1
(people chatter)
MALE COMMANDER:
All right, gentlemen...
MAN 2: Right here is
Black Rock Mountain, men.
Fifteen to twenty minutes ago,
Alpha Coy, became engaged
by 50 to 100 fighters,
up, around, and on the vicinity
of Black Rock mountain.
They're also taking some indirect
fires from this location.
They hope to have them, uh,
backstopped by Bravo Coy
and compress the enemy
between the two of 'em,
setting the conditions
for us to come in
and do our air assault.
QUADE: What's our
plan for this evening?
Basically, we're rolling in with
the attack of the Command Element
in order to secure
a, uh, high-traffic region
for the, uh...
The Taliban.
QUADE: So you'll be with
Command Element in a Black Hawk
and I'll be up with
the Joe's in a Chinook, yeah?
Absolutely. Yeah, you get
the better spot, though.
(helicopter lightly whirs)
PILOT 1: Beck Becks. I actually
have an L-10-11 going out.
PILOT 2: (on radio)
Upper foresight is good.
- Internals are incomplete.
- (radio crackles)
(indistinct chatter)
PILOT 2: 30 mag, all cooling.
- You can go ahead, over.
- PILOT 1: Roger, work it off.
AIRMAN: Arrow 2-5, I have
contact on all friendlies.
- We have good situational awareness.
- (radio beeps)
(men speak Pashto)
(men speaking Pashto)
ARROW AIRMAN: Arrow's clear.
- Plug it in.
- Yep, Roger.
(men exclaiming in Pashto)
(frantic speech continues)
ARROW AIRMAN: Truckade...
Her movement's the tree line.
- Got anybody in there?
- I'm looking, sir.
Right there,
clock him, hold on a second.
- Oh, shit, right.
- (camera clicks)
AIRMAN: Arrow 2-5, we have multiple enemies
in trees, engaging west of road.
(overlapping chatter)
ARROW AIRMAN 2: Ah, we're getting shot at.
- Roger...
- AIRMAN: Oh, shit, their in...
ARROW PILOT 2: That's affirmative.
We are taking fire
from the west side...
(cursing)
And, Hard Rock, this is Arrow,
we need permission
to engage the tree line,
where the RPG came from.
HARD ROCK COMMAND 1:
Roger, you're clear to engage.
HARD ROCK COMMAND 2: Uh, fucking
light that tree line up, hit it.
- ARROW AIRMAN 1: Roger.
- (machine gun fires)
- Just to the left. Hit it.
- Roger.
(machine gun fires)
HARD ROCK COMMAND 2: Okay, make
sure that-Okay, looking good.
- ARROW AIRMAN 1: Oh, shit.
- Hit it, hit it.
- RPG right over there.
- Right, hit it!
(man cursing) We have multiple
RPGs coming from that side
at the aircraft, I copy.
(men speaking Pashto)
HARD ROCK COMMAND 2: Right, hit it.
- (gunfire)
- Hit it again.
- Hit it again.
- (gunfire)
(men shout)
HARD ROCK COMMAND 2: Good man, good man.
AIRMAN: We neutralized the one RPG site.
ARROW AIRMAN 1: Roger, that's good, copy.
- Come up the road.
- Up the road, Roger.
Up the road, up the road
to the left... to the left.
- Right there in that building.
- Arrow 2-5, are you seeing
- or we're taking more contact?
- Okay.
Roger, we're engaged.
Oh my god, I got a bucket.
Oh, shit... (indistinct)
On, shit.
(radio crackles)
- (radio feedback)
- (woman utters)
(radio crackles)
AIRMAN: 2-5, 2-5, one
of our vehicles got hit.
- We lost the line of...
- (overlapping chatter)
Standby, we're
missing friendlies.
We're trying to
get him out of there.
WOMAN: There was a huge,
huge air assault operation.
This was involving
the first and 5-0-8,
the parachute infantry
regiment, an entire regiment.
It was involving
7th Special Forces Group,
more than 15
different air assets.
It was a huge operation,
and it was going to be going on
for weeks and weeks and weeks,
and within that first hour,
one of the Chinooks
had been shot down
by a Taliban Surface-to-Air missile.
QUADE: They had to try to secure this huge,
flaming crash site,
and they didn't know
if there were any survivors.
ANDERSON: What happened
when you touched down?
We had heard that
there had been a Chinook
that was shot down,
but I just focused
on my job of shooting video
and trying to get the story.
(helicopter continues whirring)
(aircraft flying)
1-3-6, over.
Air Humvee.
(chatter)
Roger, we heard there was a downed
aircraft. Can we confirm that?
Is anybody looking
to our North route?
(overlapping chatter)
QUADE: I'd linked up
with the Commander,
Lieutenant Colonel Brian Menace.
And we were moving
to clear a compound
so he'd have a secure location
because they needed
to control 15 aircraft
that were racked
and stacked in the sky.
This had now become a combat
search-and-rescue mission
in addition to the ongoing
offensive operation.
(gun cocks, shot)
Spread out.
(cow moos)
- AIRMAN: Moo.
- I need to get by you.
- Do you speak English?
- (cow moos)
Hey, he does.
(whistling)
- Hey, get him over here now.
- (dog barking)
Get him over here now.
Get him out here.
(barking)
(men calmly speak Pashto)
Come on.
(man speaks Pashto)
Let me see it.
Here, all right.
Yeah, these guys check out.
They're friendlies.
Thank you.
Who the fuck is our...
(radio crackles)
- AIRMAN 1: All right, you guys ready?
- AIRMAN 2: Yeah.
AIRMAN 3:
Which contact...
- AIRMAN 1: That one right there.
- AIRMAN 2: Okay.
Up, up, right there.
Hit it.
Roger.
Take that, fucker.
Here we go.
- Coming up left.
- Roger.
We nailed the shit
out of that one.
QUADE: Hey, Jimbo,
what are we hearing?
QUADE:
Thank you.
I think what's
important to remember
with this huge
operation is that...
And it was an operation
that still went on
for weeks and weeks thereafter.
And there were many
battles that still followed
and towns that these troops
had to clear, and...
but the important thing that...
That can't get lost in this
is that seven souls were lost.
The five crew of the flipper
and our coalition partners,
a Brit and a Canadian...
And that it... it
made no difference
that... that it
was internationals
or that they
might be reporters...
That we had Americans that
were willing to risk their lives
and go after and make sure
to recover the fallen.
They had to count
the bodies of the fallen.
And when I tracked down
Sergeant Greg Strickland,
whose little six-man platoon...
He had gone in there
and had counted five bodies.
And he thought, okay,
well, I found the crew.
And he was ordered
over the radio
to go back in and
count the bodies again
because the reporters
are missing.
And he told me on camera
that he went back in there
to look for the reporters,
and he said he...
That... to look for me.
I didn't know I was
supposed to be on that...
On that helicopter,
on that Chinook.
It was the guys
who told me afterwards.
It was a punch to the gut
because it was
this realization that...
men put their lives at risk
to come after reporters,
to come after people like me,
even though I'm
not a service member.
It's not that I have a purpose,
but it's that I have
this huge responsibility.
I have a debt to
pay back to these guys.
I have to tell their stories.
Did you stay embedded
with this group
for the entirety
of their mission?
No, I... I was with them
for a good week or so
and then it was time
for me to dis-embed.
I was trying to get in with the
Special Forces Teams in Iraq
and I had a hit date
to try to get in there.
And so it was time for me
to hitchhike my way to Iraq.
I went to Diyala province,
which is the size
of Massachusetts
along the Iranian border,
because that's where
I was going to embed
with the Operational
Detachment Alpha 0-7-2.
O.D.A 0-7-2 was
a so-called rough team...
Very austere, out there
on the fringe of the empire...
Where every day was truly
a fight for survival.
Even their Special
Forces Commander
called these twelve men
hard-charging
and living the Special
Forces Dream...
but they'd just lost
one of their own,
Rob Pirelli, who I knew
from an earlier SF mission.
QUADE: Tell me... um...
tell me about Rob.
CHIEF JIM: Rob was the
senior engineer on our team.
- He...
- Which means what? What does an engineer do?
Well, the engineer
is responsible for
anything that
we have to build or destroy,
or... he's responsible for
movement of all our equipment,
accountability for
all our equipment.
Um, basically he's the
logistics expert on the team.
QUADE: So an engineer- So building
stuff and also, like, blowing stuff up?
- Yeah.
- Okay, so, but building stuff too
because I think a lot
of folks don't understand
- that you guys do all sorts of things.
- Right.
When we moved into this outpost,
it was a house,
basically in desert,
surrounded by barbed-wire fence.
Within a month,
Rob had built the camp.
(rock music plays)
This ain't no world
for the weary eyed
This ain't no game
for the foolish child
This ain't no place
Got to fall in line
- Gone awry...
- He did everything from install the protective barriers
to running electricity
for the house,
repairing generators.
He was literally working
until he went to bed.
He'd wake up in the middle of the
night to play some online poker,
go back to sleep,
wake up in the morning,
still in his AC-Which
and his boots,
ready to work in the morning
with a smile on his face.
We thought it appropriate
to name the camp after him
since he did so much
of that work on his own.
QUADE: We've been kinda holding
off on this one a little bit,
but let's talk about
Rob and about that day.
Yeah, it's a difficult
subject to talk about,
but any questions you want
answered, you want to...
find out about it, I'm more
than happy to talk about it.
QUADE: Bring us- Let's
walk through that day.
We drove out there,
in an area
we've never been before.
There was the makings
of a small village
and so we stopped.
My gunner, he had told me that he
saw somebody on top of the roof,
somebody who was
wearing all black.
And he had an AK, and he was
running around on top of the roof.
(man on radio) The compound
directly to your North,
we have one individual
up on the roof.
CAPTAIN JASON: And he had seen people
maneuvering towards
his building,
and he was sporadically
firing his weapon
from off the top of the roof.
And they started moving aerial
assets over to our location.
(radio chatter)
My team Sergeant,
he said "I've been shot,"
you know "Man down, eagle down."
(man echoes)
Eagle down!
I directed my medic
to maneuver up to the building
where we thought that he was.
MEDIC: And I looked over to my right
and I saw my Senior Charlie
at the time, Rob.
He was laying on his back.
I just remember reaching
around the corner
and grabbing the strap
on his kit,
and pulling him around
the corner of the building.
It was crazy
because he looked...
Other than the fact
that he was unconscious,
he looked like
nothing was wrong with him.
And then I looked on his helmet,
and there was a... uh, an
entry mark on the helmet
basically the round
and pierced his helmet.
The individual who
shot at Rob and Don,
he was the battalion commander
for all of al-Qaeda
in that area.
So I pulled back the Iraqis
and we used an F16
to do a couple runs
on this objective.
- When you heard, what, uh...
- I was devastated.
Um, yeah, you know,
it hits deep your heart.
I've been able to, uh...
To work pretty closely
-with Rob's family,
and I'm gonna, uh,
build, you know...
With the loss of Rob,
be able to build together
and help each other, you know.
They feel a great
loss for their son,
and my wife and I, we feel a
great loss for... for a friend.
The next big mission
that happened
after Staff Sergeant
Rob Pirelli was killed
was a mission slated
for 9/11 time frame.
(vehicle engine turns)
The men that I was with
were going out
and raiding houses
and going after targets
and going after targets
and going after more targets.
- It's a big one, huh?
- That's gonna be a big one.
It's gonna be a lot of assets.
It's gonna be going on two-
From 2300 to 1400 the next day.
It's gonna be
a lot of stuff going on.
- A lot of bad guys out there?
- Hopefully.
Maybe not after we're done.
MAN: (on radio) We've got
approximately 24 total vehicles
- going to get this objective.
- Okay, Roger.
QUADE: There were multiple
ODAs on this ODAs,
and I was to be a
part of Assault Force 4
in ODA 0-9-ODAs vehicle.
The men of 0-9-4
were serious gunners
and their motto was "machs gut,"
a saying from a German
sniper in World War II
meaning "make it right."
And that's what 0-9-4
was all about,
getting it done.
MAN: (on radio)
At this time, I'm located
just to the east of that mosque
we were talking about, over.
Okay, Roger, at this time,
we're gonna start systematically
clearing this objective.
- (door bans)
- Move! Move!
Go, go, go, get in there.
- Let's go, let's go, let's go.
- That's it!
Watch your six.
- Hey, that's it!
- Sir, we got two.
Let's get out of here.
It's more like the one
guy we wanted too.
QUADE: There were insurgents
that had squirted out
from some of these targets and they
were hunkering in a palm grove.
The aircraft overhead
thought that
they were digging up
weapons caches
and things like that.
The next morning,
the Green Beret's called in
and used air strikes.
GUNNER: Is that cache
right around the area
where they were low-calling
and shit too, you think?
Yeah, there's six of them now.
Six?
Yeah.
And he met up with his buddies.
There he is.
You spot him?
Okay, Roger, did your call
at 4 to 10 seconds now.
He's got it cleared hot.
Agent 3-3 Bubba 0-4.
I have visual on four
at this time... men target, over.
(aircraft engine whirs)
SOLDIER: Fuck yeah!
4-1-1 Bubba 0-4,
good hits and...
- Yeah!
- You ready?
(chatter)
QUADE: It was like a
modern day cavalry charge
through this
dried-out lake bed
in these deep ODAs.
We've got still
two up ahead on the left.
- (clinking)
- What is that?
- They're up. Pick up the speed.
- We got it, Chief.
Did you see where he came from?
Negative! I did not see where
he came from directly.
I just know from the left side.
(radio chatter)
We got two up ahead,
two on the left.
We got scouts
who can fucking shoot.
Shoot! Shoot the...
(firing)
QUADE: There was a moment where we were under fire
where I had to make a decision.
Do I stay a journalist
or do I cross the line?
Because the gunner, Bubba,
up above me with the 50 cal.,
he was out of ammo.
- What?
- Get the 50 cal.
I took a breath and said, Okay, Chad,
you know, throw me your knife.
(Quade narrates) I'll open
the strap on the ammo can.
I'll put the camera down
because there was nobody else.
I don't think in that moment
it made me a combatant.
I don't think I necessarily crossed
the line Journalistically.
Had you thought through
that moment before?
Or was it one of those things
that you just said,
if it comes,
it comes and I'll...
There becomes a moment when you might
have to check your moral compass
and your gut, and figure out
what's the right thing to do.
And in my career,
there's been moments where...
is it the reporter thing
or is it the human thing?
And I think in times like that,
the human thing
needs to win out.
(gunfire)
How old are you?
There were four of 'em
that we did catch
and we conducted some tests
to determine whether or not
they were actually the culprits,
they guys that had fired at us.
After the test results
came back,
we knew that they were
the four guys that we wanted.
Positive, positive,
positive, positive.
QUADE: So would they be considered
snipers or pretty good shots?
I know one of them
got the truck.
They had a sniper out there
and they...
We did receive fire,
a few, uh, rounds
flew over our head and other
vehicle that you were in
got shot up and a round actually
pierced the armor there.
During that mission, there had
been a lull in the firefight
after the feeding
of the ammo and all of that.
I had asked if I could
get out of the vehicle
and crawl up
on top of the vehicle
to get some... some
panoramic shots,
some wide shots
outside of the vehicle.
And while I was up there,
stuff started happening again.
So I jumped off
the roof of the vehicle...
Had a very hard landing,
uh, busted my ankle
and busted my wrist.
Something was wrong.
I knew that I had hurt myself
and hurt myself badly, but...
I tried to fake that I was fine.
I didn't want to get sent home.
I wanted to keep
getting the story.
And so I kept faking...
Trying to fake that I was fine.
It got to the point where
I couldn't go
on air assaults anymore.
I couldn't even
put weight on the foot.
And, uh, so it was
time for me to go home.
Operational Detachment
Alpha 0-7-2,
they did their team photo
standing in front of
the Pirelli wall.
And it was that team photo
I brought to Rob's dad,
Bob Pirelli.
(applause)
MAN: (on intercom)
Above you are three C-1-30s,
approaching the drop zone
with over 174
lethal and highly motivated
paratroopers on board.
The aircraft are flying in.
QUADE:
Oh, look, guys.
He said how much
you built the place up.
Well, when you heard about
this, what did you think?
Well, when I heard about it,
I thought it was nice.
I mean, I said, you know...
But when I actually saw it,
physically saw the design
they had... they had...
They had done,
and I really get the sense
they... they really did, uh,
officially name the outpost
with his name.
And to see the actual drawing
on the side of the wall...
And also, I think,
not only that,
I think seeing it
on a soldier's arm...
One of the soldiers
had the insignia done.
- And, um...
- Tattooed?
- Tattooed to his arm.
- Tattooed to his arm.
That type of love
for each other,
we need them
because they're him.
You know, they're part of him.
You know, them being around
makes a big difference to us.
WOMAN: Well, this is the
basement and this is Rob's room.
And that's what I call it,
Rob's room,
because I turned around
and I decorated for Rob
and all his things.
It's a memorial for Rob.
This here is a picture
of Rob's unit,
one of them anyways.
I remember him
calling me one time
because I work in constructions
and electrical construction.
And he called me one time
to ask me how to
wire something out there.
And they wire differently...
Their schematics are different
than our schematics, anyways.
So even if I told him
that green was ground,
he says, "The wires
over here are orange.
What do I do?" You know.
So he figured out... He figured
everything out himself, so yeah.
And they all turn around
and they say that,
the Pirelli outpost,
Rob built most of it
and I'm sure he did.
Rob loved hockey.
Can you tell by the cups and all
that he loved the Avalanches?
And these are some
of the players that he liked.
We buried him
with his hockey stick
and we buried him
with his number 18,
his Hockey shirt from Franklin.
And that went with him.
My dad always said,
to really get to know Rob
you needed to go
to the places he went,
experience what he loved
and see the things he built.
MAN: Hey.
- Hey, buddy, good to see you
- You too, Shawn.
- How's everything?
- Uh, it's going, it's going.
- Good, good.
- How you doing?
"Good, good, good.
Since Sunday, we've...
You guys went to state, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
- That was awesome. Overtime?
- Yeah, double overtime.
- That's awesome.
- Yeah, it was a great game.
I can imagine.
That's the first time.
Yeah, in 33 years.
He came from a hockey town.
He came from a hockey family.
For dad, he was proud of Rob.
You heard that
when he announced the games.
He started announcing
because of Rob.
BOB PIERELLI: You got 6 seconds
left, 41.6 seconds left
in the second period.
One-one deadlocked,
a great game.
You're treated to one of the
best games of the year, here.
And every time that Rob
touched the puck,
it was... you hear him yelling,
like, "Pirelli's got the puck!
Pirelli! Pirelli's got it!
He's gonna score!"
It was... it was... you know,
everybody else was like,
"Here comes Speducio,
Speducio shoots, shoots, save,"
but when Rob touched the puck,
it was... you felt it,
you felt his passion.
BOB PIERELLI: Back up to Pirelli,
Pirelli on the left side.
Pirelli fighting for
the puck on Speducio.
He's looking down
the wrong way and...
(Bob Pirelli shouting)
He's gonna have a break-away!
Will it hit? Oh, no!
Aww, on an open net.
He missed an open net.
He made a beautiful move
and he misses the net.
SHAWN: He wants Rob
to score so badly
because he wants
to announce this.
He wants to announce
to the world
that, like, Rob just scored.
BOB PIERELLI:
Everything...
Pirelli, I don't know how
he ever missed it,
but regardless...
SHAWN: Dad wanted to see
that... that outpost.
That was something
that he, um...
I know he talked about
every day...
Was seeing and trying
to get to see the outpost
before it was destroyed
because it was
the last thing he built.
It was the last thing
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
for himself also for Rob.
He would come down
to the cemetery...
and it would be his chance
to sit and talk with Rob.
He would park his car.
He would have a pin in his car
where Rob's picture would be.
And he would walk up
to Rob's resting place...
and he would take a pin
and poke Rob's coffee.
And as it was dripping out,
he would drink
his coffee with Rob.
That was...
That was their time together.
My father passed away
on September 11th, 2012.
He was really sick
and in a hard place,
but he knew it was... okay
because he was gonna
see his son again.
We wanted to have him
buried as close
as we could to Rob
and we know that's what
he would have wanted,
so we made that happen.
QUADE: Tim, the medic,
who had tried to save
his Green Beret brother and help
him breathe his last breathes...
wanted to know that the
place that Rob had built...
He wanted to know
about the changes there,
but the military P.A.O.s
had said that my...
My embed was with
10th Special Forces Group
and was not with
1st Special Forces Group,
which was now located
where Combat Outpost Pirelli
was in Diyala province.
They denied my request.
So to get there,
I'd have to hitchhike
from Special Forces
A Team to A more than 300 miles
around the war zone.
From an-Nasiriyah
it was to Hilla.
From there, went to
Baghdad to area four,
which was the secret location
where those serious gunners
of ODA 0-9-4 were going out
and doing missions.
- (clamoring chatter)
- (gunfire)
- Alex!
- What?
- Stay out here.
- Who said?
All clear!
(soldiers chatter)
Put these guys on the roof.
All right, step in there, Alex.
- What was that?
- (speaks Arabic)
- He's a free worker.
- What does he do?
Yes.
(quiet chatter)
(speaks Arabic)
The one's too young.
But the other one might
be old enough to be him.
Do you have
a first name, Hussein?
Robert.
Pull those detainees
and go down out of the element.
Have the source take a look
at both those jack-asses.
- Okay. Hey, Bob!
- Yeah.
I'm gonna need you and Ranger
in about 3 minutes.
- Ali Abu...
- Bob, you move with...
- Haruz, let's go, brother.
- Ranger
(both speak Arabic)
ANDERSON: Did you actually
plot a course in your own mind?
If this didn't work out,
you could sense an adjust,
and you knew somewhere
else that you could try?
Is that what... Is that sort
of how you approached it?
I always hope for the best.
Um, expect the worst
and plan accordingly.
And I always hope
that logic will prevail
and people will... will...
Will... will maybe have a soft spot
get what it is that I was doing,
but, uh, no.
From there, it was to Camp Taji.
What's the deal
with this bad guy?
Oh, we got
a warrant for his arrest.
It's a Baghdad warrant.
He was an AQI member.
Mostly what he's wanted for
is the murder of
other Iraqi members,
mostly another clan.
His tribe is very large
with I.E.D.s in this area.
QUADE: What's your name?
You're the RTO?
- Yeah, Roger.
- And I'm Alex.
Okay, I'm gonna be on your
hipper behind you, okay?
Okay.
MAN: (on radio) An Arrow 2-5,
go ahead, it's traffic.
We at this time, we
are supporting Jaguar
on guard.
- Check the friendlies, please.
- Checking the friendlies.
We have six Humvees on the road.
(radio chatter)
It's about a six
vehicle convoy, over.
QUADE: Okay.
Okay, will do.
AIRMAN: (on radio) The compound
that is directly above them
to the southeast
is a hostile compound.
They can declare
that area, copy.
All right, go-
Go, go, go,
last man. Last man.
Get out of the hallway.
Medic check.
Hit it with your light.
Will it open?
(banging on door)
(Men speaking Arabic)
(banging on door)
Go! Go! Go!
(indistinct shouts)
(officer speaks Arabic)
Sir, these are his cousins.
Round 'em up.
Take 'em outside.
(prisoner speaks Arabic)
(officer speaks Arabic)
The first house we went to,
the target house,
was the target's house,
his family's house.
He was not at that house.
- SOLDIER: We're just searching the house...
- Go, -hmm.
Because this guy
is a high-level leader.
We're looking for
documents, notebooks,
anything that can
lead to the next guys.
We call it a cascading target.
Normally with
high-level terrorists,
they're like code 1-0-4.
It's like the highest
level of crime
in the Iraqi judicial system.
And so this guy was wanted
on a code 1-0-4 warrant.
QUADE: Why is he a bad guy?
Why do we go after this guy?
Very basic broad strokes.
SOLDIER: Yeah, he runs a
terrorist organization.
QUADE:
Which does what?
SOLDIER: The big thing he's
pushing for now is I.E.D.s
QUADE: And the I.E.D. threat has
kinda started up a little again,
- more recently.
- Yeah, I hear in the last
two weeks,
we've had three strikes.
And that coincides with
being released from prison.
- So...
- He had been detained and then got released
and back out on the streets?
Yup.
- AIRMAN: Checking for movement.
- SOLDIER: Copy.
You got two of 'em
staying in the courtyard, there.
- Yeah, I think that's him.
- Copy.
- Are there three?
- Okay, now there are three of them
running in.
One is...
Oh, one's a kid.
- Copy.
- There's another one.
Four, five...
They have all gone
into the door
of the host building
and continuing to watch.
AIRMAN: Yeah, make sure you
get ahold of those guys
in that area up there.
SOLDIER:
Roger, that's a good, copy.
(dog barking)
- (gunshots)
- (barking continues)
- (gunshot)
- Go, go, go!
Go to the left!
To the left.
- Where'd everyone go?
- Clear!
(soldiers chatter)
Go, go, go!
- (officer speaks Arabic)
- (boy speaks Arabic)
- (officer translates)
- (boy speaks Arabic)
- (officer speaks Arabic)
- (boy speaks Arabic)
Okay.
(soldier indistinct)
(prisoner speaks Arabic)
TRANSLATOR: He says he doesn't know.
(speaks Arabic)
(dog barking)
(shouting in Arabic)
(shouting)
(barking)
SOLDIER: His brother was there.
We have his brother,
a major ARCOM in the I.A.s
We got the story
of where he was at.
They try to lie to 'em,
but it's a lot easier
for the I.A.s
because they speak the language.
MAN: (on radio) Three minutes
ago, we heard one individual
talk to another individual.
That they took the hill coming
toward the other individual.
(helicopter whirring)
SOLDIER:
Search that tree line.
AIRMAN: Searching.
AIRMAN: I got alight
or something down there.
Get right there.
That's him.
We are tracking
enemy personnel in that area.
(dogs barking)
- (helicopter whirs)
- (dogs barking)
AIRMAN: Look around
for the friendlies, please.
AIRMAN: They are
continuing west from there.
(muttering)
All right, he's running.
Let's watch him for a second.
Close to friendlies!
He is 360 meters,
and he's hunkered down.
QUADE: I follow.
Go, go.
- Okay, well, one, two, three, four.
- (water sloshes)
- Thank you.
- SOLDIER: You're welcome.
AIRMAN: So far, it looks
like he's hunkered down.
- SOLDIER: I'm checking for movement.
- Copy.
If we get a good shot here,
let's stop and look.
SOLDIER:
Sir, fire some flares.
See if you can stir him up.
SOLDIER: Flares.
AIRMAN:
There it was.
Okay, we got several movers.
Ah, those look like animals.
Hey, there he is.
He's up and forward.
There he is.
AIRMAN: Came out of the tree
line and ran into that compound.
SOLDIER: Copy.
Go, go, go!
(shouting in Arabic)
We ended up finding him
at his cousin's house,
which was still
on the family's land,
but again the family's land
is about two kilometers wide
in every direction.
That's why we traveled
so many canals and so much land.
- You guys be safe tonight.
- Roger, that's a good, copy,
and we appreciate the word.
Like always, it's great
working with you guys.
I managed to get myself
to Diyala province,
to Bakuba... what had become this
massive Forward Operating Base
Warhorse.
Within Warhorse,
had been the Special Forces
Headquarters Compound.
I just boldly walked up
and knocked on their door
at the Special Forces Compound
and said, "Hey, I'm Alex Quade.
I spent time with the... with the
teams that were here last year.
Want to let me in?" And, no.
(laughs) No, they did
not want to let me in.
So that's when it was...
Okay, plan B.
I'll embed with the conventional
units that are here.
And I will try to
hopscotch my way
from conventional unit
to conventional unit
and just try to
geographically get closer.
Did you have a time limit
that you knew you
were working within
to try to get to
Combat Outpost Pirelli.
No, I was my own person.
I was a freelancer.
I was at my own expense
and unattached with no support
and no camera crew
and no nothing.
So I had all
the time in the world
and that worked to my advantage,
as did being underestimated.
What exactly are we doing today?
We... are going to
look for some caches today
in one of our villages.
Uh, we got some
intel the other day.
There's some possible
cache's out in R.A.O.
So we're gonna jointly
with the E.R.U.
go out there and see
if we can find these things.
So this is pretty much
where we're at nowadays.
Doing operations...
Everything we do.
QUADE: So we expect to
find in these caches?
Well, everybody else
has been finding them,
- so I hope you find them too.
- Yeah?
If we don't, we're not
gonna look too good.
(chuckles)
SOLDIER:
We call it trash village.
It's a whole town,
lives in nothing but trash.
(dog barks)
Everything's gonna
build character.
Well, this is a whole lot
of character building today.
(geese honk)
(flies buzzing)
(beeping)
Down by the truck?
ALL: Bye-bye, bye-bye,
bye-bye, bye-bye.
I managed to get myself
within the vicinity.
Combat Outpost Pirelli
had ended up urban sprawl.
A Forward Operating Base
was growing up around it,
called Cobra.
And they didn't
even realize all that much
that there was this secret
Special Forces
A team house in there.
I managed to get myself
embedded with the cavalry unit
that was there, co-located where
Combat Outpost Pirelli was.
And that cavalry unit was from
Alaska, the arctic wolves.
They had just that week
received a coffee maker.
SOLDIER: We just got a
coffee pot two weeks ago.
We're getting re-adapted
to the caffeine.
(Quade laughs)
It's gonna be a good clay.
SOLDIER:
See the major over there?
- He's running the show.
- Hm-hmm.
We're just his
little followers right now,
putting the Iraqi army first.
Most of these guys...
The soldiers...
Personally know
the farmers in here.
So even to come in here
and clear palm groves
it's a social call.
You know, they come in
here and talk to their friends.
We try to enforce, you know,
the fact that they
need to clear this,
but they're like, "Oh, no,
it's my brother, it's my friend.
He's good."
- He might be good, but...
- It's a happy morning gathering.
That's all it...
It's a social call.
Get a few mandarins
while you're at it.
QUADE: Where do you got to go
hunting for oranges and stuff?
- Yeah, I found a terrorist.
- You did.
- It was right there.
- They were growing on trees.
You pretty much
cut 'em out at the root.
(radio chatter)
A terrorist...
Has anybody found anything yet?
- Any caches? Any signs of...
- (speaks Arabic)
- No, sir.
- Okay.
- Just let me check.
- You're gonna go see it in the future?
(speaking Arabic)
(loud explosion)
Somebody just hit one.
(radio chatter)
SOLDIER: Get inside the palm grove!
That's a lot of fucking contact.
- Hey was that a striker?
- (man speaks Arabic)
- (overlapping shouts)
- (radio chatter)
QUADE:
And just like that...
Just like that it
changed in an instant,
and we're coming under fire
in the palm grove.
- (speaks Arabic)
- (radio chatter)
I am less than half a mile away
from Combat Outpost Pirelli
and fulfilling my promise
to Rob's A team
and his gold-star family.
I'd come all this way
and this...
This might keep me
from completing that mission?
Hey! So we're moving
back to the vehicles!
- QUADE: I'll follow you.
- We're moving back to the vehicles now.
We have... Hey, we up, Mo.
SOLDIER: It's jumped to
the south marked position.
Hey, Gunners be advised, we're
moving out of the palm grove.
Hey, spread out, you guys.
Keep eyes
for fucking trip wires.
Sorry about that.
Hey, keep eyes
to the north also!
Holy fuck.
They are here.
- SOLDIER: Right there, you see the smoke?
- Yeah.
- It was in the palm grove.
- Yeah, it was in the palm grove.
Shit!
Hey, let's have this
vehicle move with us.
All right?
Improved cover.
We'll say back off
or these guys up front...
You guys up front...
It's the way it rolls, now.
SOLDIER: Ooh, there's
a smoke, right there.
We're moving the strikers
down here for cover, all right?
QUADE:
I'm on your left hip, Baily.
- (indistinct chatter)
- We got two.
(Quade narrates)
There had been an I.U.D. that was...
We figured out
was made out of 155,
which is an artillery round
and they'd
wrapped it in C-4
and added 30 pounds of munitions
to turn it into a wall
above an I.E.D.
One Iraqi civilian was killed
and five were injured.
- Do you consider that a big one?
- About as big as they get.
They'll want
to shake your teeth.
QUADE: This is the way
we drove in to get...
To drive to get
to the palm grove.
I'm pretty sure
it was meant for one of us.
They knew we're here.
That's why I think that
it was command detonated
because pressure plated...
We would have hit it
- by rolling over it.
- So command detonated
- would mean like a trigger?
- There was a trigger made.
- Somebody watching and trigger manning.
- Exactly.
QUADE: Our strikers had
been going back and forth
over this area
just 20 minutes earlier.
So these soldiers,
they figured that, well...
Our... the Baily
that were on the strikers
must have been working
to interfere with the signal
that the trigger man for this I.E.D.
must have been putting out.
Once we got back to Cobra,
the FOB that had grown up
around Combat Outpost Pirelli,
the cavalry unit
that I'd been with that day
and for the last few days
on these types of missions,
they came to me and they said,
they thought that
I'd earned my spurs,
since were a cavalry unit.
And yet they had no spurs
to give out there.
One of the guys reached into his ruck
and pulled out a Ka-bar... a knife.
He said, well,
it's blunt, but...
these are your spurs.
With that, I had a Ka-bar now in
my back pocket and it was time.
A 160th SOAR- Special Operations
Aviation Regiment bird
was coming to pick me up
and their L.Z....
Their Landing Zone...
Was inside
Combat Outpost Pirelli.
So even though
the Special Forces A-Team there
didn't want to let me in,
they had to
if they wanted to get rid of me.
We made it to the door
and knocked on the door.
There was no hello.
There was no nothing.
They let me in so that I
could have my 15 minutes
as I waited for the bird that was
going to take me back to Baghdad
and I looked around
to see the changes.
It was good to see
that what Rob had built
was still there.
That this rough team house...
Alone on the fringe
of the empire, as their
Special Forces Commander
Major Derrick Jones
had called it...
That it was still a safe house
being used by
Special Forces Teams
in an area that had
been an al-Qaeda sanctuary
near the Iranian border,
where every day
was a fight for survival.
It was still here because
Rob and his ODA 0-7-2
had built it and fortified it.
I may have only
been on the ground
inside Combat Outpost Pirelli
for maybe 15 minutes,
maybe 20...
but I'd done what they'd asked
and I was able to let them know
that Rob's wall...
The T-wall with the symbol
that says Combat Outpost
Pirelli... was still there.
Did you ever think to yourself
what are the odds...
of this working out?
Pretty low to
non-existent, right?
There was no way in hell that I
was not gonna get this clone,
that I was not going to
complete this mission
for Rob's family,
for Rob's teammates,
because none of these guys quit
and I wasn't gonna quit either.
STACEY: Sunrise or
sunset, do you think?
NANCY:
I think it's a sunset.
NANCY: He would be on
the phone talking with
and then all of a sudden,
he'd have to go up on the roof
- and do god knows... so this is...
- Keep watch.
- Yeah, this must be what he had to go through.
- They took turns...
- Yeah.
- Being up there.
What he must've
had to go through.
- (Shawn laughs)
- Oh my gosh.
- "Keep door closed."
- This is Sparta.
Get out of town.
Well, look at that.
For me, it's hard to imagine
that my son had...
Had helped build this.
It's... because he
did build things,
but this is...
it's a lot bigger
than what I thought.
(giggles) Look at all the
clothing hanging up.
SHAWN: We've never,
until this moment,
gotten to see their house,
and it's the one that Rob built.
STACEY:
That's huge for us.
- It just makes it so he's real...
- Right.
STACEY:
and he really made an impact.
The things that he did
were important and he mattered.
But he didn't do it for himself.
- He did it for others.
- Yeah.
This represents him in a way
because... he built
this for his team.
That's who he was.
That's unbelievable.
STACEY: You know, if we
were watching it with him,
he'd probably just sit back and
we'd be like, "You did that?"
"You did that?" and he'd
be like, "Yup, I did it.
I guess like it doesn't
surprise me in a way.
I could see Rob doing this
and not complaining
about it whatsoever.
- Right, oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
- Just doing it.
Not having a problem with it.
NANCY:
I just miss Rob.
(music plays)
(vocalizing)
Breathe... don't speak
You're fading out
Don't... close your eyes
We're almost there now
(back up singers)
We're almost there
We are ghosts in our homes
Singing songs all alone
But we've fought to be free
and this pain isn't me
We are ghosts
now in our home
We are ghosts all our own
In this valley
we call home
We will fight to be free
Come unchained
from our grief
We are ghosts now
in our home
These friends remain
But this place
just feels so strange
My eyes... betray
I don't want to leave
But I can't stay
We are ghosts in our home
Singing songs all alone
But we've fought to be free
And this pain isn't me
We are ghosts now
in our home
We are ghosts on our own
In this valley we call home
We will fight to be free
Come unchained from our grief
We are ghosts now
in our home
I've been so... in love
And love will find
Its way home
And I've been told...
That love
Will find...
My name's Rob and I'm 14.
BOB: All right!
NANCY: Good.
SHAWN:
It's early now.
My second day of school.
There's mother and Shawn
in the carriage.
This lady just crossed
the street without looking.
Robbie's so
concerned about that.
We are ghosts now
in our home
We are ghosts
on our own
In this valley
we call home
We will fight to be free
Come unchained from our grief
We are ghosts now
in our home
(cheering)
Well, I shipped out
with a job to do
Headed to desert sands
To build a wall
And draw a line
And that wall,
that wall still stands
They cut me down
with the bullet fire
Cut down by hands of man
My body lay
for all to see
But that wall,
that wall still stands
It still stands
It still stands
You might scorch the land
You might kill a man
But that wall,
that wall still stands
Well, the ones who stand
behind me now
They don't know who I am
But what matters most
When danger's close
Is that wall,
that still stand?
It still stands
Oh, it still stands
You might scorch the land
Or you might kill a man
But that wall,
that wall still stands
(vocalizes)
Now every wall
one day will fall
When steel and wood
turn to sand
But what I believed was good
Still holds its ground
And that wall,
that wall still stands
It still stands
Oh, it still stands
You might scorch the land
You might kill the man
But that wall
That wall
Yeah, it still stands
You might scorch the land
You might kill the man
But that wall,
that wall still stands
Yeah, that wall,
that wall still stands
Yeah, that wall,
that wall still stands