2004 you're going to Fallujah you have no idea what you're in for probably the most well-known battle throughout the entire War the bloodiest the night prior my platoon Commander comes in and he's like no one's going to write their death winner Jesus Christ I set in on The Invasion briefings and all that I met General Mattis who was a legend Ben you know let alone later hitting the wall so I'm like ducking I'm like [ __ ] it was so bad tank said Abrams had to come get him out I mean it was that intense the terrible scenes of them being dragged to the streets and hung from the bridge you gotta [ __ ] around and find out the world does not gumdrops and lollipops like the world is very dangerous out there I did my first deployment there where was that to Fallujah 2004 yeah to Fallujah 2004. I mean that [ __ ] was like World War II like it's not comparable to did you know you were going to Fallujah yeah early on uh maybe a month before we're gonna I don't know exactly I don't know maybe it's like only two weeks what was happening in theater at that time had we taken Fallujah yet no so at that time at that time this is uh I forget the month but relatively early 2004 this is um after this is like maybe two or three months after the Black Water incident well those missions started to quickly shut down that's around the whole time the whole the Blackwater thing happened uh a lot of people are dying the the Blackwater incident that you're talking about for the audience is when they were in the contractors they pulled them out of the vehicle and unstructed them down burned them yep and hung them upside down naked from a bridge correct yeah yeah that was maybe three months prior but but around that time March 31st 2004 so that's about um eight nine months after the US originally invades Iraq and we had I'd actually been to that area just three weeks before it happened we had uh four guys that were just escorting some trucks to go move some food equipment that's all it was it was nothing more elaborate or exotic than that and they had met with the supposed to be the the reliable trusted Iraqis to give them guidance about where to go and you know these are remember the areas of Fallujah and ramadi had heavy fighting after that because they'd never really been pacified they'd never really been cleaned out right the maneuver Warfare lightning approach of the U. S invasion in 2003 bypassed many of those spots of hot resistance and Fallujah and ramadi were where a lot of uh it was effectively in Iraqi Republican guard retirement area right so it was a real hotbed of people that were not happy and the guys were basically led into an ambush and they were shot up immediately and their bodies desecrated you know the terrible scenes of them being dragged to the streets and hung from the bridge that was all done for uh the propaganda effect to try to terrorize the U.
S presence in the country I'll never forget it like I said I'd been there I I knew some of those guys like I'd been with zopko every day for 10 days prior to that happening and I actually went and because I knew him I I immediately flew to do the notification for his family in Cleveland Ohio that night and Gary went and took care of um um one of the the seal um uh that was lost and one of our aviators went and took care of Mike Teague and so it was it was personal for all of us we never I never lost anyone under my command or authority when I was in the SEAL Teams and this was the first for us as a company and it was um you know early in the Iraq days it was went from quite peaceful after the initial shock into the the Insurgency kind of exploded um March 31 are those guys are ambushed in Fallujah three days later our guys are ambushed on the road between Baghdad and the airport at least two or three of our guys are killed what were you guys doing so we were there to essentially develop targets and um assist so we ended up assisting the Marine Corps several times um there's a couple times Marine units got in trouble and um like I mean just one as an example was uh uh they were taking fire and they couldn't get the building anyways and we had a sofa lamp so we ended up going there and calling in Cass and but yeah I mean you're calling Cass in the city like freaking f-18s dropping bomb I mean it was you know it was like you know wait in the you know turning like no I'm like I mean I mean put it this way I'm sure you know like you couldn't have Mark 19s in Baghdad and flusia like dudes would be dumping entire belts into our entire cans of Martin 19 rounds I mean it was just it was they were if you saw someone you could shoot them mark 19 for those that don't know is a grenade launcher an automatic grenade an automatic grenade launcher um a can of a can of what 50 Mike is what 50 rounds it's like I think it's 32. I can't remember 32.
What are the key takeaways?
Based on the transcript, here are the key points...
