We're in the wild west now, hit the first IED, didn't go off, thank God, stand up, you got to keep moving.

Probably about 30 seconds later, when we passed that tree where the trip wire was tied to, when we passed that tree, when we passed that tree where the trip wire was tied to, when we passed that tree, I saw movement

in our targeted compound, and it was 17 meters from me, and all hill broke loose.

When that PCHM opened up, I felt like I could reach out and grab the flame that shot

out of that barrel.

It was,

it was close.

And the JTAC called up and he's like,

if we don't drop right now, they're going to kill Ryan.

The Taliban had already stated like we got an American cutoff, blah, blah, blah, you know, all the crap that they say over Icom.

Hi, and welcome to The Spear, a podcast by the Modern War Institute at West Point.

I'm John Amble, editorial director at MWI, and The Spear is our platform to explore the combat experience.

Each episode includes a single one-on-one interview with a guest who walks us through a particular event and they're role in it.

A battle, a firefight, a mission, it's a first person account of combat.

This episode is the second in a two-part conversation I had with Ryan Hendrickson.

He's a Special Forces soldier and I really hope you listen to the first episode with him

because in it he talked about a 2010 incident in Afghanistan when he stepped on an IED

that almost took his leg. He was also very forthcoming and honest about the recovery process

and his fight not just to get better but to stay in the army. And that backdrop makes part two of

our conversation which you're about to hear, that much

more impressive.

Because he did stay in the Army and six years and a couple deployments later, he found himself

...