Hunting ISIS (2018): Season 1, Episode 2 - Brothers in Arms - full transcript

As a former
United States Marine,

this battlefield
called out to me personally.

- I was with
the U.S. Marine Corps.

Ahh.

I just felt like
there was more I needed to do.

Move! Move! Move!

Someone will get hurt,
we'll stabilize them

so they will stay alive
until the next place.

- A lot of these people are
children over here fighting.

They don't have
the experience we have.

- In 2008 I got diagnosed
with cancer.



I was taking
about 1,000 milligrams

of Oxycodone a day,

so I come over here
doing what I love to do.

- Once you experience combat,
the adrenaline rush

is like nothing
you'll experience anywhere.

It's got me hooked,
I guess.

- ISIS, the most dangerous
terrorist group on earth.

They've brutally conquered
territories

all across the Middle East

and spread fear
across the globe.

Their goal is to create
a worldwide Islamic state,

and they will stop at nothing
to achieve it.

Against the advice
of the U.S. military,

some Americans
are fighting back.



- In the truck!
In the truck!

- This isn't just their war.

It's everybody's problem.

- Hold him!
Somebody grab him!

- Some of us were not able
to just sit back

and watch this happen
on the news.

- We're men of action,
not men of words over here.

- This is their story.

- A deadly California
shooting rampage,

bloody streets
and a violent standoff.

The female shooter posted
a pledge of allegiance

to ISIS leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi on Facebook.

- Since the rise of ISIS,

we've watched their terror
spread across the globe.

Why the nations of the world
aren't here ensuring

that these people are eradicated
is beyond me.

It's the reason I came.

It's the reason
any of us came,

is to take the fight
straight to Daesh.

Right now, unfortunately we're
static on the Euphrates River

in more of a defensive posture.

It's been about a month
since we have gotten mortared.

If we take sniper fire,

they typically shoot
over the buildings.

- We can probably stay here
for eight months,

and it will just be the same.

- Time and time again
we hear

that they keep Westerners
out of the fight.

- The only way
to get in the fight

is to be proactive about it.

For the next six months maybe to
a year that I'm in the country,

I'm just gonna
chase the fight.

- No. Well,
what you can't do

is just place all your eggs
in one basket

and come out here
and sit here for four months.

- I think the difference
between PJ and myself,

he wants to immediately
seek action.

I would sit there
and weigh the options out.

PJ is focused on fighting
street to street,

and until he finds that,

I don't think
he's gonna be at peace.

- Norway and I, we're
gonna be leaving Jarabulus

and moving towards
the next operation.

- Yeah.

- Jeremiah will not be.

We'll be going our separate ways
at this point.

[engine starts]

- Damn, we don't have
to push it today.

- Fixed it?

At the end of the day,
we're brothers.

You form a brotherhood
out here.

- Nobody's leaving
on bad terms.

They're gonna go
do their thing.

I'm gonna figure out
what exactly is gonna go on,

go back home or stay here
and relocate somewhere else.

Tel Tamir is a city

that just a year ago
was occupied by ISIS.

Since the liberation
of Tel Tamir,

it's kind of been
a supply hub for the YPG.

It's only
a few thousand people,

but it is the trade center
in that region.

For now we're gonna
be holding here

waiting for orders
on the upcoming operation.

Nonstop action.

- In this Christian village
that has been abandoned,

we find
a lot of personal items,

photo albums,
wedding photos,

and it makes you sort of think
what's happened to people.

When the Daesh
took it over in 2014,

they executed 300 civilians,

and right before
they got pushed out,

they blew up the church.

- Now that I'm in Tel Tamir,

I have a few new guys
in my platoon.

- Who's got the light?

- We have one fellow
Michigander, Jeff.

- This is the correct way
right here.

- Firat,
who's a Swedish Kurd,

and he speaks both English
and Kurdish fluently.

- I know you're strong, PJ.

- And then there's Levi.

- I suppose the ice cream man
in Syria--

- Yeah.
[all laugh]

What sound do you think
the truck makes?

Do you think
it's like a song or what?

- Levi's the kind of guy
that everybody wants around

because he's always
a morale boost.

He's always making jokes.

- This is not the worst place

that I've ever done
stand-up comedy.

It's just like Cleveland
basically,

you know, except cleaner
and with less God damn Ohioans.

[all laugh]

- If we hear a car pull up,

Sea Pine's on gate duty,

so we don't have to worry
about them being stopped.

[all laugh]

And if it is Daesh,
we can only hope

that they mistake his snoring
for bixie fire.

[all laugh]

You know, oh, the infidels

have superior firepower,
Achmed.

Turn around.

[all laugh]

I am
an American volunteer here

fighting with the Kurds
against ISIS.

I am 24 years old,

originally
from Reno, Nevada.

Oh, God, it's the Biggest
Little City in the World.

It's looks like Tachewene,
you know.

It's like I'm begging
for the Death Star

to blow me up there.

[all laugh]

- Not a lot...

as you can tell.

[all laugh]

Thank you and good night.

[applause]
- Beautiful.

- I came out here last year,

but my mom and my dad
and my sister,

they don't exactly know
that I'm here right now.

Anything that I can do
to help stop ISIS

is what I'm gonna do.

- All of you motherfuckers
are going down.

[all speaking at once]

[laughing]

- Detroit, Michigan.

- Huh?
- Detroit, Michigan.

- And he said, no, here we're
all in one struggle, one fight,

and the only thing
that separates us right now

is our languages.

- Apparently everything
is pointing towards Al-Shaddadi,

a city of 15,000 people
between Raqqa and Mosul.

- Mosul and Raqqa are the two
major strongholds of ISIS.

It's very important that we
control this main supply route

to disrupt the reinforcements

that they could send between
their two capital cities.

- Based on the tactical
importance of Shaddad,

I think they're gonna try
and hold it as much as possible.

[shouting]

[gunfire]

- They'll be fighting
tooth and nail

to hold what they have left.

- The main thing
that kills people

are probably mines
and I.E.D.s.

- They've definitely
mastered it, man.

- You know, you've got,
like, artillery shells,

and you got
little pressure plates,

two pieces of metal
wrapped in plastic.

- Dig it
in the side of a road.

You step on it...

you're a goner.

[shouting]

- When ISIS invaded Mosul,

they gained access
to American weapons

that the United States had been
supplying to the Iraqi Army

for a decade,

including surface to air
missiles, mortars, artillery.

I mean,
these guys have tanks.

ISIS may even have access
to old Iraqi chemical weapons.

The biggest threat
comes from the unknown.

In this new unit, I don't have
anyone else basically

that has the experience
from my original group,

so any training, anything I can
give these guys, it's important.

Not everybody
wants to be the leader

because not everybody
wants to step into a role

that they
could possibly fail.

And when you fail
playing this game,

you fail miserably
because people get killed.

- You've got shit
all over your flak.

Oop! [laughs]

- Actually, you still have
a lot of blood there.

- Hey, hey.

Yeah, I have blood there
and there and there.

We do two ambulances
here and here.

- Yeah.
[speaking foreign language]

- We're outside Bashiqa,

which has been under ISIS
control for over two years.

- We're gonna move up
to the Peshmerga.

It seems they've taken
this first village

and set up
a casualty collection point.

The ground forces

are about to go push
to the next few villages.

- We're trying
to find a balance

of making sure
we're close enough to treat,

but not too close
to the fight,

because we have
unarmored vehicles.

- How do I say "bad idea"
in Kurdish?

[gunfire]
- [sighs]

- Whoo-ee!

- My entire life I wanted
to go into the military.

In high school I was actually
going into the Army

and I got in a fight
and I broke my skull.

I had an epidural hematoma,

which is a giant blood clot
in my head.

The military was, like,
nope, can't do that.

I cried that day.

That was pretty rough,

and it has a lot to do
with why I'm here.

I don't know, man, like, I need
to have somebody shoot at me.

The problem is

is we got guys deeper
into the city on the rooftops,

they can see us,
but not the Peshmerga.

- Are you guys aware there's an
I.E.D right next to us?

- Yes, we're aware.

- Why aren't they pushing
forward?

- I'm gonna go find out
what's going on.

- Okay.

- When I first started thinking
about coming to the Middle East,

it was to go to Syria.

I figured, well,
once I'm here,

maybe I can meet some people
who know I'm serious.

Apaches above us, so...

[gunfire]

Whew. That sounds
fucking close.

Within a few days
is where I met Pete.

- Hustle up, mate.

- Don't look that way.
Go that way.

At this point,

someone needs to pull up
the picture of Derek

when I first met him

and he had
these gnarly muttonchops.

[laughs]

He looked like such a jackass,
but a lovable one.

I think he was trying to
impress me in the beginning

'cause I was in the military

and I'd been here
for a month longer than him.

Oh, man, he's a good
fuckin' solid dude.

- That was actually
a first for us.

We've never had
to fall back before.

We've considered it,

we've had situations
where things got hairy,

but that's the first time
that we've actually pulled back.

- All right, you're
right-handed, right?

Let me teach you something.

Weapon drawn, mag out,
straight up into it.

I've been training
these guys on tactics

as far as firing
and maneuvering,

firing positions,

how to move from room to room,

banging it
into these guys' heads.

What I like is the leg tap.

Give me a tap with your--

No, no, no, with your leg
into me. Boom.

My barrel is pointed with
my finger at that corner.

Pop, pop, pop, I know I'm
putting rounds in that corner.

When I met Levi in Tel Tamir,

and I was, like,
who is this guy, you know?

Who is this joker?

And he's like, hey,
what's going on?

Can you show me
where ISIS is?

He was curious.
He wanted to know.

- Move.

- Maybe four days later
it was my birthday,

and he was like, hey,
I got fire watch.

It's your birthday.
Just chill out.

- Bro, I've literally never
seen one of these before.

- Either have I.

- Yeah?
- It's simple as [bleep], man.

Nonstop he wants to train
with me,

to the point of aggravating me
almost at times.

- Like, how do you--
- Hang on, hang on.

But this is what's most
important to all of us here

is training with each other,
coming to trust each other,

to cover each other sixes.

Pull the trigger,
slide it in.

- This is my second time
in country.

You know, I came out here

because ISIS has been
committing atrocities

against the people of the world,

and especially
my fellow Americans.

I'll always defend the people
that I love back home.

- Certainly I was never told

that he was planning
to go hang out

with the Marines
or anything.

It just kind of all of a sudden
that was what he was doing.

Pretty soon it was very apparent
that was who he was.

That probably had
an awful lot to do

with his dad being a veteran.

- I spent three tours
in Vietnam.

I got wounded twice.

It was a meat grinder
and I was glad to get out of it

and, you know,
I'm lucky to be here I guess.

- He had his whole heart
set on being a Marine,

but from birth
his vision was terrible.

- I was relieved when
they wouldn't take him

because of his eyes,

but he sidestepped it,
you know.

Smarter than I thought
he was. [laughs]

- He came home
after about four months,

and he was so glad to get back,

and he said, "I'm never
leaving the U.S. again.

"I'm never leaving
the U.S. again,

"and I'm never fighting again.

I've had enough fighting
for six lifetimes."

- After those Marines got killed

in that recruiting station
in Tennessee

by that self-anointed
Daesh warrior,

and the Paris attacks,
they just kept telling me

it's someone else's turn,
you know.

But that's just it.
No one else is gonna go.

- [speaking
foreign language]

- I started working my ass off
at a dishwashing job

to get enough money
to go over here,

and, you know,
the rest is history.

- What are you gonna tell
your parents

if something happens to you?

- Well, depending
on what happens,

like, I won't--
I won't really have to, like--

- When I have guys
joining my team

that are that much younger
than me,

I mean, it's natural to just
kind of spread your wings

and try and take someone under
your protection if you can.

So, yeah, I mean, I look at
this guy like a little brother.

- We are here at the upcoming
Taylor Swift concert,

and as you can tell, it's vacant
beyond all recognition.

Back to you in the studio,
Dennis.

- We'll piggyback
our fire watch,

and we'll just do three hours
together out here.

We'll be out here
for twice as long,

but you're there
with your brother

so we can bullshit with
each other and pass the time.

Right now all that's on my mind
is this upcoming operation.

Coming into Shaddadi,
we really have no idea

how many insurgents
are holed up.

It could be a hundred,
it could be a thousand.

We'll take any fight in any way,
shape, or form we can get it.

[explosion]

- We're currently staged
in Tel Tamir

about to go on
the Shaddadi operation.

So we've been granted the
opportunity to go into Tel Tamir

and contact our loved ones
back home.

It's one of the few towns
in this region

that actually has access
to the Internet.

- I got a message out
letting my parents know

I'd be off the grid for a while
so they don't freak out.

I think it's still logging
all the messages to me,

and the strange Daesh friend
requests I get every so often.

They'll use some obviously fake
profile like a beautiful woman,

and they're, like,
where are you?

It looks like you're
in Kurdistan somewhere.

What are you doing there?

121 friends posted
on my timeline for my birthday.

It's the big dirty 30.

It's my third birthday
in the Middle East.

I had two in Iraq
and now one here.

So it's not my first rodeo.

Time stops moving for us
when we come out here,

but it doesn't stop moving
back home.

- You know,
I had him when I was 30.

How different he is at 30
than I was, you know.

I was having my first child,
and he's fighting war in Syria.

- Look it, look it!
- What is it?

- My first bow and arrow!

- Even when he was young

and had little toys
he was playing with,

it was defeat the bad guy,

trying to save the world.

Never wanted to sit still.

He always wanted
to be doing something.

- Jason, get up here
and get away from the pond.

- PJ and his dad
are a lot alike.

They're both very headstrong.

- No, no.
Pull it up and slide it.

When your kids get to be
12, 14 years old,

you're all of a sudden
stupid as a rock.

They know everything.

So then you get
the headbutting stuff going on.

Listen, you graduate,

I'll send you to college
or there's the driveway.

And he come back and said,
"well, I joined the Marines."

[chuckles]
I didn't see that one coming.

- He was 19 when he left.

I thought he was too young,
but he came back a man.

He came back a man.

[gunfire]

- My time in the Marine Corps,

I was a squad leader
by my second tour,

calling in medivacs,

patrolling the streets
of a hostile city

with 11 other guys,

and their lives
are in my hands.

You see a bitter side of life

that most teenagers
don't experience ever,

and a lot of people,
they don't cope so well

coming back
in the civilian world.

- The more you come over here

and the more you do
this kind of work,

it takes a mental toll on you,

the uncertainty of it,

the unknowing, I guess,
of it all.

This is gonna be
my last step.

With the group splitting,

I miss that camaraderie
that we had,

and now
it's not there anymore,

so you kind of have
to find something else

to fill its place with.

Oh, man.

I'm ready to get off this
fucking mountain already.

Before I came over here,

I gave my family
specific instructions

on if I die
to throw a death party.

Gonna have a keg,
give some blunts out.

So a few people are hoping
I don't make it back.

Let's get
the [bleep] outta here.

I'd like to be there
for that party, too.

That'd be pretty sick.

I don't know why
I'm still doing this.

I feel like maybe I'm still
trying to find my calling.

You know, I dropped out of high
school and joined the military.

That's all I knew.

I want to feel like there's
better for me than this.

Nobody should have to succumb
to war to be a better person.

So I'm gonna bgoing back home
for a little bit.

I want to see my family
at Christmas

and spend the holiday
with them.

Am I gonna come back?
I'm not sure yet.

I'll figure that out
when I get home

and see the family
and everything.

- You go ahead.

- Merry Christmas.
- Merry Christmas.

- We're glad to see you.

- How you doing?

Y'all look great.

I got a bowl.

First time I've smoked weed
in over seven months.

Cheers.

- Yeah.
- Whoo-hoo.

When I first got here and saw
my family and saw some friends,

I was ready to get back home.

I just hung out and got
[bleep] up in America.

It feels good.

East Tennessee!

I don't even know what
I want to do with my life still.

I can't do college.

I can't sit in a classroom
and learn for years on end.

I can't work a 9 to 5 job
in an office inside,

so I honestly don't know
what I'm gonna do.

- Cheers.
- Cheers.

- It's hard to get back home

and just relax
and just turn off the switch.

I can't talk
like I talk over there.

I can't do the things
that I do over there.

It's not accepted here.

To be able to turn
that switch on and off,

it's like a light bulb.

Every time you turn it on,

the chances increase
for it to blow.

[laughs]

I would have been
in jail by now

if I would have stayed here.

That's what I'm afraid of,

falling back
into the realm of drugs,

hard drugs, you know,
like pills and stuff like that.

I put on
this personification

that I'm, like, happy-go-lucky,
everything's cool.

Being here in the states,
I'm as happy as I'm gonna be,

but it's not as good
as it is over there.

You guys want a beer?

All right.

Nobody here knows
how good they have it.

They're all complacent.

You can see it
in their faces.

If Daesh came here
and started attacking,

a lot of these guys around here
would be fucked.

They're soft.

Being back home around people,
it's hard to talk to them.

It's hard to associate
with them,

it's hard to relate to them
in any measure.

I don't know how to...be.

I don't know how to be.

- [laughs]

That's what I'd like to be.
[laughs]

- [squeals]

- Right now we're at
our old location

that we've been at
for the last few days,

and we're packing up and we're
gonna go closer to the battle.

- We're setting up at the
northeastern corner of Gogjali,

which is the last village
east of Mosul.

Mosul's right there.

It's super creepy
being in here.

There's still gunfire
all over the place.

[gunfire, explosion]

- We are about as close
as you can get

without actually being
in the fighting units.

We're always trying
to make this balancing act

of how close do we get without
putting ourselves in harm's way,

and I think
we've pushed the envelope.

- Are you okay?

Where was the V.B.I.E.D.
in relation to you?

- At one point,
Kurdish Peshmerga

actually retreated behind
our casualty collection point,

so we knew we were probably
a little too far forward.

[gunfire]

- Your friend is shooting,
and now Daesh is shooting back.

- Derek's an asshole,
but he's an asshole

to just about everyone
at the same level.

For some reason
I like that about him.

So we were debating earlier

whether we should
carry weapons or not.

- Are you?
- Yeah. What's the deal?

There's, like, guns
and, like, bandages.

- Yeah, okay. What do you think
the gun's for?

- Well, shooting people,
obviously.

- For what?
Why would I shoot someone?

- To kill them.
- To kill them, okay,

but why would I kill them
or try to kill them rather?

- Well, you would say for
self defense then I guess.

- Yeah, I would, definitely.

I don't really care about,
like, oh, you can't carry a gun

and save
a little girl's life,

like, so I just
don't wanna get killed.

I still have
an urge to fight.

It's not the only reason
I came here,

but growing up as a kid
and reading about guys

that are put in these
dangerous situations

and rise above it,

I wanted to put myself
to the ultimate test

and put myself
in that position.

Playing high school football

is like that first level
of brotherhood

that you can experience
as a young man,

but then military or combat
is that times a thousand.

[men laugh]

That camaraderie,

that brotherhood
taken to another level.

Come on, man, there's
fucking bodies on this thing.

- War, you taste it?

- Okay,
I got an IV line ready.

- How's he looking?

It was like a friendship
of necessity in the beginning.

I needed him

because I couldn't deal
with all this shit by myself.

The artery wasn't stopped.

- We'll just say he made it.

War sucks,

but it's one of the most
revealing things

a human being
can go through.

You find out
a lot about yourself

and your friends
very quickly.

Valentine's Day 2011,
one of my best friends,

my roommate at that time
in Afghanistan, Andy Carpenter,

gets shot in the neck.

- [laughs] Stop.

Stop. Don't break the camera.
Don't play around.

- And Carter is out there,
he's doing CPR.

Cabesas was doing CPR.

And I knew
in that exact moment

I can't be a part of that.

It's gonna bring emotion
to the entire thing.

My job right now is securing
this sector, so I did.

I need more gauze now.

- IV! IV!

- Move!

- [speaking
foreign language]

- Oh, you got it?

- What do you need?
What do you need?

- He's gone.

- He's bleeding out?
- Yeah.

- He's bled out, man.

Body bag.

You know, like, Andy
was a good friend

who was shot and killed
or was dying

and I couldn't do
anything about it.

- [sobbing]

- I thought about that a lot,

the what ifs
in a situation like that.

In the beginning
I thought we had a shot.

That was the bitch of it.

What brought me here?

Adventure, adrenaline,
excitement.

But in the end,
I think it's gonna be guilt

that'll keep me here.

- The upcoming operation
is a morale raiser for everyone.

Everybody here
wants to fight.

I wish we could go tomorrow.

With the platoon I'm with,
I'm very happy with these guys.

We've been training together,
everything looks good.

All we can do is hope

that we're selected
to be the first in,

to be the point men,
to be the tip of the spear.

- Two weeks ago, I guess.

So I'm not--I've been
a lot filthier than I am now.

- What kind of spices
do we have other than salt?

- Yeah, salt is fine.

- She's not really
my girlfriend, you know,

but I'm kind of hoping
that she would be one day.

You mind if I, like,
say something to her?

Like, hey, Hailey.

Here we are
in the Rosh garden,

and, you know,
I'm just looking forward

to seeing you
when I get back home, okay?

You know, take care.

- We got the word

that we're gonna be moving out
towards Al-Shaddadi.

What we're gonna be doing
is taking one town at a time,

one city at a time,
one riverfront at a time,

pushing into Shaddadi
neighborhood by neighborhood.

We have to be careful.

You can't tell at all
who the enemy is at this point.

- Apparently these guys
were Daesh informants.

They can easily
send guys up here

to just get visual
of whatever they can see.

They'll head back
and let Daesh know.

These villages
around these areas,

it's very possible they were
sympathetic towards Daesh.

[honking]

- Huh?

- Sometimes you have to deal
with your occupiers to survive

until you can get
your family out

or maybe you're just too poor
to get your family out,

so you just hope for
somebody else to come in.

ISIS has proven
time and time again

they will do anything
to reign supreme

and in control
of the local population.

They have so much fear
driven inside of these people,

if you disagree with them,
you're killed.

And that's why we're going in
to liberate these cities,

to stop that happening.

Straight ahead to Shaddadi.

That's the road to Shaddad.

Hopefully everybody's
looking for a fight

because I'm very optimistic
we're all gonna get that fight.

- Hell, yeah.

Get some!

[gunfire]
- Somebody's shooting.

Hear that?

- We took a little bit
of contact

throughout the night
until daybreak.

The fighting did die down
pretty quick.

I wonder if they pulled over
here trying to get cover.

Two more Daesh caught
a severe case of death.

I think there were six guys
all together in this village,

but for the most part
they're pulling back.

They're not gonna send
their good fighters here

to die in these villages.

They're all digging in
in Shaddad.

Until then, we're just pushing
village to village.

Of course
I'm enjoying the movement,

and it seems as if we're
getting closer to the fight.

I'm clear.

- Going through more paperwork.

- Records.

- No, no money.
- Take that. Take that.

Just bring
the entire thing, dude.

- We found loads and loads
of lists.

Lists of members,
lists of people

who have contributed
monetarily to Daesh.

- Korean money, Chinese money,
European money, Iraqi money.

- I know that there are
Norwegians that's come down here

to fight with the Daesh
against us,

but it's strange to see

that they have been probably
in the same locations as I have.

Some of those dead guys
in the street over there

might have been one of them.

Advancing through
this oil supply depot,

we came
to this Daesh compound.

We're the first people here.

You can only imagine what's
been going on in this cage.

They have rubber gloves
in here, gas masks.

- It's in Cyrillic
and Russian,

but it says... [speaking
foreign language].

This is everything you need
to create sarin gas,

one of the most dangerous and
toxic nerve gasses in the world.

It's pretty clear that Daesh
have chemical weapons.