The Spear

Col. Bill Ostlund retired from the Army in 2019. In 1990, as a lieutenant, he arrived at his first unit as an officer and almost immediately got the order to deploy to Saudi Arabia. Shortly after, he and his battalion air assaulted into Iraq as part of Operation Desert Storm. Listen as he recalls his experiences and the lessons he learned from them.

In 2003, Maj. John Spencer was a platoon leader in Iraq. One night, while waiting in an ambush position, he gave the order for his platoon to move to interdict a group of armed men. When his lead vehicle, his soldiers did what they had been trained to do: they returned fire and assaulted the objective. But there was a surprise in store for them. (Note: This episode was originally released in 2018....

As a lieutenant on his first deployment, Capt. Steve Beckman was in charge of a platoon equipped with a unique vehicle—a Stryker variant called a Mobile Gun System. But when the 105mm main weapon stopped functioning during an engagement with Taliban forces, he had to come up with a different way to fight the vehicle to protect US forces under fire.

As a lieutenant, Maj. Jesse Lansford was deployed to Afghanistan. A Kiowa helicopter pilot assigned as an aviation platoon leader, he rarely found himself on foot outside the wire. But on one day his helicopter had to land. He spent a brief time on the ground, but it was enough for him to encounter an IED. He joins this episode of  The Spear to tell the story.

In this episode of  The Spear , MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi speaks to Capt. Jason Pomeroy. In 2011, he was a platoon leader in Kunar province, Afghanistan, and he joins the podcast to tell the story of Operation Strong Eagle III, a mission during to expel enemy fighters from a rugged valley that quickly turned into a grueling fight.

In this episode of  The Spear , MWI's John Amble is joined by Maj. Tyson Walsh. In 2013, during a deployment in Afghanistan, he found himself fighting hand to hand against an enemy combatant in an unexpected place: inside the heavily secured Bagram Airfield, the largest US and coalition base in the country. Listen as he tells one of he most intense stories we have featured.

This episode of  The Spear features a conversation with Capt. Lindsay Heisler. An aviation officer and Apache pilot, in December 2015 she was part of a mission in Afghanistan supporting a ground force. Just as Chinook helicopters arrived to pick up that force, they came under fire from 360 degrees around them. The two Apaches overhead, including Capt. Heisler's, immediately took action to protect...

This episode of  The Spear features our first ever conversation with a US Army medic. On Oct. 3, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating was attacked by three hundred enemy fighters. Half of the fifty-seven US soldiers there would be wounded by the time the fighting ended. Master Sgt. Shane Courville was a medic at the COP, and he describes what it's like to be a combat medic in the middle of one of the most...

This episode of  The Spear is the second in a two-part series featuring three guests who took part in the Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book  Black Hawk Down and the movie of the same name. This episode picks up where the last one left off, with our guests—from the Army's most elite units—describing how they react as the battle quickly intensifies. (This episode originally ran in 2018.)

This episode of  The Spear is the first in a two-part series featuring three guests who took part in the Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book  Black Hawk Down and the movie of the same name. Even if you've read the book or the movie, you're certain to learn much more about that fight from these three practitioners from the Army's most elite combat units. (This episode originally ran in 201...

In the second of a two-part conversation with Ryan Hendrickson, our guest shares a story from 2016. Six years and a couple deployments after nearly losing his leg in an IED blast, Ryan was once again in Afghanistan and found himself in an intense fight, part of a grueling 18-hour mission that he recounts in this episode.  Note: This episode was originally released in August 2018.

In this episode of  The Spear , we're joined by Capt. Lucas Gebhart. An aviation officer, he was deployed to Iraq during the Battle of Mosul. That battle involves intense fighting on the ground, but the pace and complexity of the fight was equally intense for the pilots engaged from the air.

This episode features the first of a two-part conversation with Ryan Hendrickson. In this part, he shares a story from a 2010 deployment. On a mission in a particularly restive part of Afghanistan, Ryan stepped on an IED. Listen as he described that day and the aftermath of an incident that nearly cost him his leg.

In 2008, Maj. Emily Spencer was an EOD platoon leader in Iraq. In April, she and one of her teams accompanied a route clearance patrol that was planned to approach Sadr City, a notorious safe haven for militants. As the reached the edge of the dangerous neighborhood, IEDs began detonating and they began taking fire. Listen to Maj. Spencer talk through the fight.

In 2008, British Army officer Will Meddings was part of a team deployed in Helmand province, Afghanistan, tasked with partnering with, mentoring, and training Afghan forces. That job brings with it a host of unique challenges, many of which come to the fore when things go badly—like they did for Will and his team on one particular day in July.

In 2004, Tim Strabbing was a lieutenant and platoon commander in the Marine Corps, deployed to an area just outside Fallujah in Iraq's restive Anbar province. Listen as he tells the story of one particularly eventful 48-hour patrol.

Dave Eubank is a former US Army special forces officer and the founder of the Free Burma Rangers, an aid organization that works extensively in conflict zones. At the height of the fight against ISIS, he and members of his organization were in Iraq. They were there to provide help, but in that environment, they also regularly found themselves as participants in the fighting that raged all around.

The battle to wrest control of the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS involved some of the fiercest urban combat since World War II. Throughout the battle, US forces partnered with Iraqi security forces, advising and assisting them as they fought street by street to retake the city. In this episode of  The Spear , we hear from two of the US officers who took part in that mission.

In this episode, we talk to retired US Army Apache pilot Dan McClinton. He tells two stories from a 2007 deployment to Iraq. Together, the stories demonstrate powerful lessons about how military units learn, how they improve, and how that improvement requires servicemembers and leaders to be honest and, at times, self-critical.

This episode of The Spear  features a conversation with Lt. Col. Coley Tyler. In late 2004, he was a captain serving as a battalion fire support officer in Iraq. That meant that when the Marines asked for his battalion to take part in the Second Battle of Fallujah, he had an important role to play. He coordinated artillery, mortars, and fire from supporting aircraft to do something, in the Army, w...

Col. Phil Ryan is an Army aviator who has spent much of his career in the Army's most elite, special operations aviation units. In 2003, in the first days of the invasion of Iraq, he was a pilot in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, part of a fourteen-helicopter mission deeper into the country than any coalition forces had yet made it. When enemy forces on the objective engaged the he...

In 1968, after one season as a professional football player, Rocky Bleier was drafted by the Army and sent to Vietnam. During a firefight, he was wounded twice. In this episode, he shares his story of combat, recovery, and ultimately his return to the NFL, where he had a successful career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In this episode, MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi is joined by retired Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta. In 2010, he became the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Listen as he describes the 2007 mission in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, and the actions for which he received the award.

In this episode, Col. Bill Ostlund tells the story of what he calls the most honorable mission he took part in over more than three decades of Army service. When a soldier from an adjacent battalion, Staff Sgt. Ryan Fritsche, was reported missing in action after a firefight, Col. Ostlund led a force composed of his battalion's soldiers to find him. The story is an example of a vital part of the Ar...

In March 2018, after a dangerous nerve agent was shockingly used in the British city of Salisbury, authorities looked to the armed forces to play a role in the response. Maj. Clodia O’Neill was part of that response. An engineer officer in the British Army, she explains the mission that she and her soldiers were given. The discussion also touches on some pretty major questions about how we concept...