Legion of Brothers Page #6

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all over my uniform.

- And I'm just sitting there

looking at myself,

And this thumb was touching

the inside of my arm here.

I'm like, "oh, that's bad."

As I arched, because I had

a big sucking chest wound,

All this blood starts

blasting out of my shirt here.

And I remember starting

to kind of go into shock,

And I said, "oh, my god,"

three times.

And so the last thing

I thought was,

As I was looking at that, is,

If I go face-down,

I'm gonna drown in this.

So when I go out,

I got to go

and turn my head this way.

And that's the last thing

I remember, and I...

- You know,

there's really not a day

I don't think

about that whole event.

I mean, we never found enough

of master sergeant davis.

We had to do a dna analysis,

Because the bomb hit

exactly where he was standing.

- Our company sergeant major

came in with the news

That 574 had a jdam

dropped on their position,

And said j.D. And...

- Dano.

- Dano were k.I.A.

And that was kind of

a devastating moment.

- The 574 casualties

hit me pretty hard.

Trying to figure out

what I want to--

How I want to tell you this,

but...

- These guys

on your left and right,

And they will always be there,

no matter what.

And, to me,

it's like brotherhood.

Excuse me.

- I finally shut off

for a minute,

And I just cried my eyes out.

The first americans

killed in afghanistan

Were killed

by their own people.

- Afghan fighters

have deserted the taliban.

- Soldiers are now

deserting in the hundreds.

- They surrendered kandahar

that day.

And--I just need a minute here.

- In four short months,

Our nation has begun to rebuild

new york and the pentagon,

Rallied a great coalition...

- I was down there below,

on the floor of congress,

Listening to the president

give the "evil empire" speech,

Which would end up being

a very defining speech

For the next 14 years, really.

- Terrorist training camps,

Saved a people from starvation,

And freed a country

from brutal oppression.

- What does victory feel like?

It felt like we had

done our jobs.

I mean, as hindsight,

it was the perfect--

You know, it was the mission

that we'd trained for

From the time

we came in special forces.

That was the mission.

- We had less than 100 guys.

We topped the taliban

and ran al-qaeda off.

Add 20,000 troops,

been bogged down every since.

- I think we did

make it look too easy.

But we didn't really have time

to reflect on that

Before we were invading iraq

With the expectation

it would be over quickly.

- What we have found

in afghanistan confirms

That, far from ending there,

Our war against terror

is only beginning.

- So when we chased bin laden

Out of afghanistan,

into pakistan,

As far as the commander

told us,

We have done our job.

"great job."

We all but tied the bow

on afghanistan at the time.

That same team,

that same group of guys

Went to iraq,

and less than 90 days,

We thought iraq was over too.

- Yeah.

- We were having tea in baghdad.

- Literally.

- Eating in a restaurant.

- You're welcome.

- You're welcome.

Yeah, here's your country.

- You know, nine months later,

you come home again,

And you got a new mission.

You used to go in a vfw,

And you hear one guy

had one tour,

And you're like, "oh, wow."

And you hear one guy

had two tours,

You're like,

"ooh, he's a little crazy."

You know what I mean?

Somebody had three tours,

You know they're

out of their minds.

- Yeah.

- And what you see now is,

you know,

People have five, seven,

nine, ten tours,

And they're still going.

- Me and scotty--

Scotty and I retired

the same year.

And when I retired,

I just went home and...

And I'm gonna tell you this.

11 days after I retired,

I put my wife in the hospital.

I don't even know why.

I just kind of freaked out.

I'm not saying it's ptsd.

I'm not saying it was anything.

I don't even really

remember what happened.

It's just--it's just like,

You know, you go,

and you do things,

And you do some, really,

stuff that's crazy.

And then, when you're done,

They just tell you, "bye."

You know?

- I just came back

from afghanistan again,

Another deployment over there.

This was my 26th

deployment total.

I forgot to give him

some stuff last night.

- I'm just filling him.

How long have I known mark?

For as long

as I can remember.

Probably since 3 or 4.

So I've known him

for a long time.

I usually know

what he's thinking,

And sometimes he does me.

- I know.

- Yeah, but...

- Amy's, you know,

raised our family,

You know,

being a single working mom

Majority of the year.

- I've had some

trying times at home,

But I manage to get through it,

And then I yell at him

for it later,

Going, "this is what

I had to deal with."

- It's just adapting,

Continuing to evolve

and adapt to that new normal.

Maybe that's part of it,

Is, you keep turning up the heat

a couple degrees at a time

Over 26 deployments,

And then you're kind of

at that new normal.

My tolerance level

for bullshit

Is kind of at its max.

And, you know, I...

I'd say that's maybe one thing,

Just lose some patience

with myself

Or my family, or...

- When he comes home

from deployments,

We try to bring everybody here

to just be a family,

Hang out outside.

- Is that good?

- But, yeah, 14 years.

Kaya was born

when he was in afghanistan.

She's almost 14.

- Wait, wait...

Now.

- I keep going back

because I want to believe

That we made a difference.

You know, the ranger creed

they instill in us

Is, you know,

"readily will I display

"the intestinal fortitude

to carry on to the objective.

Though I be the lone survivor,

I keep going back."

- I remember that morning.

It was like 2:
00

in the morning.

I happened to be just up.

And I see it on cnn.

It goes, two special forces

soldiers got killed.

And I'm just thinking,

"oh, god.

I hope they're nobody

that I know."

- I was 13.

Yeah, I was at school.

They called my name

for dismissal,

To come to the office

to be dismissed.

And I went,

and the person picking me up

Was someone who I never thought

would be picking me up.

And we got in the car,

and we were driving home.

I said, "well, why are you

picking me up?"

And he said, "well, your mom

just wanted me to come get you,

Pick you up early."

And I remember saying out loud

to him,

"maybe my dad came home."

I said, "maybe my dad's

coming home today."

- I walked in the door,

And that's when I saw

the chaplain standing there.

I actually saw

my mom and my sister crying.

The next day, when they said

that they dropped a bomb

And it hit him,

I was angry.

I actually hated the military

for a little while,

But I had to act

like I didn't.

- How many soldiers die?

And what is it for?

What is it for?

Okay, it's for our country.

But what is it for?

- Hey, this is a little

special rum from guatemala

That was introduced to me

by a good friend.

His team worked

in guatemala for like a year,

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