In 2003, Karl Blanke was a weapons platoon commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Crossing the line of departure in the first wave, Blanke’s Marines spent three weeks fighting their way north to Baghdad. Upon arrival, his company was immediately tasked with searching for high-value targets in a nearby neighborhood. The fight for the neighborhood saw several Marines wounded. This is the story of that fight and one of those Marines.
As a lieutenant on his first deployment, Capt. Steve Beckman was in charge of a platoon equipped with a unique vehicle—a Stryker variant called...
Long before his selection as the fifteenth sergeant major of the Army, Dan Dailey served multiple combat deployments in Iraq, first during Operation Desert...
In an episode of The Spear released in June 2021, Karl Blanke shared a story that featured the actions of one of his former...