This episode of The Spear features a conversation with Lt. Col. Coley Tyler. In late 2004, he was a captain serving as a battalion fire support officer in Iraq. That meant that when the Marines asked for his battalion to take part in the Second Battle of Fallujah, he had an important role to play. He coordinated artillery, mortars, and fire from supporting aircraft to do something, in the Army, we call shaping the battlefield. As he describes, in Fallujah, that meant destruction.
A newly minted Special Forces officer in the spring of 1966, Mike Eiland landed in Vietnam and joined 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). A...
As a lieutenant on his first deployment, Capt. Steve Beckman was in charge of a platoon equipped with a unique vehicle—a Stryker variant called...
In 2003, Dave Rittgers was in command of a Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan. Partway through its tour, the team moved to a...