GRP 79-Baptism by Fire: The Resurrection of the Marine Raiders|Bombing in Manchester England

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GRP 79- We'd like to send our condolences out to the victims and families of those killed in the Manchester bombing attack that occurred Monday, May 22nd, in Manchester England. U.K. security forces are conducting several operations in response to the bombing which has killed 22 and wounded over 50.

I had the honor and privilege of having on former Marine Raider Pete Perry. Pete was a Reconnaissance Marine prior to the Marines Special Operations Command (MARSOC) being stood up.  For years the Marine Corps did not have a component within the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the Marine Raiders became that force. We discuss what that was like and some of the growing pains that come with a special operations unit being stood up having to move at the speed of war.  Below is an excerpt from our conversation:

Pete Perry: This was my 2012 deployment. It was a company clearing operation so we had a handful of MSOT's (Marine Special Operations Teams) with an Army Special Forces team with 3rd Kandak (Afghan Special Forces) with us. During this time my element alone we found 100 pressure plates (IED’s). For this particular mission, we'd inserted and fought all day that first day. You're navigating at night in an extremely highly saturated IED'd area. We got to a compound of interest with one of our Afghan's stepping on an IED. He died. I grabbed about four U.S. with about 15 Afghan commandos and we exited the compound. We were immediately ambushed.

From that point, we fought all day long. We moved about 2 kilometers to a different compound. We were overextended. We had a British Apache Gunship overhead. We were notified that a guy is walking towards our compound. We spot him and plan on letting him get closer before we dumped him. He turns around and runs. I go chasing after him with my buddy we both had a carbine and one magazine. We start shooting at him. He fell in a field 50 feet away from us. The Apache is reporting all of this unbeknownst to us and a lot of ears are listening. We lost visual on the enemy. I see him and he fires a full burst at me. I'm shooting. I button hooked around and shot him in the face. We came under accurate machine-gun fire from the north. We are now out of ammo. I grabbed the dead dudes AK and start returning fire. The trees to the north began to erupt. After the second eruption, we realized it was the apache going on gun runs. On the 3rd gun run, we bounded back. The next day we found a reinforced machine gun bunker to the north and that's where we were taking fire from. Those guys were squared away.

Pete Perry:

Instagram-PeterPerry8

Global Recon:

www.globalrecon.net

IgRecon – Instagram

BlackOpsMatter- Instagram

Mission_Critical – Instagram

IgRecon- Twitter

Chantel Taylor:

Instagram-Mission_Critical

Facebook-Battleworn

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 77-Defiant: A Green Beret Overcoming Adversity|RIP 1st Lt. Weston Lee.

Click the buttons below to access the full episode on Itunes(Apple), or Soundcloud(Android). Be sure to like, share, subscribe, and download the episodes. Thank you.

Itunes, or Soundcloud. Be sure to like, share, subscribe, and download the episodes. Thank you.

1st Lt. Weston Lee

GRP 77- This week we bring somber news. 1st Lieutenant Weston C. Lee, 25, of Bluffton, GA died Apr. 29th, outside Mosul, Iraq, when he stepped on an IED (improvised explosive device) while conducting security as part of advise and assist support to partnered forces NE of Mosul. 1st Lieutenant Weston C. Lee was an infantry officer assigned to 1st Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. Weston's good friends Josh Porter, and Marcus created a YouCaring crowdfunding page for Weston's family. https://www.youcaring.com/theleefamily-814467

Please donate, and share the youcaring page. Check out Josh on @sir.jumps.alot on Facebook and Instagram as he will give updates on when Weston will arrive at Arlington National Cemetery we encourage people to show up if possible and support the Lee family. Chantel Taylor and I had a conversation with former Army Green Beret Alan Shebaro. Alan lived in Europe for a number of years growing up as his father was a contractor with the U.S. government. Upon his return to the States Alan joined the Army. After a number of years, Alan reached a crossroad. He either went pro as a mixed martial arts fighter or went to Special Forces selection. He told us a story of a time in Iraq in which he was on an 18-hour mission hunting terrorist.

Upon his return to base Alan barely had enough energy to take off his gear as he sat and ate cereal. He looked up at the television and saw his training partner Travis Lutter win the Ultimate Fighter 4 with that victory securing his title fight against UFC legend Anderson Silva. Alan was 1 of only 4 Black Belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the U.S. Army and is the first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt in Special Forces Regiment. Alan went through a dark period upon leaving the military and he talks about it in great detail, and what helped him get out of that dark space. He is now the Vice President of the We Defy Foundation which through Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and fitness training provides combat veterans suffering from life-disabling injuries and/or PTSD a long-term means to overcome their challenges. Below Alan shares a story from his first deployment which involves MSG Stephen Walker Booth a Green Beret who died in a motorcycle accident here in the States:

Alan: We were already hearing the pings on the vehicle. My heart rate was over 200. I stepped out the vehicle and took 3 steps then hear a whip and saw a spark on the ground. A round missed my head and went by my foot. Everything was chaos. Blurs of colors. It wasn't that I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do with the training I received to apply in this situation. I'll never forget this. Walker Stephen Booth. This guy comes running right passed me yelling out " I'm going to come at you like a spider monkey boy" laughing his ass off. I was in shock. He's making jokes in a firefight. The weirdest thing happened. Almost instantly the blur disappeared. I could hear crisped sounds. Everything slowed down and I jumped in with one of the cells. Everything clicked. It was all based off what Walker said. It was my 5th or 6th firefight. That affected my career in every single fight after that. In 3rd Group he's a legend.  

Alan Shebaro
Co-Founder/Director
We Defy Foundation™
www.WeDefyFoundation.org
Alan@WeDefyFoundation.org

Global Recon:
www.globalrecon.net

IgRecon – Instagram
BlackOpsMatter- Instagram
Mission_Critical – Instagram
IgRecon- Twitter

Chantel Taylor:
Instagram: Mission_Critical
Facebook: Battleworn

Music provided by Caspian:
www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 72-Raise The Black|Army Special Forces|ISOF

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GRP 72-Raise The Black. On for this week's podcast are two retired Special Forces Green Berets. Bryan Myers and Loren Schofield both have multiple combat deployments into Afghanistan and Iraq. The Army Special Forces which Bryan and Loren were a part of were responsible for standing up an Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Force early on in the war. ISOF (Iraqi Special Operations Forces) has contributed in a tremendous way to the fight against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and now ISIS. The ICTF (Iraqi Counter Terrorism Force) are a group of battle hardened Iraqi patriots who don't identify themselves as belonging to any particular tribe, or religious sect. They consider themselves Iraqi's and fight for their country. This is important as this region has been embroiled in religious and sectarian violence for many years. 

Raise The Black is a campaign started by Bryan and Loren to give back to the families of fallen ICTF Operators as they have been fighting constantly for over a decade. The ICTF is single handily responsible for stopping the ISIS advance on Baghdad, and they now lead the offensive to rid Iraq of the terrorist group. Here is the link to the Go Fund Me Account where you can contribute. They plan on moving away from the GoFundMe but are using it to kick start the campaign. 

https://www.gofundme.com/raise-the-black

Below is an excerpt from the podcast.

John: You guys spent a lot of time in Sadr city(Iraq) working with the ICTF. Can you share a story with the audience of your time there?

Bryan Meyers: It was a brutal time. It was decided to wall it off with these big tall Texas barriers. They wanted to limit the access to this dangerous area.  You were never going to have issues getting in. It was getting out that was the issue. This one night we went in to hit a target. We got our guy and are heading out. I'm manning a .50 cal on our Stryker at this point. An IED had gone off. I look up and I see the Abrams Tank hauling ass. It becomes apparent very quickly that we're missing a Bradley. We went from urgency to a panic. We call to an Apache Gunship. We're like hey man can you fly over Sadr and check if you see a rogue, Bradley. In the chaos, this Bradley had taken off. Just like a typical male instead of asking for directions they just kept driving. They ended up being as deep as you can get. All I can imagine is all of Sadr's army thinking this has got to be a setup. We were about to have an international incident. We linked up with the Bradley and began our exfil. We had an Abrams tank drive over one of the barriers and decided to exfil that way. The AO commander was pissed.

Raise The Black:
https://www.gofundme.com/raise-the-black

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/03/24/raise-the-black-former-u-s-special-forces-fundraise-for-the-families-of-fallen-iraqi-comrades/?utm_term=.bbe4af41435c

 
Loren Schofield: @loren_notaseal Instagram
@SpecialForces_INC Instagram
@Lorenkschofield Twitter
@spec_Forces_INC Twitter

Bryan Myers: @the_bearded_bryan Instagram
@thebeardedbryan Twitter

Global Recon:
www.globalrecon.net
IgRecon – Instagram
BlackOpsMatter- Instagram
Mission_Critical – Instagram
IgRecon- Twitter

GRP 65-Zulu Foxtrot|Transition|Combat Stories

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GRP 65-On for this week's podcast is Tim Kolczak of the Veterans Project and G from Zulu Foxtrot. Tim is an Army veteran, and G is a Marine Corps veteran. Both have trips to Iraq. G was in Fallujah, and Ramadi during the worst of the fighting there and he shares a story from his time in the country. We discuss the transitional process and the struggle that G experienced once he separated from the Marine Corps. We discuss what it takes to be successful as a veteran coming out of the military, and as a civilian. G talking about his struggles is very powerful and I suggest you guys check this episode out. Below is an excerpt:

John: You have two trips into Iraq during some of the heaviest fightings. Can you share a story of your experiences over seas?

G Zulu Foxtrot: We were in Ramadi. It was the deadliest city in the world at that point. The enemy was not afraid to show themselves. We had a couple of blocks that belonged to us. It was our green zone. The minute you ventured out the entire city came down on you. We went out with our platoon. During those days you have to literally run from one spot to the other. The minute you stopped you were taking fire. We get to the Ramadi hospital. Anyone who's been there has fond memories of that. There's a huge open parking lot. We spread out because we don't want to take fire and lose four guys in one shot.

I'm not going to mention any names because he was that asshole dude. We had a new guy it was his first deployment. I looked out the corner of my eye and I saw dust lift off his flak jacket and the kid just dropped. He's yelling "I'm hit, I'm hit". We all dove for cover. We're trying to figure out what happened. We think it's a sniper. My SGT is like" go get em" and I'm like "fuck you, you go get em, dude".  What happened was this Iraqi kid threw a rock at him from a window.

G-Zulu Foxtrot:

www.zerofoxtrot.com

Facebook-Zero Foxtrot

Instagram-ZuluFucxs

Tim Kolczak:

www.thevetsproject.com

Social Media: The Veterans Project

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspian.net

Intro audio: Inky Johnson

Ending audio: Bruce Lee

GRP 62-GSMSG, Iraq, British Army Combat Medic, Navy Corpsman

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GRP 62- Back on for this week's podcast is my good friend retired British Army Combat Medic Chantel Taylor. We discuss the process of becoming a Combat Medic in the British Army, as well as discuss some of her experience's as an Army Medic, and as a Medic working as a contractor in several conflict zones post military.

The second conversation I had is with a former U.S. Navy Corpsman named Cris, who spent the duration of his career attached to the U.S. Marine Corps for multiple combat rotations into Afghanistan. Chris shares a story of a mass casualty event in which he was leading the quick reaction force into a potentially dangerous situation. Cris has since retired from the Navy and is now working with an incredible organization called the Global Surgical Medical Support Group (GSMSG). The GSMSG is an organization that provides medical training and treats soldiers fighting ISIS in Northern Iraq, and elsewhere. They have surgeons, doctors, and military medics working around the clock to train the Kurdish Peshmerga medics, as well as performing surgery on Peshmerga soldiers, and Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF).  GSMSG is now recruiting SOF Medics for a trip into Syria. If you’re interested, apply on their website http://www.gsmsg.org

 Below is an excerpt.

John: Can you share a story of a time you treated a casualty in combat?

Cris: My second deployment to Afghanistan we were supporting the Afghan’s as they took the lead in the fighting over there. We had a lot of mass casualty events. A couple of their vehicles struck an IED and we were the quick reaction force. I was with three other Marines. They could all do the basic interventions to help save lives. Putting on tourniquets, occlusive dressings, needle decompressions. There were 20 casualties total. When we got there the scene was total chaos. We started triaging. Who's alive? who needs care right now? we got everything from a triple amputee to minor burns. Having all my Marines trained to the standard that they could all perform casualty care efficiently was great. Each of us had four casualties. We were able to get them medevac'd and taken to a higher level of care.   

Global Surgical Medical Support Group:

http://www.gsmsg.org

Facebook: Global Surgical Medical Support Group

Instagram:Global_Surgical_Medical_Support_Group

Chantel Taylor:

Facebook: Battleworn

Instagram: Mission_Critical