"[people chatter]" "[Male Command] All right, gentlemen..." "[Man 2] Right here is Black Rock Mountain, men." "Fifteen to twenty minutes ago," "Alpha Coy, became engaged by 5O 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] [man 1 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." "[Quadel Hey, limbo, 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." "0.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 away..." " 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-ers 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 mission, and I was to be a part of Assault Force 4 in ODA 0-9-4s 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 ♪" "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 waddies." "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!" "IGOR, 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 Pirelli] 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 Pirelli] 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 Pirelli] 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]" "He-Y, 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." "L'" " 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 SWAT" "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!" "[Ml] 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 Team 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." " [Arabic] 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, 90, 90, 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..." "Hmhmm." "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!" " [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!" "[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 jammers 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'" "♪ 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]" "L'" "♪ 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"