Jocko Podcast - 553: Becoming Brothers Through Battle, Death, and Honor in Ramadi. With Miguel "Pitbull" Santana.

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

>Join Jocko Underground Full Episodes< Book: Unheard Voices The Fight For Ramadi: A Soldier’s Memoir From Combat Outpost Falcon In 2006, Miguel “Pitbull” Santana and his soldiers entered Ramadi, Iraq—a city many believed was already lost. What followed was months of relentless combat, sacrifice, loss, and brotherhood. Miguel joins Jocko to tell the story from the ground: the firefights, the men who saved each other's lives, the leaders who went first, and the bonds that remain unbroken twenty years later. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko Podcast number 553 with Echo Charles and me, Jocco Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. Our four months in Talafar were a necessary brutal baptism by fire. We learned to read the dust, respond to the ambush, and trust the discipline forged in the face of constant danger. But Talafar was the proving ground. Ramadi was the crucible. I remember the briefing was the fault line.

Our orders changed. We are going to Ramadi. The moment before and after which nothing would be quite the same. We sat with fragments of the mission, unaware of how thoroughly the months ahead would hollow us out and rebuild us, or how deeply they would forge the ties between us. The order came down. Say nothing to your families until the movement was complete.

Opsack above all else. It sounds clean as a directive, but it settled over us like something heavier. The transition says, carried a sense of purpose and determination. We were leaving northern Iraq after months of hard-earned experience, bringing with us confidence, discipline, and combat knowledge forged through countless patrols and operations. Ramadi had earned a reputation as the most dangerous city in Iraq, but to us, the mission represented more than danger. It was an opportunity to take part

in the fight that would ultimately shape the outcome of the war in Anbar province. And that right there is an excerpt from a book called Unheard Voices, The Fight for Ramadi, a soldier's memoir from Combat Outpost Falcon. And it was written by retired major Miguel Santana. And Miguel served over 25 years in the U.S. Army. He started off as an enlisted soldier, moved up through the ranks, eventually earning a commission, becoming an infantry officer, attending infantry school, airborne school,

Mechanized Leaders Course and Ranger School. And during his time, he also served as a platoon commander in the Battle of Ramadi in 2006 and 2007. And in that role, he and his soldiers conducted countless missions alongside SEALs from Task Unit Bruiser, provided support when we needed it most, including during our most intense and dire moments, evacuating seal casualties during desperate battles. Many of the stories that Laif and I wrote about in extreme ownership and the dichotomy of leadership involved Miguel directly and his men. In his platoon from Bravo Company First Battalion 36 Infantry Regiment, which was led by the exemplary Captain Mike McCusker, was eventually task organized under Bravo Company First Battalion 37th Infantium.

infantry regiment the bulldogs under the venerable main gun Mike Baima for operations in Ramadi and Miguel and his platoon fought with such tenacity that he earned the nickname Pitbull and it fit and it is an honor to have him with us here tonight to share some of his stories his experiences and lessons learned Miguel Pitbull it's awesome to see you. Thank you so much for joining us after 20 years. Yes, sir. What an honor after 20 years just to be sitting here face to face.

Yeah, I mean, guarantee the last time you and I looked at each other was down at Cop Falcon, you know, either you were heading out or I was heading in or whatever the case may be. Yeah, that's an interesting time to, oh, no, I guess we did see each other down in Texas, though, for the ready first reunion. Correct. That was outstanding. And then you just came out. We had a little task unit bruiser reunion out here in San Diego. And it was very fitting to see you there as well. And for you to see the boys again.

And for the guys to say thanks to you for all that you guys did for us. And I know, since day one, you know, it's funny when General McFarlane was on, you know, he's, you know, we both couldn't hold him in any higher regard. And just to get his perspective from his altitude of positional leadership on the battlefield. And, you know, I've had some grunts on here that were in Ramadi with us. And so to have you on here with that platoon commander level infantry on the ground living in downtown Ramadi, this is a real, I think it's going to give people another perspective that they haven't seen yet. So thanks so much for coming out, man.

Thank you for the invite. Let's get into it. Let's get a little background first. So born where? And the DR. Born in the DR? Yeah, I was born in the Dominican Republic. And at the age of six, my parents migrated to the U.S.

And it's interesting how we got here because my dad is a retired military officer from the Dominican Republic. And so my dad was a combat engineer. Oh, wow. And when he retired. Well, actually, let me back up. Something special that there's a bond between my dad and I, and is that because as a combat engineer, my dad got an opportunity to travel outside of the Dominican Republic.

And so my dad went to the School of America at Fort Benning, Georgia, where it's like, what, 30, 40 years later, his son, you know, goes there to go to infantry school and Ranger School and airborne school. It's like, how cool is that? And so, yeah, and then my dad also got a chance to go to Panama. And my dad built a lot of roads into medical republic in the 60s. Okay.

And then I don't remember my dad serving because he retired shortly after I was born. And then he petitioned for a visa for green card and we got it. And my mom and dad, we migrated to the United States. And we lived in New York for about four years. And then my mom kept telling my dad, it's like, no, we got to go up to Massachusetts because that's where my mom's side of the family lived. And so I grew up in a small little town called Lawrence, Massachusetts. Okay.

And then what did your parents do when they got to America? And so my mom and dad, besides my dad being a military officer, my dad and my mom were business people. In Lawrence, Massachusetts, my parents established the first Hispanic kind of like convenience store grocery store. So it's funny because at like the age of seven, the age of eight, I'm doing bank reconciliation and bank deposits of my mom and dad. And, you know, so I grew up in a convenience store.

in Lawrence and everybody knew who we were because at the time we were the only Hispanic store and so we were making history in Lawrence Nice And so that's how kind of we got to the U.S. And then how was school and what sports were you doing In school growing up? Oh man, let me tell you something, Jaco

In my house we're four boys Four athletes And we were involved in all type of sports You know my mom and dad I've You know besides running a store like they were taking us to all the different sporting activities you know i mean i play baseball i wrestled and football and so we were very very active boys growing up and uh my mom we kept my mom

pretty busy yeah yeah you got a um you got a story in or you in the in the forward to your book yeah you talk about your brother who saved you uh from drowning what was going on that you were drowning and your brother saved you what happened um yeah so um yeah so um yeah so that's a tough story. I dedicated the book to my brother because, you know, what good is all the accolades if I could not be there for my brother? And so, yeah, at the age of 10, you know, it was in the summer and we went to a lake and, you know, just having a cook out of lake. And it was packed. There was a lot of people there. And my brother and I, we didn't really know how to swim. So we're playing in the water. And next to you know, I couldn't feel the

bottom so I was drowning and my brother at the age of 10 at the age of 10 showed me what courage was he somehow swam out to me went underwater push me went underwater push me again I don't know how many times he did that so I finally was able to you know touch the ground and then and then get out and then my brother continued to fight for himself to get out and so at the age of 10 my brother gave me life a second chance in life and so a lot of the self-defense discipline, kindness, you know, I get it from my brother. And, you know, why is this very personal? Because my brother never got the chance to read the book. I mentioned it to him. And he's like, you got to write this book. And so on the 12th of January, my brother passed away at 57,

I just turned 56. My brother was only a year older than me. And so he didn't get a chance to read the book. And so I dedicated it to him. But at the age of 10, you know selfless service commitment dedication did you with you with like learning that those lessons from your brother with your dad having served in the dominican military did you have your eye on the militaries from a young age yeah yeah i mean we all come from a family of service my dad served my my uncle served he was a cop so we come from a family that i have always served and it's It's interesting because the Santana family has a rich history to Dominican Republic in addition to the U.S. And so, you know, I consider ourselves like we're like two generations.

Like there's still San Antonio's and the Dominican Republic that are still serving, whether it's doctors, police officers. But the new generation that live in the United States also served. Like my younger brother served in the Air Force and did about four or five years. and then transition. So my younger brother is a federal agent. He works for customs and immigration. So when you were in high school,

were you thinking this is what I'm gonna do? Well, actually no. When I was in high school, I was a little, I didn't really know if I wanted to become a cop or a soldier and a good mentor of mine in high school said, well, why don't you do both? And you know, 17, 18 years of age, you don't really know this.

And he was like, he explained it to me. like, look, join the Army Reserves, come back and go to the police academy and do both. And I was like, man, that's a great idea. I think I'm going to do that. And that's what I did. I originally started in the Reserves. So I went to basic AIT, became a tank system mechanic, came back, went to the Police Academy, served as a reserve auxiliary police officer in the city of Lawrence and Massachusetts.

But after a couple years, I realized my passion was more to be a soldier. And so I resigned as a police officer, and I committed to being a soldier and be the best of it. And so did you go full active duty at that time? Yeah, yeah. And what year was that? And then I also applied to the ROTC program. Okay. And that's when it was about, what, seven years in already, six, seven years?

So you did that, so you were a cop and a reserve cop and a reserve soldier for seven years? Correct. Where you were to graduate high school? 89. Okay. So 89, 90, all the way up to like 96 is when you decided you were going to commit to just soldiering. Yeah. So did you go active duty at that point?

So I applied to Green to Go OCS and RTC, and I got picked up by Florida International University, RTC program. And then, so did you go down to Florida to go to school? Yeah. Is that the way it worked? Did you have to go four years? That's how they sent me, yeah. So I went to college for four years. Government paid for it.

But here's what's even more interesting is that besides being an infantry officer, the Army paid for me to go to college and I got a bachelor's degree in business. Go figure. The military is a good deal, man. It is. It is. It is because, you know, later on, you know, when I, so I served as an infantry officer, went to infantry school, went to Ranger School, you know, and then the military said to me, hey,

we need, we need comptrollers. And you remember being in the convenience store, running through the checkbook, balancing the checkbook. Doing all of that. And so in between my second deployment, because, you know, the first deployment we were together, Ramadi, I went back again. And I went back as a company commander and they're like, hey, we're going to make you you as an infantry guy. We're going to make you responsible for the whole financial footprint. MNF West. And so I was responsible for all the money running around MNF West, Iraq, between al-Assad, Ramadi hit TQ. And people would look at me and be like, you're an infantry guy, but you're the money guy. I'm like, yeah, yeah. The army has big plans.

How, um, you're going through, so you get commissioned. What year did you get commissioned? August 2004. Dang, okay. And then once you get commissioned, did you go to, is that when you went to all that schooling or did you do some of the schooling? Some of the military schools did you do during college or did you do them all once you got commissioned?

Some of the schooling I did it as an enlisted, but infantry school, Ranger school, and McKenac School. I did it as an infantry officer. How old were you? 35. How was 35 years? old going through ranger school outstanding it's it's the it's the best year of my life at 35 years old i i was like in the top physical condition of my life you know ranger school people ask me how was

ranger school at 35 i mean i lost 28 pounds i'm just a little guy what we did what was you i remember we talked really you wrestled at 112 right i wrestle at 112 what did you graduate ranger school at weight wise well i lost 28 pounds i was like maybe i was like maybe 135 Dang. 138. Lost 28 pounds. That right there would make Echo Charles quit. You don't want to lose what 28 pounds.

Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting because I got recycled once in Ranger School. And for those that make it straight through, those who are lucky, but the majority of people, you know, got recycled. And now here's one thing about Ranger School. What did Ranger School Jackal taught me? It's not the leadership per se. You know what Ranger School taught me personally at 35? How much I can push myself?

What's my limit? And then there's still some more left. You know, being deprived of sleep and food. Matter of fact, I almost lost my right eye in Ranger School. In one of the training missions. Get off the helicopter. We're running into the woods. And my Ranger buddy in front of me pushed the branch over.

And I didn't see it. And the branch came back and slapped me on the face. And all I remember was just my feet up in the air. And so that mission from a training mission became a medevac to get me back down the mountain. This was up in La Nalaga, Georgia. And so I remember the doctor simply said, you want to quit? What do you want, Ranger? I said, I'm staying.

And so I remember they treated me. They covered my eye and mandatory eight hours sleep. And then in the morning, they just simply asked me, what do you want to do, Ranger? Get me back out there. And so for a couple days, you see me running around the woods with a patch eye. And in the morning, the medic would come and check up on me and make sure I was okay. But I knew the importance of, you know, I set that as a goal for me to get my tab. And so I was willing to leave everything on the table.

Because what type of a leader, what type of an infantry officer would be if I didn't get. And I mean this is post September 11th. This is 2004. You must know that what you're preparing for is to go to war. Correct. What's your first duty? So where do you end up getting assigned

when you get done with Ranger School? Well, at the time, I was, one of the assignments was potentially 75th Ranger Regiment, 80 second, or potentially Europe. I didn't really know, we didn't really know. And so as soon as I got graduated, at ranger school was like hey um four lieutenants we all got orders hey i'm going to germany and initially i was supposed to go to bomb holder they call it the rock um and so all right we get to

germany but once we get to germany i got rerouted to freberg germany with you know first armored division i do have to share the story um and i hope he sees it um colonel graves the battalion commander you know we get off the bus and we go see the battalion commander and he immediately you know here we are these these four lieutenants standing there and uh he points at one are you tabbed and the first lieutenant says no he points to the second no he points to the third no he points to me and you know i said yes sir he's like congratulations you're gonna be second baton bravo company one three six platoon leader you got 45 days get your shit ready you go in iraq with us. So our major, I got three lieutenants for staff. And so that was it. I just got 45 days

to get my stuff in order in Germany. Yeah. You were also, what, 35 at that point? 35. So he's looking at you. These other guys probably were, what, 22, something like that? Yeah. Yeah. I was a prior-enlisted guy too. So when I was an ensign, which is an 01, you know, it's a pretty old ensign. Which has, which definitely has some advantages experience-wise. And so what was the, so now you know, you guys, do you guys know you're going to Iraq immediately? Yeah. Yeah. You got 45 days to train.

Yeah. Well, actually the, the unit, you know, my soldiers themselves were already trained. Already trained up. Yeah. And so. Were you back filling somebody? Did somebody get fired? No, no.

The position was, was vacant for a while. Danny Lujan, the platoon sergeant was kind of running the platoon. And then I just came in like 45 days before deploying. And then I had a quick, like, I went to graph for about a while. week, you know, to get certified in the Bradley with the crew. In addition to getting my household goods in order, you know, I ended up picking an apartment in Germany that I even forgot where I lived because it was just like 45 days, go, you know? And so I ended up really getting to know my soldiers en route to Iraq. So you, you don't have much time to train up with these guys

and you are heading on deployment. That's what's going on. Um, again, I read a little opening from the book. I'm going to pick up the book here. The book is, is just outstanding. And, um, you know, we were talking before he hit record and, and you talked about, what did you say? The smell, the, the smells and the, and the feeling. Um, sense of smell.

The sense of taste. Like, that's what you get from a book like this that's written by someone that was on the ground. Uh, again, the book is called unheard voices, the fight for Ramadi. Um, you're the, I, I, as far as I know, you're the first person from the 137 to the 136 that's written a book and documented, you know, what went down from your perspective. So it was awesome to hear again the, and we'll talk about, we'll get into the relationship

between, you know, my guys and your guys at some point, but it couldn't have been any closer. But I'll go here. Here we are. And again, I'm not going to read the whole book, obviously. Order the book. But I'm going to fast forward a little bit. I looked around at everyone and wondered which of us wouldn't make it back home. I studied each face, noticing those who seemed scared or ready for war.

You could tell a lot from a soldier's face. I remember standing on that ramp, looking down at the blur of fatigues. Faces hardened by the past few days, bodies heavy with the weight of the coming mission. It wasn't just a clinical finality. I felt it was a sense of profound, heavy-duty pride. This was the moment of professional commitment. I ran the count in my head a necessary ritual of responsibility, focusing on the numbers, because every single one of those faces was a brother,

I swore to bring back alive. And your first step is where? Is it in Kuwait? Where's your first stop? Yeah, in the book, you'll see we went from Freeburg, Germany, where we were stationed. Our first stop was Kuwait. And let me just point something out.

That, what you just read, came out of an outstanding NCO called Michael Alton. Yep, that was his, those were his words. Those were his exact words. I have a good relationship with all my NCOs and all my soldiers. Son, Artin lives in Florida. And before I wrote the book, I kind of run it by him, showed him pictures. And he was like, wow, sir, look how young we were.

And then there's a picture in the book that you'll see him standing there at the ramp that I just took. And I asked him, what was going through your mind when you took that picture? And that's exactly what he said. Yeah. I mean, I didn't read that part, but he says, man, how, man, look how young. Yeah. You know. Yeah.

So Camp Brewring, am I saying that right? Camp Bearing. Can't Bearing? That's where you guys end up. And when you get there, it's time to train. It's time to get all your equipment. Your brads have been shipped over earlier, so you're waiting for those things to show up.

You talk about some of that stuff. Fast forward a little bit. Because we were considered a mechanized unit, we also had to complete high-stakes convoy, live-fire training. This training emphasized immediate, at brutal contact drills, reflexive reaction to ambush, and the laborious process of vehicle recovery. Every drill was executed at maximum speed, simulating the chaos we knew was waiting, instilling a deep,

almost religious adherence to procedure. The slightest lapse in a drill meant virtual death sentence in Iraq. The last most sobering training we had to take was cultural awareness, a crash course in understanding local customs that felt impossible to grasp from a PowerPoint slide. And the criticality and the critically important rules of engagement defined. the lawful use of force. These were the mental guardrails we desperately needed. The line between duty and atrocity all delivered while the smell of sand and cordite clung to our clothes.

You know, there's one thing that is very important, Jocko, that I had the opportunity of serving in a mechanized unit with First Army Division. But I also deployed with the 173rd Infantry Brigade. And so I've done both light infantry and mechanized. And the thing about mechanized is it's not just your service. soldiers you also have to think about your vehicles where to position your vehicles because your vehicles is an extension of you and so you know about the two weeks we were in kawait besides getting the soldiers ready getting our weapons we also had to get our vehicles the vehicles came in and we had to you know load them and then bring the vehicles to the to the firing range and make sure that

they were all exact zeroed you know the 25 mic mic it's a beautiful It's a beautiful gun, and it has a very distinct sound. And so, you know, in a light infantry unit, you don't have, you know, the Brattlies. I mean, yeah, you have strikers. But even that, I would say, it's still mechanized. And the fight moves much quicker, you know, when you have vehicles. Why? Because you can move faster into the battle space.

And you can use the vehicles, like I said, as an extension. Yeah. Yeah, they may. they make a huge difference. Yes. That's for sure. Do you guys, you know, we have, we have home Vs. Well, in the SEAL teams, we used to, in that time for they have other vehicles now.

But, you know, I always compare this. I always thought of my home Vs, the same way I thought of our boats in the old days in the SEAL teams, we would get issued boats and motors, right? And these boats and motors, motors are, they're like, they're like almost living creatures. Yes. And different motors have different personalities. And we would name the motors. And, you know, the classic one that I remember off the top of my head is we had a motor

in one of my platoons that was named Frankenstein. And it was kind of made up of different parts, but it was strong and reliable. But, you know, you had to kind of know how to work with it. And we kind of had relationships with these motors. And, you know, some of them just run better and some of them don't run as well. And same thing with Humvees, especially in the beginning of the war. We kind of got hodgepodge Humvees from all over the, place so we'd have we'd have to plan we literally had vehicles that we knew that could only go 55

miles an hour and the other the better ones could go maybe 65 miles an hour so we and we named all those vehicles as well so we kind of knew the personalities did you got does your bradley's have personalities like that oh yeah i figured as much yeah as you were talking um i'm a little guy i'm only 5 4 and in the book you're going to see a picture of uh sarmali battle dwarf I mean just another outstanding NCO. And you know, now, like I said, I'm only 5'4. So the Bradley for me was comfortable. But if you're like yourself, you know, 5-11, 6 feet, the Bradley's tight.

Yeah. But yeah, every Bradley, every vehicle of ours had a specific name and its own personality, you know, starting from the driver to the gunner. Yeah. And at what point did you guys figure out you're going to Talafar? Well, the original orders was to go to Talafar. So you knew leave in Germany you were going to Talafar? Correct, correct. Yeah.

The orders was to replace third ACR up in Talafar. And I do remember we flew in into Phopsyche. And you know what? To my surprise was that I always thought Iraq would be like open desert, You know and when we got to to Talafer it was like what mid-February it was cold it was raining and it was green And I was like this is weird I wasn't expecting this kids playing in the street and I'm saying myself We're at war what's going on here?

And so yeah that was pretty interesting Yeah, there's a huge difference even just between southern Iraq and even Baghdad going up to northern Iraq I know I know guys that would go and do a mission and it'd be hot and very hot in Baghdad and get up there and it'd be really, really cold. And snowing. Yeah. And I've heard of stories about guys going up there and there's snow on the ground. Yeah.

So that's where you guys, Fab Sykes or, I said that right? Yeah. Fab Sykes. You guys get up there and again, you got so much great information in this book, talking about what's going on. Yeah. And let me just share with the readers and where everybody, kind of like what you and I were talking is, you know,

this book wasn't really written in six months or in a year. You know, this book is a 20 year in the making. And so I'd like to share this where everybody is that, you know, for 20 years, just like all the other veterans, you just want to forget and you bury it. Well, I took everything and just buried it in a taco box and just wanted to move on. But as a leader, I took a lot of pictures. I did a lot of journals. And so as those that read this book, this book is very simple.

And you're going to realize every story has a picture. Every story has a date, has a time. Why is that? Because I took the pictures. And all the pictures that I have are all date stamped, the date and the time. And so I know when all the events that we were pretty much involved, you know, from laughter, destruction. You know, I have it all. Yeah, and time really does get skewed when you don't have those reference points.

I know when General McFarland came on and we've, and I kind of, for the first time, we were putting, I put together kind of the dates behind the combat outposts going in. And what seemed in my head to be, you know, three or four weeks between each combat outposts going in, it was like days. And, you know, that was his intent. was to keep the enemy off balance and keep going. And when you start thinking about that, I talked about this with him,

the miraculous logistical efforts that you're going to have 200 concrete, 12 foot tall concrete T-bearers shipped in to go around cop iron. And then a couple days later, week later, they're going around Falcon. By the way, they're also doing Eagles Nest. Like, this is happening just all over each day. It's just there's so much effort.

being put forth. But in my mind, this was like, these things were like three, four weeks apart. And when I finally, you know, went through the dates, I was kind of shocked that, oh, that was only a few days away. The only thing that I, there's one thing that I particularly remember was putting in cop hawk, which was the three eight up at the hospital. And they pushed it a little bit so my guys could have time to come out of cop Falcon and get refitted and go into Hawk.

But it was like they had to push it like a day. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to be there. So it's just interesting that like you're saying, you have these time stands on these photos, which are a frame of reference. Without that frame of reference, time becomes very tough to grab onto and make sense of when you look for me looking in the past.

Yeah, and a lot of the pictures is really what helped me and a lot of my notes was what helped me write this book. And so, you know, when I write about a specific event, that's the exact time because I took a picture. You know, and I took a lot of pictures. Just as a leader, I figured, you know, I'm going to take a picture. And as I write my report, I have a picture to reference it. And I'm glad I did because here it is 20 years later. It's like a time capsule.

Now, it's awesome. And again, before we hit record, I was telling you that I don't have many pictures at all from my whole Navy career. And, you know, there's a, there's a picture of me and Ramadi, but it was taken by, I want to say it was taken by the ops officer from 137. I won't say his name, but you know what I'm talking about. But I think he took it and, like, gave it to me at some point. Because we just didn't take pictures, you know, there was kind of considered, you know, opsec, you know, seal teams don't take pictures.

And I, you know, kind of listened to that. So I don't have many pictures. And again, just to reiterate, you and I are going to, connect on Dropbox or something. And I'm going to get a copy of all these pictures because I should have taken more. I wish I would have taken more. But it's awesome that you have them. And you know, you put a bunch of them in the book too, which is great because it really

brings it to life. Yeah. And I also, as I was writing the book, the self-publishing company, strategic book, advisors, they just did a phenomenal job. And they're like, hey, you need a website. I don't need a website. No, you need a website. Why do I need a website?

And I'm glad that they convinced me to create an actual unheard voices website that goes with the book. Because in the book, a lot of the pictures are black and white. And so you can see it. But in some of these pictures, you can't really see the blood. Or you can't, you know, it doesn't really show you what you need to see. And so on the website, I started sharing some of the color pictures. and so the website is an extension of the book and also I'm going through some of the videos

because I do also have videos some good videos, some funny videos that I'm going to be sharing with the world because everybody needs to understand like kind of when we first started my book, what do I bring? This is a smell and taste of what Ramadi was and so in order to be able to understand

and grasp the importance of Ramadi besides the book is the website where you're going to see pictures from 20 years ago. As a matter of fact, I also created a folder where 20 plus years reunion, some of the pictures that you and I took, it's in there. And then I'm working on creating another folder for videos. Jocko, you know, for the last 20 years, I never had a digital footprint.

I mean, I had Facebook, but it was more for keep up with my soldiers. But I think as a leader, it's our responsibility. You know, and everywhere I go, I always say, as a leader, leader, if we were in combat, you know you can trust each other. We know that. Why as a veteran, why do we have to stop? Leaders continue to lead. It doesn't matter that we, you know, we're retired. It doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if you didn't even matter if you didn't even retire. If you served, you were a veteran. And if you were a leader, continue to lead. If you're a soldier, you're still a soldier. And so the website is an, it's an extension. It is helping. You know,

I'd like to share this also. I mean, the amount of people that I've reaching out to me through the website, sending me messages, and thanking me for writing this book and also for the website, you know, moms and dads are finally getting to understand what we went through, you know. And being a soldier to us is like, I'm doing my job. There's nothing to talk about. Like, yeah, I just did my job. But as a leader is our responsibility to continue to lead and share the story.

of those soldiers. I don't know if this is the right time, but I do want to share this. When you look at the book, the front cover of the book, Chaco, I took that picture. And you saw and you immediately recognize it. The whole task bruiser yesterday.

You know, was it yesterday? Yeah, yesterday. They immediately recognized the front cover. Well, that was the entrance to Cop Falcon. And then where I wrote a soldier's memoir from Cop Falcon, you notice it's a red, it's a red stripe. Well, that red stripe is the blood that we all shed. You know, I'm a Purple Heart recipient. I got shot, you know, just like Captain McCusker and I, we shared a close quarters up into Lafair. And so we both blood. And so that stripe reminds me,

it reminds all of us, you know, for the blood that we shed in combat. And then in the top right-hand corner, I put the American flag as a symbol for what, for our fallen soldiers, that we can never forget. And so this book is written by me. Every picture is me. As a leader, this is my way of giving back to my soldiers and their families, their moms, their dads, sons and brothers. So they can truly understand what we went through in that time. And this book is not just about the Army. It's about the SEAL teams. It's about the Marines. It's about all of us. that at one point or another set foot at Cal falcon. Yeah, no, it's awesome to capture this stuff historically as well

because, you know, people's memories fade and even just talking, you know, just this past weekend and we did the Task Unit Bruges reunion and being down in Texas when we did the 1-1AD reunion, you're hearing stories that when you hear them, you remember them. But if you wouldn't have heard them, you they may have continued to fade right so just being able to document these things so that as people

as these memories fade they don't fade anymore because they're captured so it's uh it's awesome it's awesome and thank you for writing it um getting back this so you guys up you guys get up to uh fob sykes this is where you guys end up and you guys immediately you're you get it sent out to a place uh cop burma And you say Kaepirma wasn't just another small base. It was a pivotal U.S. Army combat outposts located in the rural outskirts of Talfar, Iraq. Its position was chosen for its sheer strategic value located midway between Mosul to the east and Sinjar to the west, yet uncomfortly close to the Syrian border. So that's where you end up is combat outpost Burma.

Of course, you know, like it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, rough living out in the combat outpost. And what was your mission when you're out there at the combat outpost? What were you guys doing primarily? Well, primarily, you know, we were responsible for major artery where a lot of the logistics passed through.

And so Camp Burma, our backside of Cop Burma was just open desert. And so a lot of the threat came from the front. And so we replaced 30 CR. and like I was telling you earlier I was just amazed it was cold, rainy, snowy and I'm saying to myself, this is Iraq

because it was actually very beautiful the northern part you know it was very nice I'm gonna fast forward a little bit April 9th 2006 the episode began around 9 a.m. We rolled out of our combat

outpost Burma for what was supposed to be a routine building search our platoon never got past the first two houses As Staff Sergeant Jeff Anderson led his squad into one home, Sergeant Michael Auton's team went into another adjacent barn. Michael's men immediately found the grim evidence a suicide vest and bags of fertilizer and explosive packed with metal shrapnel. This wasn't a casual hideout. This was a workshop. Next door, Jeff Anderson had barely searched a room before his gut gave him a bad vibe.

The room was unnervingly sparse compared to the rest of the furnished house. Jeff tugged a framed poster off the wall. revealing a vent like opening, a known spot for stashing weapons. He dragged the couch over to boost himself up, and that was the trigger. I pulled the couch away from the wall, and I heard this click, click, click, he told us, and that's pretty much when the couch exploded in my face. Amazingly, the blast only deafened Jeff for a few seconds. Before the smoke cleared, a hand grenade dropped from the hole,

skittered across the floor, and exploded. The gunman was cornered inside the wall, and he was fighting to the death. This wasn't a typical engagement. Captain McCusker noted that most of these guys fire and flee, but this enemy was determined to fight to the death. After pouring over a thousand rounds and exhausting our grenades, the gunman stayed hunkered down with his submachine gun and Kalishnikov. The situation demanded something final.

Captain McCusker knew someone had to go in, confirm the kill, but he saw the toll the fight had already taken on us. he wasn't going to tell one of his soldiers to crawl into that hole. In a decision that defined his leadership, Captain McCusker armed himself with a flashlight and his 9-millimeter pistol and squeezed into the opening. As the lieutenant, I was immediately behind him covering the entry with my M4 carbine specialist Jeremy I'm saying that right? Correct.

Ily stacked directly behind me. We moved as a team disciplined to the last inch. Captain McCusker shone his light into the hole and that was all the enemy needed. He immediately opened fire with his AK-47. The burst was instantaneous and deafening. The rounds went right past the captain's face and straight toward me. One moment I was standing with my M4 ready and the next a round struck the optic of my M4. The impact was violent.

The force combined with the shrapnel spray from the broken optic threw me back. I was instantly bleeding from my face and left hand, feeling the dizzying concussion as I fell. The optic had absorbed the round, saving the round. my life and the military issued glasses I wore shielded my eyes from the shattering plastic and debris. Without those army issued ballistic glasses, I would be blind today. Specialist Jeremy Illy, the man stacked right behind me, didn't hesitate. He reacted instantly, dropping his body over mine to cover me from further fire while

simultaneously returning fire into the opening. Lying there, concussed and bleeding, all I felt was the intense searing heat of his brass casings raining down on my neck and back as he stood his ground. He kept that unrelenting fire until both the captain and I were clear. Captain McCusker, bleeding from the concrete fragments that had peppered his face, managed to pull himself out. He looked up at me and asked the question we all ask, am I shot? I confirmed he was bleeding. The evacuation didn't end the battle. We moved to the medical tent to treat the shrapnel, but the fight raged on. Captain McCusker, seeing the enemy's fanatical will decided to end the standoff. He ordered and brought the explosive

ordinance disposal team back and detonated four blocks of C4, systematically demolishing the entire second floor of the building. A week later when I spoke to specialist Jeremy Ili about that moment, he kept it simple. Sir, I believed you were dead. I covered you and returned fire. He had stood his ground returning fire until both the captain and I were successfully ex-filled. That moment was the definition of professionalism and brotherhood. When I was finally cleared from the medical clinic, I was given the option to take recovery leave. I chose to stay. When I returned to the outpost, the soldiers asked me why.

I looked at the exhausted dust-cake faces of the men who had just fought for five hours, who had literally laid their bodies over mine and told them the truth, because this is home now with you guys. It was a loyalty forged in fire, a bond thicker than any family tie, and it was why I was still standing. You got your optic right there with a bullet hole in the front of it. This is it. This is, you know, everybody has something that they like to look at to either motivate them or inspire them. You know, when things are good or things are bad, I always look at this. I never realized that the round or shrapnel, what hit it.

What I do know was is that it saved my life. And so take a look at that jockel. you see with a round head. And I still have it. It was written off as a battle loss, and it was awarded to me when I got my purple heart. And I still, even still today, I have the actual glasses where you can see the huge indent.

If I was not wearing this, I would have lost my right eye. So you got to trust your equipment. And in that moment in time, trust your equipment, trust your soldiers. trust the relationships that I've been forged. It's very important. You know, staff sawing Jeff Anderson. Sarn Aten.

Ili. My platoon son. You know, the actual ID or the suicide vest that Sarned Michael Aten found, I have a video of that actual vest. And we blew it up in place. I have a video of that. and Captain McCusker leading from the front. Yes, leading from the front.

He's a stud. Oh, he's just... Absolutely. Just an awesome leader. Outstanding. You got some other good stories. Get the book. If you're listening to this right now, just get the book.

I'm going to fast forward a little bit. The city of Talafar and Cop Burma became more than just a backdrop to our deployment. It was a forge, a place where we hammered out. out fierce bonds, overcame deep challenges, and faced shared uncertainty. Of course, you and I both know that that didn't last too long. What were you guys up there? Three, four months or something like that?

About three, four months, yeah. And I started off this whole thing by reading about when you guys find out you're going to Ramadi. And, well, that's what happens. Fast forward a little bit. Our unit arrived in May 2006 to provide critical support to shift the tide. We inherited a desperate situation, but we brought heavy firepower and focused determination of a mechanized unit. Over the next year, through relentless patrolling,

clearing operations, and focused application of combat power, we'd work alongside the Marines, Navy SEALs, and other coalition forces to fundamentally change the situation on the ground. When you guys were heading down there, are you guys reading through intel reports? Like, what are you guys doing to prep for what's coming? Well, there wasn't really much prep. It was more. We got the orders, and it was simple. We're going to Romadi.

However, no one, no loved ones need to know. And so it was interesting because telling your soldiers, we're going to Ramadi, and everybody knew at the time, Romadi was the dangerous city. I mean, Ramadi was a lost city that everybody, you know, written off. as it's gone. And so...

And the casualty reports. That's the thing that I remembered. I didn't know I was going to Ramadi. So we were deploying in April, and I didn't know it's going to Ramadi until February. We were supposed to go to Baghdad. I did a pre-deployment site survey in Baghdad to go and work with the Iraqi counterterrorist force.

That's what we were going to do. We were all set on that. And then a couple weeks before deployment, I found out we were going to Ramadi. Now, I had been tracking Ramadi the whole time, and I knew that it was totally, it was the Wild West. So the casualty reports alone made that very clear because Baghdad, I want to say, has, I think the number like greater Baghdad has something like 15 million people in it.

I think it's actually more than that. Ramadi has 300,000, 350,000. And Ramadi would have more casualties. So you knew it was going to be bad. Yeah. And the area that we got was an. area that the Marines would not go in. And if they would,

they would get shredded. And so there wasn't, you know, in the book I write that, you know, Talafer was just the staging area, getting us ready for Romani. And you also get, so you leave your battalion at this point, right? And you guys get chopped under the 137? Yeah.

Captain McCusker, Bravo 136, we get attached to, you know, Task Force Bandits. And then Captain McCusker gets assigned to Cop Iron. And then within that, Captain McCusker had to give one of its platoon to Bravo 1-3-7, Captain Bayama. And so that's where I was assigned to Cop Falcon.

Let's get into Cop Iron a little bit. So again, people that have been listening to this podcast, they know all this stuff because I've had, you know, General McFarland, we briefed the whole thing. But we're putting these combat outposts inside the city. And you go through some of the stuff in the books. Well, you kind of explain the strategy. And the strategy that, it's actually the strategy that Colonel McMaster had done with the third ACR up in Tala Far.

That's why Tala Farr was pacified because these, or relatively pacified, was because they'd put combat outpost throughout the city. General McFarland showed up there, kind of got the brief, okay, this is what you did. Cool. We're going to Ramadi. We'll do the same thing down there. So that's kind of the the genesis of the plan. But going into these areas that you just mentioned, you know, these were areas where there hadn't been coalition forces in a long time. And when coalition forces did venture into these areas, it didn't go well. So cop iron was in south Romadi, and this was the first one that we were putting in. And you say this. When we first moved

into the sector that would become cop iron from mid-June 2006 the heat hit us like a wall it was instantaneous and suffocating the air felt like it came straight off an engine block the city was already alive with the sound of generators distant muffled gunfire and the constant unnerving hum of a place that lived on the edge we knew precisely what we were walking into one of the worst sectors in the worst city in iraq at the time the operation began before dawn on june 18th we moved silently into the neighborhood, the shadows still deep enough to offer cover. The streets were narrow, winding, and completely scarred from years of relentless fighting. Trash fires burned in the alleys and the sickly, heavy smell of diesel and decay hung perpetually in the air. We dismounted at the

first major intersection and immediately split into squads running parallel clearances of the buildings on opposite sides of the street. Every door creaked as if it hadn't been opened in years, signaling our presence. Every shadow, every broken window, seemed like it could hide a trigger man. In reality, the scene was one of overwhelming abandonment. Most of the buildings were empty, furniture overturned, walls blown open by past blast, doors broken off the hinges. Some, however, were not empty.

They had been used as fighting positions. So this was the first big operation that the 137 was conducting. And I remember Colonel Tedesco, I mean, he's epic in his own right. But he gave an epic speech to while we were doing the warning order, or actually the op order. And he gave an epic speech about, you know, the biggest battle. This is the biggest operation since the battle the Ardennes force. I mean, he was fired up.

I was fired. We were all fired up. And we went and staged there by the bridge. What was that? Was that ECP3? ECP3. So we all went and staged by the bridge at ECP3. I don't know if you remember this

But we were so my guys went over Laif's guys went over The plan was for them to go over and clear a couple buildings where the combat outposts was going to be And then when the When the IED clearance team came through My guys would watch to make sure that there was no more IEDs put in place And And if they got if my guys got in trouble

We'd call the tanks over Call the Brad's over and get help Well the bridge was so fouled there was these big concrete barriers all over it it was going to take like three or four hours to before my guys could get support and this is one of those moments where you know well what kind of risk are we going to take and so colonel McFarland we were in the back of uh what do they call a one it's a 113 but it's turned into command vehicle it's a 117 it's a 117 and so it's like a little command vehicle it's a one one three that's been so we're in the back of the back of the one

of this thing. It's like World War II. I'm like having fantasies of World War II because I'm back there with the brigade commander and the battalion commander and we're looking at the maps, you know, and there's still Ramadi. There's like tracers in the air and stuff like this. And they, you know, they look at me like, hey, we're not going to be able to support your guys when they're over there. You know, we don't recommend you go. What do you want to do? And I was like, well, let me go talk to it. Let me go talk to the guys. And I went to Leif, hey, here's what's going on. Dave Burke was the, the Anglico guy said, hey, guys, here's what's going on.

What do you want to do? And of course, Leif's like, hey, talk to his guys. Hey, here's what's going on. And these guys came back to me. Hey, here's what we got. We're going to go over there quiet. We have air cover. We have an AC130 overhead.

We can call in more air support if we need it. And worst case scenario, we'll do an immediate action drill and we'll bound back to the river and we'll just swim across because we're frogmen. We'll go. And I was like, all right. So I went and told them. Then Colonel McFron said, Roger that.

And Colonel Tedesco said Roger that. And so then they went across and then the cleared the bridge eventually you guys went across and started setting this stuff up But it was surprising that there wasn't a lot of resistance on that first Combat outpost and there was a there was a ranger operation that had taken place I don't know if you remember this it was a ranger operation where they had been shot off target down there and so and I don't know if you remember this as well there was a little clump of buildings south of cop iron that was called moose village and so you know we're all thinking you got moose village you got this target that the rangers had been shot off of this is going to be a this is going to be a fight and interestingly as you put you know it was like abandoned looking buildings

um and i have pictures of that building i mean that whole building was just completely destroyed there was nothing there yeah yeah you know also it's also important to mention we had Iraqis with us as well so there's a bunch of Iraqi soldiers we had T72 so we had Iraqi tanks on that one

and they came out of I believe Corrigador yeah I think they did I think they did so fast forward a little bit once we had the area secured the 40th Engineer Battalion and logistics teams arrived that's when iron began to take shape

Cop iron wasn't handed to us. We literally had to carve it out of blast damage, concrete, and dust. We worked under the fierce sun, assembling HESCO barriers by the section, filling them with whatever we could scoop up, dirt, rubble, broken bricks. The engineers dozer pushed massive earth and berms around the perimeter, while the operators worked under sporadic sniper fire. Every time a round snapped overhead, the operators would flinch, duck behind the armor for a necessary second, and then immediately push the dozers forward, driven by the urgency of getting the protection up. And again, you know, I just said, oh, it was surprisingly quiet, but obviously it wasn't completely quiet. And actually, a couple days later,

that's when Corporal Chris Leon from Anglico, one of Dave Burke's guys was killed by one shot. And he was actually the first Anglico Marine that was killed in Iraq. So, you know, by no means was this a peaceful situation. But it wasn't as much of a fight getting the footprint there, as I initially thought it was going to be. And where actual cop iron was established, I mean, there was, they were a little exposed.

And so their biggest threat was sniper fire compared to Falcon. Falcon, we were surrounded by buildings. And so our biggest threat was indirect and IEDs. But Iron had massive sniper fire threat. That at the beginning, you know, we would do patrols during the day. but the threat was so high. Captain McCusker changed, and we started doing missions more at night.

And during that mission, you were working for Captain McCusker, and then, as you were saying, once Combeiron was established, that's when it started looking like you were going to get chopped over. Well, let's backtrack a little bit. After I was established, you know, first platoon, second, between, third platoon.

We were all at Iron and it's in the book when, hey Miguel, you're going to go to Falcon and you're going to be with Captain Baima. And we went to do a leader's recon with the rock clearing team. It should have been a quick 45 minutes. Turned into like, it turned into like maybe four, five, six hours. I don't remember how long, but what I do remember and it's in the book, I got hit with two massive IDs all within five minutes. Like literally we left Copp Iron across the train tracks.

Not even 100 meters. The MRAP in front of me got hit with a massive ID. What I remember, because it was right in front of me. And, you know, as you know, in the Bradley's, the commander's a little bit exposed on the hatch. And so I took that direct concussion. Now, here's another thing that is very important for people to understand is that at that moment in time, we're trying to assess.

We returned fire, gained fire superiority, right, of the objective, but I knew, I knew that we had to secure it. I knew that we had to dismount and get the engineers out of the M-Ramp. And so the first-hand, first-hand, Durand was with us, and the exos tank, he was also with us, Captain Fox. and the driver was private Jeremy Brockton and so the decision was made Captain Fox is going to pass

me on my right and secure the lead, you know, would become the lead vehicle and secure the front and then I was going to dismount to aid the injured soldiers inside the NRAP. Well as the tank is passing me on my right and I'm looking towards my right, I cease passing. Right at the medium was a pressure plate IED, literally hit the tank, lifted half the tank, broke track.

If that decision was not made and I would have dismounted, we all would have been wiped out by that pressure plate IED. And so the tank got hit. And so this simple mission of just a litreste rickon just became a major operation because now, you know, I found myself with two vehicles destroyed. And so now I had to secure the objective Because as you know, Jekyll, for the Iraqis to destroy a vehicle That was a big deal for them

And so we knew, I knew, I wasn't going to allow them to have these two vehicles And so we stayed there for hours until finally out of cop iron The M88 Recovery Vehicle And I remember his name because I also took a picture of him staffs on Panetta, our company mechanic with the M88 came out to recover the MRAP. And then we only have one MRAP available. And so the other tank that escorted the MRAP,

I mean, escorted the M88, did self-recovery on the other tank. And then all the injured soldiers out of the MRAP, you know, we put them in the back of my brads. Yep. And we fought for hours because they wanted, the vehicles and I wasn't going to allow them to take it. A little bit more to this story. I don't know if you know this.

So from our perspective, talking to Colonel Tedesco, and I remember he says, we're going to do an armored reconnaissance. And you're okay, Roger that, sir. And I said, hey, you know, I can get my guys in there too. Like they can come and they can come take a look around. They can see what they see. they'll take pictures the whole nine yards and he said well you don't really need to because we got we're going to have our guys and i said well if you don't mind we'll do it you know just so we get a feeling

we'll get to look at some overwatch positions that we can go to that around the surrounding area maybe not necessarily the cop itself and he goes okay you guys want to go down there cool so i go back to laf and his guys and i think it was i think it was laif's platoon chief tony o fratty and i said hey you know the the army's going to do an armored reconnaissance down there and he goes what do you armored reconnaissance and I go it means they're gonna take their vehicles they're gonna drive and look around I mean it's so it's so the opposite of when a seal thinks of reconnaissance you know we think of like crawling through and no one's gonna see us and so he's kind of just look at his face like what is it armored

reconnaissance even mean I go means they're gonna take their vehicles are gonna drive and they're gonna look around that's an armored cross it's and he goes okay but so while that happened with you guys my guy Charlie Patoon Lace platoon went in and put your went in on the Marine Corps CERC boats which we had a great relationship the Marines were outstanding they went in on those boats foot patrolled in went into cop Falcon took pictures of everything took pictures of all the you know the the building itself the entryways the the long access roads coming out of there so they could plan for sniper opera sniper positions and came back and I mean we were back and done and cleaned and handing pictures over to Colonel Tedesco you guys were still out there and so it was good that we did it because we We were able to, we had been in Cop Falcon, we knew what was going to happen, we knew, had imagery of this situation.

But, yeah, that was devastating to hear. But thankfully, you guys didn't lose anybody on that. No, no. And the other thing, too, was like, it wasn't just necessarily elitist recon. It was also route clearing. Yeah. Because the injured.

Exactly. And so every night you had a route clearing scene, patrolling, clearing these routes daily. And so the decision was made, hey, part of the route clearing, Miguel, you and the leadership, you guys are going to go. Follow the route clearing. You'll be the security element. Was the MRAP in front of you? Was that a dagger?

It was in front of me. Was it one of the mind clearance vehicles? Yeah. With the robot arms and everything? With the robot arms, yeah. And the rollers. Yeah. And the rollers.

But it was, you can tell it was command detonated because it hit the vehicle right. And you can see it in the book. and I think I I uploaded the picture on the website. Literally I split the vehicle in two. And so it was meant to be looked like a route clearing and then we

were going to go see and pass in front of Falcons and from my perspective, you know, what I was looking for is like maneuvering the vehicles, tight alleyways because up until Laffer it happened to me, it happened to us a couple times. And the map, you think you can

drive a vehicle through this street, but you didn't realize it was a tight alley, and you couldn't drive the Bradley through. And so, I mean, leaders recon without vehicles was very, very important because I never wanted to find myself in that position where, you know, we drive the vehicle in, and then we can't do really a pivot turn, or we can't get out. And so that route clearance was very important. But once again, it should have been a 45-minute mission, and we were there for hours. Yeah. And that wasn't. And that wasn't the last time that that happened either this stuff happened before we jumped in this next I got I was talking to Mike Baima and Leif sent Mike an email that that

you were coming on the podcast and so here's Mike main gun Mike wanted to say this June 2006 Ramadi Iraq our brigade was preparing to launch the offensive that would clear the city of al-Qaeda just days before we crossed the line of departure the task organization for the operation became official. That's when an infantry platoon from Bravo Company, First Battalion, 36 infantry regiment was attached to my company. The platoon leader's name was Miguel Santana. His company commander was Mike McCusker. I already knew Mike's reputation. Every brigade has officers whose names travel ahead of them. Mike was one of those men. Just months earlier in Talafar, he would be wounded crawling toward a fortified machine gun bunker to destroy it. He was the kind of leader and everyone

respected so when I learned he was sending me one of his platoons I wondered what I was getting company commanders usually keep their best platoon leaders they also keep the ones who need the most supervision if they have to give one away they send the one in the middle the dependable one the replaceable one then Miguel walked into my command post he wasn't physically imposing maybe about five foot six maybe five eight if you counted his boots his uniform was dirty nothing about him screamed future legend that first impression lasted about five minutes then he started talking you could tell immediately he loved being an infantryman not because

he said it because it came through in everything he talked about his soldiers the mission training closing with the enemy there wasn't any bravado just quiet confidence and complete commitment over the next nine months I watched him lead mission after mission firefight after firefight the remarkable The remarkable thing wasn't that he was fearless. A lot of soldiers can be fearless for a few minutes. Miguel was consistent. He was calm when everyone else was amped up.

He was preparing while others were resting. He checked on his soldiers before he checked on himself every single day. Eventually, nobody called him Lieutenant Santana anymore. Not the soldiers, not the Marines, not the seals. To everyone in Team Bulldog, he became Pit Bull. It wasn't a nickname someone made up. it was one he earned. Officially, he was my platoon leader

and I was his company commander. We respected the chain of command, but war has a way of stripping away titles and leaving only character. By the end of Ramadi, Miguel Santana wasn't just one of my platoon leaders, he was my brother. And more than 20 years later,

that's still exactly who he is. End quote. So there's main gun, Mike Baima. And I actually, when I emailed him, I said, open invite when you want to come and talk about Bulldog and main gun Mike. And you don't, you know, that's another nickname that got earned. Main Gun Mike. He fired a lot of main gun rounds out of his tank.

So that's how you ended up working for Mike Baima. You guys wrap up at Cop Iron and now he needs to plus up his force to go into Cop Falcon. And we'll get into Cop Falcon here. The successful establishment of Cop Iron proved that the neighborhood output strategy could work. But the next step, pushing further north into a dense or more hostile area was significant gamble. Falcon was a clear declaration of war on insurgent turf, a sanctuary that had long been off limits except for short raids. This time, we weren't raiding. We were staying. Cop Falcon became the first outpost established in south central sector of Vermont, an area that had

long remained under insurgent control. The first step was to clear the battle space around Falcon of entrenched enemy forces, but clearing alone was never enough. In previous operations, insurgents often returned as soon as coalition forces withdrew, quickly reestablishing control over the population. To prevent that cycle from repeating, forces at Falcon were tasked with permanently holding the area through a constant presence in the neighborhood. The combat outpost became the anchor that denied the insurgents the opportunity to refill the vacuum after operations ended.

So that was the mission. And yeah, actually you're right. You do have a picture of that vehicle just torn in half. Get the book. You want to see these pictures. Yeah, less than 100 meters after crossing the main tracks on Route Central, a key artery. The attack began the lead vehicle, mind-resistant ambush protected vehicle,

hit by a massive IED. And this is what you were just talking about. You got images of all this stuff. And then finally on June 26th, we pushed the full force of the mission. We moved from Campramati to the objective. at 0200, the city was strangely silent, as if holding its breath for the coming fight. I rode one of your brads.

I don't know whose it was. I want to say it was McCusker. I don't really remember, but my guys came in on the boats, and then I went in with you guys. Were you on the first brand? I don't remember. Because I was in the first brad.

I had a dog in the back too. There was a working dog in the back with it. Probably, yeah. And it was hotter than hell. Yeah. And noisy. And I never liked being in brads. I never liked being in any vehicles.

I don't want to be in Humvee, I don't want to be in a Bradley, I don't want to be in there, I want to be on the ground, you know, um, sitting in there, especially for us, man, sitting in the back just, we're not used to it. We want to see what's going on. Let's see, fast forward a little bit. Our objective once reached was a permanent statement. The seals were already at the objective, providing crucial outer security through their established overwatch and sniper positions. Knowing the seal team was in position meant I had a constant critical need to maintain, flawless situational awareness to prevent any chance of friendly fire. My platoon immediately moved through the neighborhood clearing structures block by block. The first building was seized was a former community center school, now nothing but a shell with blown out windows. We took over more houses, many gutted or abandoned with damaged roofs and broken doors, exhibiting signs of previous intense destruction. The construction phase was a testament to courage.

The engineers brought in pallet after pallet of concrete barriers, over 300 of them, using forklifts under direct fire. HESCO's followed immediately. We built the perimeter in three essential layers. First, the concrete barriers to stop the devastation of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Second, the Hesco walls for blast protection. And third, sandbagged rooftop positions for dedicated Overwatch.

You got some great pictures of Cop Falcon here. You know what's when you think. Go ahead. And the firing positions, the way we designed it, we actually brought an engineer and we got 250 cows built an actual frame support for the 50 cow and massive amount of sandbags all the way up to the roof and so the 50 cow was just to reach out there and then on top of that we had you know 249 and the saw and the grenade launchers I mean, it was just a massive fortress.

Yeah. And, you know, I was just thinking about as I was reading through all that stuff, it's important to remember that, you know, when you talk about reinforcing this stuff, you might think to yourself, yeah, you know, I guess you would need to reinforce it. That seems like a good idea. No, it was absolutely mandatory. There was an ECP, I think it was 29 or 5 or 293 up in, to me. that got hit and was devastatingly impacted with the mid team the ongoing the

oncoming mid team and the off-going mid-team leaders were killed a bunch of Iraqi soldiers were killed that the what we talked about earlier ECP 3 had been overrun all but overrun do you remember getting down there it was you it was just nothing left this had been a little outpost and The enemy had hit it with mortars, followed by RPGs, machine guns, and then a vehicle-borne ID. And this combat, the ECP, down there at ECP 3, there was like nothing left. You see twisted HESCO barriers and... I have a picture of us at ECP.

One of our soldiers, Sergeant Kruedoff, took a sniper shot in the face. and survived. So I have pictures of ECP3. I also have pictures of the devastation, the aftermath. Yeah. So when we're sitting here and when we're doing the planning of how you reinforce these positions,

it couldn't be any more serious because it is a real absolute threat. And by the way, those two that I talked about or just two that I talked about, there's five or six, maybe even seven times where the enemy did,

you know combined arms attacks and completely devastated they did an op-v-a they did it all over the city and so this was very serious you know for you to for you to approach you're talking about how you designed to get 50 cows up there and the amount of sandbags the amount of concrete barriers because you were going to get attacked that's what was going to happen and also falcon too jacobc if you remember falcon was like right in the middle there's a bunch of bunch of roads that led into Falcon. So it wasn't just baseline and central. We also have the, we also have the backside.

And so now, if you, for those that don't know, the cover of the book, that tank, that was the main entrance. And so you had to deal with, with the tank. You had to deal with the 50 cows up in the roof, the 249s, the grenade launchers. And so after we initially took over Falcon, I mean, immediately we started taking in indirect. And after even we thought that, okay, we built it as fortified, so on Lujan, all my NCOs, we would walk the perimeter just to make sure that every angle was covered. And we would go out and we would hide and say, hey, sir, look, that's a weak spot.

We got to fortify that. And so we make sure that from every angle for Cop Falcon was completely sealed and you were not going to be able to get in. Yeah. Yeah. And you're right. That reminds me. I mean, even the indirect fire, the morning that we were putting in there. Colonel McFarland came down and there was a, I always thought it was a mortar. He said on the podcast, he said it was a rocket. It was a 120 millimeter rocket that hit, killed, killed a soul. If I recall correctly, I believe he took shrapnel under his side plates came under. Yes. He didn't have a side plate. We didn't have side plates.

And again, this is, you know, leadership from Colonel McFarland. You know, I was on the other side of that wall where that hit. And, you know, he got Kazevacked and all that. It was terrible. But like the next day of truck arrived with. The side plates in it and gave them out to all the soldiers to get him in there. And that was always interesting to me, you know, being from the special operation side, the guys always prioritized being light, you know, and less body armor.

And, you know, all of us came home from her body with a different attitude. And also besides the side plate, you remember, we got issue the, I don't know if you guys were them, but we had to wear the groin. Yeah, there was the groin ones, the guy. I would see the army dudes with the groin thing, with the shoulder things, with the neck, the neck collar. Yeah, I didn't. I wear the groin, but I didn't like the shoulder, the neck, because it's just, I'm a little guy. But if you're a turret gunner, in a Humvee?

Yes. All day. All day, correct. Correct. Yeah. Fast forward a little bit here. Tasking a bruiser from SEAL Team 3 established a presence within Cop Falcon, further strengthening the combat outposts capabilities and operations. and operational reach.

Their integration into Falcon reflected the growing importance of the position as coalition forces expanded their permanent presence inside the city. By late July, Falcon had effectively become a fortress, reinforced with barriers, fighting positions, heavy weapons, and constant operational tempo that denied insurgents' freedom of movement. And you got a good picture in here. So you guys gave us a little house inside of Cop Falcon. The guys wrote Seal House on it, BTF, Big Tough Frog Man. And it was funny because yesterday, you know, and I got Lay in the whole team and Nick and everybody, and I showed him the book and I showed him the picture.

It was like, oh, my God. It was like, it immediately brought him back. Oh, yeah. And Nick was, I already sent the pictures to him of that. So he has him. He's like, man, this is amazing. I don't have no pictures. Look.

Oh, my guys got to see this picture. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was, it was awesome. And it was because any operation to be conducted in that entire area, you could just roll out a Cop Falcon. You're already there. You're already in the bad.

You want to go get a bad guy in the bad neighborhood? You can be, you're in the bad neighborhood with your friends from Cop Falcon, walk out, grab them, come back. No, and lay in the whole team, you guys will get Intel. and then you would come see us hey Miguel like we're looking for this we're looking for this guy he's a high value target and the intel we got he's at

he's at this house and I'll be like not late I saw this guy this morning or I saw him yesterday he's over here you got a picture of him you know I got well here's the other thing about the pictures besides normal patrols we did a lot of sensing patrols

meaning that I went out and my job was to with this biometric take pictures and, what do you call that? Retina? Reckna. So every house we went, there was an age man.

There was an adult, a man in the house. We took a picture. And so all that information was being gathered. And so I had the ability to literally, like, I went into every single house within my own battle space. And I got to see everybody. And so every time laying the team would come, they were like, hey, me go, looking for this guy. I would either remember or I might have a picture.

And so the intel that you guys got was good. But then I finished it off, making the final tweaks. And we did some raids, some massive rates together that gave us huge dividends because we, you know, we were able to capture the high value tagger you guys were looking for. Yeah. There was also a lot of times where it got, well, it got to eventually to a point where we would just call you up and say, hey, there's a guy named, you know, whatever, whatever. He's in, we think he's in building 16, whatever, B. Juliet 16. And you guys will go, cool, we'll call you in 20 minutes. And you guys would patrol out there just as a kind of a standard patrol sometimes, sometimes as a rating force, but go out, come 20 minutes later.

Hey, we got him. What do you want us to do with him? Send them up to our detention facility. We'll interrogate and find out which friends are. Yeah, so that relationship was awesome. And, you know, we didn't care who got to do the raid. You know what I mean? It was just please get these bad guys.

Like, let's get these bad guys. And sometimes it made sense for us to go down there and help out. And sometimes if it was a time sensitive target, you guys could be there in three minutes, seven minutes. And one thing about the Bradley, too, is when I used to get these calls, Miguel, go get this guy for us. we would bring out either two or three brads right and about maybe eight of us 10 of us will cram in the brad and so you would you would tell me go get this person i might bring out 15 18 of my guys and you should see their faces when the when the ramp dropped and all of a side not one or two dudes and not one or two soldiers would come out you would get like 10 12 15 18 of us storming you know the compound

I mean when you talk about command presence shock and ah I mean that was impressive yeah no it's great um great relationship and I mean it was just couldn't couldn't be any tighter yeah you just the partnership between conventional army and special operations forces became critical element in disrupting insurgent operations and maintaining relentless pressure on enemy forces during the campaign to reclaim the city no doubt about it You go on to say this cop falcon changed how we how we fought we weren't raiding from afar anymore we were in their neighborhood our operational template was built on constant presence presence patrols targeted raids meet and talk patrols with shakes and local families IED sweeps OPs on the rooftops most nights we moved on foot within minutes of stepping outside the wire our foot patrols ran from sunrise to sunset and often past midnight. We walked the same street so often that we knew every crack in the pavement. Insurgents hit us hard at first.

Complex ambushes, machine gun fire from alley corners, mortars that bracketed our timing. But after weeks of constant grinding pressure, something changed. Civilians started pointing things out. Kids waved. Shop owners left their shutters open longer. By late July, we were no longer just guests in the neighborhood. we had become a permanent, accepted, and feared part of life there. Huge difference.

Just to explain to people that don't know, the strategy in the war up until this point had been doing these targeted raids, go out, grab a bad guy, and bring them back to base, and then the next night go out, grab another bad guy, and bring them back to base. But those raids only take an hour, and the insurgents are there the other than 23 hours.

And so the locals, they have to bow down and give passive support to the insurgents. But once we were, once coalition forces are there, it's kind of like they do in America when you have a bad neighborhood and they put a police station right in that neighborhood. They'll put like a police trailer and they'll start doing patrols

and get more presence. Eventually the criminals, they can't do anything anymore. They don't have the freedom of maneuver. And so that was the goal here. And eventually the civilians that were giving passive support to the insurgents because they didn't want to get murdered. Eventually they go,

hey, there's a bad guy in that building over there. You guys need to go get him. That's how it ended up. And we did. Yes, you did indeed. And you did indeed. You guys are also, you know, there's no rest, right? You're down there with Iraqi army.

It's another thing people got to remember. There's Iraqi army. And again, this is another thing that was very, people don't understand, you know, we're there fighting alongside Iraqis. soldiers you know that we you are fighting alongside Iraqi soldiers you have Iraqi soldiers you guys are living with our Iraqi soldiers we tasking to Bruges we're operating with always with Iraqi soldiers and that's one of the things that was you know

with the civilian populace the the locals could definitely tell the difference between a bad guy and a good guy but the are the Iraqi soldiers are also going to be better at that than we are obviously you know it's like asking somebody from you know somebody from you know somebody from Eastern Europe to tell the difference between a guy from, you know, Louisiana and Boston. You and I can tell the difference between Louisiana and Boston and a heartbeat. But somebody from Bulgaria, they don't, they hear a person speak English. It's just English, right?

But the locals and the Iraqi soldiers and eventually the Iraqi police, they can tell the difference. And so that's powerful. No, and Falcon, you know, once we established it, secured it, you know, you guys had a permanent home with us. And we had the Iraqi army with us. We were tasked to establish the first official police station. So we also had Iraqi police with us, living with us, patrolling with us, eating with us. And I just remember a couple of times training them, the uniform. And the showing up with an AK, no mag.

Or maybe a mag in one round. I mean. Yeah. But, I mean, they did a phenomenal job. And once we took them under our wings and they realized truly that, hey, the pit bull and Tass Bruiser, you know, we're not going to leave you guys behind. We're here to support. That relationship got stronger. And then we were able to get, you know, the right uniform, the equipment.

And they saw firsthand, we're not leaving you. We're here. then that relationship, you know, became stronger. Tasking to Bruser ended up with a whole contingent of guys, a small, I shouldn't say, a small contingent of guys that just trained Iraqi police and just trained Iraqi soldiers up on Camp Ramadi. The important thing about the Iraqi police strategically

was that the Iraqi police were from Ramadi. They were tribesmen, and that's a whole not. So, yeah, an Iraqi soldier can tell better than an American, right? But an Iraqi policeman from Ramadi can tell even better than an Iraqi soldier. soldier and also it's important to remember that most of the Iraqi army were Shia and the Iraqi police were from there and they were Sunni. And so there's a lot more trust that was immediately in in play because these are this is like you know the kid from your high school that

you went to high school with that you were friends with he's now an Iraqi policeman. So when he comes in and asks you something you go oh yeah you know there's some bad guys over there or we need help with this or we need some more we need some more fuel for our generators or whatever the case may be and the Iraqi policeman can make that happen. And so that was another key component of this whole strategy. But once again, the reason I'm bringing all that up is because you guys had to live with them, you guys had to train with them, you guys had to patrol with them. It's a difficult mission. And, you know, even though the enemy attacks, you know, sometimes we back off a little bit, this was by no means.

By no means pacified in any way, shape, or form. This was still, you know, contact is eminent when you go outside the same thing. the wire. So you guys are doing all that. Continuing operations. How often are you guys patrolling? What did you say? You're patrolling two or three times a day?

About two or three times a day. And then whenever you guys called and needed us to go raid and go pick up some, you know, high-violet target. But on average, it was two, three times a day. Now in the summer months, you know, August and September and the pure heat, we would patrol early in the morning and then late afternoon. But on average, it was like two or three times a day. We would be out.

And it's funny because the days that we didn't do two or three patrols, like maybe we did one, the soldiers myself would be like, what's going on? It's bored. It's bored. Sir, come on, let's go. Let's go out. Let's do something. I mean, that was part of what kept you grounded is going out. Because if we didn't get no indirect or smart on file.

wire your brain, you already start thinking like, what are they planning? What's going on outside? And so you were eager to want to go out and talk to people and see what's going on. I'm going to fast forward a little bit. August 2nd, 2006. Team Bulldog commanded by Captain Mike Baima was tasked to conduct a cordon search operation in sector J-10, the Al-Andalus district to kill or capture anti-Iraqi forces operating in the area. Of course, you know, Charlie Petun Seal Team 3 was supporting this operation.

You guys were out there supporting this operation. The atmosphere was thick with the dust of destruction. At approximately 0.58 Navy SEAL Ryan Job and his team were located in building 125 sector J-10 in a high-risk position overlooking a crowded urban area. Job, a disciplined and talented machine gunner, had been instrumental in supporting our fight. As we pushed through the street below, the enemy struck. A sniper round cracked the silence, tearing into Ryan Job's face. The shot instantly shattered bone destroyed his right eye and critically wounded him. The shock was immense, but the discipline of the seals was absolute.

Even with the life-threatening trauma, Ryan stayed conscious refusing to succumb to the panic as his teammates instantly scrambled to save him. I was on the adjacent street with my platoon, raiding the adjacent house. Immediately, I remember the radio coming alive with all the communication about the SEAL's injured team member. By approximately 8-15 hours, Team Bulldog Tank section began engaging the sniper position with 520mm main gun rounds. One of my Bradley vehicles supporting the SEAL team also returned fire with 10-25-millimeter

rounds and two tube launched optically tracked wire guided tow missiles at building 99 in sector j10 first sergeant louis deran and i immediately began coordinating with the seal team on ryan's medevac while sustaining the fight on the ground i began by repositioning our vehicles to support the seal team and by clearing the route ryan was rushed back to cop falcon by team bulldog in the m113 armored personnel carrier medical personnel at falcon immediately began treatment At approximately 840, we began exfiltrating from both objectives and moved back to Cop Falcon due to the high sniper threat and to regroup. However, Captain Bama continued to engage and destroy enemy fighters attempting to inflict additional casualties. His crew spotted a blue sedan traveling at high speed toward sector J10.

Inside the vehicle were enemy fighters armed with AK-47s. By 0.915, Captain Bama engaged two additional AIF riflemen located in building 60,000. And by 945, the call came quickly. Surveillance spotted enemy fighters gathering in a nearby building, preparing for another attack. Captain Bomah's tank crew engaged eight AIF squad with one main gun round at 350 meters. Carrying on, the SEAL platoon, all the support elements and white platoon, which was your platoon. Now back at Falcon, we didn't hesitate. Ryan had been hit, and the only answer was to strike back immediately.

By 1030, the SEAL team had mounted two of the Bradley's from White Platoon, headed straight back into the fight where Captain Baima was aggressively engaging the insurgents on the ground. White platoon took a defensive posture at Falcon, doubling every fighting position as Falcon was receiving direct fire. The SEALs and the supporting element from Falcon breached the assault, breached and assaulted building 65, sector J10 as they prepared to make entry. The house erupted in gunfire. Bullets snapped past walls and ricocheted through door frames. Inside Building 65, the fight narrowed to mere feet.

Hallways lit by muzzle flashes. Sterewells choked with smoke. Rooms where life or death hinged on fractions of a second. When the seals were pinned down under a storm of automatic fire from Building 63, Mark stepped out. Not because anyone told him to, but because someone had to break the enemy's aim. He moved into the open, his weapon roaring, buying precious seconds for the others to reposition. The enemy fire intensified, hammering. the walls around him, but Mark held his ground until his teammates were safe. A second time,

he exposed himself leaning out to identify the source of a new burst of gunfire. He fired back, suppressing the shooters. Then came the third final moment. Mark stepped into the opening. As he laid down another stream of covering fire, a devastating burst of machine gun fire split the air. Mark Lee fell, struck down instantly. Captain Baima responded to Building 63 with the crushing asymmetric power of our armored support, pounding the structure with 11 main gun rounds, four toes, hundreds of 25 millimeter cannon rounds from the M242 chain gun and over 2,000 coactual machine gun rounds and one hellfire missile into bunkered insurgent positions. When the dust finally settled, the building was a gutted tomb. By approximately 1140, the end of the fight,

the area looked like a scar carved into the city, burned out vehicles, collapsed walls, shattered windows and a constant acrid haze of smoke and pulverized brick hanging in the air. We found 12 enemy bodies intelligence suggested as many as 15 had been dragged away by their fighters. It had been the biggest fight since we arrived. Maybe the biggest any of us had ever seen. At the same time, all of this was happening. Staff Sergeant Perales, commanding the Bradley and supporting the seal platoon on the ground, took immediate action and responded to the Medevac call for Mark Lee.

Staff Sergeant Perales dismounted the vehicle, exposing himself by providing security at the back of the Bradley as Mark was being loaded into the vehicle. Under fire, the vehicle continued to engage AIF using its armor and 25 millimeter cannon to shield the medical team. Staff Sergeant Perales pushed through this, pushed through Sector J10 and Medevac marked Mark back to Falcon. At Falcon, the brigade surgeon had already stabilized Ryan and was inside the M113 armored personnel carrier. Staff Sergeant Prowell is in the medical team inside the 113, pushed forward to Charlie Mett at Campramati. Everyone at Falcon watched them go, breathless, exhausted, blood on their gloves, and simmering with a cold, righteous anger.

This was the turning point in spirit, the moment we went from fighting a war to fighting a vendetta. At Charlie Med, the medical facility was known throughout the battle space. It was staffed by a surgical shock trauma platoon composed of some of the finest medical professionals serving in Iraq, made up primarily of highly skilled army and navy doctors, nurses, medics, and Corman. The unit operated under relentless pressure with one singular mission to preserve life. In the chaos and violence of Ramadi, Charlie Medd became more than just a medical facility.

It was a place where courage took a different form where surgeons, medics, and Corman fought just as fiercely to save lives as combat troops fought to protect them. the battlefield. That's why August 2nd, or my birthday, August 30th, has never been the same. Yeah, I've always, you know, Laif and I wrote about the amount of support that we got from you guys and this is such a clear explanation of it. You know, we only see our side, but to hear your side of it exactly what you guys were doing, exactly what you guys were seeing. My vehicle. So, San Paralas is my gunner. So that was my vehicle, my driver.

A couple months ago, my driver called me. I even talked to San Paralas, you know, that survivor guilt. It's like, you know, sir, I should have drove faster. I should have pounded the insurgents more. You know, as a leader, you know, it's my job to listen, to comfort. And so, you know, we talked for hours. I trusted my driver, my gunner. And that's why we tasked them.

You know, many people enjoy their birthdays. It's a sense of celebration, you know, partying, drinking, listening to music. But, you know, for me, it's not the same. You know, I wrote this book, um, and the honor of voice. is because these are the voices of my soldiers, you know, what we did for Mark Lee, for you guys, I mean, what we did for all of us. And so, um, there's sense of smell and taste. That doesn't go away. Um, I'm honored to be part of something so beautiful. I'm honored to be part of the fight for Ramadi. Jhako, for 20 years, I wanted to forget. I wanted to bury it.

but what type of a leader I would be. And for 18 years, my wife kept reminding me. You know, my wife is, she's not my wife, she's my soulmate. You know, beautiful, beautiful person, beautiful being. And every year she would remind me, is this the year? And as I look at my two boys, I said to myself, I have to write this book. and then my brother dies

you can't hide anymore if you and I led soldiers in combat as a veteran we have to continue to lead and so I'm honored that God gave me the opportunity to do this

I mean as I look back I said to myself why did I take so many pictures I don't know why but I did I mean August 2nd and you know you and I we talked about prior and Lee is like Miguel I hated reporters I got stuck with them but even August 2nd like

I was assigned to a reporter and he he documented everything and the pictures he took yeah that was Stars and Stripes yeah and and you actually have a copy of the August 3rd 2006 Stars and Stripes and what what's this is it right here yeah this is the original newspaper yeah and it was interesting because you know for some reason you know in the seal teams you know we have a whole protocol if someone gets wounded badly or it gets killed you know there's a protocol to go through that includes uh it's called river city have you ever heard that term before no i think i'm getting it right but it means you're not it means you shut down all communications because they don't want the family to find out you know

before they can be notified correctly. Well, I started getting emails, you know, that, because it hit the news, because this article came out pretty quick. And, you know, again, looking back, it's, we have that document. We have the historical document that reports exactly what was going on

and the meaning and the impact of that sacrifice. And, you know, what's so amazing is 20 years later, 20 years later something told me let me see if I can find the reporter and I went on social media and I found him Montemarino and he's here in California you know back then he was a he was a reporter for Stars and Stripes but right now he's here he's part of LA Times and and I had the opportunity to have a 20-year reunion and sit with him and go over this article, and I thanked him for writing the article and taking the pictures,

because as a leader, it's our job to make sure that the battles, the events, are documented, because it's not about us. It's about the soldiers and their loved ones. And so I'm honored. Like I said, Jaguar, I don't know why I took so many pictures, but I did. I mean, I have over a thousand pictures and videos. And so for my name and my picture to be associated to August 2nd, it's just a very humbling experience. And 20 years later, to be able to sit with the reporter and be able to reunite with you guys.

It's like a part of me, it's like very humbling. I wanted to forget. I wanted to bury it. And I did. but I just couldn't live with myself. And now that I did it, now that I wrote the book, now that I can see you, shake your hand and give you a hug and leave and the whole team, it's just a wonderful experience.

And as leaders, we got to lead. It doesn't matter if we retired. It doesn't matter if you just served two years. You served you're a veteran. We have to continue to lead. I also want to share something. if we circle back to Talafer, you know, when Captain McCusker and I share that event, you know, I sustained traumatic brain injury.

And so I suffer from this condition called essential tremor. So basically, I lost my fire motor scales on my right side of the body. So out of stress does affect my right hand. And so for years, You know, going through the VA, trying all these different medications. But inside of me, something tells me, this is not who you, you know, this is not who you are. And so for me, the last 20 years has been, it's been, well, actually the first couple of years after I retired, I was lost going through the VA. But that little voice inside my head as a leader saying lead, lead.

You know what's interesting to Loso Giacos that leaders don't have. A true leader doesn't come. You can't box it on a height. I'm only 5'4. Leaders are short, tall, skinny, male, female, Hispanic, Americans. They're all different types of leaders. And for the last 20 years, that little voice of me telling me I have to write the story. you have to tell the story of your soldiers because August 2nd changed me of who I am as a person

and now 20 years later I just want to share with the world what we all did and once again on her voices is the voice of my soldiers so people can truly understand the magnitude of Ramadi and what it was for all of us yeah um your just going to the you know you took a lot of pictures and you showed me a picture of the reporter sitting in the back of your Brad working on a story I that is he's got I if you gave that to I'm a guarantee he's going to frame that thing and put it up on this hall of some iconic picture I also don't want to get in trouble with mama Lee correct um so I got to say that she told me that she told you

that you better celebrate your birthday. You better celebrate your birthday from now on. You didn't celebrate for 20 years. Find time for you to celebrate because Mark would want you to celebrate. And you know, Mama Lee puts out the word, you've got to listen to her. So, you know, obviously talking to Laif

and Laif sent me some thoughts Laph and you guys were joined at the hip down there. Leif wrote me this. Our task unit bruiser seal, our task unit bruiser, Charlie Patoon SEALs, conducted many combat operations alongside Miguel, Santana, and his soldiers. Everybody called him Pit Bull.

He was courageous, smart, aggressive on the battlefield, and generous to provide support to our seals whenever we needed it. His soldiers were the same to avoid. man. It was Miguel and his soldiers and Bradley fighting vehicles along with team bulldogs tanks who continuously braved some of the most dangerous streets in Ramadi to come to rescue us, and they did it over and over and over again. It was Miguel Santana's Bradley fighting vehicle that provided casualty evacuation for our wounded. Miguel took the risk to violate protocol and send a lone Bradley single track without escort in order to get Mark Lee back to Camp Ramadi's Charlie Mesa.

med surgical team as quickly as possible. It was Miguel Santana and his soldiers that fought through the streets as they were attacked from all directions on that day, August 2nd. They never backed down. They never wavered. He and his soldiers put their lives on the line for us. It was the honor of a lifetime to serve with such an incredible soldier, leader, teammate, and friend and to share the battlefield with his exceptional and heroic soldiers.

end quote Laif also reminded me and I think we wrote about I think in dichotomy of leadership that a few weeks after Mark got killed there was we got a really strong intel report

of where some of the guys that were involved with that attack might be located and we needed guys we didn't have enough guys to conduct a raid you know and so called you up and it was

a squad of your guys and a squad plus of his guys that went out and conducted you know special operations direct action raid deep in enemy territory conducted by a joint special operations conventional unit of

seals from tasking a brusier and soldiers from white platoon and that was just another day in Ramadi working together one team one fight um How did that, you know, I felt like we were very, we felt very invincible.

Tasking a bruiser felt very invincible. One of the things that I realized talking with Colonel Dean from the 135 and Colonel McFarland is when we were doing stuff, when my guys were out there killing bad guys, kind of everybody knew about it because you'd hear the report on the radio. they would go over, it'd go from some, from company net. You know, Laif would tell a company commander, hey, we just killed two guys over here with a mortar tube. The company net would relay it to the battalion net.

So now every battalion, you know, everybody hears it. All the companies hear it. Those guys pass the word, hey, Seals just killed two guys with a mortar tube. And that happened all the time. And so everyone kind of knew, you know, what we were doing all the time. And we also, you know, we had, um, a lot of effectiveness on killing bad guys. And so, and plus the fact that we'd kind of come in and, you know, go in, meet and greet

with you guys, go out conduct an operation and leave and then go some other AO, do some work there. Plus, you had guys on the other side of Ramadi out there with Seth Stone on at Camp Corregador. They were doing the same stuff. So it was like we had a, you know, we built a reputation. And when Mark got killed, it was a big. impact and you know also uh corporal Joe Thompson that same day from three Marines a guy that guy that my guys had worked with a bunch killed on August 2nd as

well we we stood side by side with those guys for the angel flight just that impact of the guys you know the the first single gets killed in Iraq and it's like oh yeah these guys can get killed too it definitely it definitely had that impact on us. It was an awakening. And I will tell you that from my perspective, not to be fatalistic, but I was realistic.

And I knew, you know, those casualties happening every day. And I, the numbers that the odds are, you know, you play the, you roll the dice so many times, eventually it's going to come up. Um, and yet, there's still work to do.

And you still got to get your gear on and go back out. And that was the attitude of the entire ready first brigade. You know, um, does the, there's the attitude of the entire ready first brigade. Do you, what would you guys do, you know, August 3rd? What, what do you guys do? It's back to patrolling. Back to patrol on. August 4th.

Patrol. August 7th. August 10th. It's the way it was. Yeah. I mean, the life I kept Falcon, it was very simple. You're either patrolling or you're man in one of the guard towers or you were doing what, getting ready to go back out.

And within that routine is what kind of kept us together. You know, when you said that, and I wrote it in the book, Life I Cap Falcon, December, when December came, it was kind of weird. And I heard it in the book and I just remembered because here we are, all this time we're fighting day in and day out. And then the care packages started coming in. And so you open these care packages and it's the smell of back home, the cookies, you know, the things that make you human. and in the book, and I have a picture in the company talk, all these care packages and grandma cookies all around the walls

are all the AK-47s and RPGs that I confiscated. What a, I mean, that's just, that's just weird. Here we are surrounded by the tools of war designed to kill right next to a care package with mom and dad and granny. grandma's cookies. Yeah. It's rough.

I preferred to not think about the rest of the world when I was there. I didn't have any pictures of my kids. I put them in a drawer in a folder. I just wanted to focus on what we were doing. Another thing I just remember, too, that I want to share is, for us in the Army, when you deployed, there's no alcohol. Right? However, because we were operating in Ramadi,

alongside with the Marines, we got an opportunity to celebrate the Marines' birthday. Oh, right. And we got our two beers. Two beer day. Two beer day. And I have a picture of that. And what's so interesting about that,

it's like, wow, two beers. Really, two beers? Well, you know what? Halfway through my first beer. I was feeling it. Completely dehydrated. No alcohol for eight months or whatever. Exactly, exactly.

And so, you know, this is part of what life was at Falcon. You know, besides patrolling two, three times a day and going on these missions, you know, where we're going after some high value target, there was also a sense of humility inside Falcon. You know, we would get the care packages. from back home. My platoon son, Danny Lujan, myself, we purchased a satellite internet, internet satellite for our soldiers because we lived out of Cop Falcon.

We had no internet, we had nothing. And so we would only go to Camp Romadi, maybe every 15, 20 days, maybe. And sometimes I don't even go, maybe a month before I would go back. And so we asked, and it was like, okay, yes, you guys can do it. So we bought an actual internet satellite. But it was only for the purpose of emails, and we had control of it.

And so that way our soldiers can still somewhat communicate with their loved ones and be able to help with morale. Because remember, we also got extended. Oh, yeah. Our initial orders for 12 months. and then we got extended for what 46 more days. We'll get to that extension. You made a very nice tribute to Mikey Monsourne here.

Yeah. Do you remember when that happened? Do you remember what you heard about that when that happened September 29th? It came through the net also. And any time that I remember, every time you guys went out, me as a platoon leader, I kept track. Why? Because I was out every day for the most part. Either my Patoonsar and I, we would rotate sometimes. He would

go out and I would go out. Sometimes both of us will go out. But I always maintain situation awareness kind of where you guys were at. And so when that came through, it was just a punch in the gut. Just like Mark Lee on August 2nd. Yeah,

I know I mentioned that you know, we got to see some level of improvement you know as we were there I remember when we put in cop, I think it was cop sword or cop grant, I think it was cop sword but like my guys didn't kill anybody

which was a big which was a big step you know for my guys to be out in downtown Ramadi for two days and not kill anyone like that was pretty surprising and but it was the first time where it was like oh maybe there's some stuff getting a little bit better but

you know there was still so much heavy fighting to do. And, I mean, you go through some of this stuff in here. Yeah, because I keep forgetting, when you guys changed out, the new SEAL team that came through, we got to meet them.

Yep. And so we introduced each other and kind of what I bring to the fight. Yeah. And so that's where that relationship was also formed. Yeah. Yeah, we, I, myself and Leif and Seth, and the last guys of Tasking Bruiser left on October 21st.

So then you got the guys from Team 5 in. And again, the fighting was still going hard. You say this. I remember hearing the blast before I fully understood what happened. It was a concussive wave that rolled through the adjacent city blocks like a physical hammer. A bright searing flash split the blackness, followed by a thunderous crack that seemed to rip the sky open. It was the kind of explosion you felt in your ribs before you even heard it. Then the radio net, our lifeline, came alive with the sound of pure chaos, broken only by panicked shouts and static.

Captain Michael P. McCusker, Staff Sergeant Nicholas Kruthoff, staff sergeant Carlos Guzman, and specialist Ryan Major were all hit by a massive IED. We immediately sprinted toward the impact area. The IED torn through the platoon formation with a brutal clinical efficiency. What struck me most powerfully was the silence right after the explosion. The awful stretched out seconds where radios crackled, but no. one answered where you fared the worst but were forced yourself to keep moving driven only by the primal need to reach your brothers reality was devastating the four men were medevaced out to camp or modi and quickly flown out to long stool medical center a name whispered as the destination we all

prayed we'd never see firsthand yet that night three of our own were flown there each carrying wounds that would fundamentally shape the rest of their lives staff sergeant kruthov Kudov sustained grievous shrapnel to the face, causing vision lost on his right side. Specialist Ryan Major suffered catastrophic injuries starting him on a long, brutal and painful road of recovery. But one detail stood apart, a testament to the warrior spirit we shared. Staff Sergeant Guzman somehow, after a month recovering in long stool, returned to us. He returned to Iraq to finish the deployment. His resolve was not just a personal choice.

It was a defiant act of loyalty, a demonstration of the person. and his sheer determination was something every single one of us leaned on to survive the remaining months. That was November 10th, November 20th. Sergeant First Class Danny Luwan. How do you say his name? Lujan. Lujan.

His vehicle gets hit. And if we can just quick pause and go back to, so Captain McCusker and I share that experience up in Talafar. This, we were also, you know, raiding this neighborhood that we got intel. So this mission was out of copper ironed. And so Captain McCusker got hit with a massive IED. And the four soldiers were from my sister platoon. And so Captain McCusker, besides what happened in Tulafer, here it is in Ramadi,

get hit with a massive IED. Starzarin Guzman came back to us after a month still with shrapnel in his body Starzs Sergeant Carlos Guzman I mean towards the end of the book I provide like where is he where is Sean Crudoff Starzsson Carlos Guzman did like six deployments

four as a soldier and two as a contractor Starzano Krued off earlier Remember at the beginning He was the one that got shot At ECP3

From a sniper fight Snipe around Got hit with a massive IED And was MetaVact And so he didn't get to finish the deployment with us And then Major everybody knows You know he survived

But the injuries that he sustained But today he's a phenomenal phenomenal warrior involving so much you know for the military and competing I mean just outstanding soldiers and warriors

what happened with on November 20th another IED guys get hit luckily yeah pretty minor injuries and in the book

I say luckily because you know one of the things that we did was, I mean, the Bradley powerful vehicle, but it did have some weak spots. And so you as the commander for the Bradley, you were exposed. And so we got small glass or a parlor glass protector protection around, you know, the hatch where you had to expose at least, you know, shoulder, shoulder and up. But on the right side where the hatch opens, there was always a gap there. And one of my, one of my NCO's, Stassan Cordero's came up with the bright idea of cutting a piece of steel and bolting it in that opening. And so that is what saved my platoon son,

San Luhan because when his ID hit Now also the Bradley has reactive armor that it's on the side and some of them went off deflecting most of the concussion but still if that plate wasn't there I would have lost my

platoon arm and he still took shrapnel to the neck and the shoulders and the Bradley absorbed most of the brunt of it now the hit was off to the side but if it would have been directly underneath like I show a picture of a Bradley that got hit underneath and I also show the

their favorite IDs we call it the speed bump ID and in the book I show you what it looks like and that picture of that ID we were we were going we were coming back from from a mission and in my Brad you know I'm looking at the road and just for a split second I saw this shiny army and I told the driver stop and then I saw son I told son Paralas what is that what's that shining on the road and so he put the the gun down and looked through the optics and realized sir I believe this is an ID so we backed up and so the picture in the book of that of that speed bump ID was an ID that was determined to to hit us but we we saw it at the last minute and so that was one of our biggest threat as a mechanized unit was these IDs. And so my platoon serge

was lucky that it wasn't a direct hit. Um, December 4th, I was returning from Camp Ramadi heading back to Cop Falcon with my soldiers. We were on a three vehicle convoy. I was in the lead followed by the Humve and the training vehicle is another Bradley. We were moving carefully, turning right onto Route Central near the intersection with Michigan heading south. toward the relative safety of the cop. As I passed the intersection, the Humvee following me entered the same space and immediately the IED struck. The blast, massive and concussive, shook the street

and instantly left a burning wreck where seconds earlier that there had been a fully functioning vehicle carrying five brothers. Our first frantic priority was the men. We worked with primal urgency to pull the men clear of the burning wreck. Each of them was injured and each were lucky to be alive. Once I knew the site was secure and my five soldiers were loaded into my Bradley, we quickly punched through the remaining distance to Cop Falcon so they could receive immediate medical attention. Five soldiers inside the Humvee sustained severe

injuries, but they were lucky to be alive. And as you look at the pictures, I do want to point out a couple of things. Did you shoot these pictures right when you got to Cop Falcon of these guys? Yeah. Yeah. I took all those pictures. It's incredible. You got just specialist Justin Montgomery. He's the driver. Specialist Daniel Ike Anderson. Now, specialist Ike Anderson a couple weeks ago graduated from the Command Sarm Major Academy. It's outstanding. And he's en route to career to become a Command Sarr Major.

Outstanding. 18, mid-18, as a private. Today, I mean, for the last 20 years, he's been carrying the torch. That's awesome. Sergeant Jason Blanken and then Sergeant King and Sergeant Travis King he took the brunt of it because the IED hit the right of the vehicle so most of it he took the physical aspect of of of the hit He was the one that connected me with Deby Lee with Mama Lee and then special Hopkins He was he he was yeah and

His injuries blew out both his eardrumbs. And I don't know if I put it on the book or not, but the following day, well, not even the following day, hours later, I blew up two houses. I found out where the, where the individuals were. And so that night, it was a long night, because I went, I went on the hunt for the guys that did this to my vehicle, to my soldiers. So it was a long night. Yeah. Um, A few days later, December 6th, 2006, two days after our Humvee was attacked and burned on Route Central, the war claimed two more soldiers in a marine while they were traveling on a route. The brigade often used the road from government center south to Cop Falcon known as Route sunset. This road was a crucial lifeline, but also relentless target for the enemy.

That day, the insurgents carried out another devastating attack. A massive fuel enhanced IED, one of the insurgents' deadliest weapons detonated under the vehicle. The blast was devastating. It tore through the steel, setting the vehicle on fire and leaving no chance for survival. In an instant, three of the regades most skilled and committed warriors were killed. It was the kind of strike that reverberated across every company, platoon, and outpost in Ramadi. The response, however, was just immediate and fierce. First Sergeant Louis Duran, Staff Sergeant James K. Wilson, and Sergeant Jeremy Ili were preparing to conduct

convoy-based logistics package, resupply operations back to Camp Romadi when they witnessed the convoy coming down the road get hit. First Sergeant Duran instantly activated the quick reaction force and then sent them forward to the secure site. The first sergeant and the QRF team responded quickly and aggressively to the attack, ultimately locating fixing and eliminating the IED cell responsible in a sharper, talitory action. The team responded promptly providing aid and doing everything with inhuman ability to preserve what could be maintained. Their actions in the face of such devastation demonstrated the strong bond between units between services and among all of us fighting. the same unforgiving fight.

The death of Major Megan McClung, Captain Travis Patrick Quinn, and specialist Vincent Pimante, resonated through every rank. It reminded us that no amount of skill, experience, or heart could eliminate the randomness and the cruelty of war. Major Megan McClung, United States Marine Corps Reservist

was the Brigade Public Affairs Officers. He was a true trailblazer, mentor, and warrior. The first female Marine officer killed in Iraq and tragically the first female Naval Academy graduate to fall in combat. She was just outstanding. The only thing, I'm sorry, I cut you off.

I did miss mentioning in the book, and so Carson, one of my soldiers, was also there. And I mean, what they did was incredible. I mean, first of all, they saw the vehicle's coming, and they got hit, and they were just eager to get out and help. And so besides, you know, know, Ely in the first line, also Carson was there.

And he, I mean, no questions. I mean, they just went out there. And just to give some context, when an ID goes off on a vehicle, there's a chance that there's not going to be follow on attack. There's also a decent, really good chance that there's going to be follow on attack. So you're just rolling in. And by the way, there's also a high chance that there's multiple IEDs in that area. So now when you roll in with your vehicle or on foot,

you are absolutely putting your life at risk to go help. This is not, oh, the ID already went off, the danger's gone. No, the danger's actually increased. Captain Travis Patrick and U.S. Army officer was a legendary brigade civil affairs officer and the author of the classic presentation, How to Win in Anbar. He effectively used a simple stick figure PowerPoint to promote the groundbreaking strategy of arming and training Sunni tribes, a strategy that would ultimately influence the successful Sunni awakening movement in Iraq. and then specialist Vincent Pumante,

the Humvee Gunner, detailed from his artillery unit to assist with executing civil military operations. And that, you know, is with, you know, General McFarland, these were his guys, you know. Those are, you know, the public affairs officer, the staff officer, you know, the civil affairs officer, which is what, which, what Patrick Green was doing.

Like, Pumonti, I think was PSD, like these are, his guys. Looking back, go ahead. No, I'm sorry, I cut you off again, but, but, you know. I might as well hear it from the horse's mouth. No, no, no, no. What I wanted to share is that, Jocko, is that you can see how busy we were at Falcon.

Yeah, that's kind of one of the reasons I wanted to read. Like this is, what is it, November 10th, November 16th, it's just day after day. And these are, these are devastating attacks. These are destroyed vehicles. And these are not the only ones. There's constant. Lamp or Fire. By the way, you take, this is just one, this is just one combat outpost.

Yeah. You know, there's, there's five, six other combat outposts that are all experienced in this kind of stuff all day. So, yeah, I wanted to convey that this was not, this was, this was daily operations. And the risk was always there. So yeah, absolutely. And I'm skipping some stuff as well. You know, like there's more in the book, but there's even more that's not in the book.

Correct. And that's kind of what you mentioned here. back at this chain of relentless violence from the sacrifice of monsoor the agony of august 2nd the continued i the continuous iD threats to the devastating losses of december 6th what stands out isn't the violence but it's the bond it created after long days and longer nights after raids firefights and explosions when we finally returned to the output post and took off our helmets there was always a quiet subtle moment where we looked at each other and knew the simple truth brothers in arms We learned to breathe for one another, to watch each other's sectors without being asked,

to memorize each man's footsteps, breathing patterns, sense of humor, and fears, but most important to know instinctively when one of us was off, tired, hurting, scared, or angry. That bond saved lives. It kept us sane, and it gave us meaning during a year when death stalked us daily. I didn't realize it at the time, but Brotherhood was the armor. we wore beneath the Kevlar, beneath the plates, beneath the dust. That's why we survived Ramadi. That's why we remember.

That's why I'm writing this book to ensure this story isn't forgotten and is added to history books. So future generations will always remember what we fought for in Ramadi. 100%. 100%. You started, you mentioned this something that happened, which was rough, counting the days. You say the Brotherhood we forged was our armor, but by the time the calendar turned into the final months of 2006,

that armor was dented and heavy. We had survived the turning point of August, the brutal construction of the cops, the relentless IED strikes of November, December. We were tired, we were grieving, but we were also fueled by a single shimmering hope. January. Just as we were starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,

the news hit the wire. the first brigade combat team received orders that changed everything our tour had been extended by an additional 46 days the emotional strain was immediate and suffocating it reached all the way back to the housing areas in friedberg and geeseon impacting wives children and parents who had already checked off ten months from their calendars in romadi the extension was more than just a delay it was a period of increased vulnerability we were short timers who weren't short anymore. We had to fight the urge to check out mentally. We had to maintain the same discipline, the same IED sweeps, and the same house rates, even though our hearts were already halfway across the world. The extension

was devastating because it asked for more from men who had already given everything they thought they had. How was it breaking the news to the boys on that one? It was tough. All the platoon leaders and all the leadership had to come to Caprabody. and we were giving the news that we were extended.

And then once again, it's like you have to be careful what you say to the loved ones back home. And whether you want to or not, the news travels and it traveled quick. And so you had moms, dads, grandma, grandpas, because remember, we were stationed out of Freebro, Germany. And so you had loved ones that already had tickets from the states coming to Germany. And you had loved ones in Germany that had already seen their neighbors get the knock on the door and gone to memorial services over and over again. Yes. Devastating. Devastating.

And I always say, you know, like for the families that are home, when they're watching a soldier or a sailor get buried, there's no way that they don't think that they know that that could be their soldier or they're. sailor. So it's very real. And all of a sudden, instead of coming home where, like you said, you have tickets, now we're getting put in the, we don't know if he's coming home. Yeah. But, you know, the great thing about my soldiers, because, you know, a great, a great leader became a great leader because of strong NCOs and strong soldiers. And so my soldiers were hardcore veterans. The majority of them already had one or two deployments under their belts. And so they understood the mission. I mean, it's just outstanding soldiers.

And they understood what the mission was. And like I wrote in the book, you know, the biggest thing is like, hey, guys, we're still here. We're not, you know, we're still in the fight. So whatever you do, just make sure that we continue to look after each other. okay it's 40 46 days but we know the battle space we know the streets keep your head in the game and we're gonna we're gonna make it we're gonna you know we're gonna survive this and once again all my NCOs and all my soldiers I mean just great all Americans and I say it again you know I'm a great leader because I

stood you know next to giants all my NCOs and soldiers were just phenomenal and And, you know, the whole name of me, the pit boy, is because I'm a little guy, but you mess with my soldiers. It's on. And there was times my soldiers had to tell me, hey, sir, you're not going to be the first one through the door, sir. Come on, please, don't do this to us. You can't stack and be the first one. Come on, sir, please. You know, be the third or just stay out this, sir, don't.

But what type of a leader I would be if I don't leave from the front? I mean, I never served in a Ranger Regiment. But Ranger School to me and the Rangers have meant something, lead by example. And so to circle back, you know, those 46 days, it was hard to our families back home. But my soldiers and I, we stayed focused on the mission. Yeah, the way you put it in here, you say we had built the outposts. We had stood by the Iraqi police as they reclaimed their precinct. We had survived the darkest days of August and the fiery trials of December.

As we entered those final grueling weeks, we did so with a grim, quiet pride. We weren't just staying because we were told to. We were staying to ensure that the progress we had bought with the lives of, we had bought with the lives of our brothers. Mark Lee, Michael Monsour, Megan McClung, Travis Patrickren would not be undone in the final hour. We were tired. We were frustrated and we were homesick, but we were still the ready first. We would finish the job. and as 136

our motto is these not words and that's what you did you guys kept pushing you kept controlling you kept working and you detail that in the book get the book so you can read through some of that and eventually you head home and I mean the

the way you recount those things the way you recount going home leaving Romani brought a surge of relief but it was tempered by a heavy lingering shadow. We were leaving behind the streets where our brothers had fallen in the neighborhoods where we had grown old before our time.

We were returning to Germany changed men, bound together by a shared history that no civilian could ever truly grasp. We walked away with our heads high, knowing that when the history of the Iraq war was written, the stand we took in the heart of the great Sunni desert would be remembered as the moment the tide began to turn. We had survived, we had held,

and finally, we were going home. the homecoming peace guard yeah and and and um that flight back to Germany oh god that flight you know for 14 months you see battle-hearted men right and in that flight you see this warrior kind of weeping a little bit like while I'm coming home you know for 14 months you always had your sidearm, your M4, you always had, you know, a tool of war. And now on that flight home, it's like, hey, you can take off your Kvalua. You can take off your IBA and put it in your bag. And, you know, when you, and then when we landed in Germany, it was like a, at least for me,

it was like a sense of overload because in Iraq there was only one smile. And I know you can relate. You know, there's only one smell, and that's just dirty uniform. And then we land in Germany, and it's like, oh, my Lord. You know, just all the smell of food, of just how beautiful Germany is. I mean, you know, the first Army Division prior to, I mean, right now, you know, they're in Fort Bliss. But back then, we were in Germany, and Germany is so beautiful. The food, the beer.

the women, the people. And so that flight back home was like a surreal. And your senses was just, I do want to share the story. Remember at the beginning, I said, I have 45 days to get ready for the deployment. Well, when we got back home to Germany, okay, we got back home to Germany,

I see my loved ones. You know, I see my soldiers hugging their loved ones. and everybody's kind of going on their way and I'm standing there saying to myself I don't remember where I live I literally didn't remember where I lived because I got an apartment and like two weeks later I left

after getting the apartment and I didn't really remember and so it took me a while to kind of be driving around the neighborhood to be able to find where I live and what helped me was. Was it on base? No, no, it was off base.

Oh wow. It was off base. And back then, it's not like today that you have the technology, Google Map. There was, it was this. But Starshan Kruedov, since he was married, Staffs, he also lived off base, and he lived above me. And so I'm like, it's on Krundov, man. How do we get to my house? And so he kind of gave me an idea.

And let me tell you, Jock, when I got to my house, when I got to my apartment, and I opened the door, you know what my landlady did because i only met her briefly when i signed for the apartment my german landlady left me a six-pack of beer in the refrigerator jack outstanding salute to uh the froy line that did that yeah yeah that's awesome uh the strange face of peace there was excitement yes but there was something deeper disbelief that's that's why i highlighted this because there is a disbelief. We had spent so much time preparing for loss, scanning for IDs, bracing for impact,

that the sudden absence of threat felt strange, almost uncomfortable. Peace was a language we hadn't spoken in 13 months. We were all a bit rusty. And then, you know, you go through the stuff. And again, this is beautiful writing. The family is the silent front line at home. You talk about them.

You talk about the reunion. There was laughter that turned to sobbing, hugs that lasted until muscles cramped, small hands clutching our uniforms, as if the children were flayed. We might vanish back into the dust if they let go. Moment of, it was the first real moment of relief for over a year. And let me take a quick pause there. That picture is Captain Metley.

He was our ex-o. And so when his kids saw him and the wife saw him, they were like, they were not going to let him go. And so I saw the picture and I had to put it in there. So, but yeah. Yeah. It's just beautiful to read. Fast forward a little bit. At one point, you talk about standing beside Colonel Sean McFarland,

possessed by, possessed its own unique weight. Being next to him at that moment was an honor I felt my bones. He wasn't just the senior officer in a combat uniform. He was the leader whose strategic audacity, an unwavering resolve had shaped the entire fight in Ramadi. His leadership hadn't been a detached theory from a distant head, distant headquarters and mattered on the ground in the dirt and in the dangerous alleys where it counted most standing there beside him both of us in uniform after everything we'd endured felt like standing at

the crossroads of sacrifice and achievement a specific kind of pride not the loud boastful kind but the steady internal kind it's the pride that comes from knowing you are a vital part of something much bigger than yourself it's the kind of pride that acknowledges the staggering cost of victory without glorifying violence, understanding that true leadership is about the heavy responsibility taken on under impossible circumstances. As you read that, I do want to share this about, well, now, Lieutenant General McFallan, great leader. I don't remember all the details of what happened.

It's still a little blurry, but I do remember I was up. We were out all night. I can't remember what. But I know that we were out all night. And the following morning, he wanted to talk to me. So he came from Capp, Falk, from Capp, Ramadi to see us. And literally, he walked into the room where I was just passed out. And he's like, hey, Miguel, hey, pit bull.

I kind of opened my eyes and he's standing there. And I'm like, holy shit, I'm going to get fired. I think I did something wrong. Was I too aggressive? Oh my God, what did I do wrong? He's like, hey, relax my gal. Just clean up and come see me. And so my platoon signs, all my soldiers were like, oh, my God.

I hope we don't lose the platoon leader. But, you know, what made McFarland such a great leader was, just like Tedisco and all of them, he wanted to know from the tip of the spear from his platoon leader what happened. he didn't want the information to get lost, you know, through the staff. And so we sat there for a good hour just talking about, you know, what I saw, what I did, what are my recommendations. And he just took it all in.

And I respect that. I really do. Because it wasn't once or twice. He was always there, just like Tedesco. Tedisco led from the front. You know, they didn't hide. at Camp Romari or behind the staff, they were there in the front lines with us.

And any time there was a big engagement, they were either there or they came, you know, shortly after to get the information directly from us. And so at no time did I worry about, did I do the right thing or not? Because I knew, I knew that. I knew that I can trust on them. And they also knew that I was an older platoon leader.

I was 35. But once again, I respect that they always came to see me and ask for my input. Yeah. Can't say enough good things about General McFarland and Tedesco. They're just great. And there was, you know, go right down the list

the outstanding battalion commanders and company commanders. There's just so many great people. I didn't put this in the book, but I'm going to share it. And I hope Colonel Tedesco doesn't mind. But him and I have a wonderful relationship. Here's how it started. Colonel Tedesco, I'm sorry. I will have to.

I'm going to share it with the world. So the first time I met Colonel Tedesco, it was, I believe, in Corrigaro. And so all the tanks and the Bradley's. Okay. That's where your vehicle showed up. Yeah. Yeah. That's where we all met.

And so I kept it out of the book, but, you know, this is an honor of Colonel Stadesco. And so we all converging, curricular, and, you know, we're all getting out of our vehicles, and we're all converging in the center. And as I'm walking there, you know, I'm only five four. I'm a little guy. and Colonel Tedesco sees me. He walks right up to me and shakes my hand and goes, you're going to do great things in my task force. And I was like, and I'm thinking, oh my God, am I in trouble already?

You know, I just, I'm just meeting him for the first time. And I was like, yes, sir. And he looks at me. He goes, you know why? I was like, no, sir. He goes, you're the first man that I can see eye to eye. I don't trust these tall men next to me. But you, I can trust eye to eye.

You're going to do great things in my task force. And I was like, yes, sir, you know. And so that's how we begin our relationship. And I'll tell you, 20 years later, I will follow Colonel Tedesco to the end, along with, you know, Sean McFarland and Byamai and Captain McCusker. I mean, once again, great leaders. You know, if people look at me as a great leader, it's not necessarily me. I'm a humble person.

I'm a great leader because I was surrounded by giants between NCOs and great officers. Yeah. Yeah, the thing that I realized about all these guys, and it was real obvious even being there, is all these leaders, what makes them so awesome is they just cared about the troops. And look, they were doing everything they could to get the mission done and did get the mission done. But everybody, I mean, everybody just cared so much about making. sure we do everything that we could to keep the troops as as safe as possible and it you know and it's not easy it's not easy when they are when they are getting wounded and they are getting killed

it is hard to to maintain and always put them first and care about them so much when you know you're also going to put them at risk it's very very difficult but all of them it was always front of mind and you could see it you didn't have to hear them talk about you could see it you could feel it in the meetings the way operations were planned the way operations were directed it was it was we care about the troops we care about the soldiers the sailors the airmen the Marines that are out there they're going to have to do this stuff and that that caring that they all displayed was very obvious and I think that's what kept everyone so that made everyone trust them so much um you you you also in the book um pay tribute to a lot of the, to a lot of the leaders that you worked with.

You got Tedesco in here. Well, the final chapter of the book, let me just add this because, you know, the whole idea of this book was just a memoir for my soldiers and the loved ones. And strategic book advisors, the self-published company that I went with, just when I thought the book was done, they're like, oh, no, you're not done. I'm like, I don't understand. They're like, you brought us back 20 years ago. We want to know where are you guys today?

You have to add another chapter and tell us. Where are the soldiers that fought in Ramadi 20 years later? And so the final chapter is about where we're at today. And that's where I give tribute to the leaders and some of the soldiers and kind of where we're at today yeah yeah and I mean the the chapter before that is remembering our fallen correct and so you do a great job of telling about the people that you lost and you know give them a quick bio about who they were so they're remembered and then you like I like you just said you go through some of these some of the leaders you know some of the

people that you worked with Colonel Tedesco you know among the leaders who shaped the battle of Vermont if you left a stronger impression on the the soldiers who fought there than Lieutenant Colonel Tedesco. He carried forward a proud family legacy of military service as a third-generation warfighter, following both his grandfather and father in serving the nation. His commitment to the Army represented something far deeper than a profession. It reflected a lifelong devotion to his duty, service, and sacrifice and service to the country. In many ways, his career embodied the true meaning of patriotism, loyalty, and honor the United States

American flag values he not only believed in but demonstrated daily through his leadership, in combat and his dedication to the soldiers under his command. As battalion commander, he embodied the kind of leadership soldiers immediately recognized and trusted, calm under pressure, tactically brilliant, physically present in the fight, and relentlessly committed to accomplishing the mission while taking care of his men. From the moment, Bravo Company First Battalion, 36 infantry regiment, fell under his command. Lieutenant Colonel Tedesco treated the soldiers as his own. He did not lead from a distant command post or rely solely on reports filtered through layers of staff officers. He led from the front understanding that the battlefield that battlefield leadership required visibility, presence, and trust.

We all knew we would never, we all knew he would never ask them to go somewhere. He was unwilling to go himself. And the reason, one of the reasons I highlighted that is because that's exactly the way he treated my seals as well. And me was like we were part of his unit. And that's exactly how I felt. Captain Baima, as commander of Bravo company operating a cop falcon, copped in Bima, established himself as an aggressive, decisive, and highly respected battlefield leader whose presence shaped the tempo and effectiveness of operations within Cop Falcon.

In the brutal urban battlefield of Vermont, hesitation could cost lives. Captain Baumah understood that success demanded leaders who could make rapid decisions under pressure while maintaining complete confidence in their soldiers and equipment, a tanker by trade and a warrior by nature. He brought a level of technical proficiency and combat knowledge that gave us confidence during the most dangerous operations. Whether maneuvering armored vehicles through narrow streets, coordinating combined arms firepower, or leading patrols into contested neighborhoods, he consistently demonstrated mastery of urban combat operations.

Captain Baumel led from the front. He did not command from a distance or ask us to face dangers he was unwilling to face himself. His leadership style was aggressive, but disciplined always focused on maintaining initiative against an adaptive and determined insurgency. We all knew that when the fighting intensified, he would be exactly where he needed to be. forward, engaged, and fully committed to the mission, and I'll add a footnote there, probably launching some main gun runs. You got First Sergeant Louis Duran, the operational bedrock of the outpost.

First Sergeant Louis Duran was the bedrock of our unit, the steady, dependable leader whose presence brought order, discipline, and confidence during some of the most difficult moments of the deployment in the chaos of combat operations within Falcon. He served as the backbone of the company, balancing toughness with genuine care for the soldiers under his responsibility, whether inside the tactical operation center or out amongst the men, First Sergeant Duran led with quiet professionalism and an unwavering sense of duty that earned the respect of everyone around him. And you go through a lot of these different leaders and get the book so you can hear these

tributes. One of them, Michael Otten, who we mentioned earlier, you asked him, you showed him a picture and, or no, you ask him this question, what? What does Ramadi mean to you 20 years later? And I'll fast forward a little bit on his response, but he says, Ramadi was literally hell on earth. The fight day in and day out was forever changing. The threat of IEDs was tremendous from day one, but only got worse over the 10-month deployment.

Every patrol mounded or dismounted was stressful, and the thought of not making it off the patrol was real. Every rooftop, every person, every piece of trash was a threat. A threat you could not identify. It was a nightmare every second. Ramadi turned little boys into stone cold, heartless killers, and made even those soldiers who didn't really like each other at first become brothers. It built bonds that never could be broken, bonds that will last a lifetime. Looking back at the Battle of Ramadi, I can say it was one of the proudest things I have

done in my life. Though it was a nightmare and not enjoyable, I am proud to have been a part of history. In a sense, Romadi meant life or death to me. Oftentimes, when I got in my darkest days, I referred back to the days of that battle. When I wanted to take my own life at one point, I couldn't because of the men I fought alongside in Ramadi I couldn't take my own life because I would have failed my brothers from Ramadi. I know they suffer from the same emotions, nightmares, et cetera that I do. How could I be so weak as to leave them on this earth alone?

I owe it to them to fight the demons we all share together. Maybe my living is the reason a brother holds on. If I break, would it encourage another brother to take his own life? I have asked myself this question often. So what Ramadi means to me is life. We must live on regardless or else we let the place we hate more than anything win. And it does not deserve to claim another brother

who fought and won a battle that nobody thought could be won. That says it all right there. Yeah, it does. And so once again, just like Saw and Aten said, what type of a leader I would be if I didn't write this book. We owe it, you know, to our fallen

to make sure that the stories and the legacy carries on for future generations. And like I said, I've read a couple of these. You got more of them in there super impactful. Like I said, you got the memory for the fallen in as well. I want to close out with this section of the book. You say, we were the ready first.

We held the line when it mattered most. And though the years had passed and our hair is grayed, we remain bound by a bond that time cannot touch. I wrote this so that my sons and yours will know that there was a time in a broken city far away when ordinary men did extraordinary things for one another. Deeds, not words. Miguel Santay.

Major U.S. Army retired Ramadi 2006, 2007. D's not words. Yes. And you and your soldiers certainly live that mantra without question. What was your, when you got home, what was your next assignment after Ramadi? Yeah, when I got home, like I said, I, as an officer, I was commissioned infantry.

And so I went to infantry school, ranger school, and all of that. However, about six months after coming back home, there was a company commander back in Iraq, back in Ramadi, the same battle space that we just left that had a family, I don't want to say on here. Some family emergency, family emergency. And he had to be taken out. and so the CG, you know, I got called into a room and I was told, hey, there's a company commander downrange, we got to take him out, we got to replace him. I think he was in Robadi. And he was, well, that's the interesting part.

This company commander was commanding a finance company responsible for MNF West, the whole financial footprint. And so he needed to be. replaced. And so here I'm an infantry officer. I got called into a room and asked, would you be willing to go back? And I mean, it's what, six months? We just came back. And so it was asked of me, hey, would you be willing to go back and take command prior to going to the captain's career course and take command of a finance company, your own battle space? But in addition to Ramada, you're going to be responsible for al-Assad, hit TQ, Fallujah,

all of it, all the financial footprint. And I was like, well, I'm an infantry guy. And they're like, yeah, but you also were assessed as a future potential finance officer, comptroller. The army's changing. And so this concept of creating comptrollers, you know, S-8s, G8s, we're starting. And so here, I am, I just led an infantry platoon for 18 months and, you know, and next year you know, I find myself going back to Iraq as a company commander.

I penned and I put captain's bar en route back to Iraq into command of a finance company responsible for the whole financial footprint. And that was kind of, it was kind of weird, Jocko, because going back to your old battle space, emotionally, it was like, wait a second, I'm not the platoon leader. I'm the commander now, and my finance soldiers were like, sir, why do you want to go back to Ramadi?

Why do you want to see Cop Falcon? They didn't understand the reasons why I was emotionally attached so much to Ramadi and Cap Falcon. And so as I went back to Ramadi and visited all the battle spaces, battalion and brigade commanders were confused. because, you know, my uniform showed infantry, C-I-B, Ranger, Tab, and it's like, you're the finance commander? I'm like, yeah, I'm the finance commander. I'm what is called a future S-8 embedded within the brigades, but responsible for the financial footprint. And so I went back for another 12 months and led in the same battle space.

And what I can share with you guys is this, is that I'm glad I went right. back because I got a chance to see Falcon when we left it and about eight months later Falcon completely different. Soldiers were walking around without hard hats, IBAs, and it was a softer Ramadi and that was weird for me. Yeah, that was weird for me. The guys eventually we got the picture sent back for the guys that were replaced us and You know, it's like kids, girls in the girls school, running, running road races down, Route Michigan, just all that stuff is crazy. And it's funny because I never stopped taking pictures.

So, like, I have a picture of Cop Falcon when I left next to another picture that I took. And it was like, wow, it's just so amazing. And so for me, it was, it gave me an opportunity to find closure because I was able to finally see what happened. I was actually given the opportunity to see what we fought for. But once again, August 2nd has never been the same for me. But at least I got a chance to see because a lot of soldiers got hurt, got sent back to Germany, and they never found closure. Like for example, Sarn King, after he got blown up on the Humvei, he didn't come back from the deployment.

And so sitting and talking to him, it's like, man, sir, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's a piece that is missing what happened afterwards and just talking to him and helping him close those gaps and filling those missing gaps that for years he's been carrying. It's just, it's just a beautiful experience. Yeah, that's one of the things that I told the guys that came to the task unit bruiser reunion is there's, there's like a scene in band of brothers. where the German general is addressing after they've surrendered. He's addressing his troops. And, you know, he tells him it's been a long war. It's been a hard war. You fought proudly and bravely for your country.

You're a special group. You've formed a bond that only exists in combat. And it only exists amongst brothers who have shared foxholes, who have held each other in dire moments, who have seen death and who have suffered together. and I'm explaining to them that while that German general is given that speech there's an American that's translating it

and they all realize that what he's saying is true regardless of what side you're on and it also made me realize that for the Germans in that moment the war was over and for the Americans in that moment the war was over but us coming home from Ramadi for us in our task we came home in October the war's not over it's there's no end to it in sight

we just you know guys went Got into another platoon, got into another task unit. Some guys went to training. It's just everybody kind of moves on, but there's no, as you put it, closure. And I think there's a lot of Americans, you know, a lot of Americans, we didn't really get that. And so, you know, I never said to him, like, hey, you guys did a great job. Like, you know, guy was checking out, going to a different command. You know, so I think the fact that you got to go back over there and set foot in, and Leif got to see it too, I think in 2009.

And, you know, in, I want to say his last appointment was in 2000. 2009 or 2010 they had one in all of Al-Lambar province during his six-month deployment they had one casualty a guy got injured in a vehicle roll that was it in all of Al-Lambar province I mean that's totally insane yeah so yeah that's great that you got to go back there but you know what's also interesting too Jucko is that um 05 06 oh 7 we were at the peak of the war And so deployments was just back to back, back to back. Like, for example, yeah, I went back to Ramadi after six months for another 12 months.

But then I, from there, when I came back, it was like, hey, I'm thinking I'm going to the infantry captain's career course. I'm like, no, no, no, you're going to go to the finance captain's career course. And so I went to the finance captain's career course to become a comptroller. And immediately, I got orders back to German, well, back to Italy with the one. 73rd Infantry Brigade and so I did another 12 months with the airborne brigade And where was that at our Vigenza Italy okay and we went to Afghanistan and and you were doing the Comptroller stuff over in Afghanistan? What years was that that was that was um 2012 okay 2012 2011 2012 and it was interesting because Afghanistan completely different from Iraq

completely the dynamics of it and even though I'm the Comptural I'm the the SA responsible for all the financial funding that's operating you know Afghanistan was just different you know what we did in Ramadi was backstreet fighting Afghanistan totally different terrain and so with the 173rd I was tip of the spear I was still involved I still went out because I wanted to understand if I'm going to pull resources, funding resources, and fund what the soldiers needed. I needed to be able to understand and see it firsthand.

And so I went out. I'm still an infantry officer. Still pit bull. Yeah, still the pit bull. And then I think your last big thing was the financial planner for Operation Atlantic Resolve. That was what, 2014? 2014, yeah. And so now this is after the Russians invade the Crimean Peninsula there or whatever, annexed it.

Yeah, and so when I came back from Afghanistan, that was going on, and I was pulled from Vigenza, Italy, back to Germany at the headquarters level. So I was at the G8 now, and I was the deputy chief of the tactical branch within the resource management team. And so I was hand-selected as part of this team because back then it was completely classified. Nobody knew what we were doing. And so my responsibility was to build this funding package to bring soldiers to Europe. And it was the biggest movement of troops and equipment since World War II. And so I was funding missions that was in, I mean, the news is out anyway. So I guess I can talk about it.

But like, I was funding missions in Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Lafayette, Romania, in addition to Germany, and all these training exercises. So, like, if you go back and you pull the original funding order, you're going to see my name on it. And so that was my big, I don't consider a deployment because I was already stationed out of Europe. I spent almost 10 years operating out of Europe. And I understood the culture, I understood the language,

I understood the exchange rate. I understood the infantry aspect of it plus the funding aspect of it. And so it just, for me, it was just, I loved it. What made you decide to retire? That's a tough. That's a difficult one. But my third deployment in Afghanistan was pretty rough, and I can see my body changing. I'm not going to share everything, but what I can say is,

that the injuries that I sustained as a platoon leader, as a company commander, it started creeping up on me. And so when my wife had our second child, I have two beautiful boys, Michael and Matthew, I mean, they're just the love of my life, you know. I see myself through them. But when my second boy, Matthew, was born, I was having a hard time taking care of him. I didn't understand why my hand was, my right hand was shaking. You know, I was taking Tylenol, Advils, motoring like Tick-Tox, you know, like just popping them in, you know.

And I'm like, I didn't really know the difference between a headache and migraines. I didn't know, I didn't understand what was happening to my body. And then one day my wife said, no, you know, as a loving wife and soulmate, she's like, no, we need to find out. And so I went to Lange Stowe and they did the MRIs and they did all the tests and discovered that I did sustain. traumatic brain injury. And so the condition that I have was officially, like, for years I didn't really know why my hand was shaking, why sometimes my voice, you know, the pitch changed. And then finally the doctor broke it down and said, hey, you suffer from essential tremor.

And I didn't believe it. But once I saw the MRIs and then the doctor said, flat out, you know Muhammad Ali. Oh, yeah, greatest boxer. He's like, yeah, well, you know, he got too many. concussions that eventually became Parkinson's. Is that what you want for yourself? You know, because at the time, I was still on jump status. Even though I was a comptroller,

I was still living the infantry lifestyle. And then at that moment in time, I realized that, hey, you know, I have a duty. I led soldiers in combat, but now I have the ultimate responsibility and it's my wife and my boys. And we, my wife and I, we prayed about it. And that's when the, decision was made that it's best for me to to retire and it's interesting um i will mention his

name because he was a great mentor to my um at the time he was major lackey he was the he was the brigade x the brigade s3 with the 173 under corner roland now general roland um he became the infantry branch manager and he called me he's like hey me go i got the person perfect excitement for you. The 75th range of regiment in about a year from now needs a comptroller. I put your name in the hat. You got it. And I'm like, okay, he's like, don't worry about I'll take care of the finance branch, but we're going to make it work. And so, you know, you have this beautiful career, you know, and I had to make the tough decision to say, hey, I appreciate it, sir, but I think it's time for me to retire and come home and take care of my

family and take care of myself. Yes, indeed. And so that was that was the reason why I retired. And so what are you doing now? I retired in uniform, but I didn't retire. Of course. So I retired as a as a soldier, but I continue service. And so as of as of September, I was the G8. So I joined the civilian workforce as a federal civilian. And I worked out of Southern Command, the United States Army, Miami Garrison, supporting Southern Command. And so I was the Garrison G8, the comptroller for the garrison. And I did that for a couple years. But once again, Ramadi was here. And so in September, you know, with the government shutdown and all that, I saw the opportunity. And so I left that and committed to writing this book from my soldiers.

And so what am I doing right now? Right now, you know what's my goal? Hang out with your wife and kids. Besides that. Besides that, because my wife just said, you got to lead. The amount of calls that I get from my soldiers and family members. And so what do I want to share what the world is? A soldier will always be a soldier.

My dad. My dad is 87 years old. Right? And my dad, if I tell him, dad, I stand up, I want to salute. It's funny because I outrank my dad. And I said, Dad, I want to salute. At 87 years old, you see my dad muster the strength and the courage to stand up so we can salute each other. And so with that being said is, I'm going to continue to lead.

What has helped me to this point is realizing there's nothing wrong with us. We just simply transformed ourselves. A leader will always be a leader. A soldier always be a soldier. And so as a veteran, I'm going to continue to lead. You know, like this book took 20 years. Jocko, I can't stop it. I'm writing another book.

Awesome. I'm writing another book because my brother Jose taught me a lesson. At 57, he passed away. We're not going to live forever. And so what type of a leader I ask again? Would I be if I don't put all the lessons learned onto a book that's going to help? It has helped me tremendously, but it's also going to help my soldiers. and family members. I mean, right now, it's kind of overwhelming, too, because the amount of emails,

I do want to share the story. So I'm Wilson, I'm sorry, I will have to share it. But I went to see Kemp Wilson. In the book, I called them The Builder, up in North Carolina. Every year, we go out of our way to make sure we have a reunion, just like Sarn Arndt and Sond Housman. I mean, a lot of my NGOs, I stayed connected with them. And so, you know, I went to see him, and it was like we signed each other's book. And the beautiful thing about that relationship is that we still hold each other's accountable. As we're sitting by the lake, beautiful lake, beautiful house. You know, we talk about Ramadi, and we see the wives and the kids playing.

It's like, wow, we did that. We created that. And he's always doing some project. He's always helping his community. He's always doing something. He's right now involved in helping rebuild one of, remodel one of the churches in the small, you know, North Carolina, a town where he lives.

And so it's like, as a veteran, he's still leading. As a greeting seal, he's still leading. So once again, what type of a leader am I going to be? Am I going to continue to hide? No, you know, once again, I never served in a range of back. that. But Ranger School means something to me. The tab means something to me. I have to continue to lead. And so the next book is to help, it's to help soldiers. How do you overcome multiple deployments? How do you overcome injuries? How do you overcome family reintegration? It took a lot for me to

talk about my tremors because I was struggling. Why is my hands? shaking. My wife had to help me shave, tie my shoes at one point. And so by the grace of God, histamine blockers, regular allergy medicine. I don't know, but it helps me. And so I'm back. The pit bull is back. The pit bulls back. And so we have to lead and take care of our soldiers. It doesn't matter if we're veterans, if we're back home. We have to lead. Yes, indeed. Where can people find you?

You got Miguelantana.com. Correct. I'm surprised you were able to get that. That's pretty awesome that you're able to get that. Good job. Yes. You got a YouTube channel, Santana Channel official.

It currently has zero videos on it. I looked last night, so no pressure. You can't lead with no videos. You've got to get some videos on there. Well, let me just explain. So the whole idea of I never had a digital footprint. I mean, I had Facebook, but just so that I can keep up with my soldiers. But the whole idea of the book, the self-publishing company that I went through, they're like, hey, you need a website.

And so the website is the extension of the book. And that's the Miguel sundana.com. Correct. Correct. That's the domain that I bought. By the way, Echo, if you're looking for the links on there for his Instagram or his Twitter, click on him, they don't go anywhere. He's got no Instagram, no Twitter right now. Not yet.

Not yet. Good to. But the website, what I'm going to do different is that if you read the book and you go to the website, there's pictures of us, there's pictures of you, there's pictures of us. There's a part that it's deployment photos. And some of these pictures that are black and white, they're on the website and they're colored. And then I have another folder for reunions.

And you and I attended the 20-year reunion. But in addition to that, my soldiers have been having. having their own little reunions. And so I'm uploading those pictures there. That's awesome. And in addition to that, what am I going to do? I have a lot of videos. I'm going to start sharing videos because what good is me having all these videos?

I have to share it with the world so that way people can truly get the full experience of what Ramadi was for us. Echo, can he not take those videos, put them on the YouTube channel and then link it through the website? What do you mean? So he's got videos, put him on the YouTube channel. and then post them on the website through the YouTube channel. That'd be a good move, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So when you re-listen to this, you heard what I just said, and it'll make sense. Well, you'll tell you're probably one of your sons will be able to do this better than you, but, you know, that's awesome. Yeah, so Miguel Santana.com, the YouTube channel, Santana official, Facebook, Miguel N. Santana. And that's where you're at right now. Echo Charles, you got any questions? I have a couple.

All right. comes to a real interview might sound kind of random i've been i've been wondering this for a long time so let's say you're in a firefight right you let's say we eliminate three combatants right they die what happens to those guys does somebody come and clean them up or like what up um out of respect um anytime we engage someone the insurgents did have um code of honor they would they will come and pick up the deceased. You could literally watch them do it. Yeah, for real.

Like they would come and grab their guys and they would put them and they'd bring them out to the Ramadi General Hospital or bring them to another site. Oh, day. Um, if they didn't get recovered to get dogs on them. Yeah. Dogs on them.

Yeah. And then also, um, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. If they died, they had to bury them before either sunrise or sunset. Oh, okay. So they had a protocol. Yeah, they had a protocol for.

But from the most part, they try to recover the body. It's crazy. What kind of beer did your landlady leave you? Oh, man, I don't remember. All I know was a... Because Germans have good beer, right? Oh, yes. You know what the most popular beer?

I might be wrong about this. This might be an urban legend, but you know what the most popular beer in Germany is? What, Bex? Budweiser. Budweiser. You think that's true? Oh, yeah.

I mean, I heard that at Octoberfest, which I've been to, which is in September, oddly enough, right? Isn't it in September? Yeah, it's, it's, they're like, oh, the most, the most drank beer. Now, look, I might, I might catch hell. I might be totally wrong, but that's the urban legend that I heard. Okay.

But here's the thing, the beautiful thing about Germany is like any restaurant you would go to, you can order any type of beer. I mean, coming back from a deployment, everything was good. Everything was good. And so I liked, sometimes I would have a peers, a light beer, or the dunca, the dark German beer. And it was just, it was all delicious. But you don't remember what kind of that was?

No, I don't. All I know was, because I didn't leave nothing in the refrigerator. And so I opened the fridge and I was like, oh, my God, I was a six-pack of German beer. And all my gear, I threw it right by the living room. And it was funny because the following day when my sense is, well, I took a shower and went to bed, but the following day, when I woke, I'm like, what does that smell? And it was all my gear right there by the entrance, you know.

And some of my pants were so, you know, sweat. Like you can, they would stand by themselves, you know, and that white, you remember the white, you sweat so much that your pants and your shirt will be white. And it's all that ammonia from your body. Yeah. It's crazy. Cool, man. That's all I got. Any other questions, Matt, which else?

No, no, no. Awesome. Good to meet you, sir. Miguel, any closing thoughts? Yes. Once again, 20 years in the making, I want to thank you, you know, for welcoming me and giving me this platform and allowing me to bring on her voices to the world. Because it's not about me. It's about my soldiers.

And also helping moms and dads, brothers and sisters to truly get to understand what Ramadi was all about. And also to help the SEALs team fill in some of those gaps. You guys never knew I had those pictures of Kaup. Falcon. And I already started sharing him. And so even though 20 years I've passed, a blink of an eye still feels like you and I never missed a beat. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for writing this book. It's incredible to see you again. It's awesome to see you down at the Ready First reunion. Awesome to see you at the Tassi Unit Bruiser reunion. And now to be able to sit with you to read your book over the past you know a couple weeks read your book go through it

look at the pictures um it's been it's been incredible and so thank you for that thank you for passing all the lessons that you learned thank you for remembering the fallen thank you for remembering and giving a voice to your soldiers who were just absolutely outstanding that's a tribute to them and thank you for your service to our great nation, but most of all from me, thank you for what you and your soldiers did for me and for my seals. You all risk your lives to save ours,

and we are eternally grateful for that, and we will always consider you and your soldiers and the soldiers and Marines of the Ready First Brigade Combat Team, our brothers. So thank you. Thank you. And with that, Miguel Pitbull,

Santana has left the building. Outstanding guy, outstanding human being, outstanding leader, outstanding soldier with outstanding troops. So, real honor to have him on here and just be able to discuss

the incredible things that they did. And again, you know, such, you know, I hit the real high level today. The book hits like one level below that, but you just can't capture this

what was going on every single day and what that was like. So, but the book does a great job on her voices, the fight for Romadi. So check that out. In the meantime, guess what? I was thinking, you really, on like a deployment like that,

you're, it's very sparse. Sparse. It's tough to Work out the way you want to work out It's almost impossible to eat the way you want to eat It's very difficult to train the way you want to train That's what our service men and women do when they're on deployment, right? Now when we're back here

Stateside you got to take advantage of it You got to take advantage of it you got to train you got a lift Or as you would say you got to lift train jiu-jitsu yes sir run sprint be outside go do some cool stuff

and then the eating part man in America you got that access to the to the good stuff look you get steak chicken sushi all day all day you can't always get everything

that you want that's why we have jaco fuel we have jaco fuel we have protein the best protein, the tasty protein. You can mix it with water, you can mix it with milk, you can mix it with Greek yogurt. Depending on what you're looking for. The RTDs, I go hard with RTDs.

You know this. Yes. I just had one during the break. I had 30 grams of protein. Needed it too, by the way. Good workout this morning. Did you work out? Did you already lift today?

Lift. No, no, no, no. How fired up for you when you're done here? How fired up to you are you to go then back and lift? The varying levels of fired up Sometimes I'm not fired up at all Sometimes I'm like cool If my son's there

Like not really doing much I can get fired up Because he's lifting with me By the way But speaking of lifting the other day yesterday Boom perfect Yesterday I come in I lifted kind of late

Like at 3.30 p.m. Didn't eat anything all day Nothing at all Water only my friend Okay After I was done lifting The hunger was that peak So I was like

Let me hit one of these RTDs Just milk RTD. More flavor. The cereal one. Yeah. I think I hit it in literally one swallow. Not even one like hit like one swap. Brad just flies down.

It's like a literal like the dessert capabilities of it. Like double if you just don't eat anything. It was very much of a good experience. We got all kinds of good stuff for you. Joccofuel.com. We got energy. We got hydration. We got supplementation.

We got joint warfare. We got super krill. We got time more. We got awesome stuff for you. We got muscle drive. That's a nice little something to have. Nice little snack. Nice little tasty.

It tastes sweet, but it's sweetened with natural sweeteners, right? Monk fruit. It's really good. We make the best stuff. joccofuel.com or go to wherever you buy stuff. Where you buy food? Where do you buy things? They should have jaco fuel.

If they don't have jaco fuel, ask them. And we'll help you out getting them. Get it there. So jacofuel.com. Also, it's really, it can be very difficult to train jiu-jitsu overseas. It's true. Was I able to pull it off? Yep.

From bring my own mats. Kind of peer pressure people into just rolling with me. It's not always easy. OriginUSA.com. We have a jiu-jitsu camp where jih Tzu could not be any easier to do. Full access. Then when you're at, you fall out of bed. You're doing jiu-jitsu basically, if you want to.

Right? You wake up if you if you if you if you drank a 24 pack a case of beer and you were hammered And you had no idea what was happening and you said I'd like to you'd be training Yeah You'd fall onto a map which let's face it Not not so much the beer part but a Jiu Jitsu training slash friendly competition can break out at any at any moment And has broken out at any moment. Okay so you remember this jacked it was Jack Daniel Hill and Alex tabs This was like the most random time.

Where was this? At camp. Oh, okay. It was like later. It was like post, it was either, it was right around the time that the midrats were being served. Yeah. Like, which is like the night meal. Yeah, the midnight snackish.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they were out there having a 40 minute roll, a 40 minute death match even. It wasn't even a roll. They were trying to kill each other. Exactly right. But sometimes it just freaking breaks into that. Who won? Who won?

Do you remember who won? I think Jack has, he had, he has more experience. Yeah. Jack had a little bit more experience at the time. And then, but. But Tabs was like, no, no, no, let's go again. And I was there, I witnessed the whole evolution. Because we're at the table.

Oh. Oh, it started that. It was that kind. The whole thing. And it just escalated. I forget how what sparked it, but just escalated. So, you know, at any given table, you might hear, well, we can go outside right now, right? Legitimate.

You can do that. At camp, you can go outside right now. The match are right there. One of the many, by the way. You can, you know, as close or as far as you need them to be. And yeah, man. So, you just do whatever you like. So literally when you say fall out of your bed

and you can be training, literally. That's what's happening. Oh, yeah. So it's a camp. It's a camp for adult humans, basically. And you're doing jiu-jitsu, but there's a lake with there's paddle boards. There's swimming happening. There's a weight room.

There's people teaching, people will teach like yoga and fitness on Jason Kaleepo's got out to show and workouts. Like everyone's just doing stuff, cool stuff, fun stuff. barbecue at night, people, you know, hanging out, telling stories, doing Q&A. I do Q&A up there. Just make stuff happen. Lobster bake. Lobster bake, steak dinner.

It's just, it's just awesome. So it is August 23rd through the 28th. This is a camp for adults, barely, right? You just get to go to Jiu-Nit-to-all-day. And, by the way, if you don't want to train at all, let's say you got a broken femur, you can just sit on the side of the map and learn. No one's going to say anything. Oh, cool.

You can watch this. Hey, this is how you do it. So you can train for zero minutes a day or seven hours a day. The choice is yours. But you're going to have a good time on and off the mats of justice. OriginUSA.com. Check out the camp. Come to camp August 23rd through the 28th.

We'll see you there. By the way, when you're there, you can get awesome jujitsu gear. You can get jeans, boots, hoodies. Everything that we make 100% America. OriginUSA.com. Check it out. It's true. Also a factory tour, by the way.

You're interested in how this stuff is for real made. Not just the legend anymore. You can see the actual process. Trust me. It was more interesting than I had anticipated. Because you get to see like looms and all there. Like how does a loom work? I don't know.

No, you can. It's good. Especially the boots. That one was the one that really struck me. Pretty awesome. Also, don't forget about jocco store.com. This is where you can get your discipline equals freedom stuff. We got five versions of discipline.

equals freedom shirts five versions five point oh they're all good though even one point oh freaking still still holds up big time i think two point oh is my favorite yeah that that makes sense for sure i like the most recent one about 5.0 it's good is that the arch one yeah yeah yeah that one's pretty cool yeah people seem to like that one nonetheless hey you can choose for yourself which one you like or or all of them whatever um it's available there also good that resonates with many people you know and you want to represent you can have that three versions by the way latest one is uh it's a good one's kind of a handwritten kind of OCR font handwritten it's good it's a good you got to check it out okay anyway I'll check it out then thank you yeah yeah actually I have one

of those yeah you literally took it from me so hey man hey yeah take merchandise yeah yeah no no no it's good I'm glad you liked it um also you know other things standby to get some we're representing that get after it you know the basics fundamentals we're We're representing that too. Also, as far as representation goes, do you want to subscribe to a new design every month, slightly more, you know, I don't know, creative designs, whatever, fond, people like that. Anyway, it's called the shirtlocker.

Subscription, every month, new design. Check it out. Go to jocco store.com, click on shirtlocker. You can see what it's all about. Otherwise, yeah, check out the whole site if you like something. Get something. Okay. Good advice.

I'm here to tell you. We got some books as well. There's a book called Unheard Voices, The Fight for Romadi, a soldier's memoir from Combat Outpost Falcon. You just heard a podcast about it. It's a great book to read and really appreciate Pitbull writing that book. So check that one out. Also, put your legs on by Rob Jones. Also, need to lead by Dave Burke.

Also, we have a leadership consultancy. It's called Eschalon Front. Every problem that you have inside your organization is fundamentally at its core a leadership problem. and we solve problems through leadership. So if you need help inside your organization or do you want to come to one of our events, go to echelonfront.com. If you want to try our online training academy

to learn the skills of leadership, go to extreme ownership.com and take some of our courses. And then if you want to help service members active and retired, you want to help their families, you want to help Gold Star families. You heard about Mark Lee today.

We talked a little bit about Mama Lee and her, what she went through, losing her son, Mark, well, she took that and turned it into something extremely positive. And that is America's Mighty Warriors. This is a charity organization, does so much to help our veterans and their families. If you want to donate or you want to get involved, go to America's mighty warriors.org. Also check out Heroes and Horses.org. They started a kids program, by the way, it looks like. So check that out heroes and horses.org. And then finally Jimmy May's organization beyond the brotherhood.org.

And finally, warriors in need taking aviation specialists from the military and getting them jobs in the civilian sector. That's an outstanding organization to support. If you want to connect with us for Miguel Pitbull on the interweb, he is Miguel Santana.com. And then he also has his empty, currently empty YouTube. channel soon to be very populated Santana channel official and he's on Facebook, Miguel N Santana. For us, check

out jocco.com and then on social media, I'm at Jocco, well, like I go at Eco Charles. Just don't spend too much time on there because it's literally trying to kill you. And then finally, thanks once again to Miguel, to Pitbull, for joining us. Just outstanding to see you.

Thank you for everything that you did for the country, for the army, for the Ready First Brigade and for Task Unit Bruiser. We will not forget you or your men. And thank you to all of our military around the world right now and to our veterans as well. Thank you all for your service and sacrifice. And to the soldiers and Marines of the Ready First Brigade

that we served with in Ramadi. Thank you. And we are proud to call you our brothers. Also thanks to our police, law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, Correctional officers, Border Patrol, Secret Service, as well as all other first responders. Thank you for your service and sacrifice here at home to keep us safe. And everyone else out there, there's another quote that is in this book, Unheard Voices,

The Fight for Ramadi. After Mark Lee was killed and also after Corporal Joe Thompson was killed from 3-8 Marines, that was on August 2nd. And at that point, there had been dozens of other soldiers. and Marines killed there is a quote that Miguel put in the book it is a quote from Colonel Sean McFarland who said we must make their deaths matter peace and prosperity in Ramadi that is the mission well that mission is over but we still have to make their deaths matter and the way that we do that is by living to the best of

our ability to do what we can to bring some light into the world. Just as our fallen heroes fought to bring light into that dark place. So let's keep striving and keep living for them. And that's all we've got for tonight. And until next time, this is Echo and Jocko. Out.