Latest Episodes
MPs in Baghdad
In 2003, just months after graduating from West Point, Misty Cantwell was a military police platoon leader waiting to cross the border into Iraq....
Reflections on Being First In
We are now twenty-one years past the events of 9/11. America's war in Afghanistan has come to an end yet the repercussions of that...
Patrolling the Seam
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...
Joint SOF in Name Only
In the summer of 1993, Greg Banner was a newly appointed company commander in 10th Special Forces Group. Halfway around the world, ethnic tensions...
Marine Platoon in Baghdad
In the previous episode of The Spear, Karl Blanke shared a story that featured the actions of one of his former Marines, Lance Corporal...
A Machine Gunner on the March Up
In 2003, after completing the march up to Baghdad in dramatic fashion, and after an all-night gunfight to seize one of Saddam’s palaces, the...