The Secret War Before Iraq | Green Berets, Kurdish Fighters, and the Northern Front
Combat Story
Ryan Fugit
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 178 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Before the Iraq War officially began, a different fight was already underway.
U.S. Army Special Forces teams were operating in Northern Iraq, linking up with Kurdish fighters and preparing to open a second front against Saddam Hussein. What they built in those early months would shape the opening phase of the war.
In this episode, AJ Pasciuti sits down with retired Lieutenant Colonel Mark Grdovic, a Green Beret who led missions alongside Kurdish Peshmerga forces against Al-Qaeda affiliates in the mountains.
This conversation follows the full path, from early training and deployments, to the moment everything changed after 9/11, to the long preparation for a mission that had no clear timeline and no guaranteed support.
Mark shares what it looked like to plan in uncertainty, build trust with partner forces, and lead small teams in high-risk environments where decisions carried immediate consequences.
You'll hear how Special Forces teams executed a 570-mile infiltration into Iraq, fought in complex terrain, and helped create the conditions for the northern front to succeed. He also reflects on leadership, responsibility, and the realities of unconventional warfare that rarely make it into the broader narrative.
This is a story about more than combat.
It's about trust, preparation, and what it takes to operate in the space between intent and execution.
If you're interested in Special Forces, the Iraq War, unconventional warfare, or leadership under pressure, this episode gives you a grounded, firsthand perspective.
🎙️ Guest - Mark Grdovic
Mark Grdovic is a former U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret who worked alongside Kurdish fighters in the early days leading into the Iraq War. His story offers a rare look at unconventional warfare, partnership on the ground, and the human side of conflict before the world was watching.
🔗 Find Mark Online:
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-grdovic-pmp-5668b357
📕 Book (Those Who Faced Death): https://thosewhofacedeath.com
🎙️ Host AJ Pasciuti
AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans share honest, unfiltered stories of service, leadership, and life after combat.
🔗 Find AJ Online:
📕 Book (Darkhorse): https://www.amazon.com/Darkhorse-Harnessing-Hidden-Potential-Life/dp/1400254973
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/
📘 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/
🔗 Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So they take us to a high ground. |
| 0:05.0 | Mortar rounds are coming, hitting the road, left and right of us. |
| 0:08.0 | And, you know, we stop, we get out. |
| 0:10.0 | And the Kurdish guys are like, there's the enemy position to which I'm like, yeah, no, I think I got it. |
| 0:15.0 | And this position has been terrorizing this community for months. |
| 0:18.0 | As it turns out, these three NCOs are all what we call 18 Bravo weapons |
| 0:21.7 | sergeants. So these guys say, hey, can we shoot at that gun? And I think all the Kurds were like, |
| 0:26.0 | oh, this is going to be fantastic. And they all go to their bunkers to back, hey, watch the |
| 0:29.1 | Americans. They're about to get themselves killed. So these three guys, they fire, they do their, |
| 0:33.2 | you know, calculations. They fire their first round. And it's off, as is normal. Within seconds, the enemy |
| 0:38.3 | gun fires back. But the American crew is not flinching. And they are doing their adjustments, |
| 0:44.0 | they're making calls, you know, with the hope, believe it, I can do it more accurately and |
| 0:47.9 | faster than that guy can do it. And they are correct. They get their third round off and their |
| 0:52.6 | third round kills the target. You can imagine |
| 0:55.2 | the Kurds come out and they start to realize like these guys are warriors. |
| 0:59.2 | Welcome to combat story. I'm AJ Peschuti, a retired Marine, force recon, scout |
| 1:05.9 | sniper, and Marine gunner with 21 years of service, multiple combat tours, and a lifetime of lessons learned |
| 1:11.8 | in the arena itself. On this show, I sit down with warriors from every front line to uncover |
| 1:16.9 | what combat truly feels like and how it shapes the way we see life, each other, and ourselves. |
| 1:22.9 | This is Combat Story. |
| 1:25.4 | Today on Combat Story, we're joined by Lieutenant Colonel Mark Gertivik, U.S. Army Special Forces retired. |
| 1:31.3 | A green beret who spent 23 years in uniform, including 19 in Special Forces, leading missions most will never hear about. |
... |
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