Choices Not Chances Podcast

Original "Lion of Marjah" Kevin Knuckles, joins the show to share his perspective of The original work up and push into Marjah, as well as his follow-on deployment back to Marjah. The second pump thriving in a leadership position in the squad. Kevin was always a special Marine to Second Squad. He was thirsty and reliable. A Marine that was honest and required very little supervision when given a task, "Message to Garcia" as the saying goes. Knuckles will forever be a war hero, a man amongst men, a Marine through and through.

Brent Downing is a Sergeants Major in the United States Marine Corps. He has done many things in his career, starting as an 0331 Machine Gunner in 1st battalion 4th Marines. Shortly after checking into the Battalion, Lance Corporal Downing was deployed to Kuwait and In March of 2003, crossed the line of departure into Iraq during the initial invasion in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Corporal Downing would take part in several combat engagements fighting against the Iraqi army as well as their elite Republican Guard and Fedayeen forces from Al-Nasiriyah to Baghdad. In 2004 Lance Corporal Downing returned to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), serving as a machine gun squad leader. In August 2004, Lance Corporal Downing led a squad of machine gunners in an intense three day long battle against Muqtada Al-Sadr’s Mahdi army in the Najaf cemetery. For his actions, Lance Corporal Downing was subsequently awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with combat distinguishing device and would later be promoted to the rank of Corporal.