You know, 14 Medal of Honors have been awarded in 17 years in Afghanistan.

11 of them have been awarded in Koonar and Nuristan province.

Eight of them were awarded in Kunaar and Nuristan between October 07 and October 09. Three of them were awarded in Kunaar, Nuristan, between October 07 and October

09, three of them to our unit, two of them to chosen company in the Weigal Valley. I mean,

it was a fight every day in that valley.

But on that morning of 4 July, or excuse me, 13 July at 0.4 in the morning, 2008, for one reason or another, I was in the talk at the time, our tactical kind of operations center.

And I heard Matt Meyer, the company commander's initial call

into me, when something like Rock Six, this is Chosen Six, we're in a ranchhouse-like attack.

And we had shared understanding. We had a lot of trust between myself and the company commanders. And at that time,

I knew exactly what that meant to both of us.

Hey, welcome back to The Speer, a podcast by the Modern War Institute at West Point. I'm John

Amble, editorial director at MWI, and The Spear is our platform to explore

the combat experience.

In this episode, I had the privilege to talk to a guest about not just combat, and

there is a lot of it in the stories that he shares, but also leadership.

The day after we release this episode marks the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Wainat.

On July 13th, 2008, around 200 Taliban fighters attacked U.S. soldiers and a small contingent of Afghan soldiers.

In the very intense fight that followed, nine Americans lost their lives and more

than two dozen were wounded. It remains one of the most deadly battles for U.S. forces during

our long war in Afghanistan. Colonel Bill Osland was the battalion commander of the soldiers

who fought the battle. It happened in the 14 month of an extremely difficult 15-month deployment.

In this conversation, he shares his memories of that deployment, of the battle, and of the paratroopers he commanded.

...