GRP 80-Memorial Day in Mosul: A Special Forces Veteran Returns to Iraq

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GRP 80- Memorial Day has a special place in American culture. It's a day we honor those who were killed in action during all wars fought by this country. Memorial Day is observed as a federal holiday, but there are men and women to which every day is Memorial Day. We have a special episode for this week with Special Forces veteran and co-founder of Raise the Black Bryan Myers who came on to the podcast with us while he's in Mosul, Iraq. Bryan spent his Memorial Day going back to a place where him and many of his American and Iraqi teammates fought and died fighting against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and now ISIS.

He went to connect with the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) to bring resources and help with the refugees, help with the families of the fallen, and meet with ISOF Commanders to further discuss the expansion of the role of Raise the Black in Iraq. We talked about unconventional warfare, some of the histories of it behind the region of the middle east. Below is an excerpt:

Bryan Myers: I spent Memorial Day this year trying to do something positive and to honor the guys. I left camp here and headed up to one of the screening points for the refugees. It's a place where they come in after being checked for suicide bombs, unfortunately, its a tactic ISIS has used. I went to see what they needed. Ran an assessment to see where I can help.  Handed out candy to the kids. You can see the pain in these people's eyes, and you get that moment of happiness in showing that love and respect.

I was with ISOF at the front lines for the rest of the day. It's my way to honor the men of ISOF who died fighting, and the men of B 2 3 (Green Berets).

My first trip to Afghanistan I was the Charlie that started the groundwork for Firebase Sweeny. It built into this huge base that was meant to disrupt Taliban movement from Pakistan into Afghanistan. After the deployment on our way out the villages, the women and children were coming out and clapping and waving. The way we messed up in Afghanistan was at first we made them work for the help we gave them. We built them wells but we needed help identifying the Taliban who were rocketing us. We impacted the area so well. People would legit point Taliban guys out right in front of us. "Hey, that guy over there he's Taliban". Eventually, villages started getting things without earning them.

Global Recon:

www.globalrecon.net

IgRecon – Instagram

BlackOpsMatter- Instagram

Mission_Critical – Instagram

IgRecon- Twitter

Bryan Myers:

www.Raisethe.black

www.WIMCF.org

Instagram- Raise_th_Black

Instagram-The_Bearded_Bryan

Chantel Taylor:

Instagram: Mission_Critical

Facebook: Battleworn

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 73-Army Special Forces|MACV-SOG|Raise The Black|ISOF

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GRP 73- Back on for this week's podcast are two Green Berets one who is a first generation Special Forces solider, Mike Stahl who served two tours of duty in Vietnam with his first tour on an A-Team, and second tour running recon with CCN (Command and Control North) as a MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group) One Zero, or Team Leader. 
Our second guest is Bryan Meyers, A Special Forces Intelligence Sergeant with 8 combat tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bryan and a fellow Green Beret named Loren Schofield have started a campaign called "Raise the Black" in creating products to sell with the returns going out to help the families and warriors of the ISOF (Iraqi Special Operations Forces) who elements of the Army Special Forces trained and stood up during the beginning of the Iraq war. ISOF has gone on hundreds of combat operations with American Special Forces Teams during the worst of the fighting in Iraq against Al-Qaeda, and the Shia militias of Sadr City. ISOF has single handily stopped ISIS from advancing on Baghdad. They have been fighting non stop for over 10 years. We discussed the similarities of the Army Special Forces first generations and todays warriors. We talked unconventional warfare and what it takes to defeat these radical groups. Below is an excerpt:

John: I mentioned earlier the book "Hammer Head Six" written by Forces Captain Ronald Fry. They laid out step by step how to defeat the insurgency in Afghanistan. Its proven. The battle space owners are usually Officers from the infantry. A full bird colonel or a 1-star general is not going to listen to a Special Forces Captain even though he's an induvial who has trained for years and mastered this type of warfare. It seems like the people who know this type of warfare are not allowed to lead the way.

Bryan Myers: Just propaganda alone America has not set out to win a war since WW2. We are not fighting to win. You can see it from propaganda that is allowed from the DOD, and Military at the time. "Can you not fight in the war? save your grease. We can use it to kill Nazi's." Let me do what I need to do and I will give you the insight. We had literal transmissions on radio from Mullah Omar from 3rd Special Forces Group of us killing so many during Operation Medusa these commanders in Pakistan wouldn't even answer the phones. They're like I don't want none of that bro.

Mike Stahl:
www.trickymisfit.com

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

www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoi….bbe4af41435c

Bryan Myers: 
@twimcf for IG
m.facebook.com/theworldismycountryfoundation/
@the_bearded_bryan Instagram
@thebeardedbryan Twitter

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

Introduction Speech by President Ronald Reagan reading the Medal of Honor Citation for MSG Roy Benavidez a Special Forces Green Beret who was a member of MACV-SOG.

Music provided by Caspian:
www.caspianmusic.net

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

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

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