On August 30, 2021, Lieutenant General Chris Donahue stepped onto the ramp of the last American C-17 in Afghanistan and into the pages of history. At the time, he was the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, leading his paratroopers as the United States withdrew from Afghanistan after almost twenty years of combat. Now a corps commander, Donahue joins this episode of The Spear. He describes the evolving and complex mission on the ground during that 2021 deployment, during which he relied on trust and relationships to lead his troops and oversee the evacuation of more than 120,000 Afghans. He also reflects on his career and the leadership lessons he learned along the way, sharing advice for junior and aspiring leaders.
Before his NFL career, Alejandro Villanueva was a rifle platoon leader in the 10th Mountain Division. During a deployment to an especially restive sector...
In 2010 Kevin Mott's unit arrived in Afghanistan's Kunar province for a deployment that would see months of hard fighting. At one point, he...
This episode doesn't feature a combat story. But the conversation with FDNY's Chief Joseph Pfeifer is strikingly similar to the story we've heard in...