Combat Story

"I joined the Marine Corps because all my friends joined. I had zero clue what I was doing." Rob Blanton enlisted in 1993 on an open contract, missed his first Force Recon indoc, went back, passed, and spent nearly ten years at 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. He retired a master sergeant and a Silver Star recipient, and he tells the whole path here in order. Rob grew up in Santa Rosa, California, and joined as an infantryman. Over 21 years he deployed to Somalia and to Iraq three times: in 2003 with Fifth Platoon, 1st Force Reconnaissance Company; in 2005 with the Maritime Special Purpose Force; and in 2008 as a platoon sergeant with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion. On August 10, 2008, in Iraq's Al Jazeera Desert, he directed a vehicle through the wall of a house where insurgents were fighting, then led a team inside to reach a wounded Marine. Today he runs Warfighter Made, a nonprofit that gives wounded and struggling veterans a team and something to build together. In this conversation, Rob starts at the beginning: a Santa Rosa childhood that taught him to look after himself, the friends and recruiter behind his open contract, a Corporals Course that introduced him to the Marine he would marry, and the Force Recon indoc he passed on the second try. Then First Force: the team leaders who taught him tact and the one who taught him to say it plainly, a scout sniper school stalk he nearly lost, September 11th in Hawaii, and Iraq in 2003, from Safwan Hill as the ground war began to hunter-killer patrols for General Mattis and the lessons of Baghdad. He also looks hard at the team leader he was, a mirror moment in Okinawa, and the platoon he built at 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion before the 2008 deployment. Rob also covers what came after: Recon Training Company, the moment he recognized he needed help with post-traumatic stress and TBI, the treatments that did not work for him, the one that did, and the year his wife, a Marine herself, deployed to Afghanistan while he ran the house. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 03:07 Growing Up in Santa Rosa 21:26 Joining the Marine Corps Because His Friends Did 38:29 Boot Camp, Drill Instructors, and an Open Contract 55:02 First Unit: 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines 1:07:07 Wanting Recon, and Somalia in 1995 1:17:25 Corporals Course and Meeting His Wife 1:34:31 The Force Recon Indoc: Fail, Return, Pass 1:57:29 Checking In to First Force and BRC 2:04:43 The Mail Room, the Pool, and a Jump School Mix-Up 2:18:02 Fourth Platoon: Tact and Accountability 2:30:15 Speaking Up, Snipers, and Scout Sniper School 2:51:29 September 11th in Hawaii 3:03:31 Joining Fifth Platoon for the Iraq Invasion 3:09:14 Safwan Hill as the Ground War Begins 3:28:57 Hunter-Killer Missions for General Mattis 3:36:48 Into Baghdad and Single-Source Reporting 3:50:16 Babylon, General Conway, and the Trip Home 4:02:46 Team Leader at First Force, and What He Got Wrong 4:12:46 Iraq 2005: FOB Falcon and the Mission He Argued For 4:35:02 Orders to Okinawa and Third SOTG 4:43:41 Building a Platoon at 3rd Recon 5:06:44 Deploying to Fallujah, 2008 5:17:10 Contact Near Lake Tharthar 5:41:03 After the Fight: What He Told His Platoon 5:57:09 Recon Training Company 6:08:19 The Breaking Point and Asking for Help 6:15:44 What Treatment Got Wrong, and What Worked 6:22:37 The Hardest Mission Was at Home 6:28:48 Closing Thoughts GUEST INFORMATION Rob Blanton is a retired U.S. Marine Corps Master Sergeant who served 21 years, from open-contract infantryman to Force Reconnaissance Marine, with four combat deployments from Somalia to Iraq. As a platoon sergeant with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, he earned the Silver Star in 2008. After retiring in 2014, he co-founded and now runs Warfighter Made, a veteran-led nonprofit in Temecula, California. Find Rob Online:  Warfighter Made: https://www.warfightermade.org Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warfighter_actual/  HOST INFORMATION AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans and extraordinary individuals share honest, unfiltered stories of combat, survival, leadership, and life after adversity. Find AJ online: Darkhorse: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/book Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/ Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/ SPONSORS IN THIS EPISODE Amazon: Visit amazon.com/movember. For every eligible product sold in November, up to $2 is donated to the Movember Foundation to support men's health. https://www.amazon.com/b?node=223476965011&ref_=MOV26_pod Incogni: Go to incogni.com/combatstory and use code combatstory at checkout for 60% off annual plans. https://incogni.com/combatstory BUBS Naturals: Live Better Longer with BUBS Naturals. For a limited time, get 20% off your entire order with code COMBAT at bubsnaturals.com

"Afghanistan is like the puzzle of puzzles." Army intelligence officer John Garvin spent a deployment in Kandahar unable to explain why the fighting was so bad. Years later, he started solving it on Google Earth, and he brought that map to Combat Story. John served as an Army intelligence officer with the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, out of Fort Lewis. His brigade trained for Baghdad, sent soldiers to Arabic school, then learned at the National Training Center that the mission had changed to southern Afghanistan. John deployed to Kandahar in 2009, returned to Afghanistan in 2013 and 2014, and left the Army in 2015. By 2017 he was rebuilding the war on a map, layering terrain, ethnic lines, and a timestamped record of roughly 90,000 combat events. In a new format for the show, John briefs AJ the way he once briefed senior leaders, walking through his maps as he talks. He moves from his Stryker brigade's first weeks in the Arghandab to Alexander the Great, the Soviet invasion, the warlords of the 1990s, and the tribal politics that rebuilt the Taliban. He also lays AJ's own Fallujah and Now Zad missions onto the map. Along the way, AJ and John compare Iraq with Afghanistan, and John explains why Afghanistan was a different war. John's maps are on screen throughout this conversation. Watch the full video on YouTube or in the Spotify app. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 04:26 A Stryker Brigade Trained for Iraq Goes to Afghanistan 21:43 First Contact in Kandahar 26:19 Discovering Google Earth on the Secret Network 31:46 Mapping Fallujah 37:16 Afghanistan's Ethnic Map and the Durand Line 47:28 The Arghandab: Orchards, IEDs, and the Stryker's Limits 49:05 Putting Names and Faces on the Map 1:02:00 Why John Keeps Mapping 1:05:34 Alexander the Great and the Geography of Afghanistan 1:11:56 Soviets, Warlords, and the Rise of the Taliban 1:25:00 Pakistan, Partition, and Proxy Forces 1:35:47 Tora Bora, Kunar, and Restrepo 1:49:23 How Tribal Politics Rebuilt the Taliban 2:00:44 Training an Afghan Army in Our Image 2:11:56 AJ Revisits Now Zad on the Map 2:40:33 What Went Wrong, and What Comes Next 2:44:52 "Dad, You Won the War, Right?" 2:54:05 Closing Thoughts Guest Information John Garvin is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and military historian who served two tours in Afghanistan, in 2009 and 2013 to 2014, with the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, before leaving the Army in 2015. He now builds detailed maps of wars and the history behind them in Google Earth and ArcGIS Earth, bringing geography, tribal dynamics, and military history together in one picture. Host Information AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans and extraordinary individuals share honest, unfiltered stories of combat, survival, leadership, and life after adversity. Find AJ online: Darkhorse: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/book Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/ Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/ Sponsors Go to https://truewerk.com/combatstory and use code combatstory to get 15% off your first order. TRUEWERK, Built Like It Matters. Benchmade knives are built to last and designed to work. Shop now at https://benchmade.com #ad Head to https://superpower.com and use code COMBAT at checkout for $50 off your membership. Get 150+ biomarkers tested every year across two tests, plus a personalized health plan and on-demand care team. Detect early signs of 1,000+ conditions. #superpowerpod Download Cash App Today: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/sf3mmy2l #CashAppPartner Terms apply. Bitcoin services by Block, Inc. See the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app/legal/podcast.

Graham Paul Roberts was 15 meters from a building in Syria when a man leaned around the corner. They saw each other and froze. The man stepped back, came out again, and raised his weapon. Graham fired first. Later, in a wood by the Menai Strait, while searching for his son, Graham saw that same man lean around a tree. Graham Paul Roberts, author of Echoes in the Silence, sat down with Combat Story to tell what came before that moment and what came after it. Graham was born in Wales in 1976, six weeks early and weighing two pounds, and doctors told his parents he would not live past 16. He spent 19 years in the Welsh Guards, from sentry duty at Buckingham Palace to patrols in Northern Ireland, instructing at Pirbright and Sandhurst, and a tour in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2012. After leaving the Army he worked close protection in Iraq and became project manager for a team of about 100. In 2015 he took a private military contractor job in Syria, mentoring a special battalion of Syrian fighters in the fight against ISIS. In this conversation, Graham takes us through a childhood in a special educational needs unit and the bullying that came with it. He tells the story of a decision in Kenya, when he had a young soldier bury a grenade and a belt of ammunition to protect his company's name, and the rank it cost him. In Syria, he describes living in a mountain bunker, building a replica trench to train his battalion, first contact at 15 meters, a day pinned down in an olive grove, and a sniper's round from roughly 1,000 meters away that tore the rifle from his hand. He explains the moment he accepted he was going to die and the peace that came with it. Then he follows the story home: the nightmares, the drinking, the face he began to see in every room, the loss of his sister and his mother, the point where he planned to end his life, and the day he asked for help. He talks about the diagnosis of complex PTSD, the way he learned to face his memories, the work he does now with children who have special needs, and the book he wrote hoping it reaches the right reader. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open and introduction 3:29 Born at two pounds 6:58 Joining the Welsh Guards 16:50 9/11 and Northern Ireland 22:00 Pirbright, covert surveillance, and Sandhurst 34:29 Kenya: burying the ammunition 40:00 Afghanistan and Bastion 47:35 Close protection in Iraq 51:21 The call that led to Syria 1:01:11 Crossing into Syria 1:14:27 First contact at 15 meters 1:21:12 Pinned down and the sniper 1:28:02 The moment he accepted death 1:31:09 Beirut, an IED, and a destroyed town 1:41:48 Fighting ISIS 1:48:52 Coming home 1:53:35 The woods and asking for help 2:00:14 Finding purpose and writing the book 2:05:00 Living with the echoes Find Graham: Echoes in the Silence (US): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/echoes-in-the-silence-graham-paul-roberts/1150973652?ean=9781972688755 Echoes in the Silence (UK): https://www.waterstones.com/book/echoes-in-the-silence/graham-paul-roberts/9781972688748 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roberts0902/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@grahampaulroberts X: https://x.com/robbo76bng Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/graham.roberts0809 AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans and extraordinary individuals share honest, unfiltered stories of combat, survival, leadership, and life after adversity. Find AJ online: Darkhorse: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/Darkhorse Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/ Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/ If you are a veteran in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 and press 1 (U.S. Veterans Crisis Line). In the UK, call Samaritans at 116 123.

On December 13, 2003, a battalion commander's six-month intelligence hunt ended in a spider hole outside Tikrit, and the man hiding in it was Saddam Hussein. Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell, U.S. Army (Ret.), led that hunt, and he sat down with Combat Story to tell it from the inside. Steve Russell spent 21 years as an Army infantry officer, with deployments to Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In the spring of 2003 he took command of 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, and spent the following months building the intelligence network that led to the raid that found Saddam Hussein hiding on a farm near ad-Dawr. The capture was a combined effort, Russell's soldiers working alongside Task Force 121, and it was Ambassador Paul Bremer who told the world "we got him" the next day. That line became the title of Russell's memoir, We Got Him!: A Memoir of the Hunt and Capture of Saddam Hussein. After retiring in 2006, Russell went on to serve in the Oklahoma State Senate and then the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Oklahoma's 5th district from 2015 to 2019. In this conversation, Steve takes us through becoming an infantry officer, the deployments before Iraq, the grind of a manhunt that ran for months before it produced a break, the night it came together outside Tikrit, and what it was like to watch that moment become a headline and then a book title. We also get into his second act: the jump from battalion commander to state senator to U.S. Congressman, and where his sense of service has taken him since.   Guest:  Steve Russell is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who served 21 years, deploying to Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In 2003 he commanded 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, whose intelligence-driven manhunt near Tikrit led to the raid that found Saddam Hussein. He later served in the Oklahoma State Senate and as the U.S. Representative for Oklahoma's 5th district from 2015 to 2019. He is the author of We Got Him!: A Memoir of the Hunt and Capture of Saddam Hussein, available wherever books are sold. Find Steve online: Book: https://www.amazon.com/We-Got-Him-Capture-Hussein/dp/B0F5RNSBN4/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SteveRussellOK/  Host:  AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans and extraordinary individuals share honest, unfiltered stories of combat, survival, leadership, and life after adversity. Find AJ online: Book: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/Darkhorse Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/ Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/

The Cold War was fought long before the first shots of Vietnam captured America's attention. By 1966, more than 400,000 U.S. troops were committed to the war, Marine Corps Captain James "Jim" Steele among them, on his first trip back to Vietnam since advising South Vietnamese forces in 1961. The war had escalated fast: an August 1964 attack on a U.S. Navy ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, and a second reported attack that later analysis showed never happened, pushed President Lyndon Johnson to commit American combat troops to the fight. This time, Steele was there to fight, and he would need every bit of his reconnaissance training to survive what came next. Episode 3 opens with Steele trading his assigned radio call sign, "Lavender Lace," for one he chose himself: Evil Eye. From there, we follow him through a training exercise in the Philippines that turned into a night spent tied to palm trees waiting for a tsunami that never arrived, and through the hard lessons of a second combat tour: picking up the remains of a Marine after a mine strike, discovering a fellow Marine killed by recoilless rifle backblast, and confining a Marine who fragged a fellow officer to an improvised cell until Division could take him away. The episode also tracks two of the tour's defining threats: a defective batch of M16s that jammed in the field and got Marines killed before the Marine Corps traced the problem to the wrong gunpowder, and a night ambush in which Steele's experience in nighttime combat pistol matches let him take out four infiltrating enemy soldiers by instinct, in the dark, before they reached his position. It builds to late April 1967, when a machine gun round passed through both of Steele's legs, narrowly missing the bone and a main artery. His rifle jammed. He dodged a grenade thrown at him, threw two of his own, and made his own tourniquets while his corporal was killed running to his aid. Wounded and bleeding, Steele talked his own medevac helicopter down to his position by radio. What followed, a mixed-up Red Cross telegram that told his wife Marlene he'd been shot in four places he hadn't been, an experimental surgical technique to save his legs from infection, and Steele altering his own service record to get back to the war before a doctor ever signed off on him, reveals a Marine who had trained himself, by his own account, to feel almost invincible. Reconnaissance Man is more than the story of one Marine. It is the story of reconnaissance itself, told through the career of one of its pioneers. In this episode: The Gulf of Tonkin incident and the road to a 400,000-troop war Getting the call sign "Evil Eye" A near-tsunami during training in the Philippines Toughening up: picking up the pieces after a mine strike Fragging in the ranks and Private Washington The M16's deadly jamming problem in the field Volley grenades, pistol tactics, and calling in fire support A night ambush: taking out four infiltrators with a pistol Wounded: shot through both legs in late April 1967 Losing a corporal, and talking down his own medevac A telegram mix-up and an experimental surgery in Guam Rewriting his own paperwork to get back to the war If you enjoyed Episode 2, Episode 3 follows Steele into the war he'd only advised on before, and the night that nearly ended his life. Chapters: 0:00 The Road Back to Vietnam 4:00 Tied to a Tree: The Philippines Tsunami Scare 6:45 Turning Hard: Picking Up the Pieces of War 10:35 Fragging in the Ranks: Private Washington 13:01 The M16's Deadly Jamming Problem 17:19 Grenades, Mortars, and Calling In Air Support 22:51 Night Ambush: Four VC in the Dark 27:14 Wounded: Shot Through Both Legs 33:15 Talking Down His Own Medevac 36:10 A Telegram and an Experimental Surgery in Guam 45:34 Getting Back to Vietnam Before His Legs Had Healed Created by investigative journalist Ashly McGlone in collaboration with the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation (MRF), and visually brought to life by Combat Story, Reconnaissance Man is a nine-part limited series following Steele's extraordinary 30-year military career through Vietnam, the Cold War, and beyond. 🎙️ Guest — James Lyle Steele James Lyle Steele is a retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel whose 30-year career carried him through Vietnam, the Cold War, and beyond. A member of the original generation of Marine reconnaissance men, Steele's story offers a rare firsthand look at war, survival, and service across decades of American military history. Ashly McGlone is an investigative journalist and the creator of Reconnaissance Man. As Steele's granddaughter, she pairs reporting, narration, and historical context with family connection to bring his extraordinary story to life with depth and care. Find Reconnaissance Man and Ashly McGlone Online: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reconnaissanceman/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashlyreports/ X: https://x.com/ReconManPod X: https://x.com/AshlyReports 🎙️ Host — AJ Pasciuti AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans and extraordinary individuals share honest, unfiltered stories of combat, survival, leadership, and life after adversity. Find AJ Online: Book (Darkhorse): https://www.ajpasciuti.com/book Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/ Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/ 🔔 Watch. Listen. Follow If you value real stories and honest perspectives from those who lived it, follow Combat Story wherever you get your podcasts.