Mike Ritland

What are your living conditions like? Shit, I mean tents living on a cot living on a cot surrounded by stacked sandbags and a Concrete ish just mud mud hut. Okay on the second floor of a little structure. I

What are your living conditions like? Shit, I mean tents living on a cot living on a cot surrounded by stacked sandbags and a Concrete ish just mud mud hut. Okay on the second floor of a little structure. I

Are you eating local food? A lot of the time we were, or Mermite or MRE. I mean, we were the furthest northern fire base on the border with Pakistan. And we had really not a lot of support. I mean, the closest... support was J-bad, which is still hours away. I mean, if something went bad.

Are you eating local food? A lot of the time we were, or Mermite or MRE. I mean, we were the furthest northern fire base on the border with Pakistan. And we had really not a lot of support. I mean, the closest... support was J-bad, which is still hours away. I mean, if something went bad.

Are you eating local food? A lot of the time we were, or Mermite or MRE. I mean, we were the furthest northern fire base on the border with Pakistan. And we had really not a lot of support. I mean, the closest... support was J-bad, which is still hours away. I mean, if something went bad.

No, some of them were trained up by prior ODAs. I think first group was there before us. Before that, there was another third group team. And so they had a little bit of training But that's, I mean, man, when you're talking about Afghans in a rural province of Afghanistan that have no education, have no aptitude, don't know how to read, write. Yeah, I mean, it's all relative.

No, some of them were trained up by prior ODAs. I think first group was there before us. Before that, there was another third group team. And so they had a little bit of training But that's, I mean, man, when you're talking about Afghans in a rural province of Afghanistan that have no education, have no aptitude, don't know how to read, write. Yeah, I mean, it's all relative.

No, some of them were trained up by prior ODAs. I think first group was there before us. Before that, there was another third group team. And so they had a little bit of training But that's, I mean, man, when you're talking about Afghans in a rural province of Afghanistan that have no education, have no aptitude, don't know how to read, write. Yeah, I mean, it's all relative.

no matter what the the condition or the situation when you come into a new fire base or or fall into new indage you gotta vet them you gotta put them through some kind of process to be able to see what their current capability is we did that it wasn't much so we started from scratch wow we were doing small unit tactics every single day i was doing small unit tactics with them every single day that we weren't operating and this would be the force

no matter what the the condition or the situation when you come into a new fire base or or fall into new indage you gotta vet them you gotta put them through some kind of process to be able to see what their current capability is we did that it wasn't much so we started from scratch wow we were doing small unit tactics every single day i was doing small unit tactics with them every single day that we weren't operating and this would be the force

no matter what the the condition or the situation when you come into a new fire base or or fall into new indage you gotta vet them you gotta put them through some kind of process to be able to see what their current capability is we did that it wasn't much so we started from scratch wow we were doing small unit tactics every single day i was doing small unit tactics with them every single day that we weren't operating and this would be the force

Not only, this is before Afghan commando units, Afghan border police, Afghan national police, this is before all that. So they didn't have a job. Their job for us were, they were Afghan commandos working for special forces guys. We paid them directly cash. These were our first line of defense and QRF if anything went wrong.

Not only, this is before Afghan commando units, Afghan border police, Afghan national police, this is before all that. So they didn't have a job. Their job for us were, they were Afghan commandos working for special forces guys. We paid them directly cash. These were our first line of defense and QRF if anything went wrong.

Not only, this is before Afghan commando units, Afghan border police, Afghan national police, this is before all that. So they didn't have a job. Their job for us were, they were Afghan commandos working for special forces guys. We paid them directly cash. These were our first line of defense and QRF if anything went wrong.

Well, I mean, again, that's relative as well because when you infill into a remote fire base, the one we were at in the middle of nowhere was surrounded by high ground. It was just a couple Americans in the middle of the Wild West. So we were getting rocketed. We were getting reports of attacks and all these things that were happening. So we were in it. We were in the thick of it already.

Well, I mean, again, that's relative as well because when you infill into a remote fire base, the one we were at in the middle of nowhere was surrounded by high ground. It was just a couple Americans in the middle of the Wild West. So we were getting rocketed. We were getting reports of attacks and all these things that were happening. So we were in it. We were in the thick of it already.

Well, I mean, again, that's relative as well because when you infill into a remote fire base, the one we were at in the middle of nowhere was surrounded by high ground. It was just a couple Americans in the middle of the Wild West. So we were getting rocketed. We were getting reports of attacks and all these things that were happening. So we were in it. We were in the thick of it already.

But I mean, we didn't have any time. It was immediate. I think we went on an op two days, three days after we hit the ground. Immediately went and did a link up with one of the Afghan seniors or Afghan elders in a village. And that's a movement to contact. I mean, you're just rolling, hoping you're not going to get blown up, hoping you're not going to get in a tick.

But I mean, we didn't have any time. It was immediate. I think we went on an op two days, three days after we hit the ground. Immediately went and did a link up with one of the Afghan seniors or Afghan elders in a village. And that's a movement to contact. I mean, you're just rolling, hoping you're not going to get blown up, hoping you're not going to get in a tick.

But I mean, we didn't have any time. It was immediate. I think we went on an op two days, three days after we hit the ground. Immediately went and did a link up with one of the Afghan seniors or Afghan elders in a village. And that's a movement to contact. I mean, you're just rolling, hoping you're not going to get blown up, hoping you're not going to get in a tick.