Today we hear the Combat Story of Travis Norby, who commanded a mechanized infantry company in Iraq early in the war.
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Travis is a long-time Combat Story listener who reached out to see if his non-special ops story would be worth our listener’s time. As many of our most dedicated listeners know, as you write to me about this, we get many requests to share the stories of conventional soldiers and officers and what life was like for them while the Tier 1 and 2 units were running raids at night.
This combat story delivers on what I believe is a very common experience for so many infantry officers in terms of how you lose soldiers and still show up, how you motivate people to keep going in the face of unending days of attacks, and how you lead with the soldier in mind and not your own career advancement.
Travis’ stories of leadership and loss give us unique insight into the world of an Infantry officer fighting in the post-9/11 era and I hope you enjoy this raw and very real Combat Story as much as we did.
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Instagram @travisjnorby

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Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle

Show Notes:

0:00 - Intro
1:34 - Guest Introduction (Travis Norby)
2:33 - Interview begins
5:45 - Growing up on a farm in Montana
12:11- How the military entered the picture for Travis
22:18 - Joining and early days pre 911
32:41 - Where he was when 911 happened
37:37 - Going over to Iraq from Korea and being a staff guy on the FOB
43:38 - What changed his mind when he was ready to get out of the army but took company commander position instead
51:46 - The company structure and equipment at his disposal
54:03 - Combat Story #1 - First combat experience and having to take over for prior leadership
1:02:22 – Combat Story #2 - A goose chase
1:06:29 Combat Story #3 - Emotional story losing one of his guys
1:24:11 - The historic significance of his deployment from Korea to Iraq and the importance of conventional officers
1:28:23 - What did you carry into combat?
1:30:17 - Would you do it all again?
1:30:55 - Listener comments and shout outs