Speaker 1: Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greig Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is retired US Marine Corps Colonel Aaron Cunningham.
Speaker 1: Colonel Cunningham recently retired after twenty nine years of service,
Speaker 1: and today we're focusing on his time as a company
Speaker 1: commander in the Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq in
Speaker 1: November and December two thousand and four. Then Captain Cunningham
Speaker 1: commanded Alpha Company, first Battalion, eighth Marines and was responsible
Speaker 1: for nearly two hundred Marines. In this conversation, we will
Speaker 1: discuss his leadership, the other Marines, and the tactics involved
Speaker 1: in the Battle of Fallujah. Aaron Cunningham was born in
Speaker 1: the Midwest, but soon moved to the South, which he
Speaker 1: still considers home.
Speaker 2: I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but moved down to
Speaker 2: Georgia at about age of six six months. So I
Speaker 2: claim Marietta, Georgia as my hometown.
Speaker 1: And had there been a history of military service and
Speaker 1: your family, my.
Speaker 2: Father served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War,
Speaker 2: did that influence your decision to join to a degree?
Speaker 2: Just the service aspect of what he did in his stories?
Speaker 1: Why did you choose the Marine Corps.
Speaker 2: It's a good one. A lot of intangibles roped up
Speaker 2: into that one, but the Gulf, to simply put it,
Speaker 2: I was a senior in high school and that kind
Speaker 2: of fired up something in me about wanting to get
Speaker 2: out there. I think me and Buddy actually tried to
Speaker 2: figure out how we could get out of high school
Speaker 2: early and joined the Marine Corps with our parents, you know,
Speaker 2: age seventeen waiver and that didn't work out well, probably
Speaker 2: for good, but that kind of started the look and
Speaker 2: just always inspired by reading books about history, books in
Speaker 2: US history, and just the idea of potentially, you know,
Speaker 2: being able to be part of something bigger than myself
Speaker 2: and that kind of drew me. Those intangibles of the services.
Speaker 2: The Marine Corps does it better than anybody else can
Speaker 2: tap into that, rightfully. So so that's kind of the
Speaker 2: path I took.
Speaker 1: And did you attend college? I did the intent of
Speaker 1: pursuing ROTC.
Speaker 2: No, So I attended West Georgia College now it's University
Speaker 2: of West Georgia at the time was a small state school.
Speaker 2: Met my wife there, so it was a good pick.
Speaker 2: But freshman year, like a lot of freshmen, just kind
Speaker 2: of doing the freshman college thing, trying to figure out
Speaker 2: exactly what I wanted to do. The idea of service,
Speaker 2: whether it was law enforcement or military, was there, but
Speaker 2: I was, you know, I say, C plus kids rule
Speaker 2: the world. I was at C plus kids trying to
Speaker 2: get through my freshman year of college. And then I
Speaker 2: met a Marine officer recruiter on campus who were masters
Speaker 2: at touching that intangible piece I just talked about and
Speaker 2: the ball got rolling and I participated in what was
Speaker 2: called Platoon leaders Course program where I went to Officer
Speaker 2: Candidate School the summer between my junior, sophomore and junior
Speaker 2: year and my junior and senior year. That's where a
Speaker 2: job interview for officer candidates if you can make it through.
Speaker 2: And then I said, this is what I want to do,
Speaker 2: and was commission as a second lieutenant upon graduation in
Speaker 2: the summer in ninety five.
Speaker 1: And where did you go from there?
Speaker 2: So I graduated as college in the summer, waited a
Speaker 2: few months, and then attended the Basic School in Quantico, Virginia,
Speaker 2: which is a six month program where all Marine officers attend.
Speaker 2: It's a baselining. We say every Marine is a rifleman
Speaker 2: we also dictated every Marine officer is a rifle beatem
Speaker 2: commander if need be, which is proven to be quite
Speaker 2: beneficial in past conflicts. So that school a baselining for
Speaker 2: all officers, regardless of what you're going to do going forward.
Speaker 2: About three corps of the way through that school, you
Speaker 2: get your military occupational specialty. It's part what you desire,
Speaker 2: part what you're capable of doing, and part what the
Speaker 2: Marine Corps needs you to do. And I wanted to
Speaker 2: be and it was chosen to be an infantry officer.
Speaker 2: So graduated the Basic School and immediate attend did the
Speaker 2: Infantry Officer Course, which is another three month school focused
Speaker 2: on infantry specific officer requirements to lead Marines. Graduated from
Speaker 2: the Inftry Officer Course and then proceeded to go to
Speaker 2: my first Inftry battalion and assume the leadership role of
Speaker 2: my first infantry platoon.
Speaker 1: And where was that?
Speaker 2: That was at First Battalion, Second Marines at Campbell, June,
Speaker 2: North Carolina.
Speaker 1: What other assignments did you have prior to nine to eleven?
Speaker 2: So, as just discussed, I was at First Battalion, Second
Speaker 2: Marines from nineteen ninety six to nineteen ninety nine, pretty
Speaker 2: standard nineteen nineties era. The East Coast Intry Battalion did
Speaker 2: a Marine Expeditionary Unit deployment and ended up spending some
Speaker 2: time in Africa and Zaia and the Congo and conducted
Speaker 2: a non combatant evacuation operation out of Freetown. Sier Leone
Speaker 2: came back, did some fun stuff at Bridgeport in California,
Speaker 2: left there in the summer of nineteen ninety nine, and
Speaker 2: was selected for captain at that point, which is pretty standard.
Speaker 2: I didn't do anything remarkable to get it. It's just
Speaker 2: if you don't screw up bad enough, you'll probably get
Speaker 2: the captain. And then got orders to the School of Infantry,
Speaker 2: which happens to be at Campel's Union as well, adjacent
Speaker 2: to Campel's June, but geographically the same area. And spent
Speaker 2: the next three years at the School of Infantry as
Speaker 2: a company commander, a battalion operations officer, and then the
Speaker 2: director of a school. And in that time is when
Speaker 2: nine to eleven occurred.
Speaker 1: Obviously, how did that day unfold for you? How did
Speaker 1: you hear about it?
Speaker 2: I was in the office. I was the director of
Speaker 2: at the time, Advanced Infantry Training Company it's since changed
Speaker 2: names and grown in scope and complexity, But that was
Speaker 2: my job at the time, and we saw it on
Speaker 2: the news like everybody else in the world in our nation,
Speaker 2: not sure what was going on. But at the time,
Speaker 2: I had some of my subordinate units in the field training,
Speaker 2: and all I could think to do was was just
Speaker 2: go out and myself and my first sergeant drove out
Speaker 2: there because they didn't have access communications or you know,
Speaker 2: cell phones weren't a thing, just to explain to them
Speaker 2: what was going on and giving them the information that
Speaker 2: we had that we knew to be true at the time,
Speaker 2: which really wasn't much so obviously a very somber day
Speaker 2: for for everybody, but you know, like everybody kind of
Speaker 2: in the dark, even more so because most of us
Speaker 2: were out in the field training without access to the
Speaker 2: local news. Did your orders change quickly after that or
Speaker 2: did you finish mine? Did not. I was due to
Speaker 2: rotate in the summer of two thousand and two. Anyway,
Speaker 2: I had orders to the Expeditionary Warfare School, which is
Speaker 2: a school that's kind of a captain's career level school
Speaker 2: that a lot of captains go to in Quarnaico. So
Speaker 2: I already had orders to that, and there was no
Speaker 2: reason for me not to execute those orders. The Service
Speaker 2: had the people the Service needed to do what the
Speaker 2: Service needed them to do, and didn't need me doing
Speaker 2: something different at that point. So I tended that year
Speaker 2: long school. While in school with all of my peers
Speaker 2: is when Operation Iraqi Freedom one kicked off. So as
Speaker 2: an infantry captain sitting in Quantico watching a lot of
Speaker 2: my friends participate in that was a interesting experience. We
Speaker 2: all would rather have been over there than sitting in
Speaker 2: a classroom because we assumed that this would be, you know,
Speaker 2: over relatively quick. And you know, you joined the Marine
Speaker 2: Corps to do what the Marine Corps wants you to do,
Speaker 2: and there's a fight and you want to go to
Speaker 2: the fight. So interesting year, great year. Educationally, graduated in
Speaker 2: the summer of three, where there was a bit of
Speaker 2: a lull in Iraqi Freedom at that point had orders
Speaker 2: to first Battalion, eighth Marines. In the summer of two
Speaker 2: thousand and three, I checked into Camp Le June and
Speaker 2: everybody was gone because everybody was overseas in Iraq starting
Speaker 2: to phase slowly phase back from I guess at the
Speaker 2: time we called itaf one. I was an eftry captain
Speaker 2: now without a battalion to even check into because one
Speaker 2: eight was still overseas, and an opportunity came up to
Speaker 2: deploy to the country of Georgia as part of a
Speaker 2: small training team doing foreign internal defense type of things.
Speaker 2: So again, as a captain in the intra He's city
Speaker 2: at Campbell, Junion, while all my buddies were overseas, I
Speaker 2: raised my hand immediately to just get out of there.
Speaker 2: So I spent the last half of two thousand and
Speaker 2: three in the country of Georgia.
Speaker 1: Anything in particular that comes to mind about that assignment.
Speaker 2: Working with the Georgian and infter battalion was a fantastic
Speaker 2: learning and growing experience for me. Being in that part
Speaker 2: of the country, former Soviet part of the world was
Speaker 2: eye opening. Got to learn a lot from them about
Speaker 2: their experiences under Soviet domination, followed by their ability to
Speaker 2: break free, you know, in the early nineties, President the
Speaker 2: Chevronazi was overthrown during that time during the Rose or
Speaker 2: Velvet Revolution. I can't keep up with all the names,
Speaker 2: but so that was interesting to just kind of be
Speaker 2: on the sidelines for that. Came back in December of three,
Speaker 2: and then after Christmas break January of four, checked into
Speaker 2: Alpha Company, First Battalion, eighth Marines.
Speaker 1: What was it like to meet those guys who had
Speaker 1: already had a little bit of a history together.
Speaker 2: In one eight. Yeah, it was interesting. But at the time,
Speaker 2: when you get back from a deployment, you immediately start
Speaker 2: to reset for the next thing, and marines that were
Speaker 2: staying in the unit would be assuming their new positions,
Speaker 2: whether it's a leadership position or just another billet. Those
Speaker 2: that were executing orders would be prepared potentially to go
Speaker 2: to their next job. So it's always a bit of
Speaker 2: a transition period. So I came in during a transition
Speaker 2: period with a lot of other Marines and sailors coming
Speaker 2: into the battalion, So you know, you have this this
Speaker 2: mix of old and new, which is how it always is,
Speaker 2: and there's there's goodness to that. And then you start
Speaker 2: building the new team for the new mission, which is
Speaker 2: what we did from January till June.
Speaker 1: Of four, and what specifically was the mission that you
Speaker 1: were preparing for at that point.
Speaker 2: So at that time it was a bit ambiguous, at
Speaker 2: least again I'm speaking from a young captain's perspective, right, counterinsurtancy.
Speaker 2: Let's get the iraqi Uh leadership up on their feet
Speaker 2: and running and all the stuff. Everybody knows. I don't
Speaker 2: need to, you know, rehash what's what's out there a
Speaker 2: million times. But we weren't necessarily preparing for large combat operations.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what marines do. But the focus, if
Speaker 2: you know, if you had to pick a focus at
Speaker 2: the time, it was counter insurancy, stability, security, those type
Speaker 2: of missions.
Speaker 1: What specific training did you do to prepare for that?
Speaker 2: Getting the Marines in the mindset, you know, we train
Speaker 2: them from day one to be highly aggressive and to
Speaker 2: take the fight to the enemy. In the counter insurancy environment,
Speaker 2: you're you're you're working more of an influence type of environment.
Speaker 2: How do we influence versus an adversary Influence which means
Speaker 2: dealing with all a lot of people and dealing with
Speaker 2: the locals in the country, whether just civilians or those
Speaker 2: in local civic leadership positions, trying not to make enemies,
Speaker 2: trying to make friends, but being prepared to deal with
Speaker 2: the enemies when they show themselves or interfere patrolling, urban patrolling.
Speaker 2: The ID issue was starting starting to emerge at that point,
Speaker 2: it had not hit the crescendo like it would obviously
Speaker 2: in a couple of years, working through those issues, transitioning
Speaker 2: to foot mounted to vehicle mounted and covering potentially larger
Speaker 2: distances or your area of operations or your the area
Speaker 2: that you're assigned to operating in is going to be
Speaker 2: larger than you're typically used to. And you know, training
Speaker 2: at Camp Lejune in the woods, now we're in the
Speaker 2: open deserts, all that stuff. Just getting the Marines prepared mentally, physically,
Speaker 2: emotionally to go into that situation and frankly be able
Speaker 2: to do whatever it is the Marine coordinated us to do.
Speaker 1: That's Aaron Cunningham, a US Marine Corps veteran who commanded
Speaker 1: Alpha C Company of the first Battalion, eighth Marines in
Speaker 1: the Second Battle of Fellujah. In a moment, Cunningham and
Speaker 1: his company are off to Iraq, and he tells us
Speaker 1: all the things that we're going through his mind as
Speaker 1: he and his Marines prepared to enter Fellusha. I'm Greg
Speaker 1: Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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Speaker 1: Thiss Veterans chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this
Speaker 1: addition is Colonel Aaron Cunningham. He's a retired US Marine
Speaker 1: Corps officer and in late two thousand and four, Captain
Speaker 1: Cunningham commanded Alpha Company, first Battalion, eighth Marines during the
Speaker 1: Second Battle of Fallushah. We now pick up his story
Speaker 1: of service as his marines are deployed to Iraq, and
Speaker 1: Cunningham says he knew they were ready.
Speaker 2: I did. There's something beneficial or any unit, but in
Speaker 2: a Marine Corps Entry battalion, when you have a focus.
Speaker 2: Marines do better when you have a mission, a real mission.
Speaker 2: And we knew we were deploying to Iraq. We didn't
Speaker 2: know exactly what we do when we got there, but
Speaker 2: that enough was that was enough to focus the marines.
Speaker 2: Myself included on this. This is super serious. So yes,
Speaker 2: I think the Marines were or as prepared as they
Speaker 2: could possibly be, knowing what we knew at the time.
Speaker 2: They were cohesive, they'd worked together. You know, Marines do
Speaker 2: better in adversity, so hard training builds adversity. Adversity builds cohesion.
Speaker 2: Cohesion enables those Marines to handle whatever, whatever gets thrown out.
Speaker 1: So that was your first time in Iraq in the
Speaker 1: summer of two thousand and four, how would you describe
Speaker 1: the heat at that time of the year.
Speaker 2: Hot, I meant to be honest, it's you know, we
Speaker 2: joke it to dry heat campus huns pretty hot too.
Speaker 2: It's different, but it's impressively hot. I mean, it's just
Speaker 2: that's that part of the world. Back to your earlier question,
Speaker 2: I missed the point. In April. You had the big
Speaker 2: fight in Fallujah as well, so that that was in
Speaker 2: our minds as well. So trying to balance the counter
Speaker 2: incertaincy stability security type of operations vers a couple of
Speaker 2: battalions just go on toe to toe, so we need
Speaker 2: to make sure we're prepared to do that as well.
Speaker 2: So again a good focusing mechanism for the Marines going
Speaker 2: into that environment.
Speaker 1: Did you have a feeling that, because of how the
Speaker 1: first operation in Fellujah went, that you might be involved
Speaker 1: in the second one?
Speaker 2: Mike is probably the appropriate word. Again, I was a captain.
Speaker 2: I'm at the pointy end of our national security apparatus, right,
Speaker 2: So my focus is about two hundred marines down and
Speaker 2: in get down and in getting them prepared to do
Speaker 2: whatever the Marine Corps needs us to do. So trying
Speaker 2: to guess what our senior leaders are going to do
Speaker 2: is futile and I don't have time for it, right,
Speaker 2: so be prepared if they need us to. But you
Speaker 2: don't spend a lot of time speculating on that.
Speaker 1: So at what point in two thousand and four did
Speaker 1: you start to hear from your higher ups that, yeah,
Speaker 1: you got to get ready for this, this is coming.
Speaker 2: The interesting the young marines would routinely ask, because marines
Speaker 2: are marines, and if there's a fight over there, they
Speaker 2: want to go over to the fight, like, hey, so
Speaker 2: are we going back in? And I obviously do not
Speaker 2: know the answer to that. Just focus on what we
Speaker 2: need to do today. But but you know, that's what
Speaker 2: you expect marines to do. I would say maybe a
Speaker 2: few weeks out I can't remember the timeline, and maybe
Speaker 2: a few weeks prior, maybe late October, mid October, you
Speaker 2: start to hear things that, hey, this something may may
Speaker 2: be going on. Again, I'm not privy to senior leader discussions.
Speaker 2: And but again, brain, just be ready, that's all you
Speaker 2: gotta do. You just be ready. We'll let we'll let
Speaker 2: the decision makers decide, and then we'll execute when the
Speaker 2: time comes.
Speaker 1: From what I've heard from the other guys, it was
Speaker 1: just a couple of days before the operation started that
Speaker 1: they really were under the impression that something was going
Speaker 1: to happen, mobilized and then put in positions.
Speaker 2: So we pushed from Alisad down the all endbar Problemnce
Speaker 2: towards Fallujah and again, I apologize can't remember the exact
Speaker 2: timeline they probably should done, but there's all the histories
Speaker 2: are out there you can you can see the dates.
Speaker 2: We pushed in to Camp Fallujah, just east of the
Speaker 2: city of Fallujah, and again not until sure if we
Speaker 2: would actually go or not. There were some things at
Speaker 2: the higher levels that were happening, to include elections and
Speaker 2: all this stuff. But again for the Marines, Okay, this
Speaker 2: is now the environment we're in, so we're going to
Speaker 2: start focusing on combat operations in an urban environment. Whether
Speaker 2: we go or not is not relevant, but we're going
Speaker 2: to be prepared for that eventuality when it comes. So
Speaker 2: that's what the Marines were doing. As an eighteen or
Speaker 2: nineteen year old, I can see how that is incredibly
Speaker 2: unnerving because despite you know, at our level pushing as
Speaker 2: much information down as possible, by the time that information
Speaker 2: often gets down to the youngest marine, it's modified itself
Speaker 2: because it's an iterative process, so you never have complete
Speaker 2: clarity nor should we expect to have complete clarity, right.
Speaker 1: And so as you are in position and it seemed
Speaker 1: like this is going to be imminent, what's running through
Speaker 1: your mind? It's your first time heading into combat. But
Speaker 1: also you're in charge of two hundred marine and so
Speaker 1: making sure they're taken care of and they're in the
Speaker 1: right position to do what they need to do. I'm
Speaker 1: sure it's at the front of your mind. So what
Speaker 1: are you thinking about as you're getting ready to do this?
Speaker 2: Thinking about a lot about two hundred and any marines,
Speaker 2: plus some attachments with tanks and light armor and constant
Speaker 2: vehicles and maybe some Iraqi forces. There's never a time
Speaker 2: to say stop, this is it? This is always It's
Speaker 2: constantly evolved. Mean, so you're constantly taking in information processing, analyzing,
Speaker 2: spitting out to your subordinates the latest and newest to
Speaker 2: keep them as prepared as possible. So to simply answer
Speaker 2: your question, getting the mission accomplished and doing right by
Speaker 2: the marines at the same time. And that's that's a
Speaker 2: that's a tension. It always is for any any any
Speaker 2: leader in any any combat in situation is marines get
Speaker 2: the job done. If they tell me to do this,
Speaker 2: We're gonna do it. We're gonna and hard. We're going
Speaker 2: to go in as hard as we need to be
Speaker 2: to get it done. But we're going to do it right.
Speaker 2: We're going to do right by the Marines. We're gonna
Speaker 2: take care of the Marines. Make sure that you take
Speaker 2: care of my making sure they're trained, making sure they're
Speaker 2: trained in the most realistic and most challenging environments possible,
Speaker 2: because that builds with their confidence in their personal skills.
Speaker 2: It builds with their confidence in their teammates, and that
Speaker 2: confidence in their teammates is what enables young Marines to
Speaker 2: be unsupperable.
Speaker 1: That's Colonel Aaron Cunningham, a retired US Marine Corps officer
Speaker 1: who served as company commander of Alpha Company, first Battalion,
Speaker 1: eighth Marines in the Second Battle of Fallujah in late
Speaker 1: two thousand and four. When we come back, Cunningham takes
Speaker 1: us into the heat of battle. I'm Greg Corumbus and
Speaker 1: this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
Speaker 1: Our guest in this edition is retired US Marine Corps
Speaker 1: Colonel Aaron Cunningham, who served as commander of Alpha Company,
Speaker 1: first Battalion, eighth Marines in the Second Battle of Fallujah
Speaker 1: in late two thousand and four. Cunningham will now walk
Speaker 1: us through the intensity of this urban combat, but he
Speaker 1: starts with a bit of a correction for how the
Speaker 1: Marines under his command often characterize the start of the battle.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the shock and a portion just before
Speaker 1: you guys went in and then getting there.
Speaker 2: I keep hearing this term shock and all from the Marines.
Speaker 2: It's funny because I don't believe that was ever a
Speaker 2: term anybody used except the young Marines, which is fantastic.
Speaker 2: That's fine. I don't recall the term chock and all.
Speaker 2: What you had was some initial preparatory things happening to
Speaker 2: set some conditions for the force to go in. But
Speaker 2: I imagine, as a young Marine whose first deployment when
Speaker 2: you see a lot of airplanes dropping bombs and artillery shooting,
Speaker 2: that that is shock and all. So I get it.
Speaker 2: So you know, from a human perspective, with that did
Speaker 2: for me and I guess all the other Marines is
Speaker 2: we knew this was going to be big, or at
Speaker 2: least for us, bigger than anything anybody of us had
Speaker 2: ever done. That solidified it. We did everything at night.
Speaker 2: So the eighth into the ninth, I believe, is when
Speaker 2: the initial kickoff happened and the division conducted some initial
Speaker 2: breaches and moved south into the city to do what
Speaker 2: they needed to do. It was a tremendous amount of fire,
Speaker 2: I mean from coal US coalition, joint forces, joint fires
Speaker 2: going into designated targets to set conditions, and a lot
Speaker 2: of fire coming back out the other direction. So that
Speaker 2: was a mental click that I mean, we already knew
Speaker 2: it was going to be big, but that mental click
Speaker 2: just kind of solidified that. And maybe that was good
Speaker 2: for some of the Marines. Maybe it wasn't, but it
Speaker 2: certainly provided a focusing mechanism.
Speaker 1: Now, your role on the first night was to push
Speaker 1: to the Mayor's complex.
Speaker 2: Nope, So the first night Alpha company was the regimental
Speaker 2: or the division reserve. We stayed back the first night
Speaker 2: for the initial breach while the division breached through, gained
Speaker 2: an initial foothold, and we're attacking through the city and
Speaker 2: just doing remarkable things. I'm able to listen in and
Speaker 2: hear what those warriors were doing, to include the army
Speaker 2: units with us as we pushed south and at a
Speaker 2: designated time our higher headquarters was going to have my
Speaker 2: company sentially penetrate through the front the deepest part of
Speaker 2: friendly lines and sees the Mayor's complex. And that was
Speaker 2: almost twenty four hours later. So we spent that first
Speaker 2: day watching, listening, preparing mentally tactically for the coming mission.
Speaker 2: But for that first day, those young marines that you've
Speaker 2: been talking to were essentially spectators in this massive fight.
Speaker 2: And then on the night of the ninth, morning of
Speaker 2: the tenth is when Alpha Company mounted up and conducted
Speaker 2: that movement to secure the Mayor's Complex.
Speaker 1: And that was a successful operation, correct.
Speaker 2: It was the idea being that shocked surprise, middle of
Speaker 2: the night, overwhelming firepower. Get it, grab it, hold it.
Speaker 2: If it may get sen your way, you're knock them down,
Speaker 2: which is exactly is exactly what occurred. We were able
Speaker 2: to get into the complex relatively I'm like say, easy,
Speaker 2: but about as planned, which is rare because there was
Speaker 2: limited resistance from inside the complex because I think we
Speaker 2: caught him by surprise. That lasted about an hour hour
Speaker 2: and a half until the enemy recognized that there was
Speaker 2: a relatively large force smack dab in the middle of
Speaker 2: the city. Well, the rest of the division was kind
Speaker 2: of north of us fighting south, so we were pushed
Speaker 2: forward now into almost a city block outpost. And then
Speaker 2: the enemy obviously, you know, we we have a plan,
Speaker 2: we have goals and objectives. Well those are typically the
Speaker 2: exact opposite of the enemy's goals and objectives, right, So
Speaker 2: that became a competition there in the center of the city.
Speaker 1: Tell me what happened when the sun rose the next morning.
Speaker 2: We were getting attacked from all sides, which was not unsurprising.
Speaker 2: We were in enemy territory, which they probably thought, you know,
Speaker 2: going to bed that night, it would be theirs when
Speaker 2: they woke up, and it wasn't. So they wanted it
Speaker 2: back and we were not going to give.
Speaker 1: It to them. And so describe the scene. How did
Speaker 1: you position your men and what was the enemy presenting.
Speaker 2: The Mayor's complex at the time. I recently just looked
Speaker 2: on Google Earth. It looks a little different. I think
Speaker 2: there's some more structures potentially that have been built in
Speaker 2: the last twenty years. But at the time it was,
Speaker 2: there was a city block about three hundred you know,
Speaker 2: three football fields by three football fields, if you can
Speaker 2: imagine that. But it wasn't as built up as a
Speaker 2: typical city block in that area because it was you know,
Speaker 2: municipal type type buildings. So my initial plan, which was
Speaker 2: iterated you know, with the lieutenants and Stephan CEO's, was
Speaker 2: to systematically isolate it and gain a foothold and then
Speaker 2: start grabbing buildings. Platoons would support other platoons grab a building,
Speaker 2: support each other by either fire or observation, and the platoons,
Speaker 2: frankly and I pushed as much authority and responsibility down
Speaker 2: to the platoons as I possibly could, which is what
Speaker 2: what Marines do, and they did the same to their
Speaker 2: squdalators and team leaders because this was a highly decentralized
Speaker 2: fight and that's how you generate tempo. So we came
Speaker 2: in from the north. I didn't like the existing entrances
Speaker 2: to the compound. If I was a bad guy he
Speaker 2: turned them up around. I would either booby trap those
Speaker 2: put mines or have something targeting that. So didn't want
Speaker 2: to use those entrances. So as we as we came
Speaker 2: in with our Meccanis armored fast Force and tracks LAV
Speaker 2: twenty fives and tanks, we conducted the explosive and mechanical
Speaker 2: breaches at different locations through the compound walls to stream
Speaker 2: into this facility. The Marine spilled out and attack their
Speaker 2: pre designated objectives, grab buildings, secured them, supported each other,
Speaker 2: and we were just about through the entire complex within
Speaker 2: an hour hour and a half when the enemy woke
Speaker 2: up and started started getting after us. At that point
Speaker 2: it was you know, consolidate, hold, start leveraging joint fires
Speaker 2: to target the adversar area where we could see them,
Speaker 2: and communicate back to higher headquarters because at this point
Speaker 2: the rest of the division is still in a massive
Speaker 2: fight in their own battalion, company, platoon, squad sectors moving
Speaker 2: generally from north to south, you know, from behind me,
Speaker 2: coming towards us, all right, So helping coordinate with them
Speaker 2: to assist were necessary on enemy movements or what we're seeing.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of what was happening in the first
Speaker 2: couple hours.
Speaker 1: Now, a difficult moment in this fight is the loss
Speaker 1: of Lieutenant Malcolm. Explain what happened in that situation and
Speaker 1: what his loss meant to the platon.
Speaker 2: So mid morning on the tenth, the Marine Corps Birthday,
Speaker 2: we were on a rooftop, just still in the process
Speaker 2: of securing that facility. Mostly mostly there. Dan was my
Speaker 2: fire sport team leader, so he was my company represented
Speaker 2: and in charge of using term joint fires, but anything that's
Speaker 2: not coming directly from the extreme marine, so artillery or
Speaker 2: aviation fires kind of coordinating that in conjunction and support
Speaker 2: of the maneuver of the company. So it's a very
Speaker 2: important job. So he's on the radio talking, coordinating with
Speaker 2: Ford air controllers and artillery forward observers, and the rooftop
Speaker 2: quickly became untenable just to the amount of fire came,
Speaker 2: and so we pulled down off the rooftop. And I
Speaker 2: don't remember exactly how long after we pulled down, but
Speaker 2: I was down in a four year type area and
Speaker 2: Dan was coming down the stairs briefing me on the
Speaker 2: status of the aviation assets on station and all the
Speaker 2: things that we needed to know to to support the
Speaker 2: Marines and and get after the get after the bad guys.
Speaker 2: When he was he was shot in the upper upper back.
Speaker 1: Uh So.
Speaker 2: I heard the round hit his front sappy plate because
Speaker 2: we were talking to each other when it occurred. And yeah,
Speaker 2: and that was it.
Speaker 1: Describe him as a as a leader and as a marine's.
Speaker 2: I mean, like like like all of them. He was
Speaker 2: a patriot. It it's a great, great marine officer, a
Speaker 2: great person, I think, just smart will, willing to do
Speaker 2: whatever it took to take care of his marines and
Speaker 2: get the job done, and just I mean it's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Explain how you were able to push away from the
Speaker 1: Mayor's complex, Who made that call, and then how is
Speaker 1: it executed?
Speaker 2: So mid afternoon timeline gets a little blurry mid afternoon,
Speaker 2: maybe later towards the evening that the division has started
Speaker 2: to come on. I use the term online. It's not
Speaker 2: that simple, but online with the Mayor's Complex, which is
Speaker 2: not quite halfway down the south side of the city
Speaker 2: on a large east west running highway which we used
Speaker 2: as a phase line to help for command control for
Speaker 2: different fires purposes. We were told that at some point
Speaker 2: in the near future, when conditions were set, which were
Speaker 2: going to be determined by those you know, much senior
Speaker 2: to me at the time, that the division was going
Speaker 2: to continue the attack south to clear and zone. You know, basically,
Speaker 2: we know most of the enemy are now south of
Speaker 2: us because we've killed the ones north of us, and
Speaker 2: we're going to go we go down and finish the job.
Speaker 2: So the next morning, the eleventh, I believe yes, because
Speaker 2: the night of the tenth, I got permission to push
Speaker 2: a platoon south across that phase line. You know, with
Speaker 2: the goal being in any time you're in a fight,
Speaker 2: you want your decision cycle to be faster than the adversaries.
Speaker 2: You want to stay in their decision making loop. You
Speaker 2: want to keep them second guessing and thinking and concerned
Speaker 2: about what your next move is. So we pushed a
Speaker 2: platoon south of the phase line, and at the time
Speaker 2: they were most likely the most further southernmost coalition force
Speaker 2: in the fight. And that night they grabbed the piece
Speaker 2: of train kind of honkered down and essentially we're going
Speaker 2: to be some eyes and ears for the regiment as
Speaker 2: the sun came up before we did this push. When
Speaker 2: the sun came up, Lieutenant Acimans platoon was essentially surrounded
Speaker 2: by a large number of enemy fighters who were I
Speaker 2: wasn't with him. I was talking to him, but it
Speaker 2: sounded like they were in a staging area preparing for
Speaker 2: a big assault back to the north, and he was
Speaker 2: either you know, based on who you are, at the
Speaker 2: right place or the wrong place, at the right time
Speaker 2: and we had a little talk and then he laid
Speaker 2: into him and the Marines did some fantastically heroic things
Speaker 2: for a few hours. Once given the order, we were
Speaker 2: told to move out of the Mayor's complex south into
Speaker 2: the rest of the southern portion of the city. Getting
Speaker 2: across that phase line was a challenge because south of
Speaker 2: the phase line was full of bad guys and they
Speaker 2: working to less just be aboup across the street. So
Speaker 2: we use heavy amounts of suppressive fires to cover the
Speaker 2: marine's movement. And this is through coordinating with other companies
Speaker 2: and adjacent units and bringing in different capabilities, which is
Speaker 2: what we trained to do, and it worked out pretty
Speaker 2: well and pushed into the south side of the city
Speaker 2: and started our clearing operations south.
Speaker 1: Now, in the clearing operations you talked about the decentralization
Speaker 1: of authority and leaving a lot of decisions to platoon
Speaker 1: squad and the team leaders. How does that unfold? What
Speaker 1: do you tell the platoon commander and what does he
Speaker 1: tell the squad leaders and.
Speaker 2: So on, So everything you needed to tell them is
Speaker 2: already in their rearview mirror at that point. So going
Speaker 2: back to my comment about training realistically and training hard,
Speaker 2: you're in the fight now and you just hoped it.
Speaker 2: You trained hard enough, and I think these Marines were prepared.
Speaker 2: So when you look on a map, you know, in
Speaker 2: any battle, you'll see a maybe they call it the
Speaker 2: forward line of troops as the units move through their objectives.
Speaker 2: The reality is in a fight like that, and just
Speaker 2: using our company as an example, which replicates lots of
Speaker 2: other Marines and other battalions doing the same essentially the
Speaker 2: same thing. You may have five, six, ten, three hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty degree firefights happening at the same time, so
Speaker 2: online on a map, in reality it's this and those platoons.
Speaker 2: Just like I pushed down authority to the platoons, say,
Speaker 2: you guys have to cross talk. I can't process analyze,
Speaker 2: give an order or an approval or an authority to
Speaker 2: do something. We don't have time. That's going to crush
Speaker 2: our tempo. You guys talk, so they do the same thing.
Speaker 2: Squad leaders, you guys have to talk latterly. Fire team leaders,
Speaker 2: you guys have to talk laterally. To be honest, we
Speaker 2: didn't necessarily train for that, don't. You don't train to
Speaker 2: shoot towards each other in training. You know you don't
Speaker 2: in a fight like that if you look at it
Speaker 2: from a geometry perspective, their marine shooting north east west.
Speaker 2: But that awareness, that spatial awareness and the geometries involved
Speaker 2: allowed them to think through what's behind that building where
Speaker 2: those bad guys are, what munition is appropriate? Then to
Speaker 2: kill them, but not bleed over into the unit next
Speaker 2: to them, which to me was fascinating that they were
Speaker 2: able to do that. And you know, at the team level,
Speaker 2: squad level, platoon level, and my role then was similar,
Speaker 2: but okay, joint fires, where can we employ joint fires
Speaker 2: in support of this squad who's in this fight? But
Speaker 2: there's another squad forty meters over here? What can we use?
Speaker 2: And that was a discussion between the team leader, squad leaders,
Speaker 2: between commanders, me my higher headquarters joint fires assets. But
Speaker 2: it wasn't me leading to fight. I was providing injection
Speaker 2: when I because from my perspective, I may see something, Hey, no,
Speaker 2: here's why otherwise go or hey what about this? I've
Speaker 2: got this asset? Or hey second platoon, first platoon actually
Speaker 2: moved quicker I can I can kind of see where
Speaker 2: they are and sent you guys hook up on the
Speaker 2: in this road alley whatever and figure it out. So
Speaker 2: highly decentralized, which means you have to trust those eighteen
Speaker 2: and nineteen year old warriors to make decisions that, frankly,
Speaker 2: I say, their way above their pay grade, and they're not.
Speaker 2: That's that's what they do, but it is absolutely friggin amazing.
Speaker 1: Retired to US Marine Corps Colonel Aaron Cunningham served as
Speaker 1: commander of Alpha Company, first Battalion, eighth Marines in the
Speaker 1: Second Battle of Fallujah in November and December two thousand
Speaker 1: and four. In a moment, we'll discuss more of the
Speaker 1: battle and learn how Cunningham approached his leadership role during
Speaker 1: the battle. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 1: This is Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is retired US Marine Corps Colonel Aaron Cunningham,
Speaker 1: who recently retired after twenty nine years in the Corps.
Speaker 1: During the Second Battle of Fallujah in late two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, he commanded Alpha Company, first Battalion, eighth Marines,
Speaker 1: and as we pick up his story, I asked him
Speaker 1: about some of the leadership qualities that the Marines under
Speaker 1: his command appreciated most, starting with his calmness even in
Speaker 1: the most stressful moments of the urban fighting. Was it
Speaker 1: his natural demeanor, a product of training, or a concerted
Speaker 1: effort to keep his marines calm as they did very
Speaker 1: difficult work.
Speaker 2: It's probably just, I mean, a bit of who I am.
Speaker 2: I certainly you know you want to do well, right,
Speaker 2: I'm a company commander in combat, so I want to
Speaker 2: get the job done. I mean, I spent nine years
Speaker 2: preparing for this moment. May mean not particularly this, but
Speaker 2: the Marine Corps trusted me with the privilege and the
Speaker 2: honor to command an entry company, which, frankly, it's about
Speaker 2: as good as it gets. It's the best job in
Speaker 2: the world. It is because at that level you can
Speaker 2: still get to know your young marines much higher than that.
Speaker 2: It's just because of scope, scale and complexity, you don't,
Speaker 2: I mean just pragmatically. Obviously, being highly excited on the
Speaker 2: radio does not instill confidence, so I know that, right.
Speaker 2: So even if I was highly excited on the inside,
Speaker 2: and there were times where I was highly excited on
Speaker 2: the inside, that's not helpful to a marine who's in
Speaker 2: a really bad spot. So I mean, that's leaders just,
Speaker 2: you know, commander to kind of know that it's just
Speaker 2: it's part of the way it is yelling. Frankly, the
Speaker 2: only supply for yelling is when it's a volume issue,
Speaker 2: and in a fight like that, sometimes you're yelling just
Speaker 2: to talk over the sound of machine gun fire. But
Speaker 2: I was just humbled to the stay, humbled to have
Speaker 2: the opportunity to be with them.
Speaker 1: The other thing a lot of them said is that
Speaker 1: how often you were right up there at the front
Speaker 1: talking to guys and understanding what they were seeing and
Speaker 1: what they were going through. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's standard operating procedure for company commanders, but they were
Speaker 1: very impressed by it. So what value did you get
Speaker 1: from being up there? And how much do you think
Speaker 1: it meant to end that you were up there?
Speaker 2: You know, my job was simply commanding control. That's what
Speaker 2: a commander does, the exercise of authority and direction by
Speaker 2: a command or over forces to accomplish mission right. And
Speaker 2: in order to do that, you know, control or command
Speaker 2: is you know, based on my authorities? Is a commander?
Speaker 2: Control is that erative feedback of information to make sure
Speaker 2: that under my command portion my objectives are being achieved
Speaker 2: that I outline, well, you have to assess how things
Speaker 2: are going to know that. In an urban fight like that,
Speaker 2: I may have been only one hundred meters behind another,
Speaker 2: but I might as well have been five miles. So
Speaker 2: you have to push yourself up to the front. Not
Speaker 2: that I'll trust the Marines, absolutely trust them, But I
Speaker 2: also information back to my higher headquarters to help them
Speaker 2: do the same thing I'm doing, only theirs is more
Speaker 2: complex and scope and scale and time and distance. So
Speaker 2: it did a couple of things. It gave me situational awareness.
Speaker 2: I never had great situational awareness, but certainly couldn't get
Speaker 2: it from the back. Most importantly, I could look at
Speaker 2: the Marines and I could listen to them and see
Speaker 2: in their eyes, and hear the inflection of mich platoon
Speaker 2: commander's voices, and see how they're doing, both just physically
Speaker 2: like hey, drink a bottle of water, devil dog like,
Speaker 2: come on all right, to take you thirty seconds, trust me,
Speaker 2: it will help you out, or just just it gave
Speaker 2: me a I think I can put my fingertips on
Speaker 2: on the Marines that were in the fight. You can't
Speaker 2: do that from from the rear and that that type
Speaker 2: of fight. I'm not saying there's not a time and
Speaker 2: place where you need to be back for command control,
Speaker 2: but in that fight, I might as well not have
Speaker 2: been there if I wasn't in a position to have
Speaker 2: that situational awareness to make an assessment we on track,
Speaker 2: not on track? If or not, maybe that's okay, you know,
Speaker 2: if we're beating the overall intent, shift resources around and
Speaker 2: just help the lieutenants so they can help their marines
Speaker 2: so we can get the job done.
Speaker 1: I'll get your thoughts briefly on some of your subordinates.
Speaker 1: First of all, platoon leader Doug Barnes, what kind of
Speaker 1: a leader we'll see?
Speaker 2: I mean, they're all fantastic, obviously, different different personalities, different upbringings,
Speaker 2: different backgrounds. They're different people. You can't treat them all
Speaker 2: the same. You can provide the same expectations on the
Speaker 2: back end, but you know, I mean, just like Doug
Speaker 2: Barnes would do with his squad leaders, right each one,
Speaker 2: the expectations are the same, but you may word it
Speaker 2: a little differently for this one. You may incorporate another
Speaker 2: little idea for this one. And that's just getting to
Speaker 2: know your people, which is hard because we're busy. But
Speaker 2: Doug's fantastic. He's a great officer. He's done great things
Speaker 2: for the Marine Corps. I love him, and he's going
Speaker 2: to continue to continue doing great things for the Marine Corps,
Speaker 2: hopefully for a long time.
Speaker 1: And then some of the squad leaders that the guys
Speaker 1: clearly revere, from Billy Leo to Anthony Martinez. How much
Speaker 1: interactions you have with them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean as much as I could, but never enough, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, definitely remember these guys both in training, before
Speaker 2: deployment and while we're there. It just it's inspiring to
Speaker 2: see these young men and women that are in their
Speaker 2: early twenties, and you compare it to society. And I'm
Speaker 2: not knocking anything, right, but these young men the amount
Speaker 2: of responsibility and the harshest, most chaotic, violent environment you
Speaker 2: could possibly know. We're leaders, they're young men, and they're
Speaker 2: leading other young men with a life and death responsibility.
Speaker 2: So I mean, just frankly, for me, you know what
Speaker 2: would inspire me when I may have a moment of
Speaker 2: doubt or just not hesitation, But you know, after a
Speaker 2: couple of days of not sleeping and in a fight,
Speaker 2: it's it can be a bit exhausting. And then you
Speaker 2: watch you know, start at Leo or Martinez or Meadows,
Speaker 2: any anybody. I mean the squad leaders from Lieutenant Acrims Platoon,
Speaker 2: Lieutenant Hunts Platoon, and the weapons, all of them. You
Speaker 2: watch these young leaders and you're like, well, shit, we
Speaker 2: can do this all day long and they're never gonna
Speaker 2: stop us, just because of them.
Speaker 1: Another word that was used to describe you was methodical
Speaker 1: in the in the push South, it was slow but
Speaker 1: very steady in terms of clearing these neighborhoods and what
Speaker 1: you explained about the the geometric challenges there. It's understandable
Speaker 1: that it was not a sprint, but in terms of
Speaker 1: clearing and pushing.
Speaker 2: That that was the idea. Of course, the enemy has
Speaker 2: a really big vote. Like I said, we have our objectives.
Speaker 2: They are the opposite of the enemy's objectives. And now
Speaker 2: you're a violent competition shrouded in chaos, complexity, friction, all
Speaker 2: the human element. All that's happening. So for me, for us,
Speaker 2: I mean the lieutenants, and we iterated on this is
Speaker 2: we can't just go You can't just go willy nilly
Speaker 2: into the city. I mean you, it will not work.
Speaker 2: So a level of methodical even if it doesn't look methodical,
Speaker 2: because frankly it doesn't, it provided a stabilizing baseline I
Speaker 2: think for the company to ground you from a larger
Speaker 2: intent perspective, like you know, this is what we're doing.
Speaker 2: Just get that done and then we're gonna take care
Speaker 2: of this. It doesn't always work out that way, uh,
Speaker 2: because we have to shift resources or a fight happens
Speaker 2: over here and then just kind of shift shift the
Speaker 2: guidance if we need to. But you know, tell them
Speaker 2: and this is I didn't make this term up. It's
Speaker 2: slow as smooth and smooth as fast and what we
Speaker 2: were trying trying to do, and I think the Marines
Speaker 2: did a great job as is generate tempo, and tempo
Speaker 2: is not just speed, it's you know, speed in relation
Speaker 2: to the adversary. We're moving quicker, but smoother with a
Speaker 2: purpose keeping the enemy on their toes. So we maintain
Speaker 2: the initiative, that's the idea behind it. It doesn't always
Speaker 2: work out in that environment for all the reasons we've
Speaker 2: we've talked about.
Speaker 1: One of the toughest days of the battle was the
Speaker 1: loss of Bradley Faircloth around Thanksgiving of two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: What do you remember about that day?
Speaker 2: So you know, prior to to Bradley, we we lost
Speaker 2: Travis Desiado as well. Both terrible days, both terrible days.
Speaker 2: It's not something you you try to prepare for it.
Speaker 2: The Marines try to prepare for it. I mean, especially
Speaker 2: at this point in the fight. The carnage and the
Speaker 2: violence made it a parent that plain Marines have been
Speaker 2: wounded at this point, I mean mostly small arms fire
Speaker 2: in close range. Some of them were already back in
Speaker 2: the fight. Some of them were on their way on
Speaker 2: their way home to get their good care that they deserved.
Speaker 2: It takes a piece out of you. But his our
Speaker 2: team leader, his squad leader, his platoon commander. Me, We've
Speaker 2: got Harney other Marines that are still in the fight,
Speaker 2: and they need their team leader and their squad leader
Speaker 2: in the patun commander, company commander, and battanion commander to
Speaker 2: get them to the fight. So it's a it's a tension,
Speaker 2: it is. Yeah, you leave, you leave a piece of yourself,
Speaker 2: at least I did in this city.
Speaker 1: There's a few more minutes of our conversation. You just
Speaker 1: recently retired here in twenty twenty four, so twenty additional
Speaker 1: years since the Battle of Fallujah, nearly twenty nine years
Speaker 1: in the corps overall, How did your experience in Fallujah,
Speaker 1: the lessons you learned as a company commander there inform
Speaker 1: your future assignments.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it inform my future assignments. That's
Speaker 2: an interesting question because I would say maybe maybe two things,
Speaker 2: and they're kind of combined. Many of my follow on
Speaker 2: jobs were in training, either as a future commander or
Speaker 2: in a school. I was the director of the Infantry
Speaker 2: Officer course for about a year and a half. So
Speaker 2: what this experience did was gave me a deeper insight
Speaker 2: into risk. You take acceptable risk to accomplison objective. You
Speaker 2: assess the risk and you mitigate it, and you've got
Speaker 2: to be able to extend that out as far as
Speaker 2: you possibly can to be effective. But it gave me
Speaker 2: greater insights into to how far we could extend that out,
Speaker 2: because you have to. This is a risky business, right.
Speaker 2: If the best way to have no risk, we could
Speaker 2: all just stay home. But our nation doesn't need that
Speaker 2: from us. I asked us to go forward, right, So
Speaker 2: it helped me think through through that, and I think
Speaker 2: at least, I hope it may be a better trainer.
Speaker 2: Like I said before, soft training doesn't do well in
Speaker 2: hard environments, and come, that's a hard environment. It's the
Speaker 2: hardest environment known to man, it is, right, So in
Speaker 2: ensuring that training is set up so it's as realistic
Speaker 2: and challenging and sometimes gut wrenching as possible. Again back
Speaker 2: to the risk discussion, how far can you take training
Speaker 2: without plopping over the edge. That's bad, right, But you've
Speaker 2: got to be able to push that edge out as
Speaker 2: far as you possibly can so that when our nation calls,
Speaker 2: these marines are confident in themselves, confident in their teammates,
Speaker 2: and they're gonna go. They're gonna go kick ass, right.
Speaker 2: So I think I left with that, and you know,
Speaker 2: from a human perspective, just a freaking appreciation for those guys.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously I appreciated them before, but as I've
Speaker 2: gotten all, you know, my son is now a marine, right,
Speaker 2: just I love them, and I just hope our nation
Speaker 2: continues to produce these young men and women who will,
Speaker 2: you know, raise their right hand, wear the cloth of
Speaker 2: the nation, that rite that blank check and execute very
Speaker 2: often in a violent environment without hesitation. So the appreciation
Speaker 2: for that just it continues to grow.
Speaker 1: Any particular advice based on your experience that you gave
Speaker 1: your son as he pursued becoming a Marine.
Speaker 2: Officer, I think he's probably had enough advice for me
Speaker 2: over the years. But he had the opportunity to spend
Speaker 2: some incredibly valuable time with some of these young marines
Speaker 2: that I served with. And I did that on purpose
Speaker 2: because one, they're the best this nation has to offer,
Speaker 2: and their advice to him, just just watching him talk
Speaker 2: was was really price. You can't get that out of a schoolhouse.
Speaker 2: It's just, you know, like a Mason, just be genuine,
Speaker 2: just be you and care. From that stems everything. Caring
Speaker 2: leads to incredibly realistic, challenging training and all the things.
Speaker 2: I just thought it was brilliant.
Speaker 1: Last question, what are you most proud of from your
Speaker 1: distinguished twenty nine years in the corps?
Speaker 2: Most proud that I had the honor and the privilege
Speaker 2: to I was in a leadership position, but frankly to
Speaker 2: serve alongside these guys, and I think most most officers
Speaker 2: would say something similar to that. I mean, it's absolutely
Speaker 2: you know, our privilege, Like I'm the probably the luckiest
Speaker 2: guy in the world.
Speaker 1: Colonel, we thank you for your time today and we
Speaker 1: thank you very very much for your service to our country.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: That's retired to US Marine Corps Colonel Aaron Cunningham, who
Speaker 1: commanded Alpha Company, first Battalion, eighth Marines in the Second
Speaker 1: Battle of Fallujah November and December two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this
Speaker 1: is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
Speaker 1: a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
Speaker 1: please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
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