The Spear

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 the ground force, and she tells the story in this episode.

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 intense battles of the war in Afghanistan.

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 2018.)

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.