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 soldiers there would be wounded by the time the fighting ended. Master Sgt. Shane Courville was a medic at the COP, and MWI’s Maj. Jake Miraldi speaks to him about that day. He describes what it was like to be a combat medic in the middle of one of the most intense battles of the war in Afghanistan.
It is an incredibly powerful episode. Master Sgt. Courville’s perspective—as a medic working to provide treatment and save lives while bullets, grenades, and mortars are wreaking havoc all around—is something that is almost indescribable without hearing it firsthand. You can listen to the full episode below, and don’t forget to subscribe to The Spear on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Image credit: Sgt. David Graves, US Army Reserve