When Leadership Fails in Combat: Lessons from Helmand Province | Ep. 293 | Pt. 2

Mike Drop

Mike Ritland

News, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Politics

4.9 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Retired Marine Force Recon Gunnery Sergeant Ryan Kuperus returns for part two with some of the most harrowing combat accounts you'll hear. From a near-fatal friendly fire incident involving Cobra attack helicopters, to navigating an IED-saturated district center while rescuing a shattered sniper team, Kuperus pulls no punches on what it actually costs when leadership fails on the ground. He also recounts the operation that quietly identified a Taliban shadow governor in northern Helmand — the kind of mission that rarely gets told. The conversation shifts into a candid reckoning with the military's promotion system, the compounding damage of poor senior leadership, and why the men who fight hardest are often the ones the institution fails most. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.0	We get in position and birds inbound and all sun tracers.
0:37.4	You know, we got fixed wing wing we've got rotors the
0:41.2	fricc 53 is coming in with the grunts and there's tracers coming out of the target and pinging in the
0:47.6	53 so my buddy kevin who's a platoon sergeant he came with us as a a J-TAC. So he's snaking the target.
0:56.0	And which, you know, for those in the crowd, like take a infrared laser pointer
1:00.7	and you wave it across the whole side of the compound.
1:04.8	Lee Trace had strobes on, IR strobes,
1:08.3	and the cobras come around and also and lays us with their pod yeah and they're
1:16.4	supposed to be an nFA around us that's why like i don't know if the private called who we need to
1:20.4	call and let them know that we're going to be there because they're supposed to this planned
1:23.2	named operation right there's an nFA around us, they lays us and it goes down my chest,
1:30.5	down all my guys' chest, and it's like down at the last two dudes in the, and me and my buddy
1:37.2	Lance's team. And I was like, everybody would get down. Like Kevin's like, now he's, he went from
1:41.3	snake into target to trying to freaking lasso the freaking birds, you know,
1:45.4	and we're trying to call him on comms.
	...

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