The Combat Call I Wish I Could Take Back Now

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]I watch these two men, and I make my choice. And I decide that I'm going to kill these men. What they're doing is they're taking 24 by 12-in object.

[00:00:08]They're digging furiously. They're looking over their shoulders. They're doing all the things that tells me that they're not supposed to be there. I have my rules of engagement. I'm cleared. I'm legal to shoot. And I take my first shot. Hit the first guy in the chest. He falls to the ground. And I'm using that recoil to come to the second shot. Hit him in the shoulder. He spins around and then falls to the ground. I bring my weapon system back. I look at the first man. He's now dead on the ground. And then I come over to the second man who's now reaching for something. And I take my second shot and I end his life. And the sun begins to set. The civilian population comes out and they load these men up and they take them over to a field. They put a white sheet over these two men and they bury them. And I realize they weren't digging an IED.

[00:00:47]They were building a wall for their family. The thing that they were putting into the ground were cinder blocks. I was completely clean with my ROEs. And I killed two men that didn't deserve it.