Mosul Gets Hot, Part 2

11/10/21 • 34 min

On December 21, a suicide bomber detonated inside the dining facility on Forward Operating Base Marez outside of Mosul. Twenty-two people were killed in the blast, including Captain William Jacobsen, Matt Sacra’s company commander. Not long after, Sacra was wounded for the first time while serving as an advisor to the Iraqi Army. Following a lengthy recovery, Matt was wounded on his first mission outside the wire.

Matt recently finished writing and editing The Armor of God in Iraq: An Armor Officer’s Faith, Growth, and Protection in Combat for upcoming publication by The Second Mission Foundation. Listen to the full story below, and be sure to subscribe to The Spear so you don’t miss the second part. Find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast app.

Previous Episode

Mosul Gets Hot, Part 1

In late 2004, Mosul was becoming more and more unstable. Matt Sacra, a Stryker platoon leader, and his soldiers deployed there to help quell the growing insurgency. On November 10, the platoon was ambushed. The next day, it fought as part of a battalion-sized operation. The combat Matt and his soldiers saw over those two days was an experience that, as he describes, left an indelible mark on him as a soldier and deeply influenced his development as a leader. This is the first of a two-part interview with Matt.

Next Episode

Shot in Baghdad

In the fall of 2006, Rory McGovern was a company fire support officer assigned to a combined arms team operating in the area around Abu Ghraib, Iraq. The day after Christmas, he was on a security patrol in support of a local sheikh’s Hajj send-off party when a shot rang out. McGovern had been hit. He shares the story of that encounter with the sniper and subsequent recovery in this episode.