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.
In 2012, Sean Marquis was an infantry platoon leader—deployed to Dehqobad, Afghanistan—with a Stryker brigade. The boundary between the platoon's area of responsibility and...
In February 2012, Capt. Jannelle Allong-Diakabana was a military police platoon leader deployed in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. One day, as she and her platoon...
In 2003, Alex Perez-Cruz was a company executive officer during the invasion of Iraq. He returned as a company commander during the Surge. Now...