- 7 hours ago
Nick Jones is a former US Marine Raider who served in MARSOC, the Marine Corps’ elite special operations unit.
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00:00My name is Nick Jones. I'm a Navy Cross recipient. I served as a Marine Raider
00:04for eight years, twelve total in the Marine Corps. This is everything I'm
00:08authorized to tell you. Do not try to chase the dragon. Real things happen out
00:15there. People die, people get hurt, and then you come back with these unforeseen
00:19wounds that you didn't think of because you fantasize about it over the movies.
00:24But when you're there it's as real as you can imagine. So I was Marine Raider.
00:28That's who I was. I don't know who Nick Jones is. I just knew who Staff Sergeant
00:34Jones was. But like, that was my life.
00:43MARSOC is the Marine Special Operations Command. My first deployment with my
00:49Marine Raider team was January 2016. We went to northern Iraq, the Kurdistan region.
00:57ISIS had kind of taken over that whole region in 2014 and we were tasked with
01:04helping the Kurdistan region kind of employ some order back there. We got assigned to
01:11train some Kurdish special forces units and they were really itching to take
01:19back some of their towns that had been taken. So whenever we did our turnover, you
01:23know, it was very specific when we got to the this one specific area. This team was
01:29like, look, like we haven't seen much here. It's been very slow. Like we may have
01:35dropped five bombs on this whole deployment. Well, within minutes of him saying
01:40that we start taking direct machine gun fire. One of the reasons why I got
01:44selected for this team was my mortar capabilities. And they said you are going to be
01:49our weapons expert in the team. You're going to teach us how to use mortars because
01:53we're going to a place where we're probably going to need these. So turned from
01:58very non-kinetic so no hardly any combat before we got there to unleashing and us
02:06dropping hundreds of bombs and hundreds and hundreds of mortars. And it was it was a good deployment.
02:13You know, one major factor for us to make it a good deployment is none of our no teammates got
02:20hurt.
02:20We gathered so much in like intelligence and information on these towns. Our team
02:25ended up tallying up 398 confirmed kills. We had over 200 airstrikes. I dropped
02:33probably 500, 120 millimeter mortars. Got to employ the sniper rifle several times
02:40and things like that. So overall, being able to employ our combat skills, being able to employ
02:46multiple different, you know, arrays of skills that we have within the teams, we got to really test out a
02:52lot.
02:52Some of the biggest risks that, you know, we face theater to theater is those unknown, you know, tactics
03:00that the enemy can do. You know, you never know where that IED or improvised explosive device could be.
03:06You never know where that sniper could be. But where ISIS like jumped to a whole nother level
03:12is they almost became like a conventional force, but then they also had money and they had equipment.
03:17I remember specifically one time we had this huge oil refinery or oil rig right behind us
03:23and it was the silliest thing to set up behind that, but I had no idea at the time.
03:27My mortar team was set up here. We had a machine gun, a couple machine gun positions set up in
03:34this bunker.
03:35We were softening this target for our Kurdish forces to be able to go into and hopefully take back this
03:41village.
03:42Well, as we started the offensives and started doing our softening like mortar strikes, airstrikes, things like that,
03:50we started taking indirect fire. We do some counter mortar stuff and we actually destroy their mortar team.
03:56Well, then they wheeled out their artillery and they had full blown 105 artilleries and anti-tank.
04:07They were probably 20 millimeter cannons, maybe 30 millimeter cannons.
04:11And they were shooting huge airbursts, like machine gun rounds at us.
04:17Me and my element leader at the time, I was looking at them like, dude, we're going to freaking die
04:21here.
04:21Like, this is insane.
04:23We had a very like easy identifiable feature right behind us.
04:27And they were just like, well, we know right where they're at.
04:28Like we're just going to keep hammering them and hammering them.
04:32And like we found a lull in the fight and we ended up getting like we collected our stuff, grabbed
04:38the mortar tube.
04:39We had to leave certain things there and we had to like move positions or else we were going to
04:44get killed.
04:45As soon as you come home from that six month deployment, you're thrown into an 18 month workup, which is
04:53a training for the next deployment.
04:54My second deployment with MARSOC was in January of 2018 when I went to Jordan.
05:00Jordan was a very non-kinetic type of deployment.
05:03We went there and trained the Jordanian Special Forces in Amman, which was a very cool historic area.
05:10Looking at the what is success on a deployment versus this type of deployment, it's different because it's not a
05:18combat deployment.
05:20And that's what we wanted, you know.
05:23Now, like understanding as an adult, like that was a very successful deployment because I got to successfully train our
05:29partner force,
05:31make very good relations and, you know, build up those those guys to an operational standards.
05:41The Marine Corps and MARSOC is very unique because most places like Green Berets or SEALs, you can do it
05:52straight from initial contract to go to BUDS or go to the 18 X-ray course,
05:58which are the Navy SEALs or Green Berets pipeline.
06:01However, with MARSOC, you have to have a certain time in service and experience under your belt to even try
06:10to go to selection.
06:11I graduated high school December 2009 and I left for boot camp January 20th of 2010.
06:22And I had a seat to go to assessment and selection in January of 2013.
06:29So right at my three year mark.
06:31So I was moving super fast to try to get there.
06:33And the things that we look for as a new person coming into a MARSOC team or a Raider team,
06:40they have to be able to be critical thinkers, think on their own, think outside of the box.
06:45We want people who question things.
06:48We want people who push the envelope.
06:51We want natural leaders, people who are very good at working in teams.
06:55So everything from day one, when you show up, you are no longer Sergeant Jones or Corporal Jones.
07:02You are candidate number 023.
07:06And that's what you referred to for the rest of the six weeks.
07:10You do three initial weeks in North Carolina where it's a lot of like running.
07:15It's a lot of swimming.
07:16It's a lot of ruck running and a lot of like preparation for land navigation courses.
07:21They're intense.
07:22It's the swimming.
07:24When we do the specific workouts, there's never really a finite time or distance.
07:31It's always just intensity.
07:34You know, you're treading water with bricks or with rifles above your head or just like, you know,
07:41and you get in these tight little circles and you're trying to tread water and you're kicking each other
07:45and you're like gasping for air, pulling people under.
07:47It is the most humbling humbilizer in the course because that is one of the biggest droppers.
07:55Like people will drop like flies in the pool.
07:58You'll immediately raise your hand and say, I quit.
08:00There's a time standard for everything.
08:02Assessment and selection is more so a, they want to see that you have the heart.
08:08They want to see that you have the ability to not only work as an individual, but work under pressure
08:14with a team.
08:15We do a lot of 12 mile timed runs and those are set to as time standard and then the
08:2410 mile time standard.
08:25So you have to complete it in under two and a half hours with a 45 pound ruck before food
08:32and water.
08:33And then the land navigation is also 45 pound pack.
08:36So you always have that pack and then you always have a rifle with you.
08:40So the rifle is, it's a dummy rifle, but it's still weighted appropriately to resemble that of a fully loaded
08:46out rifle.
08:47You get into a blacked out van, you drive to an unknown location and we learn how to use map
08:55and compass protractors very well.
08:57So no GPS, no electronics or anything like that.
09:01You get told the coordinates of where you're at and the coordinates of your first point.
09:04So you have to plot both of those on the map.
09:07You go to the instructor and you say, this is, this is where I'm at.
09:09This is where I'm going.
09:10And then you have to navigate there.
09:14So with just a compass, your pack and a rifle and it's timed, you have no idea what the time
09:20is.
09:20There's no talking, there's no teamwork, no nothing.
09:23So it could be anywhere from three clicks, which is like 3000 yards or meters to 10 kilometers.
09:33If you've ever felt lost before, it is a very overwhelming feeling and you have to move fast.
09:41So it's hard.
09:42You have to continue to think on the fly.
09:44I remember climbing over a fence.
09:46I have this random farm field in front of me and I'm like, this is not on my map.
09:51Where am I?
09:52Like I was freaking out.
09:53I took my pack off and I threw it and I'm like, I am so lost.
09:56I was like, what is this doing for me?
09:58Nothing.
09:59Like get my pack back on and start running.
10:01Like I need to get back.
10:02And luckily I wasn't very far off.
10:04I was just like so confused that like I was tired.
10:07I was confused and I was like almost gave up.
10:10And I was like, no, no quit.
10:12So you do that three weeks in North Carolina and then you go up to Virginia and you do the
10:16rest up there.
10:18And it is mainly all land navigation and team building exercises.
10:22So you're basically doing land navigation from sunup to sundown and then you sleep in the woods.
10:29We started with 144 candidates in phase one and we left with 80 and then only 40 of us got
10:38selected.
10:40So it's very challenging.
10:49Once I got selected in April of 2013, they sent me back to my parent unit, which was 2nd Battalion,
10:575th Marines.
10:58And I had from April to January of 2014 to kind of prepare to go to individual training course or
11:07ITC.
11:07There is still the what ifs of if you don't pass this school, if you don't pass the nine months,
11:15you get put back into the needs of the Marine Corps.
11:17You might go do something totally random.
11:20So it is one of those very intimidating factors of like, holy crap, like I have to pass this.
11:26So when I started January of 2014, you start in different phases.
11:32So phase zero is communications phase.
11:36So you do several weeks.
11:38I think it's three weeks of communication phase and then three weeks of SEER, which is survive, evade, resist and
11:44escape course.
11:45You get to live out in the woods and like catch rabbits with snares and make fires and stuff like
11:51that.
11:51I'm a Kansas City boy.
11:53So I was like, it was all foreign to me, you know, so it was really cool.
11:58And then you go into phase one, which is small unit tactics.
12:02So talking about the guys that come from different MOS's military occupational specialties, they get to learn the small unit
12:10tactics from nothing.
12:13So we go over the basics.
12:15Everything starts with the basics.
12:17And at the end of each phase is a culminating exercise of something very intense and grueling.
12:23So at the end of our phase one of that small unit tactics phase is what we call a raider
12:29spirit.
12:29A lot of people talk about Hell Week in BUDS.
12:32This is our Hell Week.
12:34You're very sleep deprived.
12:36You're walking through the woods and you set up these bases, which is just you sitting in a 360 degree
12:43circle with all of your guys on security facing outboard to make sure that nobody ambushes us.
12:51Well, the instructors will come with their flashbangs, find a guy sleeping, throw it in the middle of us and
12:56be like, boom, like now you all need to evade.
12:59So like then we get up and we run and we've got casualties and they're on our back and it's
13:04like all night long, all day long, you're moving, you're not resting.
13:11Like it was intense.
13:13The military has a very good way of like taking very fun things and making them not fun because they're
13:18like, how much weight can we get on you?
13:20How much like, how long can we do this for? How, you know, tired can we make you while doing
13:25this?
13:25The ammunition for one thing, you have to carry a certain amount on your body.
13:30It's very heavy if you continue to carry more.
13:33You can really only have one real gun and one sidearm.
13:36So like my normal loadout would be six magazines of 30 rounds for my M4.
13:45I carried a M203 grenade launcher that shoots a 40 millimeter grenade.
13:50So I had 12 of those and then I had a pistol on my side with three magazines for that.
13:58I remember having an XL size of 800 milligram ibuprofens and, you know, sleep aid and caffeine.
14:07And I'm like, you know, I'd take ibuprofen before the day starts in the middle of the day, take more
14:13caffeine than sleep aid to go to sleep.
14:15And I'm like, this, this cannot be healthy.
14:18Once you pass that, we went into our, our CQB phase, like our more of our more advanced shooting styles.
14:28So we would start with getting on the flat range and working on very slow fundamentals, transitioning from rifle to
14:37pistol, full combat load, night vision shoots.
14:40And then the ultimate train up is to get into a shoot house.
14:45It is very much a crawl, walk, run phase.
14:48That is one of the most intense phases because it's a very, very pass or fail thing.
14:53You know, you could have some really, really good guys with all the right attributes and characteristics to become a
14:59really good Marine Raider.
15:01But then they get to that phase and they just can't shoot as well as they can operate as a
15:07person and they end up getting dropped.
15:09Shoot, move, communicate is what we say.
15:11Like you need to be able to do that very well.
15:13After the shooting phase, you go into like your special reconnaissance or reconnaissance phase.
15:18So you learn how to take pictures, you learn like some sniper techniques.
15:21And then that kind of culminates into doing an exercise of watching a village and reporting, taking photos.
15:30And then you go into the irregular warfare, unconventional warfare type of stuff where you fall into a guerrilla style
15:38force where you go in and you train these people from nothing.
15:42So it's role playing at its finest, but it's very fascinating, the things that you get to do and get
15:50to build and train a partner force.
15:54And like the conventional Marines actually come out to help us out.
15:57So we get to train them.
15:59And then at the end of all of that, you go through a board.
16:04So you do like an interview at the end.
16:06We started ITC with about 90 and then we graduated with 40.
16:12So we lost about half.
16:14And a lot of those happened at the very beginning.
16:17Once I got to MARSOC, you know, I had that notion that it would be very fast paced and a
16:24lot of cool stuff.
16:26When I graduated ITC, I had to go back into a classroom setting for six months and learn modern standard
16:33Arabic.
16:34I thought that was, I thought it was cool.
16:37However, I did not like school.
16:38So it was very hard for me to sit in a classroom for eight hours and study.
16:42And I was like, I just hope that it's not like this, like there's no way, but I'm still in
16:47school.
16:47I understand.
16:49And then I got assigned to my team, 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, Hotel Company Team 2.
16:54They had a lot of like legends within that company.
16:58Well, then I check into my team room and they're like, hey, our first exercise is we're going to this
17:02place called Busco Beach.
17:03We're taking dirt bikes, ATVs, side-by-sides and stuff like that.
17:08And we're going to camp out.
17:09It's like, no way.
17:10It's sure as .
17:11We travel down there.
17:12We take our campers down there and we set up, set up tents.
17:16We set up a grill.
17:17We do all this stuff and then we unload all of the side-by-sides and the dirt bikes and
17:23the four-wheelers.
17:23I'm riding dirt bikes with a gun on my back and then we have night vision on.
17:28And I'm like, no way.
17:29You know, needless to say, it held up its expectations for what I envisioned it to be.
17:35Because immediately after that, I went to jump school.
17:38And then shortly after that, we, you know, we finished our training.
17:42I got put into a team that was about to deploy right away.
17:51My final deployment with MARSOC was January 2020.
17:56We were tasked with going back to northern Iraq.
17:58In 2016, I was a little bit south of Mosul in an area called Kirkuk.
18:03This time, I was up in Mosul.
18:05At this time in 2020, I'd like to believe ISIS was basically back down to an insurgency level.
18:11And they are now in sleeper cells.
18:13They're hiding in caves and, you know, using these auxiliary type of fighting techniques.
18:19And then in March of 2020, there was a large tasking that came down that they had been watching these
18:27intricate cave systems.
18:28Our sister team over there got tasked originally with this operation.
18:35And then next thing you know, their partner force all came down with this sickness that they come to find
18:43out was COVID.
18:44And they were like, hey, 8232, like, you guys are ready, operationally capable right now.
18:49This is now your mission.
18:51So we had about five days to plan for this thing that these guys had been planning for weeks.
18:56I'm in charge with the tactical maneuver and the security placement and basically the assault structure of what we were
19:02going to do.
19:03So March 8th, 2020 was insert.
19:07And we get flown in on helicopters.
19:10We had a team of probably 15 operators, U.S. service members with me, and then 25 Iraqi partner force.
19:19In this instance, there was a go and no-go criteria, and it was like an increasing of forces over
19:25double the amount that was already on ground.
19:28So we had seen seven fighters on the ground.
19:30And within 24 hours, we start getting intelligence updates that there's now eight, there's nine, there's 10, there's 11.
19:37Now there's like 19 fighters on the ground.
19:40And so they over doubled their size of fighters that they had seen in and around the area.
19:47I wish I knew why we still went in.
19:52We voiced our opinion.
19:54I know that there were things being said behind the scenes.
19:58I don't know specifics.
20:00We worked best at night.
20:03That's our strong suit.
20:05And we were also told to continue to wait until daytime.
20:08But, you know, it doesn't change the fact that, you know, they still told us to go and we flew
20:13in and tried to do the job to the best of our capabilities.
20:17And then we finally get to our first cave that we're going to clear.
20:22And I get up there and our initial thought is like, hey, we're going to throw in some grenades.
20:28We have some anti-structural munitions that we throw up there.
20:31They're very condensed, like very intense explosives.
20:34But then as dust settles, I go up there and I look and there's a dead ISIS fighter sitting in
20:39there, completely covered in dust, like white, white face, white armor.
20:44And he had an M-16.
20:47Up in the corner, there was a mounted machine gun.
20:49Like, I mean, this guy had this cave fortified.
20:53He was ready.
20:54He was ready to fight.
20:55He knew that we were coming.
20:56And I can see it right now in my face.
20:59Like, this guy's whole posture and face can still burn into my vision to this day because of what happened.
21:08And as soon as I'm going to go into this cave and start doing this clear, just hell opened up.
21:14And just machine guns, explosions, and just chaos burst open.
21:20And then I hear there's a casualty.
21:22I'm like, holy crap.
21:23And this all happened, like, within seconds.
21:25And then the next call comes in.
21:28There's an eagle down.
21:29And an eagle is a U.S. service member.
21:31So when you hear that, like, it's immediate gut, gut wrench, gut drop.
21:36I'm like, I gotta do something.
21:39And I felt it.
21:40And then a second later, another eagle down.
21:42I was like, nope.
21:43So I turned to my Iraqis.
21:44I was like, you guys, you guys, like, watch this cave.
21:47Like, don't, don't go anywhere.
21:48Hold security here.
21:49I gotta go.
21:50And I grabbed my gun and I just run over there.
21:53And then I get down there and there's still smoke and machine gun fire happening.
21:57And I was like, what is happening?
21:59And there's just people frozen on the mountainside that nobody could really tell me.
22:02So I was like, okay, well, I'm jumping in this ravine.
22:05So I jumped in into there and there's one French fighter in there.
22:08His English wasn't very good.
22:10So, you know, guns pointed.
22:12I was like, okay, I get it.
22:13I still had my night vision goggles on my head.
22:15And, like, if we ever go into caves, like, I flip them down.
22:19I bring that up because I start climbing up.
22:21And then as soon as my, like, night vision goggles poke up and then I see, like,
22:25right over the crest of this rock, I see this huge mouth opening.
22:29And, like, the fortifications and the rocks and the built up barricades that they had.
22:36It was just, like, it was intense.
22:39It was so intense.
22:42I don't even know what other word to use.
22:44And it was dark.
22:45And I see this body laying right there.
22:48And all of this happened within a split second.
22:50But as soon as I see this, I come up and I take all of this in.
22:54And just, like, I just immediately start getting pinned down by automatic fire.
22:59I'm like, I'm going to get killed if I move up any further.
23:02Like, they've got me pinned down.
23:04And this French guy starts yelling something.
23:06He was, like, yelling, roll.
23:08And these legs fly up in the air.
23:11I thought this dude was dead.
23:13Like, had to have been dead.
23:14How much fire was going on.
23:16And so then I stand up as fast as I could.
23:18And I just start shooting as fast as I can into this cave.
23:22And I run up and somehow I grab this dude's legs.
23:25And I pull him back, still shooting.
23:27And I finally, like, throw him down these rocks.
23:30And this French guy grabs him.
23:32And I just continue to shoot and cover this guy as he's moving.
23:35And it was wild.
23:36But so that, we ended up pulling out the French operator
23:40that had been wounded previously.
23:43I had a U.S. guy come, an eagle come up.
23:47And he was like, hey, I'm coming down.
23:49Like, what do you need?
23:50And I said, dude, I don't know where the U.S. guys are.
23:53I don't know if there's still more casualties, if that was a fake call.
23:56Like, I didn't see anybody else down there.
23:58But we're going to die if we go this way.
24:01And so we finally find a spot to go to up on top of basically the roof of the cave.
24:10And I had the snipers.
24:12The snipers were like, hey, I think I see a body right here.
24:14Continue to walk up.
24:15And I walk up as slowly as I can.
24:18And as soon as I get to the edge, that's when I see Moe and Diego down there.
24:24Both of them killed pretty much right in front of the cave.
24:27And, man, I'll tell you, that was one of the – it was a very gruesome sight.
24:37I mean, I knew immediately that they were gone.
24:40Moe was a little bit more believable that he might still be awake because he – or alive because he
24:46was sitting up and his hand was on his gun still.
24:49His eyes were open.
24:50So, you know, maybe there was some life left in him.
24:54And so I whispered his name and there was nothing.
24:57And then, like, the closer I got, that's when, you know, they knew that I was there.
25:02So I had to take a step back and that's when I realized, like, hey, it's time.
25:06I have to take this over.
25:07It's no longer a cave clearance operation.
25:09It's a recovery mission.
25:11We've got to get these guys out of here.
25:13I called up to the commander, the commander in charge, and told him, Moe and Diego are dead, plain language.
25:21And they didn't believe me because how is the executive officer of the company dead and how is the team
25:27chief dead?
25:27And I was like, it doesn't make sense to me either.
25:29I don't know what else to tell you, but they're gone.
25:31And so I was like, I'm going to try to get them out.
25:35I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to continue to go up there and I'm
25:38going to try.
25:39So I went up there and took as many grenades as I had and I basically laid on top of
25:44their roof and looked under it like I'm looking under a table and just started chucking grenades in there.
25:50I even had a teammate hold my belt so I could get even further down there as they're shooting at
25:54me and snipers, my snipers shooting this close to my head.
25:59But it was one of those situations, man, it was so complex that I just didn't know what to do.
26:05And I said, OK, screw it, like I'm going to go back in one more time.
26:09I'm trying to go up there and make this move to get these guys out.
26:13Everybody, everybody is shooting as I get like right up to the edge.
26:17And, you know, I feel like I'm gaining the confidence.
26:19I'm just going to jump down there.
26:21I just get smacked with a baseball bat in my shin.
26:25And I was like, holy crap, what was that?
26:26And I like jumped back and kind of took cover and sat down.
26:31I was like, dude, I think I just got shot.
26:33And I felt immediately this sense of failure.
26:36And I was like, these guys are still down here.
26:40I just got shot.
26:41Like, how are they going to get back out?
26:43Like, I don't I don't know how this is going to happen.
26:45Like it was now like pretty much everybody is running very low on ammunition, grenades, water.
26:53It was March, but it was still hot.
26:56And the commander said, hey, you guys have to fall back.
26:59Like we're going to wait for the quick reaction force to come in and take over for you guys.
27:03And then they'll they'll take over from here.
27:05You know, I didn't want to leave, but I knew that I had to.
27:07I couldn't walk at that point.
27:08So I had a medic come down from a hoist on a helicopter and pick me up off the side
27:13of the mountain.
27:13And, you know, this is kind of when I realized that the majority of my trauma started was I get
27:23on the helicopter and the medic asked me how my pain is.
27:27I was like, yeah, it's bad.
27:28So he's like cutting my pants off and cutting my shirt off and then hits me with ketamine.
27:34And immediately, like I go into this like insane visual trip, like the blades of the helicopter are spinning.
27:42And I hear when the next thing, you know, I get sucked back down into the mountain and I'm having
27:48this horrible trip of Mo and Diego.
27:51And I could tell that they were dead and they were screaming for me to get them out.
27:56And my arms are strapped into the stretcher and I couldn't talk.
28:01But like I kept trying to push my push to talk to talk to them and be like, I'm coming
28:05for you.
28:06I'm coming like I'm right there.
28:08And then I have this vision burned into my head where I'm reaching out and Mo is reaching up to
28:13me and there's my hands are this close together.
28:17And I'm like right there.
28:18And the next thing you know, I get woken up in the hospital and I'm like busting the tears crying.
28:24I'm like, what the hell I was right there.
28:27I was about to get them out.
28:28Like, what did you do?
28:30And I'm like blaming the doctors.
28:31I'm like delirious.
28:32Like I didn't know what was happening.
28:35And then finally, like I get wheeled next to the the the French special operator and he was shot through
28:42and through in the left leg, blew out his calf, shot in the top of the head.
28:46He's like, I can't hear very well.
28:47Yeah, you got shot in the head.
28:50The Delta Force guys came in that night, killed a whole bunch of bad guys in the cave, ended up
28:56recovering our our teammates and bringing them home that night.
29:00I think we both actually stood on crutches as they wheeled them by in the in the body bags.
29:08And it was a very, very intense but glorifying moment that we know that everybody came home.
29:21We did the ramp ceremony the next day, and that is a ceremony where we draped the caskets and the
29:27American flags and we put them up onto the C-17, the big transport plane to fly them back to
29:33the States.
29:34So, yeah, after that was a it was a tough time.
29:42I tried to stay in country because my wound, it wasn't a through and through basically made it to where
29:49I couldn't walk and gave me this super rare nerve syndrome called complex regional pain syndrome.
29:55Within weeks, I finally raised my hand and was like, look, like Iran's bombing Iraq again.
30:01I need to leave like I'm a liability here.
30:03I can't move with kid on.
30:05I need to go home and get surgery.
30:07So we reach out to Walter Reed, get a surgery scheduled, finally get back home.
30:12And this is, you know, the start of my grueling recovery, the beginning of COVID, the beginning of the shutdown
30:21of the world.
30:22April 1st, 2020 is when I got home.
30:25I thought it was an April Fool's joke.
30:27Like, why didn't anybody come visit me in the airport?
30:30Nobody from the Marine Corps, nobody from the Special Operations Command.
30:33They didn't come see me.
30:34The pain I was dealing with from the injury itself was excruciating.
30:42I don't know if you've hit like a nerve, like your funny bone or something and you get all the
30:47tingles that shoot down your arm.
30:49Well, it was like that constantly.
30:52I could barely walk on my own.
30:54I walked with a cane for almost two years.
30:57A lot of that time I had crutches and then I would sometimes walk with a walker.
31:02It was a constant every minute reminder of the mission.
31:06I could not get it out of my head because it was like I wake up, I move, like my
31:11leg hurts.
31:11Now I'm thinking about the mission.
31:13Finally, they ended up amputating a nerve, amputating several nerves out of my leg, continued complications there.
31:21So I had to get a spinal cord stimulator installed in my back with wires going through my spine to
31:27regulate pain in my leg and like all of these crazy things.
31:31And I'm like, I'm going to live like a cyborg now with no nerves in my leg.
31:35Like what is this life coming to, you know?
31:38And finally in July and August, we finally got to bury our teammates.
31:42They do this thing called roll call at the beginning of these ceremonies where they start calling off certain names.
31:48Then the last name that they call off is the one that died.
31:53And they call, you know, Captain Novice.
31:59Captain Novice.
32:02Captain Moses Novice.
32:04And then I just broke down.
32:07I couldn't control it.
32:08I couldn't control the voice or the noise coming out of my, it was like this insane mental breakdown that
32:16I had right there in the middle of this ceremony.
32:19I walked into the back and I found the first medical officer that I could and I was like, I
32:23need help.
32:24I can't do this on my own anymore.
32:26Like I'm, I'm hurting so bad that like something has to change.
32:31I need, I need something.
32:33So finally I was admitted into, admitted into a treatment program at the Intrepid Spirit Clinic, Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic.
32:41And I got to go do physical therapy, occupational therapy, all of these different modalities.
32:48And then I started to kind of dabble into like the more like holistic side and doing yoga and doing
32:53breath work and meditation.
32:56When I tell you, I did art therapy.
32:58I went into this art studio and like they had this whole section there and I was like, look, like
33:02I want to try this.
33:03I'm, I've tried everything else.
33:04I just, I can't seem to break this shell.
33:06Like I need, I need something.
33:08And they sat me down with this, with this four by six note card and a whole bunch of negative
33:14emotions on one page and positive emotions on another.
33:17And I just circled all these negative ones.
33:19I was like, this is everything that I'm feeling right now.
33:20And she's like, draw it.
33:22All of a sudden, like I start drawing and just like something took over and I started drawing the mission.
33:29I started drawing mountains and blood and death and all of these things just came out of me.
33:34And I just cried and cried and cried and cried.
33:38And I was like, what just happened to me?
33:42Like, how did this just become a thing?
33:44Like, I don't know what's going on.
33:47And she like just starts to break it down to me and talk to me.
33:50And I was like, I'm hooked.
33:52I want to come in here and I want to paint.
33:54I want to do all of this stuff.
33:55Like, I need to release all of this out of me.
33:58If this is how it happens, then this is how it happens.
34:00So I was doing that through art and through music and yoga and breath work.
34:10The mission sets are very interchangeable between battalions.
34:16We used to be regionally aligned.
34:18First Raider Battalion would go to PACOM or the Pacific Command region.
34:24Second Raider Battalion would go to Central Command or like the Middle East.
34:28And then third Raider Battalion would go to AFRICOM or the African region.
34:34In MARSOC, we deploy for six months together.
34:37And then we do an 18 month training for deployment.
34:41In the movies, sometimes it's the president that gets this order that's like, we need to do this now.
34:47And the next thing you know, it's this MARSOC team that's about to jump out of a plane and go
34:51shoot up a village.
34:53And it's like far beyond what's actually real.
34:57You know, there's a there's a huge process behind it.
35:01And it's actually a lot longer and a lot more bureaucratic than than people would think.
35:05So we do a lot of PowerPoint.
35:08We put all of these different contingencies in there.
35:10There's weather situations.
35:12If the weather is too bad and we can't get a helicopter or medevac in there in a certain timeframe,
35:18because we know that if somebody gets hurt, they get killed.
35:21We can't get them out fast enough to help save their lives.
35:24There's a lot of different moving pieces, though, like with the signals intelligence and the human intelligence and things like
35:30that,
35:30without going into things that I can and can't talk about.
35:33A lot of the times these missions will come from a higher entity in us sitting at our team space
35:40in that region that we're deployed to.
35:42We'll get a email and they'll be like, hey, we just got this information.
35:48We need you guys to build a package.
35:50You're going to go here.
35:51So then we plan.
35:53We do everything.
35:54We could make mock villages.
35:56We could make mock buildings and we can do all of our rehearsals and rehearsals are key.
36:02If we don't do the rehearsals, the mission set could be a failure.
36:06It's all very crucial because then it like builds it into our minds of like where to go, what route
36:12to turn on.
36:13And there are different levels of missions.
36:15Whenever we were in Iraq in 2016, it was still very politically sensitive because we still didn't fully understand where
36:23ISIS was,
36:24what they were doing, what their stronghold positions looked like.
36:28Whereas in 2020, when we went there, we had already done the huge offensive.
36:32We had taken Mosul back.
36:34We had taken all of these different huge areas back.
36:37We would still have to get approval, but it wasn't as high because we knew that these bad dudes were
36:41there.
36:42We're just, we're trying to get them out now.
36:48The teams within MARSOC, they're very small.
36:51We start out initially with about nine operators.
36:55So our initial nine operators right off the bat would be the officer in charge,
37:01who is a special operations officer.
37:03We always try to have a weapons sergeant or a weapons specialist.
37:07We have some sort of engineer, some sort of communications expert, and then we have the medic.
37:14We start with those nine to 12 guys or gals, and then we end up deploying with almost 20 people
37:21in the team.
37:21We used to have explosive ordnance disposal guys, so EOD techs.
37:25We used to have multipurpose canine handlers.
37:28You can even get as far as a geo intelligence, so people who make maps.
37:33We can deploy with those types of guys.
37:36So it gets very specific depending on the region that we're going to, the mission set that we have.
37:41We have different command structures within the region that we're in.
37:46And so it starts with our team, and then we report to our company, and then they report to another
37:53higher level of command.
37:54And if they can't do it, then they have to go all the way to the theater command.
37:59So whenever we get to a certain area, we're basically designated and we find these people that are in need
38:05of our help.
38:07But specifically in Iraq, there was a flot, so the forward line of troops, and there was a big berm
38:13built up.
38:14And those people that we were helping on the other side of the berm were the Kurdish partners.
38:19In 2020, when I went back there, we were a part or got attached to the counterterrorism unit for the
38:26Iraqi special forces.
38:28So it honestly just depends on where we're going and who we partner with.
38:32So I got to learn Arabic for six months, and then when I went to Iraq, they spoke Kurdish.
38:39Then I went to Jordan, and then they spoke the Levantine dialect.
38:42I'm like, I at least have like the very formal like Arabic structure, which was, it was very hard, but
38:51it was one of those bonding things.
38:53They actually thought it was hilarious when I would try to speak to them, because I would speak in this
38:58like, they would call it like the King's English.
39:01You know, like the very formal like, but then, you know, you gain that trust and that respect for them,
39:07because it's like, hey, like, I want you guys to go do this on your own.
39:11And so then they look up to us, and they're like, well, I'm going to do everything that I can
39:15to make you proud.
39:16And so that, it is a very, it's a very rewarding and a very like fulfilling type of thing whenever
39:22you see them, and then you get to send them out there to do that stuff.
39:32At this one point, I got invited to go share my story at a fundraising event, and they were like,
39:38hey, we want you to be the guest speaker and just talk to the donors and give them a story
39:42on what happened to you.
39:43So I start talking, I start sharing the story, and then immediately, like all of these emotions started rising.
39:51And like, I feel like this release intention, like I'm talking to random strangers about it.
39:56But the next thing you know, like I was like, I want to be able to share my story and
40:00my experiences in hopes that other operators understand they're not alone.
40:04And it just clicked.
40:06I was like, I know what I'm going to do now.
40:08I'm going to start this nonprofit.
40:10And that's how Talon's Reach Foundation was born.
40:12The name was chosen based off of a friend of mine, Talon Leach.
40:18July 10, 2017, there was a plane crash over Mississippi.
40:23C-130 took off from Cherry Point, North Carolina, taking some Marines out to do training in Yuma.
40:29When they took off from Mississippi, there was a malfunction with one of the rotors on the plane, detached from
40:36the plane and cut the fuselage in half at like 30,000 feet.
40:40Killed everybody on the plane.
40:42So 15 Marines, one sailor all died that day.
40:47Seven of those guys were from my company.
40:49And that night I got the phone call from my command saying that, you know, there was an incident.
40:56There was a plane crash and our guys were on that plane.
41:00And Talon was one of those.
41:04And he has you on his paper to go notify his wife.
41:09I was like absolutely distraught about the whole situation because I thought that stuff only happened in movies.
41:20We fill out these paperwork, these things called personal effects worksheets before we go on every deployment.
41:25And it's like it's kind of like a will.
41:28And it has certain requests in there.
41:31And if something bad were to happen to me, this is who I want to go notify my family.
41:36And he put me in there as that guy.
41:38We went through selection together.
41:40We went through training together.
41:42We went through Arabic school together.
41:44We got assigned to the same company.
41:46He was in between our first and second deployment.
41:48And he, yeah, he was on that plane.
41:51And, man, I had to get dressed in my alphas.
41:56It's the green uniforms that the Marines have.
41:58And you only use that to notify families of death or to change commands or check into a new command.
42:07So when she saw me in that uniform approaching their house, she knew immediately.
42:15And it was hard because, you know, she was a close friend.
42:20We were trying to think of something very significant for the nonprofit.
42:23And, you know, I had dealt with his death in the wrong ways, I guess.
42:28You know, I did what we knew how to do best.
42:30And I drank and I drank and I worked harder.
42:33And, you know, my family life struggled because of it.
42:37And then it was, you know, at this time when we were thinking of names and, like, hey, we want
42:43to call the participants Eagles.
42:45We're like, well, Talon's Reach.
42:47Like, that would be very, like, metaphorically symbolic for this whole event.
42:53You know, like, that's kind of the power and the name and why we chose it.
42:56We were founded January of 2021 was when we first actually incorporated.
43:03Our first very first fundraiser was held on July 10th of 2021.
43:09And then from there, we, you know, we finally moved out to Montana, Bozeman, Montana, and we started everything out
43:17there.
43:17And we ran through 12 programs now, and we've helped 65 special operators.
43:25We did our first program in Jackson, Wyoming in February of 2026.
43:30We're really starting to move.
43:32We're really starting to evolve.
43:33The impacts that we're having are absolutely profound.
43:37It's those self-destructive habits that we all knew too well are something that's taking more lives than helping.
43:46And that's one very hard thing to realize is that we're not going to be able to save everybody.
43:53And the bottle is still going to be one of our worst enemies.
43:57You know, we fight so hard.
44:00We go through so much.
44:02The world's hardest training.
44:04These selections.
44:08Fight for this country, but we don't even know how to live for it.
44:15We're so good at compartmentalizing and holding all of this stuff in years of combat and years of training and
44:22don't want to show weakness and don't want to ask for help.
44:26You think the only way out is to quit when quitting has never been in our dictionary.
44:37And it's, you know, it's hard to say that I was a victim of it as well.
44:42I was an extreme alcoholic and I didn't know how to ask for help.
44:47And I had already asked one time and it just wasn't, wasn't working.
44:53And, but God had another plan and he knew that I was here to help people.
45:00So it is not easy.
45:02It's hard being on that side, wanting to do it and only wanting to quit.
45:07And then having somebody follow through with it and actually being gone from it.
45:11And it's just like, why would you do this to us?
45:14I wish you would have just asked me.
45:15I wish you would have just talked to me.
45:17Like I would much rather hear you talk for hours and cry to me and whatever you got to do,
45:23then.
45:26Let me put my damn uniform back on to go bury you.
45:29It's hard.
45:33But that's what we're trying to do.
45:35We're trying to help save lives, change lives, change that thought process.
45:41Ah, sorry.
45:49On August 26th, 2021, I would be awarded the Navy Cross,
45:55which is the second highest award for valor that you can receive in the military for actions taken on the
46:01battlefield.
46:02My actions on March 8th, 2020, were the reasons why I was awarded this, this Navy Cross.
46:11It's also a very significant and profound day.
46:16August 26th, 2021 is the same day that the Abbey Gate bombing happened that killed service members and several other
46:24people that day.
46:25But it was also Talon's birthday, which was just absolutely wild.
46:29So I felt very connected to the guys that were lost that day and ended up going up on 9
46:36-11 to Walter Reed.
46:38My wife was like, hey, like, I think that, you know, it would be really good for you to show
46:42face and just see them.
46:44You know how bad it how bad it feels to sit up there in that hospital.
46:48So maybe you can go see them and bring Fletcher along with you and and show them some comfort.
46:54So Fletcher and I here, we have been together for five years now.
46:59Actually, this week in May 2021, he was gifted to me.
47:08He was donated to me through an organization out of Jefferson City, Missouri,
47:14because I was having panic attacks and anxiety and depression and just having like having a companion there with me
47:23when I was traveling back and forth to appointments and things like that would bring me a lot of joy.
47:30And and Fletcher has became a healing entity for for very, very many, very many for a lot of people.
47:40Come here. And so he's, you know, he's flown with me everywhere.
47:48He's visited people in hospitals. He's been at every single program that we've ran with talent through each foundation.
47:55And he is very much the icon of of of our organization.
47:59And, you know, he's he's a goofball chocolate lab.
48:04But oh, yeah, is that what you got to say?
48:10But at this point, like I couldn't imagine life without this dog.
48:15Like he he's saved me more times than he knows.
48:24I was born and raised in Olathe, Kansas.
48:28I knew that I wanted to join the Marine Corps, but I ended up getting into a path of very
48:37troubled as a as a young kid.
48:40So I drinking, I guess, heavily at like 12, 13 years old.
48:44I started smoking weed.
48:46I did all of this stuff.
48:48And then the heavier things kind of came on on sooner after that.
48:52So I was very much an outcast, but I liked to fight and I liked to, you know, do very
48:59adventurous, extreme things.
49:01Kansas was not the place for me.
49:03I got involved in the wrong crowd.
49:05I was drinking.
49:07I was selling and doing doing other drugs.
49:10And I worked at a skateboard shop.
49:13I got into a big fight in the back room of the skate shop and the cops showed up in
49:20the doorway and they basically pointed at me.
49:23I think they knew who I was and I was like, great.
49:26Here we go.
49:27And I was like, I'm going to run.
49:28I'm going to run right past them.
49:29I know I can make.
49:30And they were standing in a doorway, two huge cops in uniform.
49:35I tried to run and they just basically clotheslined me, threw me into the wall, handcuffed me, waited for my
49:42boss, my mom and a huge crowd in the mall.
49:45And so I felt like a big POS.
49:51And so when I got in there, I was like, well, they already know I'm in jail.
49:56So I might as well call my recruiter.
49:58So I used my one phone call, called my recruiter and said, hey, I'm not going to make it.
50:03I'm in juvenile detention again.
50:06And I'm sorry.
50:07So he's like, OK, I'll be at your house when you get out.
50:10So then I I finished out my house arrest.
50:13I continued on that path of sobriety and continued on, you know, more community service and involvement with the recruiting
50:22station until I finally got through school and then said, hey, as soon as I can go, I'd like to
50:28go to boot camp.
50:30And then, yeah, we made it happen.
50:32I did all of my stuff as a Hollywood Marine.
50:35So West Coast Marine, San Diego, California, beautiful spot.
50:39After the 13 weeks of boot camp, they assign you to the school of infantry and they do like the
50:46first few weeks as basic infantry tactics.
50:50And then you go off to your to your specialties.
50:52But whenever they were reading off the MOS's, the military occupational specialties, the one that I did not want to
50:58do that was last on my list was a mortarman.
51:01I didn't want to be an 0341.
51:03I wanted to be a rifleman or a machine gunner.
51:06Last one was mortarman.
51:08What did the Marine Corps do?
51:10They picked me as a mortarman.
51:11What I imagined the mortarman doing were support roles, sitting back there playing spades.
51:18That's exactly what they did.
51:19The culture of the Marine Corps like really got bred into me.
51:23And that's what they did.
51:24You know, they love to drink and they like to fight.
51:26And but it's like that's not who I wanted to be necessarily.
51:30So I see these snipers running around in their ghillie suits.
51:35That's like, that's what I want to do.
51:36Like, how do I do that?
51:37In 2011, I went on the 31st MEU, Marine Expeditionary Unit.
51:42It's basically a big ship that floats around and we go to all of these different places in the Pacific.
51:48But it was it was on that ship.
51:49I became really close friends with all of these snipers and was like, hey, like, how do I take this
51:53selection?
51:54You know, fast forwarding to the end of that deployment, middle of 2011, get back home and I get selected
52:02for the sniper platoon.
52:04We did a number of training within Camp Pendleton and we were doing land navigation running through the mountains of
52:13Camp Pendleton.
52:14And I came across this trailer with this sign, this banner, MARSOC and this guy with this cool helmet on
52:21and this sweet gun in his hand.
52:22As soon as I finished that land navigation course, came back to base, cleaned up, I drove over to that
52:30trailer.
52:30And I was like, I walked inside. I was like, hey, what is MARSOC?
52:34He's like, here, sit down. Let me tell you about it.
52:36So he tells me all about it.
52:37And he's like, however, you need to have either two deployments.
52:40I hadn't even been in the Marine Corps for two years yet.
52:42So he said two deployments or two years time and service and you can come in.
52:48So I came home from my second deployment after Afghanistan.
52:51And he's like, well, now you need to be an E4, which is a rank structure.
52:56So enlisted, which is a corporal. So E4 is a corporal.
53:00Like they kept changing their selection criteria, which was a little frustrating.
53:04But I was like, OK, I ended up picking up E4 the next month, which is awesome.
53:09So as soon as I could, bam, I came back in there.
53:16To me, I think the very obvious differences that I can see with the conflicts
53:22and the possible warfares that we're seeing right now in the world is in Afghanistan,
53:29early Iraq, even the fight against ISIS.
53:33Sometimes it was hard to see and tell who the enemy was.
53:37And, you know, sometimes with the insurgencies and things like that,
53:42it wasn't as like cut and dry as like this is a very conventional force.
53:46They have conventional style equipment.
53:48They have tactics, techniques, procedures.
53:52They've got equipment.
53:53They've got drones.
53:55They've got everything that we have.
53:57And some people are beating us in that technological warfare.
54:01You could be matched with somebody that's got a very close capability to you.
54:06And it's not as like easy.
54:09Like in Iraq and Afghanistan, like you could feel like we were on top.
54:12Like we had all the air assets.
54:14We had all of this.
54:15But it's like if our air assets can't fly and our spies in the sky can't do what they're doing,
54:21then how do we have the upper hand here?
54:24It's a very even keel battle.
54:25So we had drones.
54:27They were bigger.
54:29They were slower moving.
54:30They could only loiter in certain areas.
54:32Like you got one shot.
54:34These drones now I'm seeing videos.
54:36They can fly back and forth and they can do all these things.
54:39And then boom, like they can go into car windows and do all of this stuff.
54:43It's wild.
54:44Because like we saw how effective ours were when we did them.
54:49And now if they've got, you know, headsets where they can drive these things like race cars, that's just beyond
54:56scary.
54:59I've heard drones fly over my head before and they're normally just filming stuff.
55:03But if I heard that and I knew it had a bomb attached to it, like that's no thanks.
55:08What's really fascinating right now in the change in dynamics and war and all of that stuff is the Marine
55:16Corps is actually going towards like Marine commandos now.
55:20So the Marine Corps is actually starting to specialize in smaller teams and smaller units.
55:26And they're trying to get this broader special operations kind of feel to what they're doing.
55:32We learn a lot from all the other conflicts going on in the world.
55:37And if we're not continuing to evolve and adapt to what's happening, then we're falling behind.
55:45I've told my junior Marines all the time is that it's not if, it's when.
55:50And some of these guys that have joined are upset that they don't get to go see combat and they're,
55:57you know, it's not my time and this and that.
56:00And I've told people don't try to chase combat because you could be one of the unfortunate ones to go
56:06one day.
56:06It's not, it's not as fun or as glamorous as people think.
56:12Like real things happen out there.
56:13People die.
56:14People get hurt.
56:15When you're there, it's, it's as real as you could imagine.
56:17The military, I think, was one of the best things that I could have ever done for my life.
56:23Coming from an adolescent, like juvenile detention kid to having discipline and the drive and, you know, the fortitude to
56:33continue to keep moving forward.
56:34That no quit mentality is still with me very much today.
56:38So there's so many positives that I've taken.
56:41And, you know, some of the negatives that I saw at the beginning are now just a transition into my
56:46lifestyle that I use as fuel.
56:48And I say like, you know, I felt depression.
56:51I felt sadness.
56:52I've, you know, I've experienced PTSD, but like those things are not going to hold on to me.
56:56They're not going to grip me and they're not going to define me.
56:59I'm Nick Jones.
57:00I'm going to take this life as it comes.
57:02Like, I've got a beautiful wife, Hannah.
57:05I've got a beautiful daughter.
57:06If it wasn't for my wife standing by my side and dealing with my stuff for so long, like, you
57:13know, if she would have given up on me, she's my rock.
57:16She's everything that I've got.
57:17Like, I, I have the support that I need to continue to push to do the things that I want
57:24to do in life.
57:24I've, I've what if so many things in, in life, but the one thing that like, you know, I, I
57:31know for certain is that I gave it my all, all of the pain, all of the suffering, all of
57:36the grief, everything like it is worth it.
57:38Whatever that end point is, whatever, you know, you set your mind to like, just continue to keep pushing towards
57:44it.
57:45Hi, I'm a producer and authorised account.
57:48If you enjoyed this video, then please subscribe and comment with more topics that you'd like us to cover in
57:52this series.
57:53és
57:53?
57:55?
57:55I
57:55?
57:55?
57:55?
57:56You
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