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Constant Combat
This veteran-led podcast highlights the experiences of Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, starting with their harrowing 2004 deployment to Ramadi; a 9 month combat tour which resulted in the highest casualties in a single deployment - a deployment that most Americans have never heard about. Through candid conversations surrounding these events, the series also explores earlier experiences that shaped the Marines, emphasizing their grit, humor, and humanity while aiming to honor their stories authentically.
Episodes
120 episodes
Attention on Deck - Robert Weiler (Part 2 of 2)
We continue with part 2 with General Rob Weiler and he paints a vivid picture that the most dangerous moments are not always the firefight itself. Sometimes it is the handover, the quiet planning period, or the instant after contact when you re...
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Attention on Deck - Robert Weiler (Part 1 of 2)
General Rob Weiler talks through his view in Ramadi 2004 and why the hard, specific details still matter, from old after action reports to the leadership culture that kept young Marines steady. We trace how counterinsurgency forced constant ada...
The Line Between Life And Death - Clayton Hall
For this one, we catch up with Clayton Hall, a Marine radio operator attached to Weapons Company in Ramadi 2004. He recalls memories through the lens of near misses, hard leadership, and the brotherhood that carried us through. We talk through ...
We Were Forced to Look Beyond Ourselves - Jesse Stephens (part 2 of 2)
Part 2, Jesse Stephens speaks about the way war can split your identity, erase your sense of home, and still leave you missing the brotherhood you had in the hooches. He shares the memories that still cling, some moments that changed his belief...
We Were Forced to Look Beyond Ourselves - Jesse Stephens (part 1 of 2)
We reconnect with Jesse Stephens from MAP 1 and trace how a motivated teenage Marine arrives in Iraq ready to win trust, then watches that belief burn away as the fight in Ramadi changes shape. The conversation moves from funny early memories t...
Rewards of Tireless Duty - Anthony Trujillo (part 2 of 2)
In part two, Anthony Trujillo talks about what it feels like to hear life and death unfold over the radio while still being responsible for the paperwork that records it. We walk through Ramadi memories that range from night raids and mission b...
Rewards of Tireless Duty - Anthony Trujillo (part 1 of 2)
Part one with Anthony Trujillo from Headquarters platoon about getting hurt, refusing to stay behind, and sliding from 81s into the company office. Its a vivid picture he paints how leadership, logistics, and pure chaos collide in 2004 Iraq, fr...
A Long Look at a Short Mission - Trevor Wolfe (part 2 of 2)
Part two with Trevor Wolfe walking us through the split-second choices that can end in catastrophe, plus the leadership feedback that follows you long after the shots stop. He also talks moral injury, the civilian cost of war, and what it means...
A Long Look at a Short Mission - Trevor Wolfe (part 1 of 2)
A 19th birthday on a bridge in Ramadi is the kind of detail that never leaves you, and Trevor Wolf tells it the way most veterans actually remember war: in sharp, disconnected snapshots that only make sense when you step back. He recalls the sm...
Semper Fortis - Mark Natividad (part 2 of 2)
Part two with Navy Corpsman Natividad, moving from everyday base life in Ramadi to the moments that still feel like a blur years later. We get into a VBIED mass-casualty response, a bridge post incident that led to a field court martial, and ho...
Semper Fortis - Mark Natividad (part 1 of 2)
Part one with MAP 2's Navy Corpsman Mark “Navi” Natividad about getting sent back to Iraq so fast he never had time to process the invasion. We trace the jump from early expectations in Ramadi to brutal April firefights, the strange comfort of ...
No Standard Operating Procedure - Shane Nylin (Part 3 of 3)
We close part 3 with Sergeant Nylin on memories that never fit neatly into a timeline, from a traffic stop with buckets of body parts to the moment a Humvee hits a landmine. We also talk honestly about the long tail, grief on deployment, going ...
No Standard Operating Procedure - Shane Nylin (Part 2 of 3)
We pick up part 2 with Shane Nylin from MAP 2 as first missions in Ramadi turn into minefields, EOD chaos, and an IED. We also walk through the loss of a platoon member and the street fights that follow, including what it feels like when adrena...
No Standard Operating Procedure - Shane Nylin (Part 1 of 3)
We welcome guest Jesse Jordan to podcast cohost recording Shane Nylin’s path from signing Marine Corps papers in a peacetime world to realizing, almost overnight, that he is heading into Iraq with a thin platoon and even thinner margins. We tal...
The Cost Measured in Minutes - Joshua Kohen (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Josh Kohen starts as an RPG hit his position near a mosque in Ramadi, including the small choices and split-second timing that changed who lived and who died. He continues with what followed, from chaotic QRF fights and mass-casualt...
The Cost Measured in Minutes - Joshua Kohen (part 1 of 2)
Josh Kohen of MAP2 trades the polished war-movie version for what it actually felt like to arrive as a new Marine, get absorbed into a depleted unit, and stumble into combat fast. We discuss identity, communication failures, and the small routi...
Never Lead with Comfort - Deverson Lochard
We sit down with MAP3's Deverson Lochard, a Marine sergeant and machine gunner who cross-decks from 3/5 into a deploying unit to prepare young Marines for Ramadi with one uncompromising priority: getting everyone home alive. He shares what comb...
Intensity and Good Faith - Justin Weaver (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Justin Weaver wraps up with the strange gap between what we lived and what the civilian world can understand, and how that gap can push people into silence, booze, and untreated PTSD. We trade memories from Ramadi to coming home, an...
Intensity and Good Faith - Justin Weaver (part 1 of 2)
Part 1 with Rainmaker Mortarman Justin Weaver to trace the jump from rushed pre-deployment training to the first hard weeks in Ramadi 2004, including the moments that flipped the switch from joking around to understanding the stakes. Along the ...
The Cigar Smoke after a Patrol - Sergio Wallace (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Sergio Wallace goes on with the everyday reality of war, from heat and mud rain to the little “keep your head together” routines. He gives a deep look at what it means to accept death at 19, come home changed, and try to lead younge...
The Cigar Smoke after a Patrol - Sergio Wallace (part 1 of 2)
Part 1 with Sergio Wallace of Sledgehammer Platoon. His story tracks a young Marine Corps infantryman who arrives with confidence, friction, and a simple motive, then learns how fast combat erases simplicity, trying to make sense of what ...
A View From Cracked Glass - Michael Hanson (part 2 of 2)
We pick up Part Two with Mike Hanson as he relives Ramadi through the details that didn't fade: from weapons caches and watch posts to split-second calls that still don’t have easy answers. We also talk about what it feels like to come home, ca...
A View From Cracked Glass - Michael Hanson (part 1 of 2)
Part one with Michael Hanson, who shares about becoming a Humvee driver and how trust, training, and tiny details decide whether a patrol goes smooth or goes sideways. We also get honest about the cost afterward, from drinking and stress to VA ...
The First Sergeant - Alphonso Mack
A man who needs little introduction to the Marines of Weapons Company, Sergeant Major Alphonso Mack joins us to give some of his history as a mortarman and recruit depot First Sergeant... then becomes the First Sergeant who holds Weapons Compan...
The Warhorns Curse - Gavin Callais (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Gavin Callais starts with April 7th contact through a wrong turn, an RPG that never detonates, and the slow realization that five hours have passed while ammo runs out. He also opens up about the bridge-post incident, the NJP that f...