Man:<i>
You try to convince yourself</i> that every mission
could potentially go bad, <i>but I do remember Breton</i> feeling a little
extra dangerous. Man #2:<i>
There was a detonation,</i> and it's just
immediately shocking. ( faint shouting ) I heard screams
of wounded a Ranger Man #2:<i>
At the top of their lungs.
My heart sank.</i> I knew that we had hit an IED,
and that was big trouble. Man:<i>
That mission changed me.</i> I'm never gonna be
the same person. <i>( helicopter whirring )</i> Man #2:<i>
We got sent
to Kandahar, Afghanistan,</i> <i>in 2009.</i> We were gonna be there
for a few days, pick up the slack
from another platoon that was having some issues. We packed for two days. And two days turned
into about 30 days. And we were all living
in this big platoon tent. <i>( faint conversations )</i> <i>We were just jammed in there,
maybe 40 of us.</i> <i>We felt like, "Man,
we're gonna be here</i> all this time with, like,
three pairs of socks." <i>Everybody would have
their own kind of partitions</i> <i>built off
and you'd find a way</i> <i>to manufacture some privacy
for yourself.</i> You really see those guys
almost every waking hour. Alex:<i>
The days that
we went on missions,</i> <i>they went by quick.</i> <i>The days we weren't,</i> <i>you really got
to kind of relax</i> <i>and, you know,
try to unwind a little bit.</i> The boys are off getting chow
or going to the gym or doing whatever
they want to do to relax on their downtime. <i>Everyone had
their own rituals.</i> <i>Some guys would play Xbox.</i> I read a lot. Tried to just keep
my mind busy all the time. <i>I had a couple best friends
in my platoon.</i> <i>Rob Sanchez was one of him.</i> <i>We were both kind of short.</i> <i>So, a lot of guys
in the battalion</i> <i>are six-foot-plus,</i> <i>and we were both
little 5'8", 5'9" guys.</i> He was just a character,
man. He was always trying
to make light of the situation. <i>He could, like,
hold ten guys' attention</i> <i>and just make
these guys laugh.</i> Rob thrived off that stuff. Mike:<i>
He was a big personality.</i> He would easily joke
with a group of guys <i>in Ranger battalion.</i> That really was his role
in the platoon. You know, you always need guys
to fill certain roles. Woman:<i>
Rob knew from a young age</i> <i>he wanted
to join the military.</i> When 9/11 happened,
it really affected Rob. I want to say
he was in middle school, maybe 8th grade,
and he was just like, you know,
"That'ridiculous. How can they do this
to our country? So, I think that was maybe
always in his head. <i>I mean, you know,
for Halloween,</i> <i>he was either three things.</i> <i>He was a ninja,
a soldier, or a zombie.</i> <i>Those were the things,</i> and more the soldier
than anything. <i>The summer before
he graduated,</i> <i>he did his research.</i> <i>He looked
all into everything,</i> <i>like with the SEALS
and the Marines.</i> He enlisted and said,
"You know what? The Rangers are me. That's where
I'm supposed to go. I'm supposed to be
part of them." And so, that whole year, he trained,
and I mean trained. Like, his little brother
was five-- four or five
at the time. He would put him
in his backpack. <i>He would walk around
with this little kid,</i> <i>jogging down the beach.</i> People would tell me,
"Your kid, man,
what he training for?" <i>When Rob did something,
it was 100%.</i> <i>It was all or nothing.</i> And love was that, too.
He-- he loved his family. <i>And his friends,
the Rangers,</i> <i>they were his brothers.</i> They worked together,
partied together, fought together. They-- they were just
inseparable. Mike:<i>
For Rangers,
you're in the same platoon</i> <i>for years.</i> <i>You live and grow
with these guys.</i> <i>You do everything together.</i> <i>You're going out together.</i> <i>You're training together.</i> <i>You know, the group,</i> there's always something
going on. <i>There was this guy
named Remsburg,</i> and Steve was always
plotting something. <i>You always had a lock
of your stuff up around him</i> 'cause you were pretty sure
he would take it. Alex:<i>
When we showed up
to our little circus tent,</i> he had a projector,
his computer, he had an Xbox, so he brought all the stuff
for the guys to use. Bryan:<i>
I'll never forget
about this other guy Tory.</i> <i>Tory is that little
fiery Asian kid</i> <i>from the inner city.</i> He had
these weird idiosyncrasies. Like he hated
the word "bitch." The worst thing you could do
to somebody, in his opinion, was call them that word. We became pretty close
over there. Mike:<i>
You have all this personal
and emotional investment</i> <i>in all
these people around you.</i> You know,
it's not just a job. Literally, being a Ranger
becomes your life. Alex:<i>
For Objective Breton,
we were looking at going</i> <i>into an area of Afghanistan
called Panjwayi.</i> Panjwayi was
kind of uninhabited by the coalition troops
at that time. Mike:<i>
So, we're sitting there
planning,</i> looking at graphics,
looking at all these things, watching the target,
seeing what's happening. Can we identify weapons?
Can we identify anything? You know,
information is, you know-- it's as good as ammunition. <i>We were watching
through surveillance</i> some individuals
gathered around a campfire <i>looking like
they were having a meeting.</i> <i>The main person
we were going after</i> <i>was a facilitator
of some type of network.</i> <i>It was either explosives
or finance.</i> <i>Those are the big things.</i> As we target that network
and try and destroy it from the top down,
we eliminate a large infrastructure that's hard for them
to replace. Mike:<i>
You know,
the enemy started moving,</i> but they were dropping
little group of guys off at these road junctions
and intersections. Bryan:<i>
It was obvious
that as we moved,</i> <i>we were gonna be engaging
the enemy</i> <i>at each one
of these guard posts.</i> You know, my spider sense
was tingling at that point. <i>As we were getting ready,
I'm usually the first one</i> <i>at the ramp
counting everybody on,</i> <i>make sure we have
a good head count.</i> <i>It's just a spot
I like to be on.</i> I enjoy flying helicopters. <i>( helicopter whirring )</i> <i>It's really hard to describe
what it's like</i> <i>to fly over empty darkness</i> on your way to a target
flying 100, 150 feet off the ground. <i>You're kind of the master
of all you-- you survey.</i> When I joined,
and I was gonna be a Ranger, <i>I didn't really have
these grand goals.</i> I didn't plan on being
a leader of anybody. I was just happy
to be a Ranger. I remember the Marines
or somebody or the Army was at my high school,
I'm in my sophomore
or junior year, and they had this big inflated
drill sergeant thing, <i>and my wrestling coach
told me</i> <i>that I couldn't do it.</i> <i>I'm standing there,
kind of like...</i> imagining my future, and he walks by,
and he just looks at me and goes,
"That'll never be you." I didn't say anything,
but it obviously has stuck with me to this day,
I mean, many years later. And so, a big part of it
was proving to myself and just to--
just to prove people wrong. Bryan:<i>
Mike was one of those guys</i> <i>when you initially
look at him, you think,</i> "I don't know
if I want to approach this guy necessarily." <i>He's covered in tattoos,</i> <i>and he just had
this intimidating look</i> <i>about him.</i> But, you know, you get to see
the human side of everybody after a while, especially when
you're in some situations. Everybody's vulnerable
at some point. You build relationships
that were-- were both-- at times, you had to be
heavy-handed with discipline, and other times,
you could joke. <i>But there had to be
that line.</i> <i>I took being a leader
to heart.</i> <i>I wanted to be close
to my guys.</i> <i>I wanted to know
everything about them,</i> but if you gotta order a guy
to do something that, you know,
requires their death, you don't want him
to go look at you and go, like, you know, "Hey, Sarge,
I thought we were-- I thought we were buddies." That can't be. Alex:<i>
We were gonna land
somewhere around midnight,</i> <i>and we wanted to be out
of the area before sunrise.</i> <i>It gives our aircraft
the best cover</i> <i>from ground fire</i> and gives us
the safest passage to and from the target. So, whether we're walking
or flying, the nighttime gave us the best opportunity
to be safe. One minute! Mike:<i>
You get the one minute call
inside the aircraft,</i> <i>you're one minute out
from the target,</i> so if your buddy's asleep
next to you or something, you-- ( clicks tongue )
give him a good shove. <i>The adrenaline starts pumping
a little bit.</i> You start getting information
from the targets. Thirty seconds! Mike:<i>
30-seocnd call comes out.
The ramp lowers.</i> Your field of view
starts to expand, so you can start to see out. <i>You hit the ground,
bird settles.</i> Go. Mike:<i>
You get the command to go.
You don't snap.</i> And, you know, weapon up, you're running off that bird
into unknown. On Objective Breton,
we found it was best to land further away
and try to use the element of surprise. <i>We landed in a field.</i> <i>There was a slight brownout
which is common</i> <i>because of all the dust
and dirt,</i> <i>and the rotor wash
from the aircraft</i> <i>is so high-powered
that all the dirt</i> <i>gets kicked up in the air,
and it's hard to see.</i> Bryan:<i>
You're in the middle
of a field,</i> <i>so you're little exposed.</i> You don't know how many people
heard you fly in. I mean, two huge helicopters
just landed in this field. So people know you're there. Mike:<i>
So, I remember taking a knee,
setting up a perimeter.</i> <i>You kind of settle there,</i> and there's like a long pause,
you know, of quiet, and everything is--
there's no noise. Everything's silent
around you. <i>You're just listening,
but you're stretching out</i> <i>with every possible
animal instinct that you have</i> <i>to find something
that is looking for you</i> <i>and to find it first.</i> I do remember Breton feeling
a little extra dangerous. <i>We knew the potential
for getting
into some firefights</i> <i>was a little elevated
that night.</i> Alex:<i>
From there,
we moved right onto a road</i> <i>that ran through
the village</i> <i>with walls
about five feet tall</i> on both sides of the road. Mike:<i>
Everything has walls,</i> <i>and the roads have walls,
and then it's just orchards</i> <i>and overgrowth.</i> <i>It's like
these little feudal towns,</i> <i>and it's an old place.</i> Every time
I was on the ground there, I'm just-- you know,
I feel like I'm... ( chuckles )
transported to the Dark Ages because that's what everything
looks like to me. <i>It's so rural out there.</i> <i>You don't have
all the ambient light</i> <i>of the city and stuff,
so, when it's dark</i> <i>and the moon's gone,
it's dark.</i> I mean,
you can't see your hand in front of your face
sometimes, it's so dark. <i>Rob Sanchez
was an Alpha team leader.</i> <i>Alpha team leaders are always
the front fire team.</i> <i>Because we had to walk
on these roads,</i> <i>guys are staggering offset</i> <i>with roughly three
to five meters between guys</i> <i>and that's
going to stretch out</i> <i>from the very first man
to the 50th man.</i> <i>So, you're looking at
a order of movement</i> <i>of this whole assault force
that's stretched out</i> <i>over 300 meters or so.</i> <i>( gunfire )</i> Alex:<i>
One thing we did not see
was another outpost position,</i> <i>and we were
ambushed immediately.</i> It was like really?
Like, this is happening now?
Okay. And it's just like,
immediately engaging <i>into the next level
of alertness.</i> Bryan:<i>
We're up against walls.</i> You can't shoot through
your buddies. It was difficult
to return fire. You had this
really small window that you could shoot
through. <i>I was pretty much
stuck there,</i> so I just got--
tried to get as flat
against the wall as I could. Alex:<i>
One of our snipers were shot.</i> Shane managed to crawl through
a cut in the wall. <i>I knew I had to run across
this path,</i> <i>so this fire had ceased.</i> ( muffled shouting ) Bryan:<i>
So, I just sprinted over
and got through</i> <i>that break in the wall
and found him laying there.</i> Mike:<i>
Bryan was our medic,</i> and we were on the ground
for 15 minutes, and he already had
his hands dirty. <i>It's not how you want
to start a mission off.</i> Alex:<i>
The weapon that
the enemy fighters</i> <i>were using,</i> it malfunctioned,
and that's why we didn't take
more casualties. Bryan:<i>
I went through
my trauma assessment.</i> <i>You know,
you immediately look</i> <i>for stuff that's just
pouring blood or something</i> <i>that's gonna kill the guy
within the next few minutes.</i> <i>Based on the way
he was talking to us,</i> we suspected
that he was probably fine. But were not surgeons, and we don't have
x-ray vision, so we gave him
the benefit of the doubt, and we tried to get them
out of there as soon as we could. <i>We got him treated
and packaged and ready to go</i> <i>within ten, 15 minutes.</i> <i>One thing you realize
as a medic</i> <i>is that 99% of the time,</i> <i>everyone
just forgets you're there,</i> and then that 1% of the time,
you-- all of a sudden, <i>you're the most important guy
on the battlefield.</i> <i>I was a pretty bad
high school student,</i> <i>so I used the Army as kind of
a catalyst for change.</i> When you're 17,
18, 19-year-old kid and you're only responsible
for yourself, you learn how to live
a certain way. For me, all of a sudden
I was 19 in Ranger school, and felt like I had to-- I had obligations
to other people. <i>It takes a while to sink in
that you belong here.</i> You almost feel like you're always
proving yourself. I felt that way for years. You're with these, like,
unbelievable infantry guys and they're so good
at that job, and you feel like
as a medic, you're at the opposite end
of the spectrum. Your job is to kind of
go out there and preserve life. <i>So, you kind of have
a little bit</i> <i>of a personality crisis.</i> <i>And that's your life
day in and day out.</i> You get very comfortable
with it. You get comfortable
with that level
of a performance. And you just-- you know.
That's what expected of you. And that's what you expect
out of everybody else. Alex:<i>
After this near ambush,
you know,</i> we had our aircraft above us
start really searching the areas around the road
for any other heat signatures <i>or possible targets
in our way.</i> Mike:<i>
The enemy at the next place
hadn't moved much,</i> so, then the party
continued moving forward. <i>We still had a lot of ground
to cover that night.</i> Alex:<i>
With the gunfire,
we knew that</i> <i>there was a good possibility
that the enemy heard it,</i> they know what's happening,
and that they're ready. Alex:<i>
That night as we were
walking to the target area,</i> the mood was on edge
because a lot of us didn't want to stay out there
any longer than we needed to. <i>Upon our movement,
we came across</i> <i>some tree branches,
standard tactics</i> <i>that the Taliban would use
to show the locals</i> <i>that there's an IED
buried there.</i> <i>So, we knew the area</i> <i>could be very,
very dangerous.</i> <i>As a road funnels
or narrows,</i> <i>it directs traffic
in a predictable manner.</i> So, if the enemy thinks
that they can predict
our movement, then they can place devices
in our way that can
hamper our movement. <i>That night,
my job was to clear</i> <i>those hazard areas</i> <i>before they pushed
across them.</i> Bryan:<i>
Alex would go do his thing,</i> <i>hunt around, you know,</i> <i>places where
it would make sense</i> to put a bomb. For him, it was really about
knowing the tendencies of the enemy
and what they were doing. Well, someone's gotta do it. I mean, I felt that
if I was trained in it, than I would have
the best options or best ability
to avoid those hazards if possible and prevent others
from doing so as well. <i>Explosives fascinated me.</i> <i>The electronics,</i> the amount of ordnance
that's out there, there's hundreds of thousands
of different items. Yes,
you're taking a lot of risk but you're trained properly, and you know
what to look for and how to avoid
some of the mistakes that others can't. <i>I was injured
in training early on</i> <i>and never made it
to battalions but for me,</i> the idea of being
in the 75th Ranger Regiment was a big thing,
and so when I became an explosive ordnance
disposal technician, there was an opportunity
to try out for a special operations unit
that supported them. So, I took my opportunity. It can be tough
when you come into
an environment where the guys have training and working together
for years, and you're just
kind of thrust in there and have to prove
your worth quickly and show that you're not
a liability. <i>It takes time.</i> <i>It's just like
any relationship.</i> Mike:<i>
In combat, you're--
you are looking out</i> <i>for a lot of things
but having someone</i> that really knows
how to spot, identify, you know, IEDs,
how to disarm them, <i>it's a great addition
to any platoon,</i> <i>and Alex was so good
at his job.</i> <i>You know, you knew</i> <i>that you could trust
this dude.</i> <i>You knew you could trust him
in combat.</i> Bryan:<i>
I think we all
sort of feel like</i> <i>he's protecting us</i> <i>in a lot of ways.</i> <i>Like, this guy's encyclopedic
about bombs and explosives</i> and, like, the methods
in which they're rigged up and the ways
in which they work. <i>It was impressive.</i> Alex:<i>
The enemy pushed the envelope
in Iraq</i> <i>with the technology.</i> <i>Afghanistan,
they reverted back</i> <i>to lesser technology.</i> <i>It was cheaper,
and it was harder to defeat.</i> <i>For $5, you know,
you buy a couple batteries,</i> <i>get a couple pieces of wood,
you can make</i> <i>a pretty crude circuit
that's hard to find</i> and it's just as easy
to function. <i>With explosives,
it's initial success</i> <i>or total failure.</i> <i>Especially when
you have hazards like this,</i> <i>the prices you pay
are in blood.</i> <i>We determined nothing
was placed at this tree,</i> <i>so we proceeded on past
all our potential hazards,</i> <i>you know, safely.</i> <i>We reached an intersection</i> <i>where we knew
there was enemy fighters.</i> Bryan:<i>
I think it was three--
three to four guys we thought</i> <i>were just kind of
hunkered down</i> <i>within those trees</i> in some kind of
defensive position. So, we moved in. <i>Cory moved out
with first squad,</i> <i>which was the squad that Rob
was the team leader in.</i> They kicked out to a flank
in a way to set up clear fields
of fire. Alex:<i>
We got one
of our interpreters</i> <i>to come over a bullhorn
from a covered position</i> and speak, you know, Pashto
to these supposed fighters. Bryan:<i>
He basically just asked
the guys to come out.</i> <i>This is a way to, like,
try and defuse the situation.</i> One of them got scared,
shot at us, and that told us
all we needed to know about that situation. Mike:<i>
After everything settled,</i> <i>you know,
the shooting stopped,</i> those guys
were probably dead. <i>We had to obviously check.</i> <i>You go through the bodies,</i> <i>checking them
for any sort of
sensitive materials.</i> <i>I remember finding like a--
it was like a toothbrush--</i> <i>it wasn't like a toothbrush,</i> <i>but that's what it
was used for,</i> like a stick with, like,
wax on it. You go through and you find
all these personal items from these enemy combatants,
and it's-- <i>it's interesting
to go through</i> <i>a dead person's pockets.</i> Alex:<i>
At the site,
there was four machine guns.</i> <i>There was
a number of magazines,</i> <i>approximately
four hand grenades,</i> <i>and night vision devices.</i> <i>We wanted
to destroy the weapons</i> <i>and the explosives,
so I started to build</i> an explosives demolitions shot to destroy
the enemy equipment. Bryan:<i>
At this point, the sun
was starting to come up.</i> <i>So, we decided, okay,</i> we got some good stuff
out of this. I think we should try
and get back to the base while we still can. I'm looking back towards
the rest of the platoon, you know,
just kind of scanning around. <i>And then this,
you know, explosion goes off.</i> <i>There was this long, uh...</i> ( chuckles ) a very quiet moment. <i>At that point,
everything seemed to be
very slow.</i> <i>I thought everything
was okay.</i> <i>As much as I was stuck
in this quiet pause,</i> <i>I was quickly
ripped out of it.</i> <i>( distant screaming )</i> <i>As I heard the screams
of a wounded Ranger.</i> That was the first time
I heard just someone screaming
like that. Bryan:<i>
I was standing
at the road intersection.</i> You know, we were just
having this conversation. <i>"Man,
that was a crazy mission.</i> <i>I'm glad it's over."</i> ( explosion ) And then, boom,
like ten car crashes at once. <i>You could feel the wave
come off the blast.</i> <i>( men screaming distantly )</i> <i>There was just chatter
everywhere.</i> <i>Stuff's coming over the radio
and my headset.</i> <i>I could not see
into the blast area</i> <i>because there was
so much dirt.</i> <i>First thing I saw
was the squad leader.</i> <i>He came sort of
out of this dusty thing,</i> <i>came into view
carrying Tory.</i> <i>He put him down,
and then he ran off
to do his thing.</i> <i>So, there I was
alone with Tory.</i> <i>( screaming continues )</i> The first thing I noticed
was that his foot was gone, so, he had this amputation
on his right leg. <i>It was the first amputation
I had really seen.</i> <i>It was so clean.</i> <i>Your body has this like,</i> <i>kind of uncanny ability
to close off</i> those blood vessels at first,
but that effect wears off. So, initially,
there's no blood at all. And if you let that go
long enough, that will become
a lot of blood. So, I had these tourniquets rubber-banded
to the front of my kit. ( screaming ) Bryan:<i>
Ripped the tourniquet off,
and I threw it on his leg,</i> <i>ratcheted it down.</i> He was in a tremendous amount
of pain, <i>and he was letting me know.</i> He was grabbing
the chin strap on my helmet
and pulling on it. <i>He kept saying,
"My leg is on fire."</i> <i>I always just wanted to be
the calmest guy on the--</i> <i>on the battlefield
in that moment.</i> <i>I feel like getting flustered
is very contagious.</i> <i>You see one guy
getting aggravated,</i> <i>and then other guys
start to feed off that.</i> <i>But, you know,
if you look down at the medic</i> <i>and he seems very calm,
very stoic,</i> <i>very deliberate,
going through this process,</i> <i>you can feed off of that,
too.</i> Mike:<i>
Turned out to be
a mass casualty situation.</i> <i>We were walking
that perimeter</i> <i>and seeing a lot
of the guys' faces</i> still kind of coming out
of the group shock of that. Rob, squad leader, you know,
I looked him in the eyes, and he was just so wide-eyed
and just-- just kind of in shock
a little bit, but he was still moving
and executing, but just his facial expression
was so pronounced. He just... in a state
that I had never seen him in. <i>Some dudes
that had light wounds</i> <i>were kind of, you know,
treating themselves.</i> <i>All this chaos around him,
Alex is in the crater</i> <i>collecting
all the intelligence</i> <i>he needed to pass it on</i> <i>to somebody else
and make sure</i> <i>they didn't do
the same thing.</i> Alex:<i>
I sweep up and make sure
the guys</i> <i>aren't sitting near
any other devices</i> because you can expect that when one IED
is planted somewhere, there's probably multiples. If you hit one,
you have to send people down there
to get your casualties, <i>you're gonna hit more.</i> <i>We were able to consolidate
all of the personnel</i> <i>to get the casualties
out of there as quickly</i> <i>and safely as possible.</i> Bryan:<i>
I remember my junior medic
seeing a boot</i> with a foot in it still. He said, "Hey, do you think
that's Tory's foot?" <i>And he comes back
with this kind of weird look</i> <i>on his face.</i> And he was like,
"It was a different boot." It wasn't Tory's foot. <i>But I had just seen a guy
with his leg blown off</i> <i>and another guy
that was potentially dying</i> <i>in front of me,
so a foot like that</i> <i>is the least
of my concerns.</i> At some point, I managed to,
like, see the platoon sergeant go scurrying by,
and I kind of, like, grabbed him. I wanted to know
what he had seen already because I had only been
in that one spot, and there was just movement
going on all around me. And he said,
"Remsburg is over there." He pointed to him and said,
"He was in the water. He looks bad." Mike:<i>
Remsburg had been blown up
and over into this creek</i> <i>underneath this culvert
where the IED was.</i> They fished them out
of this water. He had been laying facedown
unconscious. This bomb went off
right next to the guy. His helmet was probably
up in the trees or something. Alex:<i>
When I looked at Remsburg,</i> <i>I had to look
for an extra second.</i> <i>The way he was, you know,
struggling to breathe,</i> <i>the amount of blood
that was--</i> <i>it was kind of hard to tell
who was hurt.</i> You see someone
that you're used to seeing
one way, and they're in a completely
different fashion, it's shocking. Bryan:<i>
He had this, like,</i> chunk of the earth
lodged in his head. There's really not much
you can do. Yet-- you're obviously
not gonna go in there. <i>I covered it
with a bandage basically,</i> <i>and we started to get him
packaged up</i> <i>to move him over
to the casualty
collection point.</i> <i>We were bringing</i> <i>seven injured guys
over there.</i> Alex:<i>
At this point,
it's now how do we get out?</i> <i>It's daylight.</i> We're are starting to--
you know, we've called in some reinforcements,
some extra aircraft <i>to provide
some overhead support,</i> <i>and they started getting
fired upon.</i> <i>( gunfire )</i> <i>There was seven to ten people
shooting into the air</i> <i>from their houses
and their courtyards</i> <i>and some wooded areas.</i> So,
the transportation helicopters are now put in
a very precarious situation
of flying to a helicopter landing zone
that is hot. <i>They found a landing zone
that was behind a wall,</i> very dangerous
for them to do, and it saved us
from getting shot at. Bryan:<i>
I was with Remsburg.</i> <i>I laid over the top of him
when the bird came in</i> <i>'cause it blew
a bunch of dust.</i> And then the guys
picked him up and carried him, and I slapped him
on the chest and said, "All right, man." <i>I thought I'd basically</i> <i>just said good-bye
to this guy.</i> <i>I did not think
there was any chance</i> <i>he was gonna survive
that injury.</i> <i>I didn't know
if he was gonna survive</i> <i>the flight
back to Kandahar.</i> <i>There was a short period
of time after the helo left</i> <i>that you could just
look around</i> <i>and see that everybody</i> <i>was starting to realize
what had just happened.</i> <i>There was just
a very distinct look</i> <i>on everybody's face.</i> Mike looked over at me
and said, "Is Rob dead?" And I said, "I don't know." And then a few minutes later,
I started to realize that somebody
had triggered the explosion. He was one of the only guys
I didn't still see
on the ground. So, I knew it was him. Mike:<i>
As our first squad,</i> which contained, you know,
Rob Sanchez, Cory Remsburg, Tory Honda,
many other-- many other
really good Rangers, <i>um.</i> <i>they crossed
this footbridge.</i> <i>On the far side,
there was, like,</i> <i>some-- some amount of,
you know, homemade explosives</i> <i>buried under there
with a crude victim-operated,</i> <i>you know, pressure plate.</i> "Victim-operated" is kind of
an interesting description, but that's
the technical jargon. You're a victim
that operates this device. You know, nobody ever thinks
about themselves that way. Certainly not a Ranger. Alex:<i>
I didn't-- I didn't know--</i> <i>you know,
I looked around.</i> <i>I didn't see him
so I had no clue</i> <i>until I found some goggles
on the ground,</i> with his name on them. Mike:<i>
We got everybody loaded up
on the birds.</i> I didn't have a lot
of time to think. You know, I don't remember
thinking much, just making sure
the guys were good and making sure everyone
was gonna get out of there. And I was, you know-- first one up the ramp
counting dudes on. <i>It didn't sink in.
Like, I was so tired
on the bird.</i> <i>You know,
I was kind of just--</i> <i>once everyone was good,
we're flying back.</i> <i>I was just
kind of in a slump,</i> <i>just laying there.</i> <i>Everyone was just
kind of staring off.</i> We were starting to fly home
and getting that kind of, "Okay, it's over. <i>You know, we survived.
I'm still here."</i> <i>This aircraft's obviously
a little emptier</i> <i>than it was
when we landed."</i> Mike:<i>
You always want to do
something, at least,</i> <i>as a leader
to make sure that,</i> you know,
you don't look like you're-- you're so shocked
or taken aback, that you're still in control and that
you're still confident, so you just want to make-- I remember just trying
to look around and just look people
in the eye at least. You know,
something you can do. Bryan:<i>
I looked over at Mike,
and he offered me</i> <i>a stick of gum,
which I'll never forget.</i> After all that,
there's nothing, really, we had to say to each other. He just offered me
a stick of gum. Bryan:<i>
When we got back to Kandahar,</i> <i>I went over to just be
with Rob for a minute.</i> <i>He was laid out
at the mortuary affairs tent.</i> So, I wanted to go in
and just spend a minute or two
with him. <i>We do this ceremony.</i> We'll have everybody
formed up. <i>You know,
it's the whole boots</i> <i>with the rifle
and the dog tags and helmet.</i> <i>We do a roll call.</i> Someone will call out
someone's name that's there, and they'll say, "I'm here." Do it again and do it again,
and then -- ( chuckles ) and after, uh... after every name, you know,
inside me was this... pressure, this emotion
that was building,
and I knew-- you know,
I knew it was coming, and I called, uh... you know, I called Rob's name,
Robert Sanchez. Sergeant Robert Sanchez. <i>And then somebody,
you know,</i> <i>yells out, you know,</i> <i>"Robert Sanchez
is no longer with us."</i> <i>Then it really, you know,</i> then it really
hits home, uh... you know, that he's gone, and you're not gonna hear
his name called out in morning formation
before PT anymore. He's not gonna come-- You know,
he's gonna come home. You know, it's just--
it's done. <i>Got up to speak, and made
a very sad attempt at a--</i> <i>at a eulogy,
and it was just mostly,</i> <i>you know,
talking through tears.</i> <i>I wasn't the only one,
I mean, everyone was crying.</i> But to see that many... you know,
really brave men just so... kind of broken and vulnerable
was kind of... <i>you know, one person starts,
and it just goes--
it's contagious.</i> At this point,
we're doing the, uh... the post mission analysis and, you know,
preparing for... ( sniffling ) So, at that point,
we had to load Rob on an aircraft
to send him home back to the States. Mike:<i>
Rob was like the...</i> heart and soul
of that platoon, you know? He was friends
with everybody. The platoon changed. The dynamic of the platoon
was different. <i>You could sit in that tent,
look around,</i> <i>and see empty bunks.</i> <i>Some guy had basically been
living off that bunk</i> <i>just a day ago.</i> <i>Guy still lived there.</i> <i>PT uniform laid out
for after the mission.</i> <i>Guys had their, like,
tennis shoes ready</i> <i>for when they got back.</i> Wendy:<i>
Before Rob's last deployment
I had this horrible dream.</i> I dreamt he was gonna die
in combat. I said,
"Rob, I don't feel good about this deployment." He goes, "Mom!" And I go, "Rob,
I've never had a bad feeling." I've always felt him safe
over there, like he-- he's
with the best. And he said,
"Mom, I'm your Superman. Nothing can happen to me." That's what
he would always tell me when I was, like,
mad or upset. ( sighs )
And then October 1st. ( voice breaking )
I still dream about them knocking on my door. I'm just sad. I'm sad.
My heart's sad. <i>A general said
at his funeral</i> <i>and it made
a lot of sense to me.</i> <i>"Soldiers aren't made.
They're born."</i> Rob was-- he was born to do
what he did. I mean, I think
that's how I... I'm able to accept
that he did something
he loved. How many of us can say
we love what we do in life? And he did.
He loved being a solder. <i>Rob was all about the team.</i> And so, I'm not the only one
that hurts. I know
that other people hurt, too. <i>His guys,
they're his brothers.</i> I don't know that bond. I mean, I've never been
in the military. I don't know
what they go through. Mike:<i>
It's just one of those things
you're left with.</i> The living must carry on
with-- with those burdens, um... that the dead
are no longer encumbered by. <i>That's part of the extreme
of the human experience,</i> <i>you know, is warfare.</i> <i>Even explaining it now,
unless you've been there,</i> you'll never know
what it's like. And that is the burden--
the burden and the bond of people that have
been through that. <i>So, it leaves
its mark on you.</i> I find myself all the time
trying to... earn every day. I asked Rob's mom
several years after, you know, "How do you think
I should do that? Like, what do I have to do
to make the most out of his sacrifice?" And she said, you know,
"Just be yourself. He was your friend
for a reason. So just be yourself." <i>( laughter )</i> <i>( cheers and applause )</i> Man:<i>
You keep fighting.</i> ( both grunting ) <i>( laughter )</i>
