GRP 104-Geraint Jones:The Story of a British Infantry Soldier in Iraq

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

GRP 104- This episode is co-hosted by the creator of The Veterans Project U.S. Army Veteran Tim Kolczak. Our guest for today is British Army combat veteran Geraint Jones. Gez served multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. We took a dive into what it was like serving during the height of the Iraq war in Basra where the British military was primarily operating. Basra at the time was like the wild west and Gez shares stories of his time patrolling into some of these areas as well as the complexity of dealing with very tight rules of engagement as a British warfighter.

He shares some hilarious and tragic stories of life in Basra. We touched on several topics to include tourniquet use, politics in war, dealing with extreme heat while conducting operations, and searching for roadside bombs. This is a good one.

0:00-Intro

11:48-British Army Infantry

24:28-Basra, Iraq

43:07-Rules of engagement

54:30-Operating in Iraqi heat

1:00:38- “Orders Are Orders” checking for roadside bombs in Iraq  

1:13:50-Tourniquet use

1:20:42-Don’t mix politics and war

You can keep up with Tim Kolczak at:

www.thevetsproject.com

www.instagram.com/theveteransproject

Geraint Jones is on Instagram at:

www.instagram.com/grjbooks

Follow my co-host and my pages on social media. Links below.

Global Recon:

www.Globalrecon.net

https://www.instagram.com/igrecon

https://www.instagram.com/blackopsmatter

www.twitter.com/igrecon

https://www.facebook.com/GlobalReconPodcast/

HP Lefler:

https://www.instagram.com/4runner.freyja

Chantel Taylor:

https://www.instagram.com/mission_critical

https://www.instagram.com/altern8rv

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 100-War Dogs:The Story of a Special Missions Operator

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

GRP 100- For the 100th episode of the Global Recon Podcast we have an extremely special episode. On with us is retired Special Missions Operator Dave Nielsen. Dave served first with the 75th Ranger Regiment and then went into a Special Missions unit as an assaulter, dog handler, and sniper. His story was featured in the HBO documentary released on the 13th of this month called "War Dogs" executive produced by actor Channing Tatum.

This documentary shows the story of three dog handlers and their canine counterparts from the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). It's a raw, realistic view of what it's like going into combat with these warrior dogs and what its like post-military. Dave talked about his combat jump into Panama in 1989 as a young Ranger. He shared stories of his dog "Pepper" who was killed while rooting out an enemy from a sewer hole in Iraq on the banks of the Tigris River. They searched for her all night but had to leave once the sun was coming up as they were in enemy-held territory. We talked about the mindset required to pass selection for special operations, and the mindset required to surmount any obstacle in life. Enjoy. RIP Pepper. 

0:00-Episode overview

3:48-Episode introduction with Chantel Taylor

17:33- Introduction to Dave's career in the Army. Combat jumped into Panama with the 75th Ranger Regiment in 1989. 

22:12-Military Working Dog Pepper

55:54-Mindset and passing selection. Fear of success 

1:03:00-SOF K-9 Memorial

Here is the link to the SOF K-9 memorial page ran by Dave's wife Laura, and a former unit operator:

www.sofk9memorial.com

Here is the link to the full documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojVq2Sa-PD0

Follow my co-host and my pages on social media. Links below.

Global Recon:

www.Globalrecon.net

https://www.instagram.com/blackopsmatter

www.twitter.com/igrecon

https://www.facebook.com/GlobalReconPodcast/

HP Lefler:

https://www.instagram.com/4runner.freyja

Chantel Taylor:

https://www.instagram.com/mission_critical

https://www.instagram.com/altern8rv

Music provided by Carson Aune: "A soldiers Best Friend"

http://www.carsonaune.com

GRP 63-Recon Sniper Foundation, 3rd Force Recon Commander, Leadership

Click the buttons below to access the episode on ITunes, or Soundcloud. Be sure to like, share, subscribe, and download the episodes. Thank you.

GRP 63-On for this week's podcast are U.S. Marines John Brown, the President of the Recon and Sniper Foundation, and Lt. Colonel Drew Ralston, Commanding Officer of the 3rd Force Reconnaissance Battalion. We talked about the Recon and Sniper Foundations event at Shot Show in Las Vegas a few days ago which was a huge success, as well as the role and mission of the Foundation. We talk about leadership, what it takes for young Marines to become Reconnaissance Marines in dealing with and overcoming hardships and adversity.

Very shortly the Global Recon's veteran team of writers will begin to release articles with topics to include transnational terrorism, geopolitics, veteran-related issues, military history, and tactical medicine. Our writers are very smart, and accomplished individuals with a lot to offer.  We will announce start the article publishing early February. Below is an excerpt from the podcast.

John: You guys met and worked together under some unique circumstances. Can you guys talk about that?

Lt. Colonel Ralston: As a reserve Commander my unit is over in Mobile Alabama, but I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In August of last year, we suffered some of the worst flooding’s on record in this area. Within about 48 hours a group of gentlemen from the Recon and Sniper Foundation had mobilized and got guys down here to help with getting myself and a number of other Reconnaissance Marines back on our feet. There's another reserve unit here in Baton Rouge that was affected by the flood and we got to work.  We found retired Marines who needed help. A gentleman who was a Korean War Vet was at the Chosin Reservoir with Chesty Puller had his house decimated by the flood we did a lot of work to get him back on his feet.

We ended up helping the first responders who were out not fixing their homes, but out on the street helping civilians. One of the most rewarded moments for me was one of my former Marines his parent's house was destroyed. We spent 3 days at their house alone. At some point, this Marine's mother looks at her husband and says "You know baby it's going to be ok, the Marines are here.''

John Brown:

http://www.reconsniperfoundation.org

Social Media: ReconSniperFoundation

Introduction speech was by Colin Powell.

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

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

Click the buttons below to access the episode on ITunes, or Soundcloud. Be sure to like, share, subscribe, and download the episodes. Thank you.

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

GRP 61-Matthew McClintock, Special Forces Medics, Transitional Process

Click the buttons below to access the episode on ITunes, or Soundcloud. Be sure to like, share, subscribe, and download the episodes. Thank you.

GRP 61- The one-year anniversary of the passing of Staff Sergeant Matthew McClintock. Matthew was an Army Special Forces Engineer Sergeant. With news of his passing circulating through the United States, the online military community really came together to contribute what they could to support his wife and young son. I remember feeling proud to see how Americans rallied around a gold star family.

Co-hosting for this week's episode is Tim Kolczak, the creator of the Veterans Project. Our special guest for this episode is one of Matthew's Special Forces teammates a retired Special Forces Medic named Chris. Chris talked about some of his experiences with Matthew as they had gone through the Special Forces selection course together, and eventually ended up on the same team deploying into a war zone together. Chris took out the time out of his busy schedule to record with us while he's in Afghanistan working as a contractor. We also talked a lot about Trauma medicine, bleeding control, and how the lessons learned from 16 years of hard war on the medical side are now being applied back here in the States raising the level of knowledge to new heights. We also touched on the veteran transitional process and what veterans can do to be successful as a civilian. Below is an excerpt.

John: Can you share a story of when you treated a casualty overseas?

Chris: This happened within the first week that I'd set up a VSO (Village Stability Operations) site in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. I was still setting up my clinic, and it as told we had a patient at our gate.  They told me he'd been shot in the foot. The guy comes in, and he'd been hit by an RPG. He had shrapnel sticking out of his skull. He had through and through gunshot wounds to both thighs. He had a partial evisceration of his stomach, so his intestines were sticking out. All of these obscure medical techniques that they teach you in the 18 Delta course (Special Forces Medical course) I got to experience on my very first week deployed. We got em out of there completely bundled up. The helo was there in 45 minutes he survived, and he was back with his unit when we left country 9 months later. I wasn't prepared, but the training I'd done over the past two years took over at that point.

Chris:

www.readywarriorllc.com

Social Media: SpecialForcesMedics

Tim Kolczak:

www.thevetsproject.com

Social Media: The Veterans Project

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net