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This is Jocko, podcast number 536 with Echo, Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. After the Fallujah offensive, the Americans tried to quell the insurgency in Ramadi with a combination of political maneuvers and the cooperation of tribal leaders to root out foreign Islamist fighters. But that plan has spectacularly fallen apart. The men who dared to ally themselves with the Americans quickly learned that the US military couldn't protect them. Insurgents killed 70 of Ramadi's police recruits in January, and at least half a dozen high profile tribal leaders have been assassinated since then. Ramadi has become a town where anti American guerrillas operate openly and city bureaucrats are afraid to acknowledge their job titles for fear of being killed. The government center in downtown Ramadi comes under gunfire or mortar attacks daily. And that right there is an article titled Fear of Big Battle Panics Iraqi City. It was dated 11 June 2006. It's from the Los Angeles Times, written by Megan K. Stack and Louise Rouge. And we've heard from quite a few people on this podcast that fought in Ramadi in 2005 and 2006 and 2007. And there's one common theme that comes out of those conversations, and that is the relationships that we formed on the battlefield, the incredible mutual support that was shared between the Army, Navy and Marine Corps units. And this happened at every level, from the brigade commander working for the Marine Corps division commander, and the good relationships there. And that carried down through the entire chain of command. And at the tactical level, almost every operation that took place was a joint combined operation. And if you're not familiar with military terminology, what that means is joint means it was multiple services, so army and, or Navy and or Marine Corps all working together. And then combined means you have different country involved. And in this case, the country was the soldiers from Iraq, the jundies. And one of the real obvious examples of this was my task unit, Task unit Bruiser. And the relationship that we had with Marine Corps Anglico and on. On the west side of Ramadi, Leif's Charlie Patoon worked with Dave Burke's Anglico crew. Dave's been on this podcast a bunch of times. Lightning 6. And on the east side where Sestone was, there was a detachment from Delta Platoon, and they were working out at Camp corregidor with the first, the 506. And there was another Anglico there, Lightning 4. And we had a great relationship with them. And a superb example of the camaraderie that existed in Ramadi is from one of their Marines, Gunny Gibson. Gunny Gibson, who I knew at the time, was known more commonly by his nickname, Spanky and Gunny Gibson. Spanky was exactly what you'd expect from a United States Marine. He was professional, he was mission focused. At the same time, he was funny, approachable, and likable. And everybody notes that he led from the front. And he helped Seth Stone and Delta Platoon learn the battle space. Passed on, lessons learned, and Gunny Gibson was eventually wounded in Ramadi, Shot in the left knee, was medically evacuated, eventually lost his leg above the knee. But that did not stop Gunny Gibson. He attacked his physical therapy just like he attacked the enemy. He started off with walking and then running with his prosthetic and then swimming and then biking and then skiing and then running races. And eventually, In January of 2008, he became the first above the knee amputee in history to deploy back to a combat theater in the GWAT and is an absolute honor to have him with us here tonight. Retired Master Sergeant William Spanky Gibson. Good to see you, brother.