In 2010, Rick Witt was a new SEAL team commander preparing his unit to deploy to Iraq when one of his subordinate platoons encountered leadership and cohesion problems. Faced with the hard choice of replacing the platoon commander, Witt made that change, which likely had direct consequences when that platoon found itself engaged in a firefight and taking casualties. Witt watched this chain of events unfold from his command post knowing the decisions he made prior to deployment and that day impacted the situation on the ground.
A newly minted Special Forces officer in the spring of 1966, Mike Eiland landed in Vietnam and joined 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). A...
In 2007, Patrick Melton was a military police soldier on his first deployment in Baghdad when his combat outpost was hit by a barrage...
This episode of The Spear features Brian Humphreys, a former US Marine Corps officer who shares stories from two deployments. In the first, to...