CS#69: Tanks and Bradleys in Iraq | Death Dealers | 2nd Infantry Division | OIF | Travis Norby
About This Episode
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Today we hear the Combat Story of Travis Norby, who commanded a mechanized infantry company in Iraq early in the war.
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Travis is a long-time Combat Story listener who reached out to see if his non-special ops story would be worth our listener’s time. As many of our most dedicated listeners know, as you write to me about this, we get many requests to share the stories of conventional soldiers and officers and what life was like for them while the Tier 1 and 2 units were running raids at night.
This combat story delivers on what I believe is a very common experience for so many infantry officers in terms of how you lose soldiers and still show up, how you motivate people to keep going in the face of unending days of attacks, and how you lead with the soldier in mind and not your own career advancement.
Travis’ stories of leadership and loss give us unique insight into the world of an Infantry officer fighting in the post-9/11 era and I hope you enjoy this raw and very real Combat Story as much as we did.
Show Notes:
Travis Norby
Chapters
- 0:00Intro
- 1:34Guest Introduction (Travis Norby)
- 2:33Interview begins
- 5:45Growing up on a farm in Montana
- 12:11How the military entered the picture for Travis
- 22:18Joining and early days pre 911
- 32:41Where he was when 911 happened
- 37:37Going over to Iraq from Korea and being a staff guy on the FOB
- 43:38What changed his mind when he was ready to get out of the army but took company commander position instead
- 51:46The company structure and equipment at his disposal
- 54:03Combat Story #1 - First combat experience and having to take over for prior leadership
- 1:02:22Combat Story #2 - A goose chase
- 1:06:29Combat Story #3 - Emotional story losing one of his guys
- 1:24:11The historic significance of his deployment from Korea to Iraq and the importance of conventional officers
- 1:28:23What did you carry into combat?
- 1:30:17Would you do it all again?
- 1:30:55Listener comments and shout outs
