In this episode hosted by MWI's Charlie Faint, retired Command Sergeant Major Curt Donaldson reflects on a career shaped by the 75th Ranger Regiment’s relentless standards, emphasizing that true...

In this episode of The Spear, retired Special Forces officer John Faunce sits down with MWI's Charlie Faint and recounts a career defined by embracing difficulty, learning from failure, and adapting...

In this episode of The Spear, host Dr. Charlie Faint sits down with author, journalist, and former US Army Ranger Marty Skovlund to discuss his journey from a rural upbringing in South Dakota to the...

Ayman Kafel and his family survived civil wars in Lebanon and Liberia before immigrating to the United States. Following the September 11 attacks, Ayman enlisted in the US Army and deployed to Iraq,...

JJ Pinter graduated from West Point and was commissioned as a field artillery officer. A few short years after 9/11, JJ found himself in Iraq, leading route clearance missions and performing...

Fred Lough began his Army career as an engineer officer before deciding to leave military service to attend medical school and become a surgeon. After rejoining the Army to support the Global War on...

While serving as a combat rescue officer in the US Air Force, Captain Sal Sferrazza and his team of Air Force pararescue jumpers were deployed to Afghanistan, where their mission set included...

While serving as an infantry officer in the 75th Ranger Regiment, First Lieutenant Scott Filbert was deployed to Afghanistan to serve as the J1, or personnel officer, for a joint special operations...

In 2005, Jeff Marshburn was a reconnaissance platoon leader in the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, in Mosul, Iraq. While leading his platoon during the battalion's first contact with the...

In 2010 Kevin Mott's unit deployed to eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province. An intense firefight in the first days of the deployment set the tone for what would prove to be months of hard fighting....

In 2004, western Iraq's Anbar Province was becoming increasingly restive. Within the US-led coalition forces in the country, the area was the responsibility of the US Marine Corps. Tim Strabbing was...

This week, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America announced the appointment of Kyleanne Hunter as the organization's new CEO. A Marine Corps veteran, she joined The Spear in 2021, while serving as...

In 2006, a small US Army element left its base in Ramadi, Iraq on a movement-to-contact patrol. They were moving through an increasingly rural area when they began taking incoming fire. The soldiers...

Air Force pararescuemen, are special operations forces renowned for their wide range of professional skills. Known as PJs, their motto is a simple a powerful statement of purpose: "that others may...

On March 30, 1972, South Vietnamese military outposts came under sudden and intense artillery fire. It was the first action of a major North Vietnamese campaign that would come to be known as the...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble is joined by Maj. John A. Meyer. In 2007, he was a platoon leader in Afghanistan on his first deployment. On July 27, his entire squadron was undertaking a...

This episode of The Spear features a conversation with Josh Webster. A US Army officer, he previously served as a US Air Force pararescueman—a member of an elite part of the Air Force whose mission...

In this episode, Brian Chontosh, a retired Marine Corps officer, talks with MWI's Charlie Faint about the circumstances of an intense and complex combat operation in Iraq involving Brian and his...

This episode represents a first for The Spear—a conversation with a pilot of the MQ-9, what the Air Force calls remotely piloted aircraft and is more widely known as the Reaper. John Amble is...

Lieutenant Colonel Liam Walsh currently serves as the commander of the 4th Battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment, "Manchu," in the 4th Infantry Division. In this episode of The Spear, Liam speaks...

Sergeant Major Chuck Ritter overcame a series of bad decisions in his youth—as well as a rough start to his Army career—to become a highly successful Special Forces senior noncommissioned officer....

On August 30, 2021, General Chris Donahue stepped onto the ramp of the last American C-17 in Afghanistan and into the pages of history. At the time, he was the commander of the 82nd Airborne...

Long before his selection as the fifteenth sergeant major of the Army, Dan Dailey served multiple combat deployments in Iraq, first during Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s and then in...

This episode of The Spear features a conversation with retired US Air Force Col. Kim Campbell. She spent her career as an A-10 pilot, flying an aircraft designed for specific missions: close...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Major Tyson Walsh. In 2013, he was deployed in Afghanistan. After the base where his unit lived and worked was closed, they moved to...

For his service with the Household Cavalry during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2013, Major Al Pickthall from the British Army was ultimately awarded the Military Cross, a decoration presented by...

While serving as a company XO with the 1st Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in 2016, Ryan Crayne and his company were training at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in...

In 2011, Brennan Deveraux was a lieutenant on his first deployment. He was in Iraq, but the war there was in what everybody believed was its final stages. He felt like he had missed it and that his...

Regular listeners of The Spear will know that the majority of the stories we feature are from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And anyone who has deployed to either of those countries knows that...

In the fall of 2006, Rory McGovern was a lieutenant, serving as a company fire support officer for a combined arms team operating in the area around Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Following an inspirational...

Our guest on this episode of The Spear is Lieutenant Colonel Brian Kitching. A US Army officer with—as you'll hear—an incredible amount of operational experience, particularly in Afghanistan, he...

Two years ago, Russia's invasion of Ukraine brought the no-fly zone back into public discussion. In this episode of The Spear, retired US Air Force Colonel Mike "Starbaby" Pietrucha describes his...

For then-Major Bill “Fenway” Wyman, Sadr City in 2004 was a strange mix of combat and humanitarian missions. Fenway was a civil affairs team leader, advising the commander of the 2-5 Cavalry on how...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Maj. Jacob Absalon. He shares a story from his first deployment, as a lieutenant and platoon leader in eastern Afghanistan. In the days...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Capt. Lindsay Heisler. She is an aviation officer—an Apache pilot—and on December 5, 2015 she was a platoon leader in...

In this episode of The Spear, Sgt. 1st Class Sean Ambriz shares a story from his first deployment in 2009. His unit, the 984th Military Police Company, was deployed to northeastern Afghanistan. On...

In this episode of The Spear, Joe Roland joins to share a story from 2004. A decorated helicopter pilot with thousands of hours flying the UH-60 Black Hawk, he retired from the Army as a chief...

Coming out of flight school as a lieutenant, Maj. Jordan Terry was assigned to a unit that was already deployed. That meant that he would quickly be joining them in Afghanistan. Shortly after...

In August 2007, a US Army Special Forces team came under fire while passing through a valley in Afghanistan. The call for support went to a nearby base, where an AC-130H Spectre gunship crew was...

In 2004, Lt. Col. Blake Schwartz was an infantry platoon leader deployed in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan. For months, his soldiers patrolled and built relationships with local factions and tribes...

Just two years after Chris L’Heureux joined the Army in 1999, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 led to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that would define a generation of US Army service. Like so many...

In late 2002, Karl Blanke's Marine battalion—1st Battalion, 5th Marines—was preparing to deploy to Okinawa to serve as the battalion landing team for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. Just days...

In 2018, Ryan Hendrickson was a Special Forces noncommissioned officer and he joined the podcast to share two stories. The first was from 2010, when he stepped on an improvised explosive device and...

Before his NFL career, Alejandro Villanueva was a rifle platoon leader in the 10th Mountain Division, assigned to a restive sector just outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. A key feature of his area of...

Combat deployments are often replete with examples of physical courage. The Spear has been a platform to share many stories of that courage. But military service also often involves instances when a...

In 2008, Major Corey Faison was a scout platoon leader at the remote Combat Outpost Lowell, located in Afghanistan's Nuristan province. The area was a hotbed of Taliban activity and its breathtaking...

In the dark skies over western Iraq one night in June 2003, US military aircraft from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment flew westward toward the border with Syria. Near that border was...

This episode of The Spear features a story from US Air Force Major Joe “TBar” Ritter. A remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) pilot, listeners might recognize his name and voice from a previous episode,...

In 2007, Marines in western Iraq began actively patrolling areas near the Syrian border in an effort to stem a suspected flow of insurgents and arms from Syria into Anbar. Above them was Marine...

In 2001, Dave Rittgers attended the selection course to become a Special Forces officer. The course's first day was September 11. For Rittgers and the others who would go on to be selected and...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble speaks with Chief Warrant Officer 4 Dylan Ferguson. He is an Army aviator who has flown both the CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache helicopters, and also spent...

In 2010, Rick Witt commanded a SEAL team preparing to deploy to Iraq. At that point in his career, he’d spent more than a decade in the SEAL community, deployed multiple times, and was eager to take...

In 1966, John “Tilt” Meyer enlisted in the US Army and promptly violated a well-known adage to never volunteer for anything. He volunteered for Special Forces training. After completing in-country...

When an infantry battalion is operating tactically, its actions rarely have the possibility of directly impacting alliance constructs, foreign policy objectives, and national security strategy. But...

"Trust your NCOs" is common advice given to every new lieutenant. This adage, the overwhelming majority of the time, is valid. But when it’s not, it’s not. When Chris Liggett was a new infantry...

In 1995, Robert Craven was a teenage high school dropout with a baby on the way. Looking for options to improve his life, he turned to the Army and embraced its “be all you can be” motto as his own....

Long before Mel Brooks gave us an iconic image of soldiers conducting a fruitless task, he was eighteen-year-old Melvin Kaminsky, who followed his brothers into the US Army. Enlisting in the Army...

In 2002, just weeks out of Ranger School, Dan Stuewe became a platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division, which was deploying for Operation Iraqi Freedom within weeks. On the day they deployed,...

In 2006, a small US Army element left its base in Ramadi, Iraq on a movement-to-contact patrol. They were moving through an increasingly rural area when they began taking incoming fire. The soldiers...

As a new military police platoon leader, Robin Fontes unexpectedly found herself present at a turning point of strategic significance. Assigned to the Berlin Brigade, Fontes and her soldiers were...

In 2010 Kevin Mott's unit deployed to eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province. An intense firefight in the first days of the deployment set the tone for what would prove to be months of hard fighting....

On August 30, 2021, a US Army Lieutenant General Chris Donahue stepped onto the ramp of the last American C-17 in Afghanistan and into the pages of history. At the time, he was the commander of the...

In 2002, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division deployed to Kuwait in anticipation of the invasion of Iraq. The unit would gain honors and fame with its remarkable thrust to Baghdad, later immortalized...

In 2014, when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine and Crimea, Father Andriy Zelinskyy, a Jesuit priest, was the first military chaplain authorized to enter the war zone. Having first started ministering...

In 2018, Master Sgt. Zach Rosser was a brand-new platoon sergeant in a Patriot missile battery. His transition into the role was not quite the journey he thought he’d take. From an unfriendly...

The first half of Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee’s career took him from the Oklahoma National Guard to the Marine Corps’ force reconnaissance community. In the second of our two episodes with him, he...

Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee always wanted to be in the military. Influenced by Hollywood and his father’s service in Vietnam, Plumlee joined the Oklahoma National Guard while still in high school. With...

Many episodes of The Spear have focused on junior officers at the tactical level, whether it be commanding companies, dodging improvised explosive devices, or leading patrols. This episode, with...

This episode of The Spear features a conversation with Josh Webster. A US Army officer, he previously served as a US Air Force pararescueman—a member of an elite part of the Air Force...

In July 2021, Colonel Matt Hardman deployed on short notice to support 10th Mountain Division operations in Afghanistan. As the country started to fall to Taliban forces, he served as chief of staff...

In 2004, Matt Hardman was an infantry company commander in the 82nd Airborne Division. Just returned from Afghanistan, his paratroopers were deployed to Iraq’s Babil province on approximately one...

In 2006, Jeremy Fox was a platoon leader deployed in Iraq. His platoon conducted patrols in Salah al-Din province, where his soldiers encountered frequent pressure-plate improvised explosive devices...

In the early 1990s, Greg Banner was sent to El Salvador to assist ongoing counterinsurgency training and operations. As a Special Forces officer, Greg had previous experience in Latin America and...

In 2010, Scott Haran took command of Company C, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment after the death of Capt. Dan Whitten. As the threat in Afghanistan shifted, Haran’s paratroopers...

In 1962, during a year-long break from college, Barry Broman was first shot at in South Vietnam while working as a photographer for the Associated Press. Seven years later, he arrived in I Corps,...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble is joined by Maj. John A. Meyer. In 2007, he was a platoon leader in Afghanistan on his first deployment. On July 27, his entire squadron was undertaking a...

In the second episode in a two-part series, Misty Cantwell recounts the ongoing combat operations she conducted in Sadr City, Iraq, in 2003. A military police platoon leader, Cantwell found herself...

In this episode of The Spear, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joe Roland joins to share a story from 2004. A decorated helicopter pilot with thousands of hours flying the UH-60 Black Hawk, he was part of...

In 2003, just months after graduating from West Point, Misty Cantwell was a military police platoon leader waiting to cross the border into Iraq. Arriving after the main invasion, Cantwell’s platoon...

We are now twenty-one years past the events of 9/11. America's war in Afghanistan has come to an end yet the repercussions of that day and that war continue to impact foreign policy, strategic...

In 2012, Sean Marquis was an infantry platoon leader—deployed to Dehqobad, Afghanistan—in a Stryker brigade. The area was largely desolate, with village clusters along the Arghandab River. While not...

In the summer of 1993, Greg Banner was a newly appointed company commander in 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Simultaneously, halfway around the world, ethnic tensions were flaring in the...

In the previous episode of The Spear, Tim Heck was joined by Karl Blanke. In 2003, he was a platoon commander in Company C, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. The story he shared featured a Marine in his...

In 2003, the Fifth Marine Regiment was among the units that conducted the march up from Kuwait to Baghdad as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Karl Blanke, then a first lieutenant, was a weapons...

Few books have had the impact on generations of young soldiers as Jim McDonough’s Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat. It sits alongside World War II classics like Charles MacDonald’s...

In August 2007, a US Army Special Forces team came under fire while passing through a valley in Afghanistan. The call for support went to a nearby base, where an AC-130H Spectre gunship crew was...

A newly minted Special Forces officer in the spring of 1966, Mike Eiland landed in Vietnam and joined 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Mike and the team of Green Berets he led initially deployed...

In August 2021, Major Naqib Mirzada, an Afghan National Army Special Forces officer, and his family fled Afghanistan after the Taliban's seizure of Kabul. It wasn’t the first time he'd had to escape...

In 2012, Rich Kent was a platoon leader whose unit was deployed to Spin Boldak in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. It was an eventful deployment from the very beginning. On his first mission, his...

Russian aggression in Ukraine has brought the no-fly zone back into public discussion. In this episode of The Spear, retired US Air Force Colonel Mike "Starbaby" Pietrucha describes his experience...

Before his NFL career, Alejandro Villanueva was a rifle platoon leader in the 10th Mountain Division, assigned to a restive sector just outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. Central in his area of...

As Ukrainian troops continue to fight against invading Russian forces, they are supported by a growing cadre of civilians. Many among this group, however, have no training or experience. Matt...

In the second episode in a two-part series, Dan Gade joins The Spear to continue the story of his 2004 deployment to Ramadi, Iraq. After his unit suffered the deaths of two soldiers—the difficulty...

In 2004, Dan Gade’s armor company took over a sector of Ramadi, Iraq, then the heart of the Sunni insurgency. Within days, his unit suffered its first fatality when Lieutenant Tyler Brown was...

A few weeks into his first tour in Afghanistan, Michael Houghton was transferred from being a platoon leader in an infantry company to being the executive officer in another company in the...

In June 2021, we released an episode of The Spear with Karl Blanke about a Marine he called Lance Corporal Jackson (a pseudonym). “Jackson” was a machine gunner in Blanke’s platoon in Company C, 1st...

In 2011, Todd Angstman and his Special Forces team deployed to Gao, Mali, to provide training and assistance to the Malian Armed Forces. Gao was an important city, the hub of trans-Saharan trade,...

In 2004, Staff Sergeant John Borman was a tank commander serving as a squad leader in 1-12 Cavalry as the unit was tasked with patrolling the restive Sadr City neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq. The...

This episode of The Spear features a conversation with retired US Air Force Col. Kim Campbell. She spent her career as an A-10 pilot, flying an aircraft designed for specific missions: close air...

In early 2019, Eric Kahle was a first sergeant assigned to an aviation maintenance company bound for Afghanistan. Paired with a new company commander, he had less than two months to build trust with...

In the fall of 2006, Rory McGovern was a lieutenant, serving as a company fire support officer for a combined arms team operating in the area around Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Following an inspirational...

This episode of The Spear is the second part of Lt. Col. Matt Sacra’s story about his first deployment to Iraq in 2004–05. In the first part, Matt recounted his experience as a platoon leader during...

From a young age, Matt Sacra was fascinated by tanks. In 2002, after commissioning as an armor officer, he was close to achieving his goal of leading US soldiers in Abrams tanks. But then he...

In 2001, Scott Neil was already an experienced Green Beret assigned to 5th Special Forces Group and preparing to deploy again to the Middle East. The events of 9/11 changed the nature of that...

In 2005, Major General Pat Roberson was the ground force commander for a combined special operations task force assigned to conduct a nighttime raid against insurgent forces gathering in Salman Pak,...

In 2004, Lt. Col. Blake Schwartz was an infantry platoon leader deployed in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan. For months, his soldiers patrolled and built relationships with local factions and tribes...

On April 10, 2003, Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment (A/1/5) was tasked with searching a mosque in Baghdad for Saddam Hussein. The previous night and into that morning, A/1/5 had fought...

In 2008, Major Corey Faison was a scout platoon leader at the remote Combat Outpost Lowell, located in Afghanistan's Nuristan province. The area was a hotbed of Taliban activity and its breathtaking...

This episode of The Spear features a story from US Air Force Major Joe “TBar” Ritter. A remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) pilot, listeners might recognize his name and voice from a previous episode,...

For then-Major Bill “Fenway” Wyman, Sadr City in 2004 was a strange mix of combat and humanitarian missions. Fenway was a civil affairs team leader, advising the commander of the 2-5 Cavalry on how...

This episode of The Spear looks at a different type of story than most we have featured. In 2009, Mike Karlson was a lieutenant deployed to Afghanistan as the executive officer of a cavalry...

In 2003, after months of diplomatic maneuvering, American and coalition forces crossed into Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The Fifth Marine Regiment was among the units that conducted the...

In 2007, Marines in western Iraq began actively patrolling areas near the Syrian border in an effort to stem a suspected flow of insurgents and arms from Syria into Anbar. Above them was Marine...

In the spring of 2003, Lt. Col. Dave Rittgers and the Special Forces team he commanded prepared to deploy to Afghanistan. The team members were told that they would be heading to a firebase in...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Maj. Tyson Walsh. In 2013, he was deployed in Afghanistan. After the base where his unit lived and worked was closed, they moved to...

In this episode of The Spear, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joe Roland joins to share a story from 2004. A decorated helicopter pilot with thousands of hours flying the UH-60 Black Hawk, he was part of...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI editorial director John Amble talks to Dan McClinton, a retired US Army warrant officer and former Apache helicopter pilot. He tells two stories from a 2007...

In this episode of The Spear, Maj. Jake Miraldi speaks to retired Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta about a 2007 fight in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. During a multi-day mission, enemy forces laid an...

Regular listeners of The Spear will know that the majority of the stories we feature are from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And anyone who has deployed to either of those countries knows that...

This episode features a conversation with a repeat guest. Several months ago, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Dylan Ferguson joined John Amble to record an episode of The Spear, sharing a story from a 2009...

In 2001, Dave Rittgers attended the selection course to become a Special Forces officer. The course's first day was September 11. For Rittgers and the others who would go on to be selected and...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Capt. Lindsay Heisler. She is an aviation officer—an Apache pilot—and on December 5, 2015 she was a platoon leader in...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble is joined by Master Sgt. Brody Hall. In 2012, he was the sniper section leader in a scout platoon in the 173rd Airborne Brigade, deployed in eastern...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble speaks with Chief Warrant Officer 4 Dylan Ferguson. He is an Army aviator who has flown both the CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache helicopters, and also spent...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble is joined by Maj. John A. Meyer. In 2007, he was a platoon leader in Afghanistan on his first deployment. On July 27, his entire squadron was undertaking a...

This episode represents a first for The Spear—a conversation with a pilot of the MQ-9, what the Air Force calls remotely piloted aircraft and is more widely known as the Reaper. John Amble is joined...

In the summer of 2009, Maj. Tyson Walsh arrived at his first duty station—Ft. Carson, Colorado. As new lieutenant, he felt fortunate to get a platoon, even if it meant leading an armor platoon as an...

In August 2007, a US Army Special Forces team came under fire while passing through a valley in Afghanistan. The call for support went to a nearby base, where an AC-130H Spectre gunship crew was...

Coming out of flight school as a lieutenant, Maj. Jordan Terry was assigned to a unit that was already deployed. That meant that he would quickly be joining them in Afghanistan. Shortly after...

In October 2015, a group of around seventy hostages were being held by members of ISIS at a compound that had been converted into a makeshift prison near Hawijah, Iraq. The Kurdistan Regional...

This episode of The Spear features our first repeat guest. In 2018, Ryan Hendrickson was a Special Forces noncommissioned officer and he joined the podcast to share two stories. The first was from...

In 2012, Mike Kelvington was a company commander in 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment, deployed in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province. In the area his company was responsible for, much of...

In 2007, Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment arrived in Afghanistan. The months to come would see the company at times motivated and at other times frustrated. Those months would...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Maj. Jacob Absalon. He shares a story from his first deployment, as a lieutenant and platoon leader in eastern Afghanistan. In the days...

In 2006, Lt. Col. James Enos was a company commander deployed in Iraq. His unit was in Ramadi, a city in the restive Anbar province that had seen intense fighting for months. In December, his...

In 2006, a small US Army element left its base in Ramadi, Iraq on a movement-to-contact patrol. They were moving through an increasingly rural area when they began taking incoming fire. The soldiers...

In this episode of The Spear, Sgt. 1st Class Sean Ambriz shares a story from his first deployment in 2009. His unit, the 984th Military Police Company, was deployed to northeastern Afghanistan. On...

This episode of The Spear features a conversation with Josh Webster. A US Army officer, he previously served as a US Air Force pararescueman—a member of an elite part of the Air Force whose mission...

On July 13, 2008, around 200 Taliban fighters attacked a group of US soldiers, along with a small contingent of Afghan soldiers, in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan. In the intense fight that...

In 2010 Kevin Mott's unit deployed to eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province. An intense firefight in the first days of the deployment set the tone for what would prove to be months of hard fighting....

This episode of The Spear features our first conversation with a fixed-wing aircraft pilot—US Air Force Col. Kim Campbell. She has spent her career as an A-10 pilot, flying an aircraft designed for...

Our guest on this episode of The Spear is Maj. Brian Kitching. A US Army officer with—as you'll hear—an incredible amount of operational experience, particularly in Afghanistan, he joins the podcast...

In late 2014, the US Army began planning to send soldiers to participate in a response to an outbreak of Ebola in Liberia. As part of that mission—Operation United Assistance—several teams were...

In 2003, Alex Perez-Cruz was the executive officer of a tank company, one of the first units across the berm that separated Kuwait from Iraq. Several deployments later—including one that took him...

In 2007, Patrick Melton was a military police soldier on his first deployment. With his platoon located at Combat Outpost Callahan in northeast Baghdad, they were routinely subjected to incoming...

This is a unique episode of The Spear. MWI Deputy Director Maj. Noel Sioson makes his debut as a host on the podcast, and he's joined by retired Master Sgt. Cedric King. In 2012, he was deployed in...

On August 1, 1990, Col. Bill Ostlund was a lieutenant arriving at his first unit as an Army officer. The next day, Saddam Hussein ordered his Iraqi forces to invade Kuwait. Within barely more than a...

In 2003, John Spencer was a platoon leader deployed to Iraq with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. After intelligence reporting indicated that men had been taking artillery shells—a key component of many...

This episode of The Spear features a story from Capt. Steve Beckman. He was commissioned as an armor officer, but was assigned to lead a platoon in an infantry unit equipped with a Stryker variant...

Regular listeners of The Spear will know that the majority of the stories we feature are from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And anyone who has deployed to either of those countries knows that...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi speaks to Capt. Jason Pomeroy. In 2011, he was a platoon leader in Kunar province, Afghanistan. That spring, his entire battalion took part in...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Maj. Tyson Walsh. In 2013, he was deployed in Afghanistan. After the base where his unit lived and worked was closed, they moved to Bagram...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Capt. Lindsay Heisler. She is an aviation officer—an Apache pilot—and on December 5, 2015 she was a platoon leader in 1st Battalion,...

This episode of The Spear features our first ever conversation with a US Army medic. On Oct. 3, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating was attacked by three hundred enemy fighters. Half of the fifty-seven US...

This month marks the twenty-sixth anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu. Award-winning journalist Mark Bowden's book Black Hawk Down—and the movie by the same name—made the story of that battle...

Last month, we re-published the first part in a two-part series of episodes we originally recorded and released over a year ago—one of the most powerful and well-told stories we've featured. It...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi is joined by Capt. Lucas Gebhart. An aviation officer, he has deployed as an Apache pilot multiple times to both Afghanistan and Iraq. Most...

This episode of The Spear is the first of two parts of a conversation with Ryan Hendrickson. In the next episode, you’ll hear a really incredible and vivid combat story from 2016—the story of an...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble talks to Maj. Emily Spencer. In 2008, Maj. Spencer was an EOD platoon leader in Iraq. In April of that year, she and one of her EOD teams were involved...

In this episode of The Spear, we're joined by Maj. Will Meddings of the British Army. In 2008, he was part of an operational mentoring and liaison team deployed in Helmand province, Afghanistan. His...

Our guest in this episode of The Spear is Tim Strabbing, a former Marine Corps officer who joined the podcast to share a story from 2004. That year, he was a platoon commander deployed to an area...

This episode of The Spear is a little unique. MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi talks to Dave Eubank. Dave is a former US Army infantry, Ranger, and Special Forces officer. But the stories he shares with Jake...

This episode of The Spear is a unique one. Regular listeners will know that most of the stories we feature reflect an especially direct experience of combat—stories from people who, at least during...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI editorial director John Amble talks to Dan McClinton, a retired US Army warrant officer and former Apache helicopter pilot. He tells two stories from a 2007...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI’s Maj. Jake Miraldi speaks to Lt. Col. Coley Tyler. In late 2004, he was a captain serving as a battalion fire support officer in Iraq. That meant that when the...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Spencer speaks to Col. Phil Ryan, an Army aviator who has spent much of his career in the Army's most elite special operations aviation units. In 2003, Ryan...

In 1968, during his first year as a professional football player with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rocky Bleier received a letter from the Army. He had been drafted into military service, and within...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI’s Maj. Jake Miraldi speaks to retired Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta about a 2007 fight in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. During a multi-day mission, enemy forces laid...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi speaks to Col. Bill Ostlund. After an Army career that spanned more than thirty-five years, Col. Ostlund has earned a wealth of experience. As...

Since we launched the The Spear as a platform to explore the combat experience, one of the things that the dozens of stories we’ve featured have combined to demonstrate is how many different forms...

In 2010, Maj. Patrick Dubois was a lieutenant, deployed as a Kiowa helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. One day, about halfway through the deployment, he was part of a mission to provide support to a...

In 2007, Tony Luberto was a first lieutenant and the maintenance platoon leader for his battalion, deployed to a combat outpost in Baghdad, Iraq. Early one morning, he awoke to an intensely bright...

For more than seventeen years, the US military has been at war in Afghanistan. At its peak, there were 100,000 US troops in the country. But in its earliest days, the US military presence was...

In 2012, Capt. Nick Dockery was a lieutenant deployed as a platoon leader in Afghanistan. Just one day after his unit was moved and took over a new area of responsibility in Kapisa province, his...

This episode of The Spear is the second in a two-part conversation with Larry Perino, Lee VanArsdale, and Kyle Lamb—three men who took part in the Battle of Mogadishu. The battle would become widely...

Journalist Mark Bowden's book Black Hawk Down—and the movie by the same name—made the story of the Battle of Mogadishu familiar to much of America and the world. But what was it like to actually be...

In 2007, Patrick Melton was a military police soldier on his first deployment. With his platoon located at Combat Outpost Callahan in northeast Baghdad, they were routinely subjected to incoming...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's podcast about the combat experience, Capt. Jake Miraldi talks to Maj. Nick Eslinger. In October 2008, Eslinger was a lieutenant on his first deployment as a...

In November 2007, a destructive new weapon appeared on the battlefield in Iraq: the improvised rocket-assisted munition—or IRAM. They're also often called "lob bombs" because of the way they're...

In 2007, Chosen Company—of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment—arrived in Afghanistan. The months to come would see the company at times motivated and at other times frustrated. Those months...

Next week marks the ninth anniversary of one of the fiercest battles fought during the war in Afghanistan. On October 3, 2009, several hundred Taliban fighters attacked Combat Outpost Keating, an...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble talks to Maj. (ret) John Spencer. In 2003, he was a platoon leader in the 173rd Airborne. After jumping into northern Iraq, he and his platoon were involved...

In the second of a two-part conversation with Ryan Hendrickson, our guest shares a story from 2016. Six years and a couple deployments after nearly losing his leg in an IED blast, Ryan was once...

The episode of The Spear is the first of two parts of a conversation with Ryan Hendrickson. In the next episode, you’ll hear a really incredible and vivid combat story from 2016—the story of an...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI editorial director talks to Capt. Jannelle Allong-Diakabana. On February 23, 2012, she was a military police platoon leader deployed to Nangarhar province,...

On July 13, 2008, around 200 Taliban fighters attacked a group of US soldiers, along with a small contingent of Afghan soldiers, in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan. In the intense fight that...

In this episode of The Spear, we're joined by Maj. Will Meddings of the British Army. In 2008, he was part of an operational mentoring and liaison team deployed in Helmand province, Afghanistan. His...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI’s Maj. Jake Miraldi talks to Brian Humphreys. Brian is a former Marine Corps officer, and he shares stories from two deployments, one to Iraq and one to...

Our guest in this episode of The Spear is Tim Strabbing, a former Marine Corps officer who joined the podcast to share a story from 2004. That year, he was a platoon commander deployed to an area...

In 2003, Alex Perez-Cruz was the executive officer of a tank company, one of the first unit across the berm that separated Kuwait from Iraq. Several deployments later—including one that took him...

This episode of The Spear is a little unique. MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi talks to Dave Eubank. Dave is a former US Army infantry, Ranger, and Special Forces officer. But the stories he shares with Jake...

On August 1, 1990, Col. Bill Ostlund was a lieutenant arriving at his first unit as an Army officer. The next day, Saddam Hussein ordered his Iraqi forces to invade Kuwait. Within barely more than a...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI editorial director John Amble talks to Dan McClinton, a retired US Army warrant officer and former Apache helicopter pilot. He tells two stories from a 2007...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble talks to MWI's own Maj. Jake Miraldi about the Battle of Barg-e Matal. In 2009, Maj. Miraldi was a platoon leader on his first deployment to Afghanistan. In...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI Deputy Director Maj. John Spencer speaks to Col. Phil Ryan, the commander of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the US military’s most elite aviation...

On September 11, 2001, Joseph Pfeifer was a battalion chief in the FDNY. That morning, called to a gas leak in the street just blocks away from the World Trade Center, he and the firefighters with...

In 2003, Maj. John Spencer was a platoon leader deployed to Iraq with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. After intelligence reporting indicated that men had been taking artillery shells—a key component of...

Editor's note: We originally released this episode of The Spear last year. Be sure to subscribe to hear our next new episode in two weeks!   On August 16, 2013, Capt. Brandon Thomas was the...

In 2007, Tony Luberto was a first lieutenant and the maintenance platoon leader for his battalion, deployed to a combat outpost in Baghdad, Iraq. Early one morning, he awoke to an intensely bright...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble talks to Maj. Emily Spencer. In 2008, Maj. Spencer was an EOD platoon leader in Iraq. In April of that year, she and one of her EOD teams were involved in a...

In November 2007, a destructive new weapon appeared on the battlefield in Iraq: the improvised rocket-assisted munition—or IRAM. They're also often called "lob bombs" because of the way they're...

On October 3, 2009, several hundred Taliban fighters attacked Combat Outpost Keating, an isolated outpost manned by Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment and a small number of Afghan...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's podcast about the combat experience, Capt. Jake Miraldi talks to Maj. Nick Eslinger. In October 2008, Eslinger was a lieutenant on his first deployment as a...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI editorial director talks to Capt. Jannelle Allong-Diakabana. On February 23, 2012, she was a military police platoon leader deployed to Nangarhar province,...

For sixteen years, the US military has been at war in Afghanistan. At its peak, there were 100,000 US troops in the country. But in its earliest days, the US military presence was limited to a small...

In 2012, Capt. Nick Dockery was a lieutenant deployed as a platoon leader in Afghanistan. Just one day after his unit was moved and took over a new area of responsibility in Kapisa province, his...

In 2007, Col. Marc Hoffmeister was a major on a Military Transition Team advising Iraqi Security Forces when an explosively formed penetrator (EFP), a specific and devastating form of improvised...

On September 11, 2001, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen was a colonel assigned to the Pentagon. Today he's the superintendent of the US Military Academy, and for this episode of The Spear, he sat down to...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's Capt. Jake Miraldi talks to Col. Jonathan Neumann. In 2010, Col. Neumann was the commander of 1/17 Infantry, a Stryker battalion deployed in Kandahar province,...

On August 16, 2013, Capt. Brandon Thomas was the commander of Nemesis Troop, 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, deployed to Kandahar province, Afghanistan. That day, soldiers from the troop were on...

In this episode of The Spear, John Amble talks to Maj. John Spencer. In 2003, Maj. Spencer was a platoon leader in the 173rd Airborne. After jumping into northern Iraq, he and his platoon were...

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's newest podcast, John Amble talks to Master Sgt. Raymond Collazo. In 2014, he was a platoon sergeant deployed to eastern Afghanistan. Just weeks into his unit's...