Constant Combat

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We sit down with Kirk Morris to remember his son, PFC Geoffrey Morris, and he recounts the moments that carried him from a Lake Michigan fishing boat on 9/11 to the gunner’s seat in Iraq. We talk about the phone calls, the knock at the door, the diary entry he left behind, challenges from a clueless public, and what it takes for families to keep a life from being reduced to a name. 

• Geoff’s timeline from boot camp
• Card games, chess, and small comforts during deployment 
• Geoff’s love of fishin...

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We sit down with Mama Savage to trace her son Jeremiah’s path from a wild kid who always wanted to be a Marine to the moment the casualty notification team arrived at her door. We talk honestly about war, family, Arlington, survivor guilt, and how the Marine brotherhood keeps showing up long after the headlines fade. 

• Jeremiah’s childhood drive to become a Marine and how that shaped everything 
• A no-coddling parenting style and the family culture around service 
• Okinawa, post 9-11 deployments, and the shock of “I’m going to Iraq” ...

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Part 2 goes through Jarred Monroe’s most intense memories, from inspecting a Humvee that somehow comes back unmarked to the prayer-filled letter that makes that moment hit differently. We also confront a terrifying friendly fire near-miss, the mental toll that builds across deployments, and what faith, purpose, and time change 22 years later.
 
• inspecting the truck after heavy contact and finding no damage 
• connecting that moment to Psalm 91 and a sister’s hours-long prayer 
• describing night ambushes, and the gunner mindset
• explaining a friendly fire near-miss
• reflecting on leadership, unit...

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Everything sounds simple until you’re the one in the turret. This time, we talk to Jarred Monroe about the long ramp from training to war, from call signs and gear choices to the moment Ramadi turns real. He walks us through near disasters, hard fixes, and the first major firefights where training takes over and memory comes back in snapshots. 

• Monroe’s role as a heavy machine gunner 
• How call signs, nicknames, and platoon culture shape trust 
• Okinawa timing and the almost-Philippines mission 
• Infantry optics training on night vision...

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Part 2 with Marcel Williams revisits the moments that still feel raw: an IED on Route Michigan, and the anger, guilt, and brotherhood that follow. He also talks honestly about how that deployment shapes a 28-year Marine Corps career, from leadership lessons to the feeling that history sometimes forgets the people who wrote the playbook. 

• IED sweeps, observation posts, and rotating armored vehicles 
• The immediate rage after losing Conde and what restraint prevents 
• Guilt, second guessing, and learning to let go of blame in war 
• Why Conde stands out as a genuine...

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MAP3's Marcel Williams gives us the path from machine gun instructor to Weapons Company in 2/4, where early confidence collapses under a real ambush and the reality of unarmored convoy warfare. We walk through the April 6th thru 10th, the hard lesson to be mentally locked in, and the moments of courage and humanity that still don’t sit neatly in memory. 

• Marcel’s background, MOS, and why he chose Weapons Company 
• Whiplash between home life and rapid deployment
• Kuwait sustainment training and the long convoy to Ramadi 
• First contact o...

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We pick up part two with Matt Kuroda where an IED detonates, a friend is hit, and there’s no clean pause to process it. We’re right back into decisions, movement, and clearing buildings while trying to understand what just happened. From Ramadi firefights to mortar rounds on base, we talk through what sticks after 22 years and what it takes to ask for help later. 

• Savage IED aftermath 
• repeated IED exposure, overpressure, and what “not wounded” can still mean 
• taking fire from buildings, rushing in, and finding only casings 
• QR...

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We talk with Matt Kuroda, known by most as KK, about what it really feels like to be a driver and 'Guardian Angel' overwatch in Ramadi, from night convoy chaos to the quiet pressure of making decisions with bad gear and incomplete plans. We trade the stories that still stand out, including a 21st birthday under fire, raids that blur together, and how IEDs turned every routine movement into a gamble. 

• switching from Rainmaker to Sledgehammer
• why combat driving in Ramadi breaks every stateside habit 
• drivers and turret gunners as the o...

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We continue with part 2 with General Rob Weiler and he paints a vivid picture that the most dangerous moments are not always the firefight itself. Sometimes it is the handover, the quiet planning period, or the instant after contact when you realize you had to decide and live with it forever. We talk about what leadership looks like when there is almost no downtime, only orders, rehearsals, and the constant effort to keep Marines prepared. The conversation moves from planning under fire to grief, transition, and why purpose and options matter as much...

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General Rob Weiler talks through his view in Ramadi 2004 and why the hard, specific details still matter, from old after action reports to the leadership culture that kept young Marines steady. We trace how counterinsurgency forced constant adaptation, how April shattered assumptions, and what practical lessons still apply to urban combat and command. 

• why Unremitting resonates beyond one unit and one time period 
• how intimacy becomes a warfighting advantage 
• rediscovered logbooks and after action reports as real operational history 
• Weiler’s path from enlisted Marine to officer and the role of me...

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For this one, we catch up with Clayton Hall, a Marine radio operator attached to Weapons Company in Ramadi 2004. He recalls memories through the lens of near misses, hard leadership, and the brotherhood that carried us through. We talk through the moments that kept us alive, from comms discipline to the strange little economy of batteries and snacks. 

• Clayton’s path into the unit
• First arrival in Kuwait and the mental shift when the first IEDs hit 
• Hurricane Point early days and the “Wild West”
• Close calls on Route Nova and R...

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Part 2, Jesse Stephens speaks about the way war can split your identity, erase your sense of home, and still leave you missing the brotherhood you had in the hooches. He shares the memories that still cling, some moments that changed his beliefs, and what helps him find the old version of himself again. 

• dissociation in combat
• forgetting what family looks like and using photos to cope 
• hooch life routines that keep you sane 
• bridge duty stories including the warning shot aftermath 
• mortars, dark humor, and the strange normal of down...

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We reconnect with Jesse Stephens from MAP 1 and trace how a motivated teenage Marine arrives in Iraq ready to win trust, then watches that belief burn away as the fight in Ramadi changes shape. The conversation moves from funny early memories to the lasting cost of IED shock, grief, and the moral complexity of fighting an insurgency filled with outsiders and coerced locals. 

• first impressions, seeking approval 
• checking into Weapons Company 2/4 and deploying fast as a young Marine 
• learning the driver role, switching between driving and dismounting
• Kuwait memories, g...

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In part two, Anthony Trujillo talks about what it feels like to hear life and death unfold over the radio while still being responsible for the paperwork that records it. We walk through Ramadi memories that range from night raids and mission briefings to the unspoken costs of loss, leadership, and coming home. 

• remembering Conde’s drive to stay with his Marines
• hearing casualty calls over the radio and the shock of KIA notifications 
• drafting Purple Heart citations and award logistics during high casualty periods 
• tracking missions and the pressure...

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Part one with Anthony Trujillo from Headquarters platoon about getting hurt, refusing to stay behind, and sliding from 81s into the company office. Its a vivid picture he paints how leadership, logistics, and pure chaos collide in 2004 Iraq, from burn barrels and headcounts to detainee runs and medevac calls. 

• choosing to deploy with a knee injury 
• barracks culture and early unit stories 
• Mexico liberty trouble 
• injury, recovery, and extending time in service 
• building accountability systems 
• Kuwait headcounts, paperwork, and last-minute record destruction 
• first impressions of Ramadi, including sme...

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Part two with Trevor Wolfe walking us through the split-second choices that can end in catastrophe, plus the leadership feedback that follows you long after the shots stop. He also talks moral injury, the civilian cost of war, and what it means to push for conflict when someone else will pay for it. 

• navigating wildly different NCO personalities 
• a convoy firefight that turns into a “follow me” moment
• the difference between initiative and judgment under pressure 
• memorable platoon characters
• treating Iraqi civilians with courtesy and why it matters 
• a...

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A 19th birthday on a bridge in Ramadi is the kind of detail that never leaves you, and Trevor Wolf tells it the way most veterans actually remember war: in sharp, disconnected snapshots that only make sense when you step back. He recalls the small jokes that kept the platoon moving in those snapshots. We also dig into interpreters, language, and how those relationships reshaped his life after the Marine Corps. 

• His path  to the Marine Corps and later Army Reserve 
• A 19th birthday on South Bridge
• Feeling untrained at the ti...

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Part two with Navy Corpsman Natividad, moving from everyday base life in Ramadi to the moments that still feel like a blur years later. We get into a VBIED mass-casualty response, a bridge post incident that led to a field court martial, and how Mark turns those hard lessons into a career helping veterans at the VA. 

• Junction City and Blue Diamond as different worlds
• TQ with a PX, MWR tent, and the weird rules that came with it 
• VBIED response at the Echo high back, triage decisions, and exhausti...

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Part one with MAP 2's Navy Corpsman Mark “Navi” Natividad about getting sent back to Iraq so fast he never had time to process the invasion. We trace the jump from early expectations in Ramadi to brutal April firefights, the strange comfort of hooch life, and the first steps he takes toward asking for help.

• Getting reassigned from 3/5 to 2/4 with almost no downtime
• First deployment memories, first casualties, and feeling disconnected from home
• Checking into a new unit, rank dynamics, and the SSgt Coleman welcome
• Kuwait staging stories and the “Wat...

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We close part 3 with Sergeant Nylin on memories that never fit neatly into a timeline, from a traffic stop with buckets of body parts to the moment a Humvee hits a landmine. We also talk honestly about the long tail, grief on deployment, going numb after coming home, and what the whole thing means twenty years later. 

• pulling over a car with surprising results
• hitting a landmine... and doing self-aid under shock 
• engineers probing for mines
• searching for drowned Marines and a chemical weapons scare 
• running medevac and triage af...

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We pick up part 2 with Shane Nylin from MAP 2 as first missions in Ramadi turn into minefields, EOD chaos, and an IED. We also walk through the loss of a platoon member and the street fights that follow, including what it feels like when adrenaline, grief, and leadership collide. 

• first impressions of Ramadi
• Hurricane Point’s design problems 
• early patrol learning curves and why handoffs rarely feel complete 
• backing out of a minefield 
• responding to a convoy attack and changing armor and vehicle habits 
• the EOD robot failure, crow...

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We welcome guest Jesse Jordan to podcast cohost recording Shane Nylin’s path from signing Marine Corps papers in a peacetime world to realizing, almost overnight, that he is heading into Iraq with a thin platoon and even thinner margins. We talk through the training, injuries, leadership clashes, and dark humor moments that shaped how Weapons Company Marines got ready for Ramadi long before the first shots were fired. 

• joining the Marine Corps before 9-11
• Okinawa training as a proving ground 
• picking up Corporal and Sergeant, then navigating trust, reputation...

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Part 2 with Josh Kohen starts as an RPG hit his position near a mosque in Ramadi, including the small choices and split-second timing that changed who lived and who died. He continues with what followed, from chaotic QRF fights and mass-casualty scenes. We wrap up with the strange everyday routines that kept us going, and how those memories shape life 20 years later. 

• the last discussion with Morris
• a night checkpoint that turns catastrophic 
• grabbing a rifle and fighting back wounded 
• April 6th and 7th blur of QRF, RPGs, and house-t...

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Josh Kohen of MAP2 trades the polished war-movie version for what it actually felt like to arrive as a new Marine, get absorbed into a depleted unit, and stumble into combat fast. We discuss identity, communication failures, and the small routines that kept us steady when everything around us stayed unpredictable in part 1 of this interview. 

• getting pulled from security forces, landing in 2-4 by surprise 
• early drinking trouble, owning mistakes
• the strange deployment journey
• stop loss impacts, gutted units, and a “skeleton” company
• short Arabic school and why it becam...

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We sit down with MAP3's Deverson Lochard, a Marine sergeant and machine gunner who cross-decks from 3/5 into a deploying unit to prepare young Marines for Ramadi with one uncompromising priority: getting everyone home alive. He shares what combat demanded of their leadership, how loss and rage tested their discipline, and why the deployment ultimately reshaped his faith and his appreciation for human life.

• why he cross-decked into 2/4 before deployment
• first impressions of young Marines
• training for “controlled, organized chaos” under fire
• discipline, machine gunner philosophy, and convoy survivabilit...

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Part 2 with Justin Weaver wraps up with the strange gap between what we lived and what the civilian world can understand, and how that gap can push people into silence, booze, and untreated PTSD. We trade memories from Ramadi to coming home, and talk about when things get dark. 

• feeling isolated after service and doubting your own memories 
• PTSD denial, drinking as “normal,” and finally choosing to get help 
• hooch life in Ramadi, sandstorms, smoking pits, and bootleg DVDs 
• the flight over, emergency landings
• night raids, language barriers
• cor...

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Part 1 with Rainmaker Mortarman Justin Weaver to trace the jump from rushed pre-deployment training to the first hard weeks in Ramadi 2004, including the moments that flipped the switch from joking around to understanding the stakes. Along the way, he talks the dark humor, the unit bonds, and the way combat stress scrambles the timeline even when the details remain in memory. 

• March Air Force Base training and a lost practice grenade 
• last-minute reps with slings and reload drills 
• Oceanside gear-buying stories
• Leaving California, arriving in Kuwait, and when teams get s...

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Part 2 with Sergio Wallace goes on with the everyday reality of war, from heat and mud rain to the little “keep your head together” routines. He gives a deep look at what it means to accept death at 19, come home changed, and try to lead younger Marines with respect while carrying pride, shame, and unanswered “why me” questions. 

• extreme heat and the strange mud rain during sandstorms 
• downtime survival through bootleg DVDs, music, trash talk, and dark humor 
• cigars as a post-patrol ritual 
• VIP visits, reporters, and junior Marines lack of inte...

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Part 1 with Sergio Wallace of Sledgehammer Platoon.  His story tracks a young Marine Corps infantryman who arrives with confidence, friction, and a simple motive, then learns how fast combat erases simplicity, trying to make sense of what Ramadi demanded. He leads us through early patrol optimism, the shock of IEDs and loss, and the lingering moral weight of night raids.  

• joining 2/4 after SOI and clashing with senior Lance Corporals 
• discovering the Marine Corps through JROTC
• pre-deployment training
• first days in Iraq at Camp Victory and relationship fallout downrange 
• Hurric...

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We pick up Part Two with Mike Hanson as he relives Ramadi through the details that didn't fade: from weapons caches and watch posts to split-second calls that still don’t have easy answers. We also talk about what it feels like to come home, carry the friendships forward, and remember the people who didn’t make it back.

• trying to stop incoming mortars and rockets
• finding buried anti-aircraft rounds and unexpected weapons caches
• near misses on exposed posts
• watching civilian life from the bridge
• night raids, Iraqi compound...

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Part one with Michael Hanson, who shares about becoming a Humvee driver and how trust, training, and tiny details decide whether a patrol goes smooth or goes sideways. We also get honest about the cost afterward, from drinking and stress to VA support, blast exposure, and hearing loss. 

• moving from Rainmaker to Sledgehammer
• getting picked as Gunny Cook’s new driver 
• learning to drive, motor pool training, and the attempt at climbers course
• ropes, knots, and why “simple” skills wash people out 
• coming home, partying too hard, and finally going t...

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A man who needs little introduction to the Marines of Weapons Company, Sergeant Major Alphonso Mack joins us to give some of his history as a mortarman and recruit depot First Sergeant... then becomes the First Sergeant who holds Weapons Company 2/4 together before, during and after Ramadi 2004. We talk about trust, standards, grief, and the moments leaders carry for decades after the shooting stops. 

• getting thrown into the first sergeant role at MCRD San Diego
• managing unique unit cultures outside of the infantry
• trading billets to leave MCRD and arrivin...

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Part 2 with Gavin Callais starts with April 7th contact through a wrong turn, an RPG that never detonates, and the slow realization that five hours have passed while ammo runs out. He also opens up about the bridge-post incident, the NJP that followed, and what these memories mean more than 20 years later. 

• learning the city under fire 
• the wrong turn and heavy contact 
• an RPG lands nearby... failing to detonate 
• Sergeant Neill’s calm under fire
• Operation County Fair searches
• “Bug Hunts,” rooftop attacks, and supporting exhausted line Marines...

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Gavin Callais from MAP 2 recounts the whiplash from getting tossed into a unit to rolling up the Iraq highway, where dark humor and constant confusion give way to IED blasts. He paints a vivid picture, from early barracks chaos and field-expedient Humvee fixes to the night several Marines were severely wounded and confusion, blood, and radio problems compress time into fragments. Gavin get into details of what it’s like pushing forward while outnumbered, watching the effects of heavy weapons up close, and coming back to reload magazines you forgot you emptied.
 

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Part 2 with Navy Corpsman Mike Rakebrandt about the hidden weight a senior line Corpsman carries in Ramadi, from quiet BAS check-ins to making split-second calls that keep Marines alive. We also discuss what hits hardest on the way home: Gold Star families, survivor’s guilt, and a system that does not follow up when the war is over. 

• how BAS conversations keep doubt from spiraling 
• the homecoming moments
• talking with Gold Star families and answering impossible questions 
• missions that stand out, including Bug Hunt and House Party 
• Operation Travel...

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We talk with Mike Rakebrandt about what it takes to prepare Navy Corpsmen when everything is fast, messy, and unforgiving. You can train for trauma medicine, but you can’t rehearse the moment you’re staring at a catastrophic wound and the only objective is “get him to the bird alive.” We also dig into the hidden work: medevac planning, moral injury, and the quiet counseling Corpsmen do so Marines can stay focused and make it home. 

• rebuilding a battalion Corpsman team after turnover
• gearing training and medical loadouts for IEDs, blast t...

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Part 2 of Andrew Kern from Mobile Assault Platoon One shifts from a summer lull into intense July and August gunfights, including a rooftop engagement that breaks an ambush and relieves pressure on pinned-down troops. An RPG comes straight at him and he has enough time to think, “Well, I’m dead,” before it blasts into the Humvee instead. We also get candid about Iraqi security forces, the randomness of getting wounded, and what service means when the paperwork never matches what happened.

• an Iraqi unit’s reputation 
• rebuilding Iraqi police and army forc...

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Andrew Kern leads off part 1 arriving as a brand-new Marine in Weapons Company and how the path from San Mateo training to Ramadi changes his view of what “ready” really means. He walks us through the early Iraq War confusion, the shift from SASO to a more kinetic fight, and some key moments from April 2004 and Hurricane Point. 

• checking in as a boot and learning the personalities fast 
• pre-deployment training  including MOUT Town and control techniques 
• Arabic benefits and fails 
• March Air Force Base;  early-war training gets improvised 
• chaotic fligh...

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Dave closes out the days in Ramadi when one unarmored truck, one hit, and one Marine leader’s absence changes the emotional temperature of the whole platoon. We also talk honestly about what comes after, when you make it home with your family but your body still remembers and reacts like you haven't left combat. 

• Recounting late June and July contact and casualties
• What Sgt. Conde represented as a leader, mentor, and friend 
• The way grief shows up as rage, focus, and routine work 
• How constant contact blurs together and...

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We keep the timeline moving in part 2 with David Silton as he relives the IED on April 2 and the brutal stretch of fighting that follows in Ramadi. We talk through what it feels like to operate with a concussion, how split second decisions get made in combat, and why the rules and the reality sometimes collide. 

• IED strike, shrapnel injuries, and getting knocked unconscious 
• Concussion symptoms, memory gaps, and still going out on missions 
• April 6 heavy contact near Easy Street
• Improvised breaching, close quarters shooting, and finding a weapons cac...