Patrolling the Seam

The Spear

John Amble

Government, News

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2012, Sean Marquis was an infantry platoon leader—deployed to Dehqobad, Afghanistan—with a Stryker brigade. The boundary between the platoon's area of responsibility and that of an adjacent unit was a suspected transit route due—US force in the area called it the seam. As villages along the Arghandab River became increasingly restive, Sean set out to find a Taliban recoilless rifle known to be in the area. After reviewing the available information, Sean narrowed in on a nearby orchard as the likely hiding place for the weapon. Reinforced with sappers, Sean and his soldiers stepped off to patrol the seam. For Sean, it was also a developmental moment in his growth as an infantry officer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to The Spear, a podcast about the combat experience from the Modern War Institute at West Point.
0:09.8	More than 100 meters outside the village, you were definitely getting in a firepower.
0:14.1	My first patrol I took, we had a fire ambush.
0:18.9	And then it was just a huge explosion.
0:23.0	The primary threat was RKG3 grenades,
0:25.9	like machine guns and AK-47s, that kind of thing.
0:28.4	Small arms, fire, RPG fire.
0:31.2	Explosively formed penetrators.
0:32.9	Suicide bombs.
0:35.5	And then that's about the time that the third IED went off.
0:38.0	And that's when another grenade comes spinning over the side of the wall.
0:41.8	And it's at that point the IED chain detonates.
0:46.8	There was enemy in the wire.
0:48.3	There was all these Humvees on fire.
0:50.0	It was truly bullets flying from every angle that you could see. I opened the door and look outside and all I see is muzzle flashes.
0:59.0	There's a guy on top with a 240.
1:02.0	In the rounds, passed right past his head.
1:03.0	At that point, our instincts kicked in.
1:05.0	One pilot on the controls, the other pilot was using his M4
1:08.0	to engage single-man targets on the ground. You're shooting at everything.
1:16.7	It was a fight. Welcome to the Spear, the podcast about the combat experience, brought to you by the
1:23.2	Modern War Institute at West Point. I'm your host Tim Heck. Today I'm joined by Sean Marquis,
	...

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