Kajaki Drawdown: IEDs, Snipers, and a Corpsman Lost Forever | Ep. 269 | Pt. 2

Mike Drop

Mike Ritland

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Documentary, Politics, News

4.9 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dive into Part 2 of Episode 269 of the Mike Drop Podcast, hosted by Mike Ritland, a former Navy SEAL and renowned dog trainer. In this riveting conversation, Mike sits down with guest Matthew Brunnemann, a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence specialist and author, to explore the raw realities of combat during the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan. Listeners will find gripping firsthand accounts of high-stakes patrols in Kajaki, the heartbreaking loss of a corpsman to an IED, tense encounters with elusive Taliban snipers and bomb makers, and the moral dilemmas faced on the ground—including the abuse of local children used as informants and controversial medical evacuation decisions. Brunnemann shares unfiltered insights into the chaos of extended deployments, base infiltrations, and the psychological toll of war, offering a poignant look at the human side of military service in one of the world's most unforgiving environments. Whether you're a history buff, veteran, or simply interested in stories of resilience and sacrifice, this episode delivers powerful narratives that highlight the complexities of counterinsurgency and the enduring impact of the Afghan conflict. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Kevin Harlan here tomorrow night, 5.30 Eastern, the NBA on Prime crew is back as the Emirates
0:06.7	NBA action heats up from Vegas for a thrilling semifinals doubleheader. Then on Tuesday night,
0:12.3	December 16th, at 8.30 Eastern, the last two teams standing will square off in the championship
0:17.8	game for a shot of the cup, bragging rights, and a place in NBA history.
0:23.3	And Prime is your exclusive home for it all. Not a prime member? Sign up for a free 30-day trial to get
0:29.4	started today. Restrictions apply. See amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. Don't miss the
0:36.5	thrilling conclusion of the Emirates NBA Cup live from Las Vegas, starting
0:41.2	with the semifinals tomorrow only on Prime.
0:44.7	You would think that in that environment that the Taliban would kind of, at least if it was me,
0:50.6	I would recognize these guys are packing up and leaving.
0:53.9	Why not like let a leave a
0:55.9	dead dog lie kind of thing and just almost help expedite by not attacking you guys, but that
1:03.2	wasn't the case from the sounds of it? That was the case for the first, I don't know, first month,
1:08.5	first, so our second deployment ended up being six, seven months,
1:14.7	but initially we were told it was going to be 90 days. So in Kajaki, we were there for 90 days.
1:21.7	The first 30, 45 days, it was relatively quiet. There was a few areas up there that were super contested.
1:29.3	But largely, it's like you're saying, why fight and die?
1:34.3	We're just going to control everything in three months.
1:37.3	There's the Taliban adage.
1:39.3	You guys have the guns and we have the time.
1:42.3	So a lot of it was just let the Marines do what they're going to do.
1:47.2	And what turned things up was our opt tempo when our corpsmen, one of the corpsmen was killed.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 19 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mike Ritland, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mike Ritland and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.