Danger Close Page #4

he touched.

For our family as a whole...

to be able to see

what Rob had built,

it may give us

some sort of closure.

It may give us some sort of...

opportunity to say good-bye.

It may give us another opportunity

to meet Rob in a way.

(sighs)

QUADE:
Rob's dad

had shared with me

that he was talking to his

Congressman in Massachusetts

to try to go into the war zone

because he wanted to see

the combat outpost...

The house that his son

had built.

And there was no way

that the Congressman

or anybody in the government

was going to let, uh,

somebody go over

and do something like that,

or hopefully not.

So he made me promise

that I would try to get

back over there

and let him know that his son's

outpost was still there,

that his son hadn't

been forgotten over there.

The Green Beret's 10th

Special Forces Group,

they knew that I was

planning to go back

to Iraq with them when they

re-deployed for the second year.

They also knew

that I was injured

and that I had to

come back from the injury

and I would have to prove myself

to them on that one, as well.

I was back with the serious

gunners of ODA 0-9-4.

The "machs gut" guys

who get it done.

- GUNNER:
You guys ready?

- Yeah!

All right, on you,

all right, here we go, dudes.

QUADE:
They invited me to

go through their shoot house

with live fire.

(gunfire)

(soldier shouts)

- (shouts)

- Stay in the room!

(indistinct chatter)

(gunfire)

(gunfire continues)

Hey, what do you guys got?

We bypassed a pool door

on the right in the beginning.

- We got a team who's checking it.

- (gunfire)

Hey, what do you want

for direction of movement?

Where we going, sir?

To the left and back that way.

All right, ready?

All right! Go.

- (chatter)

- Hey, remember, it's a shotgun door!

Everybody! Hey!

- (gunfire)

- Hey, everybody...There's a closed door on the right.

Closed door, right!

(chatter)

- Everybody good?

- Good.

- Oh, why is that door shut?

- We're moving right behind...

We're moving.

All right,

let's go... let's go.

Ready? Everybody up?

Let's go.

(indistinct chatter)

QUADE:

After this training,

I'd been invited

to climb Mt. Rainier

with wounded Special Operators.

This would be the final test

to prove that...

That the ankle was back

and that I could hack it.

On the rope line in front of me

was blind Navy Seal, Lion Joe,

who if you remember

in the American Sniper movie,

he was the one who had been shot

in the face on that rooftop...

And a marine recon scout

who had also been blinded,

and an army soldier

who had lost his legs,

and a ranger who had served in Somalia

in the Black Hawk Down mission,

Kenny Thomas.

And at more than 14,000 feet

at the top of this volcano...

the lesson that I learned

from these Special Operators...

From these wounded warrior

Special Operators,

you don't quit.

And it was that moment that

I was able to prove to myself

that I was back from the injury

and that it was time

to get back to Iraq.

SHAWN:
Neither one of you

have ever heard this story.

WOMAN:

I'm sure we haven't.

The last Christmas

that Rob was here,

which was, um, 2006,

we went up to Uncle Ralph's

as we always do.

- We go up to Uncle Ralph's for Christmas Eve...

- Christmas Eve.

(overlapping chatter)

SHAWN:

And opened all the presents.

We do what we always do.

You and dad left early,

and Rob and I stayed.

- Tara, what are you looking at?

- Cosette?

- COSETTE:
Robbie.

- TARA:
Robbie?

SHAWN:
When Rob decided

he wanted to leave,

we got in the car

and left Uncle Ralph's.

We were driving home

and it was the moments

that Rob confided in me

for the first time.

It was one of those times

where he just let it all out.

And he told me that

he wasn't necessarily

planning on coming home.

Oh, from Iraq, okay.

So he had an idea in 2006

that he wouldn't be home.

You know Rob.

It doesn't surprise me,

but I didn't...

As a mother, he ain't gonna confide

in me all that stuff anyways,

but I did not know that.

I can remember the last time...

I dropped at the airport.

I saw him that Christmas.

And he says, "You don't

have to hug me."

Until this day, I wish I did.

Well, you don't know.

No, you don't.

You really don't.

It is what it is.

- All right, Bill.

- See you.

ANDERSON:
Did you have

any idea at that point

how you were gonna figure out

how to get there?

No, I knew I was going

to do whatever it took.

- QUADE:
Oh, there's somebody I know.

- Hey, what's up?

When I re-deployed

with them again,

Rob's team was in

a completely different location

very far from

Combat Outpost Pirelli.

(shouting chants)

CAPTAIN JASON:
My team we're the elite

unit down here in this province.

We're here to bring

credibility and legitimacy

the Iraqi Security Forces.

- QUADE:
How do you do that?

- Once we get here,

we have to identify

a fit partner,

foreign internal

defense partner.

And the party that we identified

is the an-Nasiriyah SWA Special Weapons Attack team.

So we had to select

those operators

that we felt would be

effective in this area

in order to set the conditions

for sustainable security.

Everybody, this on you,

knock out ten push ups...

(translator speaks Arabic)

- and then we take a break.

I'm not gonna count for you,

but, you know, if you only

do two, that's on you.

- You're not getting any stronger.

- (speaking Arabic)

- Okay, so...

- (overlapping speech)

They can do multiple

sets of that as well.

(translator speaks in Arabic)

This rotation in an-Nasiriyah

did not get large scale

for on-surge operations.

We're leaving those type of operations

up to the Iraqi Security Forces.

So, you know, the IPs are gonna

do it, the IA are gonna do it.

I think that's

a sign of progress.

I think that's what

we should be doing.

Ready, guys?

Yeah! Up!

Keep it up!

(overlapping chatter)

Up!

Ahh.

(counting in Arabic)

(speaks Arabic)

Oh my god, we're doing an excellent

job of teaching jumping jacks.

The excitement and the fun

and you know the things

that they signed up...

- QUADE:
The adrenaline stuff?

- To do or their kind doing,

is kind of going

by the wayside a little bit,

but everybody understands

that that is where we should be,

and that's a good thing.

QUADE:
So difference between

last year and this year?

Last year we had

to walk 500 meters

to go take a shower,

and we were going to the bathroom

in a hole that I dug in the ground.

And this year, I have people

wash and fold my laundry.

Completely different

from last deployment.

Honestly, there's times

where this deployment,

I'd say, man, I wish we were back

up at, you know, COP Pirelli

because... I mean, I definitely

miss Rob every day.

I'd like to go back up.

And it'd just be interesting

to see what it's evolved into,

and just kinda go

back through some memories

from being out there

and kinda walk

those paths again.

STACEY:
When Rob had passed,

my dad, he would go down

to the coffee shop

and grab a coffee

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