The Spear

For his service with the Household Cavalry during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2013, British Army Major Al Pickthall was ultimately awarded the Military Cross, a decoration presented by the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries for acts of "exemplary gallantry” in combat. In this episode, Al recounts the details of that deployment and the actions for which he was awarded the Military Cross, as well as his education at Sandhurst and Yale University and his thoughts about topics such as leadership, military writing, and his recent visit to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Major Ryan Crayne, who has served in elite military units including the 75th Ranger Regiment, shares gripping insights from his deployment experiences. He recounts his rapid transition from training to a major combat operation in Afghanistan against ISIS, emphasizing the need for mutual trust and leadership under pressure. Crayne discusses the complexities of logistics during emergency deployments and the importance of teamwork in high-stakes scenarios. His personal stories highlight the moral responsibilities of military leaders and the strategic decisions that drive success in combat.

In 2016, Brennan Deveraux was deployed to a small base in Baghdad called Union III. An artillery officer, Brennan worked in a small group known as a strike cell, where he was the theater-level rocket artillery liaison for Operation Inherent Resolve. Over the course of the deployment, he fired more than five hundred HIMARS rockets in support of Iraqi security forces as they fought to wrest back control of vast swathes of territory seized by ISIS two years earlier. In this episode, he shares the story of one of those rockets. Brennan has also written about this story and others in a forthcoming book. The book is one example of the type of professional military writing that is undergoing a rejuvenation with the backing of the Harding Project, an initiative that was launched one year ago this week. For listeners who would like to contribute to the Army’s professional military discourse, a special edition of Military Review has just been published, dedicated to the Harding Project’s work, detailing the importance of professional writing, and offering encouragement and guidance on how to get started.

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 the fall of 2006, Rory McGovern was a company fire support officer assigned to a combined arms team operating in the area around Abu Ghraib, Iraq. The day after Christmas, he was on a security patrol in support of a local sheikh’s Hajj send-off party when a shot rang out. McGovern had been hit. He shares the story of that encounter with the sniper and subsequent recovery in this episode.

Lt. Col. Brian Kitching joins this episode of The Spear to share a story from a 2012 deployment in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. Two months into the deployment, the company he commanded was taking part in a large, seven-day clearing operation. They made contact with enemy fighters on both of the first two days, but on the third day of the operation, Kitching and his soldiers found themselves engaged in a fight of an entirely different level of intensity. Listen as he tells the story of that day and describes the selfless service of his soldiers' actions under fire.

In 1998, retired US Air Force Colonel Mike "Starbaby" Pietrucha was an electronic warfare officer flying in an F-15E Strike Eagle, enforcing the northern no-fly zone over Iraq in the 1990s. In this episode, he brings listeners into the cockpit as he describes one particular mission during that deployment, when his aircraft was targeted by a radar guidance system for an SA-3 antiair missile. Not long after, the Iraqi surface-to-air missile was headed his way. After some rather hasty maneuvering, the F-15E crews in the air developed a plan with other coalition aircraft to strike back.

For Bill “Fenway” Wyman, Sadr City in 2004 was a strange mix of combat and humanitarian missions. Fenway, then an Army major, was servince as a a civil affairs team leader, advising the commander of the 2-5 Cavalry on how to win local trust, support humanitarian operations, and spur economic development. In this episode, he recounts a pair of events—handing out backpacks one day and hunting down snipers just a few days later—that combine to highlight the ever-changing nature of combat operations in Baghdad.

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Maj. Jacob Absalon. He shares a story from his first deployment in 2009, as a lieutenant and platoon leader in eastern Afghanistan Paktia province. Toward the end of a five-day operation, after meeting with a local key leader, the platoon and a partnered Afghan National Army force came under fire from two enemy positions. He tells the story of the fight that ensued—and what came next.

This episode features a conversation with Captain 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 Captain Heisler's, immediately took action to protect the ground force. She shares the story in this episode.