields 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.640 they have there. It's kind of like take that the 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.360 swampy ship and mix it together, and yet saying in 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.120 Afghanistan it looks like a beautiful country. But as far 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.720 as stepping out the wire with all your gears, shitty 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:27.760 o you cash right? Yeah, you can see whatever you 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.239 want to ask. That's about it. I can't really explain. 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:37.080 It's all you don't want to be. The situation in 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:41.640 Sangin was terrible. Hundreds of British, Afghan and American troops 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.720 have been killed and wounded. The war was in its 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.080 tenth year, and what had begun is a straightforward mission 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.440 to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden and members 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.400 of al Qaeda. After nine eleven had morphed into a 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.080 complicated nation building effort in a raging battle against the Taliban. 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.600 We'll get into why that shift happened later in the series. 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.360 For now, you just need to know that at this 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.760 particular moment, Afghanistan was spiraling out of control, and President 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.960 Barack Obama had deployed tens of thousands of extra troops 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.760 in a bid to turn the war around. The situation 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:18.080 in Afghanistan has deteriorate. This phase of the war became 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.880 known as the Afghanistan Surge and third Squad deployed at 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.520 its peak, and as Commander in Chief, I have determined 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.000 that it is in our vital national interest to send 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:33.520 an additional thirty thousand US troops to Afghanistan. Third Squad 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.720 was tasked with carrying out the surge strategy at whatever cost, 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.559 but the big picture was barely visible from their perspective. 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.840 And that's the perspective I went there to report on 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:48.840 the third Squad. Marines all had their own reasons for 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.640 joining the corps. So number one, why did join the 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.880 Marine Corps? I joined the Marines because the Marines are 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:58.040 the best. They're badass. This is private first class. Scott mccatchen, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.800 a twenty year old college dropout for Northern California. Tell 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.319 me a little bit about, just very briefly, about the 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:06.240 kid that you were, that that didn't do so out 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.440 of college, because I was actually that kid too. I 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.240 was a kid in college that I just wanted a party. 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.080 Didn't it care too much about school or think what 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.160 I could possibly lose if I were to just do 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:24.000 nothing but party. And sure enough I lost it. But 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.880 I fucking manned up and I joined the military. And 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:33.560 here I am saying in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal David Ortega, 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.240 twenty year old from southern California, came from a military family. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:39.520 He was so nervous when he talked to me, his 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.000 voice trembled. I would just always look up to the 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:43.640 Marines and I was like, I'm gonna become one of 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.840 them someday. I'm gonna keep introducing you to the squad, 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:48.960 but don't worry about keeping track of all the names. 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.319 You'll get to know the guys throughout the series. Lance 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.040 Corporal Taylor Moody was also twenty years old. He was 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.200 from Upstate New York. He was rail Finn and his 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.480 hair was trimmed close on the sides, in line with 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.040 Marine Corps REGs. But he hadn't always looked like that 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.600 back in the States. When I was in high school, 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.480 I was just a little punk. I had a mohawk. 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:12.880 I was like a foot long, and I died it red. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.040 I went to conserts all the time, and I used 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.120 to brag about how good I was at washing, and 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.160 that was pretty good. You know, I did my ship. 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:25.480 You know, washing is right, okay, you know I beat 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.520 the ships. Some guys in the mosh pit, but that's 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:31.880 That's not important to me anymore. The only thing right 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:34.560 now that matters to me he is getting home alive 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:39.320 with me. Guys, I can Corporal man Well Mendoza told 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.880 me he was a responsible kid who worked three jobs 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.320 during high school in the East Texas border town where 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:46.920 he grew up. He was twenty when I met him, 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.079 which means he was still in elementary school when eleven happened. 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.360 I'll never forget September eleven. I'll never forget what happened 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.560 in New York. And I'll never forget people, never hurt 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.760 people that died. I'll of my country. I'm a patriot 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.400 straight up, like even Mexican. I love I love America 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:09.199 because we had a lot of great things in our country. 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.040 I have such a great life back home. I got 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.719 my family, I had a good education, you know, so 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.560 I felt like I needed to pay that dead. The 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.280 youngest of the group was nineteen year old Lance Corporal 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.719 David rich Boalski from Wailua, Hawaii. I joined the Marine 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.280 Corps because I want to go off the island. Mission. 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:35.880 Accomplished mud hut, three ft thick walls of mud. Right now, 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.680 it's actually pretty dirty, just because I've been disgusting and 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.920 not cleaned it, and uh I got fleas because of 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:50.400 the fucking chickens that run around. The sweltering mud brick 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:54.040 compound where the squad lived was officially called Patrol based Fires, 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.400 but everyone just called it fires or PB fires. It 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:00.640 was home to a single platoon of Marines around arty guys, 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:11.560 plus the various people who supported them. The platoons three 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:16.520 squads took turns patrolling, resting, and pulling watch. Southern Afghanistan 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.839 was a furnace that July. The heat made my lips 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.040 crack and the dry air burned the inside of my 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:27.080 nose when I inhaled. Hygienically, it's there is none. You're 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.559 a constantly dirty. Twenty year old Lance Corporal Brian Shearer 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.719 was from Rapid City, South Dakota. He wanted to join 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.360 the Marines ever since he was a little kid, and 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.000 now here he was embracing the suck. You get really 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.360 bad transfer from being in uh water all day, and 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.079 then you stay in your socks and you can never 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.920 get your feet dry or clean. The guys bathed by 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.439 poking holes in water bottles and squeezing them over their 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.679 heads whenever there was time to rest. They sacked out 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.400 on cots and played video games or watch DVDs on 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.320 little personal players. When I they were all stoked because 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.720 they've just gotten lights, but there was still much to 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.320 be desired. The things I missed the most back in 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:13.320 the United States are definitely women, drinking good food, having 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.160 the luxury of electricity, running water all the time, just 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:20.840 simple ship going, taking a crap and a fucking toilet. 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:25.560 The flushes um come out here and you lose everything 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:27.679 and then you realize what you really had. Back in 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.720 the United States, food was something that guys talked about 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.679 a lot, so much that I'm surprised they weren't hiding 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.760 copies of bone appetite under their cots instead of nudy mags. 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.880 Pickens around the patrol base could be pretty slim. So 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.200 what do you eat? I don't know what you like 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.280 to what you what you like to eat, Well, it's 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:47.720 not what I like to eat. It's what I have 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:51.520 to eat. And most of the time it's it's just 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:56.280 like a kind of spaghettier, the thing of ramen Newles 0:13:56.520 --> 0:14:00.000 heat it open the sun Somewhere. Twenty two year old 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.160 Lance Corporal Jeffrey Lopez was small but scrappy looking. He 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:06.600 craved the comfort food of the Jersey Shore where he 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:13.199 grew up. My Miss McDonald's Applebee's all you can eat crabs, 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.640 like the base ade buffet. The food at patrol Base 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.640 Fires was well, it's sure as funk, was not the 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.440 bay side buffet. I didn't notice it at first, but 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.840 the other Marines in my squad noticed. Since even other 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.240 even other squads noticed, I had lost a ship ton 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:34.320 of weight and you can see yourself that um extremely skinny. 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:37.040 And then I just kept losing more and more weight. 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.880 All I could do is think of food, and it's 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.240 that's still I do was. I think of food like 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.160 on patrol. Will take a quick break every now and 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.360 then I'll just be sitting there and thinking, God, I'm 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.200 so fucking hungry. It wasn't just the food from home 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:53.240 that they missed. I mean, none of us have seen 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.280 our families, and almost a year now none of us 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:58.520 have been back home. And almost a year now. I 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.160 told you. Third Squad had been an Afghanistan for four 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.560 months when I arrived, but they trained constantly during the 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.080 work up period leading up to the deployment, with almost 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.440 no downtime. Some of them had girlfriends, wives, even kids 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.360 waiting for them back in the States. They were homesick, 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.880 but it was more than that. They were worried they 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:19.880 might never see their families again. I'm really looking forward 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:23.320 to getting back home, being able to just relax with 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.640 the family and just not having to worry on a 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:28.960 day to day basis as to whether or not you're 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.920 gonna get hurt badly that day. So, I mean, civilians 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.000 don't wake up in the morning and say I'm gonna 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:40.480 lose my legs today or die today. For most of 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.880 third Squad, Sanging was their first deployment, and before they 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.440 got there they'd heard horror stories about what it was like. 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.640 Their predecessors at patrol based fires were from the third Battalion, 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:54.000 Fifth Marine Regiment or three five, also from Camp Pendleton. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.440 Three five had a horrendous time and Sanging. Over their 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:00.920 seven months tour, twenty five of their marines died and 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.000 a hundred and eighty four were wounded. That's about one 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.960 out of every five marines and the battalion. It was 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.360 the worst casualty rate of any single unit in the 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:13.840 Afghanistan War up to that point. Many of those casualties 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.520 were caused by the Taliban's weapon of choice and sang 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:20.520 in the pressure plate improvised explosive device or i e D, 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.480 a homemade land mine that detonates when someone steps on it. 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.240 Mines and i e d s are ingenious, knowing that 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:30.280 you can step right next to one or sit right 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.360 with one between your legs, and you have no ideas 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:40.600 ever there until someone steps on it and dies. News 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.600 of three fives bloody tour spread through Camp Pendleton while 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.280 Third Squad was training to deploy. It was like every 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:50.240 day seemed like three five was taking casualties, especially Corman. 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.120 It seemed like they're losing Corman left and right. Corman 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.720 or U S Navy sailors who provide medical aid to 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.280 wounded Marines in combat. In the Army, they're called medics 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.040 Third Squads. Corman was twenty five year old hospitalman first 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.720 Class Matthew for It from the Chicago suburbs. The guys 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.240 called him Doc and he wore a few different hats 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:14.439 and also how I yelled part therapist, part fucking nurse, 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:18.680 part counselor for it was a little softer than the Marines, 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.640 with a round face and buzzed red hair. He told 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.720 me about the handoff with three five. When I got here, 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:30.480 only like two of the original Corman remained. Everybody else 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.760 had either have been like blown up or shot or something. 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.120 So yeah, when I got here, I was paranoid as hell, 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.720 and for it wasn't the only one. Twenty year old 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.479 Lance Corporal John Bollinger from Cheyenne, Wyoming had also prepared 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:46.960 himself for the worst. When we first were coming, I 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.240 was honestly expecting, like you couldn't you couldn't move without 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.159 hitting ninety and all their wear were Taliban everywhere and 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.600 everyone's you know, getting shot and blown up. That was 0:17:56.720 --> 0:18:00.800 that was my expectation. Was fucking it was going to 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.720 be popping off. But when Third Squad got to sang 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.440 In and settled into their new home and patrol based fires, 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.280 everything was weirdly calm. For the first two months sanging 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.440 I didn't really meet my expectations at all, Like we 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.960 were just basically just patrolling for the ship of it, 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.080 Like nothing happened for the first two months. There was 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.760 no fire, there was no shooting or anything. It was 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.399 just start up walking around like we owned the place. 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.600 That's Taylor Moody again, the mosh pitt Menace telling me 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.720 what it was like when the squad first started going 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.680 out on patrol. When we first got here, the people 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.480 wouldn't even come out to us because the previous unit 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.480 was pretty rough on him. Then we started doing the 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:45.919 COIN operations and just talking with the people, you know, 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.040 getting to know what was going on, asking him questions, 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.600 looking for the enemy so we can exploit what they're 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:57.720 doing against him. Point that Acrony and Moody just used 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.919 stands for counterinsurgency. The basic idea of COIN is to 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.200 drive a wedge between insurgents and the civilian population by 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:09.879 delivering humanitarian aid things like new roads, medicine, and schools, 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.680 basically trying to buy the local people's love so they'll 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:17.240 reject the insurgency, in this case, the Taliban and support 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:21.760 the legitimate government instead. Coin is supposed to be more 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.159 about protecting the people than killing the enemy. Back in 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.199 the Vietnam War, they called it winning hearts and minds. 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.840 Sounds good in theory, but during the surge in Afghanistan, 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.800 it was young frontline troops like Third Squad who carried 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.439 out most of the work, and they didn't really have 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.440 the training or the resources to do it. They were grunts, 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.280 not diplomats. Are typical days, you know, wake up very early, 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.280 probably earlier than the average American. Trap on a flak 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.160 that weighs thirty pounds because it's got bulletproof plates in it. 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.879 On top of that, put a pack on your back. 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.520 You have rounds that weigh a law. You have a rifle. 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.200 I carry my rocket long, sure, the weigh thirty pounds, 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.560 So I carry a lot of weight. Patrol all day, walking, 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:11.520 walking through creeks, mud canals, water rivers, tall grass, corn fields, 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.040 and it just gets really tiring carrying all that weight 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.159 and body armor, weapons and ammunition. Gave them a firepower 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.920 advantage over the lightly armed Taliban, but it beat the 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.560 ship out of their bodies. A twenty year old marine 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.880 can look like he's thirty maybe not not maybe maybe 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:30.439 not in facial features, and like some people, some of 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.760 us can't grow full beards and stuff. But our knees 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:37.280 will be so jam packed and the carloads to be 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:42.000 ripped up in our feet will be callous, like I 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.680 don't know, like some dogs feed or something like the 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:50.120 little paths or whatever. Those grueling foot patrols were third squads, 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.239 only real opportunity to talk to the local people, one 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:57.080 of the most critical elements of counterinsurgency. But the Taliban 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.920 were out there too, hiding in the green fields and 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.800 tree lines surrounding PEP fires, waiting to ambush the Marines. 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:08.120 Sometimes the enemy fighters and lookouts would hide in plain sight. 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:13.520 Dressing him up to match the population is like crazy 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:15.919 smart because you don't know who they are, and they 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:17.639 could be watching any point. They could be shaking your 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.600 hand at any point. My first afternoon at PB fires, 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:23.640 I went out on patrol with third Squad in their 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:30.160 platoon commander. Almost as soon as we left the compound gate, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.600 we were hip deep in a canal. The cool water 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:35.719 felt good in the heat, but as soon as I 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:41.440 climbed out, I was conscious of every step. There was 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:43.159 a marine at the front of the patrol with the 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.840 metal detector sweeping for I U d S, and another 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.280 one behind him marking the cleared path with a can 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:52.320 of blue spray talk. I stayed glued to those blue streaks. 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:56.720 Eventually the patrol stopped to talk to a farmer who 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:58.760 had knee high corn in his fields and a few 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:04.080 cows tethered by nose ranks. Traffic to start right now, 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:06.080 getting a lot of goodents all over. They were trying 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:10.439 to gather information about the Taliban. The tree brought us. 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:14.840 They are living tour, yeah and pish at the end 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:17.200 of there is a compound. The end of the compounds, 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:19.760 they are living. The man told them through an interpreter 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:22.800 that the Marines were not the only ones visiting his 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:27.440 home coming, but the ninth Taliman. Okay, so the night 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.399 to Taliban com It was risky for the man to 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.880 talk to the Marines. Anyone caught helping the Americans could 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:38.160 be punished by the Taliban. The Talibans not two people. 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:41.840 Don't there. The longer the squad stayed, the more likely 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:45.159 they'd be spotted by the enemy. They were walking the 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:48.960 fine line between doing their jobs and putting people in danger. 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:51.120 They hold him, don't him come back here, because we're 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:52.640 talking to this guy, and if this guy gets same 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:54.640 with someone, he's gonna get in trouble. To stop that kid. 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:56.600 Don't let him back here yet, We'll come to him. 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:59.720 It was a lot of responsibility for the Marines, but 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.560 the I E. D. S that had devastated the previous battalion, 0:23:02.600 --> 0:23:06.159 we're still out there. And they did more than damage flesh. 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:11.240 They severely inhibited the Marines movement, making it almost impossible 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:16.679 to do counterinsurgency. They had to find them. Then we 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:19.760 solved the two Taliban out here where they planted nineties 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:27.320 today we saw two of them in the tree line. 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:32.600 And that's sometimes the intelligence gathering paid off Roger and 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:36.720 we cannot be break a bone. We found a secondary 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:39.840 about ten ms to the southwest of the first one 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:45.679 we found. As we're pushing back, they saw it. They 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:47.920