Adam McLean (17:20)
So, so first we were supposed to be the last combat units in Afghanistan. When, when we left Leatherneck, that, that was supposed to be it. Let me see how that went. But the ROES man, you have me fired up on that because we were afraid to do our job. We thought if we take out, you know, insurgents who are, who are coming at us, attacking us, that our command was going to fry us. That is something that doesn't make you feel confident in doing what you're doing. And eventually though the job, it made me very apathetic to life at that point. You know, I remember at one point, so we were on, we me, we were seen from the base that, you know, because we're, we're, you know, we, we have all these fortifications along here. It's basically just a big dirt wall. And then you have posts. Well, we're on post and we see these guys way out in the distance, they're digging holes. So what are we going to go do? We're gonna go look, we're gonna go. And so a day or two later we go out on the mrap. So we're checking these holes out and you know, the highest ranking guy there is a corporal. And we, at this point where we found where they're digging, we just, we, we don't even think about the fact, hey, maybe they put something here, maybe they booby trapped this or whatever it is. So we're all just kicking it up and you know, getting in there and, and just like I'm like wait, like we don't even care anymore. We're all just in this gaggle right here. Who knows what it, what it could have been. And it turned out that they had a, a uniform stage there and I think a few other miscellaneous things. So obviously they were trying to, I guess breach the perimeter and that was their, their planning for it. But that was an interesting experience. And, but we did that was later in the deployment, you know. You know, while we were there the whole time we see the base just shrinking, shrinking, right. They kept the outer perimeter, but all the stuff like, you know, there's a million defects that, you know, we never got to go because we were working. But you know, all the stuff started being compressed and there was this great vast difference of desert between where our posts were and where the base actually resided on. Camp Weatherneck. Camp Weatherneck was part of also there was a British air base bastion, and then there was the ANA side. I forget what their. Their name with the base was for them, but it's. But it's all together. And our side was just compressing. Compressing. But we. We did two Alpha Company, we did two pushes, big pushes out into an area called Natalie, where we knew that they. The Taliban had been stashing weapons. And we, as part of us getting ready to leave and hand it over the base, we were like, well, we need to go take this out the. And before that gets used on the ANA when we. When we leave. So it's kind of. And so. So the whole plan of combat operation at this point was like, how do we help with the transition? And this. Those two combat operations that were out for. For most, several days at a time, those two ended up being interesting because, well, they started firing all their caches at us. You know, they. They had a lot of RPGs. Yeah, a lot like it was. And. And one of the interesting ROEs we had was whenever they would start shooting RPGs at us, we would stop our MRAPs. I don't know about you, but I think a moving target is a harder target to hit than the. But I was not. I mean, I was a lance corporal. I got promoted into corporal at some point during that deployment. I don't remember the time frames. Athlete gets blurry. It's been a decade, but it was. That was wild, you know. And another interesting thing I remember, you know, we. We had put seawire down on their roads. Their roads. It's just a dirt path. And then you could go around them very easily. It was kind of silly, but I remember just, you know, getting up in the morning. I'm. Me and three other Marines were tasked to go pick it up. And we ended up using my. If we had gotten attacked, you know, I mean, what are the two most dangerous times? Dawn and dusk, right? So we're out there at dawn picking up C wire, me with two other Marines, and we're using my M16 to hold the C wire. Like a buddy's holding the barrel and I'm holding the butt stock. So if we got engaged, I can't even fight the enemy. Well, they didn't. You know, our leadership didn't go. They said, go get this. I'm like, there's no, hey, take a shovel or something. It was just, go, go do this. And so that was kind of a. More comical and. But all those things turned into, like, between the restrictive roes, between just the ridiculousness of the scenario that we were put forth there, it kind of just really changed me and made me very apathetic for a while. Like, I remember being asked if I was extending to go on. Oh, there's another thing. A part of the. Halfway through the deployment, they start telling us about the next deployment. And like, we're like, guys, you already killing our morale here. So I, I got out. Like, I left active duty. And then I did come back in 2017 into the reserves. I had a prior service recruiter call me and he's like, hey, did you know you can go play marine and get paid and you can quit whenever you want? Wait, I have master over mastery over my career with you now. Why didn't you guys tell me this years ago? And so I spent about a year in the reserves and ultimately that kind of came to an end, though. I was in Michigan doing Operation Northern Strike. We were setting up fighting holes to just do the training where we were going to have ranges and get, you know, attacked, whatever, and just shoot out at the targets they'd put. We'd put up. So my, my team, my two guys, they, they dig their, uh, skirmishers. Now it's my turn to dig my skirmisher, right? Clank, clank with the E tool to the right. Clank, clank to the left. Clank forward. Pull it up. What do I pull up? Well, I pull out this. What I think was a rock. I live in New Hampshire, right? Like, and so I just think big granite rock in the ground. Well, I pulled out was a live arty round. No, I'm holding a live already around. They had EOD came out, they used a couple pounds of C4 to blow it up. They told me it was live and then I should buy a lotto ticket. And my girlfriend, who's now my wife, she was like, dude, you gotta make a decision. You almost not only like, if that would have blown up right from me clicking it, it would have just been me. It would have been my entire platoon. That would have been national news, Right? Can you imagine what would happen if a platoon of marines got taken out in training in Michigan by a live hardy round?