Combat Story (Ep 49): Ray McPadden [Part 2] | Ranger Ground Force Commander | JSOC | Purple Heart | We March at Midnight

Combat Story

Ryan Fugit

History

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2021

⏱️ 123 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we hear the second part of Ray McPadden’s Combat Story. Ray is a former Army Infantry Officer who survived four brutal deployments. In Part 1, we covered his time with 10th Mountain in the Korengal Valley, a notoriously violent part of Afghanistan. [You can find Part 1 at https://youtu.be/uebr9kPuPLM or https://tinyurl.com/wfcat859]
In Part 2, we pick up just after Ray returns from 16 months as a Platoon Leader in Afghanistan. He immediately goes to ROP (the Ranger Officer Program) to be assessed for the Ranger Regiment.
In this interview, Ray provides some incredible detail about the types of missions and decisions soldiers have to make within the JSOC community and the stark differences between the special ops and conventional military in terms of resources, equipment, aviation, personnel, and more.
For those who want to know what it was like to roll out on a multiple hit night in Iraq with JSOC, this interview will make you feel like you’re inside the Stryker and on the objective. If you want more, check out Ray’s great book - We March at Midnight.
I hope you enjoy this second round of Ray’s combat story as much as I did.
Find Ray Online:

Instagram @raymcpadden1 https://www.instagram.com/raymcpadden1/
Book We March at Midnight https://www.amazon.com/We-March-Midnight-War-Memoir-ebook/dp/B08W2NQF4H

Find Ryan Online:

Follow on Instagram @combatstory https://www.instagram.com/combatstory
Follow on Facebook @combatstoryofficial https://fb.me/combatstoryofficial
Send us messages at https://m.me/combatstoryofficial
Email [email protected]
Learn more about Ryan www.combatstory.com/aboutus
Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle

Show Notes

0:00 - Intro
0:46 - Guest introduction
1:50 - Interview begins and returning from the Korengal Valley
8:15 - Did you get treatment for PTSD after the first deployment
13:00 - Coming straight back from combat to Ranger Officer Program
20:25 - Interesting model in the Ranger Regiment
27:57 - What’s a Ground Force Commander
30:08 - How hard is the Ranger Officer Program
33:43 - The Darby Queen
43:30 - Arriving to 2nd Ranger Battalion
46:52 - Big Boy Rules
50:57 - Combat Story #1 - Running ops Day 1
55:23 - JSOC Mission Briefs in combat
1:11:19 - Combat Story #2 - Hasty follow-on operation
1:18:45 - Couldn’t sleep post-mission
1:23:56 - Combat Story #3: Tier 1 HVTs operating in difficult spaces
1:45:28 - Combat Story #4: The reality of warfare and children on the battlefield
1:53:38 - Why choose the title “We March at Midnight”?
1:56:25 - What did you carry with you into combat?
1:59:25 - Would you do it all again?
2:01:28 - Listener shout outs and comments

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So we go to the X with like strikers and we just blast through the compound like outer wall like
0:08.1	with the strikers just like wham which is cool. Everybody pours out, run to the door, door sum,
0:16.3	just gigantic, bank safe type thing. So we blow the door. When the door blows in it hits a dude
0:22.8	who is strapped up like ready to hose us down at the door. Welcome to Combat Story. I'm Ryan
0:28.9	futures and I serve war zone tours as an army attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a
0:33.7	15 year career. I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite and combat. On this show I interview
0:39.7	some of the best to understand what combat felt like on their front lines. This is Combat Story.
0:46.2	Today we hear the second part of Ray McPatton's combat story. Raise a former army infantry officer
0:51.1	who survived four brutal deployments. In part one we covered his time with 10th mountain in the
0:56.0	Corn Gaul Valley and notoriously violent part of Afghanistan. In part two we pick up just after
1:02.3	Ray returns from 16 months in that valley as a platoon leader. He immediately goes to rope
1:08.9	which is the Ranger officer program to be assessed for the Ranger Regiment. In this interview
1:13.9	Ray provides some incredible detail about the types of missions and decisions soldiers have to
1:18.4	make within the JSOC community and the stark differences between the special ops and conventional
1:24.0	army in terms of resources, equipment, aviation personnel and more. For those who want to know what
1:29.9	it was like to roll out on a multiple hit night against HVTs in Iraq with JSOC this interview will
1:36.2	make you feel like you're inside the striker and on the objective. If you want more check out Ray's
1:41.4	great book We March It Midnight. I hope you enjoy the second part of his combat story as much as I
1:47.5	did. Ray welcome back for round two with us here on combat story. Yeah thanks thanks for having
1:55.2	me again Ryan I'm excited. So we've had a couple weeks between filming here since round one and we
2:02.0	left off right as you're kind of coming out of this fairly intense first deployment with with your
2:11.0	time in Afghanistan in the Corn Gaul Valley and what later becomes you know pretty infamous as the
	...

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