In 2003, Maj. John Spencer was a platoon leader in the 173rd Airborne. In this episode, he talks about the very first mission after his unit jumped in northern Iraq. He also described a complex ambush in which enemy forces targeted his platoon. Listen as he reflects on the experiences and what lessons he took from these experiences about combat, training, and fear.
In 2007, Col. Marc Hoffmeister was a major on a Military Transition Team advising Iraqi Security Forces when an explosively formed penetrator, a specific...
In 2004, Dan Gade’s armor company took over a sector of Ramadi, Iraq, then the heart of the Sunni insurgency. Within days, his unit...
In this episode of The Spear, retired Marine officer David Berke joins to share a story from 2006, when he was a forward air...