Hey, just a quick warning. There is a little bit of swearing in this episode.

And he had his hand over, like he lifted his hand up over his face like Dracula.

And as soon as he did that, you know,

all the bells and whistles in my head go off.

And before, like, I jerked to raise my weapon.

And before I could yell, shit Frank, I got like, shh.

And then it was just a huge explosion.

At the time, you know, adrenaline's pumping. I don't feel anything.

I was like, holy shit, dude just blew himself up.

Like, get to cover and then get ready to fight.

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 this podcast, 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 their role in it. A battle,

a firefight, a mission. It's a first-person account of combat. We've gotten tremendous

feedback from listeners since we first launched the spear last year. We've also been amazed at how

much our audience has grown.

So, for all of our new listeners, today we're reaching back to one of the first and one of the

most incredible episodes that we've released.

In it, MWI's Captain Jake Moraldi talks to Captain Brandon Thomas.

In the summer of 2013, Captain Thomas was a troop commander deployed in Kandahar Province,

Afghanistan.

...