A Combat Story About The Battle of Fallujah and The DEADLIEST War in Iraq

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. there's two sizes of cans I forget the larger one but um yeah the Rules of Engagement if you saw someone you could shoot them like solve them um I mean you know just it was like I mean at night you know Specter was cleared hot then it would just we'd watch it and it would just circle and just hammer like all night long it would go off station when it was Winchester another one come on and just freaking keep up all night all night we're calling it airstrikes on a nightly basis to the point where our whole house spooky was really big back in the day spooky the C-130 gunship just uh our house is yawing so much danger close [ __ ] fire emissions happening 105s 40 Mike Mike [ __ ] you name it it was happening if it could calm out of the sky and out of a plane and kill [ __ ] it was coming you couldn't go in I mean that wasn't possible um so everything was done around the outside because like one Marine unit pushed in I think like 100 yards and it was so it was so bad tanks had to uh uh Abrams had to come get him out I mean it was that intense I know who that was he was in here for That interview for an interview which one his name's Cody Alford next thing you know I found myself in a gunfight and I'm on the left side of this window and I'm engaging these two dudes with guns they're shooting at us and then we're just getting [ __ ] up with machine gun fire like it just spraying down like to the point where like we're not even engaging the window anymore we're gonna eat it so we're backed off the window waiting to hear gaps and lulls in the fire so we can pop back out and engage and how we started doing it was um the radio operator he would go shoot and when he would go drive that's when I would come in we were playing that whole tag you're at game meanwhile the two snipers in my team they're in the prone position on the ground because when we're not actively engaging very accurate sporadic fires coming through our window and it's like literally just like mowing on top of us so if you if you stick your head up you're done and these guys are just like oh [ __ ] you guys get them like they're they're kind of like laughing they're like [ __ ] they've been here done that they've been to the invasion of Iraq they were in small one of them is in Somalia but it was real it was a real deal it was really happening and we were not participating we were it we were it and I remember going back behind the window I reload another magazine and as soon as I pop out to shoot Coast black and I remember this this like profound exhale that came out of me and I ended up on the ground and that's when I had this Auto Body Experience at the time I had no idea what happened I thought it was dead um I could see if you ever play a game or if you ever seen a game where there's like a glitch where you can kind of sit like a top-down view I I saw this top down view of what was going on I could see the the the fighters across the street I could see my body I could see my point man still shooting I could see my other teammates on the ground like what the [ __ ] going on you had a [ __ ] out of body experience in the middle of combat yeah holy [ __ ] I've never heard of that yeah and uh what happened was I see this [ __ ] light I see all these things going on I'm like dude I'm [ __ ] dead and I just get sucked back into this life and then I I snap and I'm in this fetal position my body went into this fetal position and I start to move and I didn't know if I was convulsing or if it was for my friend kicking me he's kicking me with his foot he's in the prone position just hey wake up they're like dude we thought you were dead we didn't see any blood I'm like what happened I'm like crying and laughing at the same time I have no idea what's going on uh I got shot right in the helmet and I didn't know this and I'm completely out of it well my body was down fell at the radio near the radio they're like get on the radio and call in support and I'm like what the [ __ ] I'm like what's going on you know I'm trying to figure out where I'm at and they're like get on the [ __ ] radio and call for support I'm like okay I'm like I pick up this [ __ ] handset and I give like the worst radio Transmissions Ever every other word was break Warhammer break this is break Grim Reaper break we need brick I'm [ __ ] out of it and I get it out I mustered out I'm calling like hey here's our [ __ ] location this is what's going on and I'm getting broken calm and we're still under [ __ ] fire under attack and so my team was like we gotta get out of here so we pack up the radio and we work our way downstairs and I find myself with a radio operator Holden basically being a shield for him so he can set up the antenna get communication and we can get [ __ ] contact because we're like dude shit's about to get real my buddy who's the medic that saved um while he he almost saved a guy he saved him and then he saved him and then he dumped him off and they pushed IVs and blew out all the clotting that he had developed I I know it's a shitty story he said that he said that you guys were telling them that you had never seen [ __ ] like this before oh that's going down over there that was like when those guys I mean I I I assume from what I was told that it was what Somalia was like I I assume I don't I don't know but yeah I mean they got hit hard like hard hard um that Daybreak you know um I mean mortars RPGs pkms yeah I mean it was it was it was big um and yeah I mean that was that was again just that [ __ ] Abram's shooting into the city yeah like the main gun that's crazy it was just insane and again I so what were were you guys just Broman the battlefield pretty much just killing bad guys I was a very specific Target scent that you were after because it seems it seems counter-intuitive to insert a team well we used to Rome we were trying to develop targets for ourselves but it just but you you couldn't you couldn't you could not fly there yeah you could not drive in and you could not insert a helicopter well how the hell were you guys gonna develop targets for herself well that's what we were I mean we didn't know that until we started to go through the process but that was the intent with developed targets and then you know spending the time there is like nothing we could do um I set in on The Invasion briefings and all that yeah I met Journal Mattis who was a legend then you know let alone later um and uh and then we were there for the the big gun trade-in to where they traded in like crew serve weapons I forget what they got but they turned in basically they DX their old non-working stuff just hilarious [ __ ] you know but um uh yes sir I mean we just ended up doing a lot of stuff with the Marine Corps just you know I mean we hit targets with the Marine Corps and we get tasks that we're like hey uh Delta is doing a Mission down the road we need to go provide sniper support for them we're providing basically a cordon for them out of support and uh I tell my assistant ceiling I'm like dude I'm [ __ ] done bro he's like sucking the [ __ ] up Roger that so we go in this like baton Death March to link up uh to set up this otters chord on and I am walking left and right I'm dragging my [ __ ] gun he's like pick up your [ __ ] rifle I'm like dude I am [ __ ] trying I am I'm I'm toast at this point I'm hitting all the dopamine the adrenaline's wearing off and like I just got shot in the helmet hell I don't even know who I got shot in the helmet by this point and I don't feel good this I'm getting to the point where I'm physically incapable of actually performing my job um we set up the railroad tracks and they're like all right you're good we're here and the next thing you know I just I passed out so I've learned a lot about about the Marine Corps just working with them uh that that deployment what was your impression of them uh uh in short Marines are solid dudes to get [ __ ] like are they good at what they do yes but they're always doing it with out the proper resources it's almost like their command is like we'll show you how shitty of conditions our Marines can operate in like that's how I felt about it you know damn that's a [ __ ] shame that's how I felt you know and I was just like like I'll tell you right now I walked out of the invasion briefing oh [ __ ] [ __ ] got up and walked out I was pissed I was [ __ ] pissed what what were you pissed about what specific plan I listened to the plan and I was just like and dude I was I mean what were you pissed about though were you pissed that we were sending in 18 year old kids into a pissed at how stupid the plan was I was pissed that in the plan was casualties day one on the left seat right seat two of our guys from our platoon come back with grenade wounds on day one day one and essentially what happened there was always there was this like weekly Tribal Council essentially that happened at this District Center and the sniper wrecky guys for the 101st was set up OverWatch relay stuff and provide OverWatch we had few members of our sniper platoon go out there and I was kind of butt hurt I wanted to go it was a senior guys which at the time I'm still new to this whole thing but it makes sense they're doing leaders reconnaissance I just wanted to go out and do stuff I'm here I'm here to work will they come back eating eating grenades hey everybody I'm Sean Ryan click here to subscribe to the Sean Ryan Show YouTube channel for the hottest and most compelling interviews that you will not see anywhere else I've also made a playlist of all the previous SRS episodes so they're easy to find you can find that right here

Channel: Shawn Ryan Show

Views: 618,760

Keywords: vigilance elite, shawn ryan, shawn ryan show, the shawn ryan show, shawn ryan podcast, podcast, srs, combat, war, special forces, military, marines, infantry, story telling, history, battle of Fallujah, iraq, navy seals, marsoc raider, delta force, intense, horror stories, horror, scary, erik prince, cody alford, tyler grey, erik prince shawn ryan show, tyler grey shawn ryan show, cody alford shawn ryan show

Id: QrsqtPKKt04

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023