This episode features a conversation with Chief Warrant Officer 4 Dylan Ferguson. In 2012, he served as part of the brigade aviation element of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. That's mainly a staff job, but part of his responsibility dealt with the use of small unmanned aircraft systems like the RQ-11 Raven and the RQ-20 Puma, and he sometimes accompanied the brigade's platoons and companies on patrol. He shares a story of a firefight that erupted during one of those patrols, describes the capabilities the Puma brought to it, and relays what happened when the the aircraft went down in the middle of a field just when it was needed most.
The battle to wrest control of the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS involved some of the fiercest urban combat since World War II....
This episode of The Spear features a conversation with Lt. Col. Coley Tyler. In late 2004, he was a captain serving as a battalion...
Just six weeks out of flight school, Jordan Terry was in Afghanistan. On one of his first days flying, he took off on a...