Alex Lemons walked via the Battle of An Najaf and got here residence. What virtually broke him wasn’t the enemy — it was his personal physique, years later.
That is Half 2 with Alex Lemons, a former Marine Scout Sniper, Iraq Battle veteran, and co-author of Warbody with environmental historian Joshua Howe. Half 1 lined the inspiration — his path into the sniper platoon and the invasion. This one covers the Battle of An Najaf, the losses that got here with it, and the rationale he and Josh spent years constructing a case that concussions, PTSD, and poisonous publicity — lead, burn pits, contaminated water at Camp Lejeune — are quietly wrecking the well being of a era of veterans, and those earlier than them too.
On this dialog: a counter-sniper spherical that landed twelve inches from his face, a shifting goal he had no strategy to hit with a rifle so he walked an Abrams tank’s most important gun onto it as a substitute, and a case of mistaken id that almost received him killed by his personal aspect. We additionally do not skip what would not present up in an after-action report — dropping buddies in fast succession, the anorexia he developed to manage what he could not, and what the science truly says about what trendy struggle does to a physique lengthy after the deployment ends.
This can be a lengthy, trustworthy dialog. Price your full consideration, particularly when you’ve served otherwise you’re near somebody who has.
Visitor Data — Alexander Lemons
Alexander Lemons is a former U.S. Marine Scout Sniper and Bronze Star recipient who served a number of fight deployments throughout the Iraq Battle, together with Nasiriyah and Fallujah. He’s the co-author of Battle Physique: A Marine Sniper and the Hidden Violence of Fashionable Warfare, a robust have a look at the hidden bodily and psychological prices of fight and what struggle leaves behind lengthy after the taking pictures stops.
Battle Physique: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324066330
Featured Article: https://www.hcn.org/points/57-2/a-veteran-transforms-a-legacy-of-violence-into-a-campaign-for-restoration/
Host Data — AJ Pasciuti
AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Power Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), creator of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in Battle and Life, and host of the Fight Story Podcast, the place veterans share trustworthy, unfiltered tales of service, management, and life after fight.
Discover AJ on-line:
E-book (Darkhorse): https://ajpasciuti.com/darkhorse
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/
Web site: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/
Chapters
0:00 – One spherical, twelve inches from his face
2:37 – Chasing a flyer into the sniper platoon
13:14 – A guerrilla struggle no one upstairs would admit to
17:29 – Sniper college, and the companion he misplaced earlier than he ever deployed
48:38 – Into the Battle of An Najaf
58:36 – The 1,600-yard shot, and the tank he needed to name in
1:12:17 – Dropping Sergeant Rochas — then virtually dropping himself to his personal aspect
1:22:45 – Two tales via a roof: the damage that began the clock
1:26:16 – A second deployment, and management that almost received them killed
1:41:19 – Strolling away from the Corps to advise generals in Iraq
1:50:26 – Coming residence to a Marine Corps — and a physique — that did not match anymore
2:00:24 – The anorexia, and the lead he did not know he was carrying
2:44:37 – Three forces: concussions, PTSD, and toxicants
3:19:47 – “The struggle is constant in everyone’s physique”
supply
