The Spear

In 2007, Tony Luberto was a maintenance platoon leader deployed in Baghdad. Early one morning, he awoke to the devastating sounds of a Katyusha rocket attack. He talks through the attack, his soldiers' efforts to save the lives of their friends, and the lingering impact the attack had on his platoon.

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 2007, a destructive new weapon appeared on the battlefield in Iraq: the improvised, rocket-assisted munition. Also called a lob bomb because of the way it is launched high into the air to land on its target, the first attack with the weapon was aimed at a combat outpost in Baghdad where a battalion of US soldiers lived. One of those soldiers was John Chambers, and in this episode, he talks us through that attack.

On October 3, 2009, several hundred Taliban fighters attacked Combat Outpost Keating, an isolated outpost manned by B Troop, 3-61 CAV and a small number of Afghan National Army soldiers. The ensuing battle would become one of the fiercest fought during the war in Afghanistan. Three US Army officers who were involved in the COP's defense and relief discuss the battle and their roles in it.

In October 2008, Maj. Nick Eslinger was a lieutenant on his first deployment as a platoon leader in Iraq. While on patrol one day, he turned his head just in time to see an incoming grenade. He only had time to react reflexively, and what he did likely saved his life and those of his soldiers.

In February 2012, Capt. Jannelle Allong-Diakabana was a military police platoon leader deployed in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. One day, as she and her platoon prepared to respond to an incident outside her small base, an Afghan soldier appeared, took aim, and fired on her and several of her soldiers. Listen as she recounts the green-on-blue attack and its aftermath.

For sixteen years, the US military has been at war in Afghanistan. The guests on this episode were there at the very beginning. Jason Amerine and Mark Nutsch were both Army captains and in command of the first Special Forces detachments on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. They share stories from the earliest days and weeks of what would go on to become the longest war in American history.

In 2012, Capt. Nick Dockery was a platoon leader in Afghanistan. When his platoon was attacked during a mission, an intense fight ensued. Capt. Dockery was recently recognized as the 2017 recipient of the Alexander Nininger Award for Valor at Arms by the West Point Association of Graduates for his actions during the engagement.

In 2007, Col. Marc Hoffmeister was a major on a Military Transition Team advising Iraqi Security Forces when an explosively formed penetrator, a specific and devastating form of IED, hit his Humvee. He talks about the event and his team's performance in the immediate aftermath, along with an incredible story about a big part of his recovery—leading a team of wounded veterans to the summit of Denali, the tallest mountain in North America.

On September 11, 2001, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen was a colonel assigned to the Pentagon. Today he's the superintendent of the US Military Academy, and he sat down to share his firsthand experience of the the attacks that day—a day that has influenced the operational trajectory of the US military ever since.