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  • 6/13/2025
Deborah Scranton provides cameras to California National Guard soldiers (part of "The Bad Voodoo Platoon"), allowing them to tell their own stories of deployment in Iraq.

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00:43Tonight on Frontline,
00:47they call themselves the Bad Voodoo Platoon.
00:51Bad Voodoo!
00:53And they're being sent back to Iraq to be part of the surge.
00:57A lot of these new guys don't know what they're getting into.
01:01Food is 70. Three over.
01:03They will discover that the war has changed.
01:05I can't get the war!
01:07We're used to kicking in doors, taking the fight to the enemy.
01:10And they must fight new frustrations.
01:13He's got hit by an IED.
01:15We're waiting to get blown up.
01:17I'm not allowed to fight back.
01:19Battle through their fatigue.
01:20Tonight is going to be a heavy night.
01:21We're just running ourselves into the ground.
01:25Dear Heavenly Father.
01:26And conquer their fears.
01:28Lord, we come to you to watch over us in all these convoys.
01:32Tonight.
01:33Oh, I'm strong.
01:35I.D.
01:35The inside story.
01:37Pull out, pull out.
01:38Of Bad Voodoo's War.
01:40Head come Charlie, above 023.
01:43We have an IED dead.
01:44I.D.
02:02I.D.
02:10I.D.
02:12I.D.
02:13This is the U.S. military's joint forces training center,
02:30Camp Shelby, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
02:39I came here to meet a platoon of National Guard soldiers
02:43who were getting ready to be deployed to Iraq.
02:50The first person I met was the acting platoon leader, Sergeant Toby Nunn.
02:59And then sprawl, you get down.
03:01Then you get back up the whole time, you run in place.
03:03The platoon sergeant is the father figure.
03:07I'm responsible for the care and welfare of, you know, the 30 guys underneath me.
03:11One, two, sprawl.
03:15It's May 2007.
03:17One, one, one, two.
03:19In just a few weeks, Sergeant Nunn must have the 30 men in his platoon ready for combat.
03:25One, two, sprawl.
03:27They'll be going in at the peak of the surge.
03:30One, two, sprawl.
03:31This is going to be my third real combat deployment, my ninth overall deployment.
03:36Get him off.
03:38But I never thought of myself as a warrior.
03:41I'm just a kid from the bush up in Canada.
03:43I grew up in a large logging center.
03:48I'm a little guy.
03:50I wanted to do something with my mind more than with my hands.
03:54So I came to the United States hoping to get a little break on college.
03:57And somewhere along the way, I realized that paying for college by yourself is expensive.
04:01So I joined the Army, started off as a young private, and joined the infantry.
04:08Kosovo kicked off.
04:10I got sent to the Balkans.
04:13The right place to learn about what humanity really has to hold, both good and evil.
04:18And then I joined the strikers.
04:23And that's where I went to Operation Iraqi Freedom 1 and 2 with the Tomahawks.
04:27And then I came to California.
04:30And shortly thereafter, got a letter in the mail.
04:35Going back.
04:40Toby's platoon calls itself the Bad Voodoo Platoon.
04:43Bad Voodoo!
04:44And they are not typical National Guard soldiers.
04:51Almost all of the men are prior active duty.
04:55They're not weekend warriors.
04:57What they're looking for is that distance and direction, all right?
05:00So yell at the 3Ds, I'll yell them back to you.
05:03Rockstar.
05:03Mainly just shoot s**t.
05:05I'm going to f**k some f**k up, Sarge.
05:07All right, we've got to watch our cussing.
05:08How about we're going to decisively engage and destroy enemy targets and combatants.
05:14That sounds like a plan.
05:16Most are highly trained infantrymen.
05:18I'm going to decisively engage enemy targets and combatants.
05:22And many have already served multiple tours to Iraq.
05:27Special Sean found out that some of us had been selected to go.
05:31He wasn't.
05:33And he called me up.
05:35And was like, hey, Sean, you know, do you think I could come along?
05:39I'm going to show you how it's done.
05:41He explained that.
05:44Some of these guys are his friends.
05:47He's like, they're my brothers.
05:50I want to go.
05:51Fire buzzer.
05:53So Jason Shaw volunteered to go back to Iraq.
05:57Enemy 9 o'clock, 100 meters.
05:59Enemy 9 o'clock, 100 meters.
06:03This is my third tour to Iraq.
06:05In 2003, we did the initial push into Iraq, from Kuwait all the way up into Baghdad.
06:12We stayed there for a while.
06:14We called it Hotel Hell.
06:182005, and it went back.
06:20Did personal security detachment in Bajibalaj, Kretan, Samara.
06:24Five cities.
06:25There's been a lot that's happened.
06:31A lot to deal with.
06:34Makes you not care about anything.
06:35Darn, son.
06:36You're dead, son.
06:38I did counseling at the VA.
06:40I saw a psychiatrist and psychologist.
06:42They said I had PTSD, which obviously a lot of people have.
06:46I'm the best gunner there is, son.
06:47What's up?
06:48A lot of these new guys who've never been over there before don't know what they're getting into.
06:53So I figured if I've been there one, two, three times before, you know, there's something I can do for the good of the cause.
06:59So I'd like to go back again and maybe do one more tour.
07:03This is it.
07:05Hey, make sure.
07:07When you get that first trace on target, you're shooting a little low.
07:10All right.
07:13Sergeant Nunn's the smartest guy I know.
07:15You're killing his hand?
07:17I feel really safe going with him.
07:19More than anybody I've ever been with or wanted to go with.
07:24There you go.
07:25There you go.
07:26Stop shooting the lift and start hitting the targets.
07:30He gets things done the way they need to be done.
07:33Enemy, truck in the open.
07:35It's bad voodoo.
07:36You know, you can't really mess with voodoo, so.
07:42I got a nickname back in the Balkans.
07:46Through an event where a Muslim and a Christian were arguing and they felt like I might not be neutral.
07:54And I told them I didn't care either way what religion they were and it had nothing to do with mine.
08:00I told them I was voodoo.
08:02So since then, this nickname has kind of followed me.
08:08And when the guys were voting on what they wanted to name the platoon, someone nominated Bad Voodoo.
08:14It was real nice that they chose that and real flattering for me.
08:18But they really are.
08:19They live up to it.
08:20It's kind of hard not to care about these guys.
08:34I got this wonderful family.
08:3632 guys.
08:37Come on, honey.
08:39Let's go.
08:40Get your safety breathing.
08:41Get your safety breathing.
08:43Don't drink.
08:43I'm excited to be part of their experience.
08:47But I'm also a little disappointed that that's coming at the expense of my own family.
08:54Get in there, Jeffrey.
08:55Oh.
08:58Toby's family back in California was growing just as he was being sent to Iraq.
09:03His wife, Reagan, was four months pregnant.
09:07What's in there?
09:08Baby.
09:09There's a lot of excitement with that.
09:12Mommy.
09:13I feel like I'm being negligent in my duties.
09:19Last time I came back, my son, he asked me not to go anymore.
09:23How's that?
09:24Not bad.
09:25He got up there pretty quick.
09:27He told me, I'm right here.
09:27Focus.
09:29We got stuff to do.
09:31So I was like, right.
09:33You are my focus, and I will stay right here.
09:37And then I made a liar out of myself.
09:40You need to be humble.
09:41That's all I'm talking about.
09:42When my son was just a baby, I got a Tickle Me Elmo.
09:46This is how I rolled last time.
09:50Great.
09:51That is my little piece of home.
09:54That little Elmo's been in more countries than the majority of guys in the platoon can spell.
09:56I'm an American soldier.
10:04I'm an American soldier.
10:06I'm a warrior and a member of the team.
10:08I'm a warrior and a member of the team.
10:11Training was over, and the men were headed to Iraq.
10:14I stand ready to deploy.
10:16I stand ready to deploy.
10:18They asked me if we could work together to capture their experiences.
10:22The enemies of the United States of America.
10:25The enemies of the United States of America.
10:27You should record that.
10:29Oh.
10:29You're not recording.
10:30As I did on an earlier film, I set up a virtual embed.
10:34So you can mount it on the dashboard, to the side, on the wind.
10:38I mean, you can mount this thing anywhere.
10:39Which involves giving cameras to the soldiers.
10:42It's up to you to tell me what's working for you.
10:44And establishing a close, two-way, working relationship while they're in Iraq.
10:49Cam control manual, night shot on.
10:51Yeah, there we go.
10:52See, the green.
10:52The soldiers would be the storytellers, not just subjects.
10:56And then you can just do a quick little.
10:57I told them we would tell the story of their war through their eyes.
11:03Wherever it took them.
11:10There it is.
11:12The silver and white bird of destiny.
11:15Tell me about your going away at the first time on block leave.
11:18Block leave, by the way, is when you get to go home before you go overseas.
11:22We get to spend nine days at home.
11:24So did Veronica come down and spend time with you?
11:27Yes.
11:28She did.
11:29I saw her at the airport.
11:30She almost knocked me out by jumping on me.
11:32It was the happiest day of my life.
11:34And leaving, I cried.
11:38I cried.
11:39It's very sad.
11:40Hey, you didn't cry yesterday too much.
11:42I actually did.
11:43I left and went beside the building.
11:44And y'all went outside.
11:45Are you serious?
11:46Is that why you went outside?
11:47Yeah, I was upset.
11:49It's hard.
11:49It's the hardest deployment I've ever had to do.
11:51I'm not really looking forward to this.
11:57I just don't want to do it again, man.
12:00You wonder how many times you're going to, you know, luck's going to be on your side.
12:03It's an awesome responsibility that I'm being charged with.
12:23I got 30 guys.
12:27The smallest thing that ever happens.
12:30You know, it's going to be hard.
12:32By mid-summer, tapes from Iraq were streaming in.
12:57Toby and his guys were a couple of weeks into their tour.
13:02That's the north end of Tikrit right there.
13:08And they had their cameras up and running.
13:11Saddam Hussein's hometown.
13:16Believe it or not, this is farmland.
13:18Not quite the irrigated green pastures of America, but still pretty good.
13:30Iraqi checkpoint compound.
13:32There's my dash cam, which is filming me inside the cab.
13:49There's my POV cam filming the road in front of me.
13:54The bad voodoo platoon was spending a lot of time on these roads.
14:01The Army had based them at Camp Virginia in Kuwait, just south of Iraq.
14:06The mission of our platoon is to secure military and non-military elements to go into Iraq.
14:21We pick them up in Kuwait, and we escort them to their destination within the theater of Iraq.
14:28All right, so here we are, getting ready to cross the border, leaving the wire.
14:33Wherever that equipment personnel need to go, that's where we take it.
14:38Today we're taking a convoy of tankers.
14:44The surge has brought so many forces and so much equipment back into the theater.
14:51It takes a lot to get it to where it needs to be.
14:56Roger.
14:56The convoy missions that Bad Voodoo leads take them all over Iraq, all the way from Kuwait up towards the Turkish border.
15:11However, they can be on the road for weeks at a time.
15:14Drive, take up convoy, speed to 4-5, I'm happy.
15:18For combat infantrymen like these, being stuck in vehicles was frustrating.
15:25A lot of our guys don't like this mission.
15:29I'm one of them.
15:31We're used to having our boots on the ground, kicking indoors, taking the fight to the enemy,
15:36as opposed to having the fight brought to us and just kind of dealing with it.
15:41He's got a f***ing after, but gas tank's down top.
15:43Yeah.
15:44Push him off the road.
15:45Push him off the road.
15:46Get off the f***ing road.
15:48The guys have been joking.
15:50You know, this is not convoy security.
15:52It's a convoy survival.
15:57It's hotter than before.
15:59Get on the fireball, get on the fireball.
16:00Slow down, slow down, slow down.
16:02We're taking a lot more action.
16:03We're being attacked more.
16:06God.
16:06The focus of the enemy is to shut down some of these logistical lines.
16:12Oh, it's blowing, it's blowing.
16:14Hey, come on.
16:15Hey, pull this vehicle back.
16:16Pull this vehicle back.
16:18It doesn't take much to slow us down.
16:22We're very limited by our avenues of movement.
16:25The government that is within, you know, Iraq itself has been able to dictate things to
16:31us that we don't have the freedom of movement that we had before when, you know, we were calling
16:36the shots.
16:41Among the Iraqis the bad voodoo soldiers must work with are the police and highway patrol.
16:46The roads that they travel every day are strewn with checkpoints, manned by Iraqis.
16:54Toby and his men count on these Iraqis to help keep them safe.
16:58We're from Bravo Company 160th.
17:01We're a small element that represents a large element.
17:06And, you know, we're here to have this dialogue so that, you know, we can better the relationship.
17:11Well, I told myself last time I wanted to train the Iraqis the best that I possibly could because
17:16it was my ticket home.
17:23That we could turn this over to them and we could allow them to do it.
17:28It is important that, you know, we have a better relationship.
17:30But here I am, three years later, saying, will the Iraqi security forces enforce anything out there?
17:38Well, when you have an IED and you're trying to cord it off to block.
17:42Every time I talk to these guys, you know, my trust meter, it isn't reading in the green all the time.
17:54You know, you go through these checkpoints, how many of these guys are counting the vehicles,
17:59taking notations of, you know, how we're doing things.
18:04It's not that I think you're the enemy.
18:08I think you just might have some unsavory elements within you.
18:12It's a different military climate.
18:32Back in the day, you could intel black Mercedes basic people from the other intelligence.
18:37If that dude rolled up on us, we would just cap him.
18:40Man, problem solved.
18:42We're rolling around in armored vehicles, waiting to get blown up, and not allowed to fight back.
18:51We're here to do a job, and we just want to do it.
18:53And when we're getting blown up and they're not doing anything about it, it kind of asses us up.
18:58The tapes take about a week to get from Iraq to our office here in New Hampshire.
19:16With IM and phone calls, though, I'm typically aware of what's happening to them as it unfolds over there.
19:32What's something that's, you know, weighing on you more than...
19:35We're always talking about what's going on and how they can capture it on tape.
19:39What about being on the road all the time and, like, our nonstop missions?
19:43Not just what's happening in the field, but what they're thinking and feeling.
19:47This mission's by far a lot different than any other one I've had in different ways.
19:52It's not combat anymore.
19:56It's like, I want to say, a game.
20:022003, it was totally different.
20:09We just received some of these pictures.
20:12This shows the height of the combat.
20:142003 was all out.
20:16You saw on the news, just combat.
20:18Again, we have some fresh pictures of the fighting for the Baghdad airport.
20:23During the invasion of Iraq, Jason Shaw was part of the battle for the Baghdad airport.
20:28The hangars that they had to take one by one...
20:30Our Bradley got hit by a tank over there.
20:33But it is clear this is about as much activity as we have seen.
20:37So we pulled up the javelin gunners and we started getting shot at by the tanks on both sides of the overpass.
20:45And we blew up all three.
20:58I just turned 18.
21:00I'm 22 now, so I was young.
21:09I've had six of my good friends die.
21:14One of my really good friends passed away.
21:16He had a baby about three months before he died.
21:19And got to see her once.
21:20And now I'm Uncle Jason, so I moved to California just to pretty much help out and try to get everything back together.
21:28So I don't want to have to go through that again.
21:30It's really hard to deal with.
21:32So it's not going to happen this time.
21:35We won't let it happen this time.
21:40When I lost all my buddies, I just kind of lost hope.
21:44I used to be kind of religious.
21:50That last deployment totally made me think otherwise.
21:53You know, you pray all the time to keep everybody safe and then something happens like that.
22:01I don't know.
22:01I really think it's pointless in my mind.
22:05So it's kind of sad.
22:08But it's the way it goes.
22:09Everybody else has noticed a big change in my personality.
22:19I have a really bad temper with things.
22:21I get angry very, very easily.
22:25I'm just hoping that when I come back from this deployment, I don't do that to my girlfriend or friends or anything like that.
22:36But going out every single day, it gets really stressful.
22:39We could have five missions or so, six, nothing happened.
22:44Go a month without anything happening and all of a sudden...
22:49Hey, get in the truck!
22:51Get in the truck!
22:54Got hit by an IED.
22:56Where they at?
22:59Where they at?
23:03We're on a regular mission.
23:04Came over the radio, IED, IED.
23:06Looked over in front of us, a huge cloud of smoke.
23:10Right there.
23:11All right, hurry up!
23:13There's the fire covering the road.
23:15There's where it was right there.
23:17Go through it.
23:18The first thing I thought is, nobody made it out of that.
23:22I thought for sure everybody was burning up.
23:25I thought it was the vehicle.
23:26All right, all right.
23:28The trunk blew off.
23:29But as we got closer, we noticed it was just the trunk.
23:35Blew off the whole back end of his trunk.
23:38Thank God everybody's all right.
23:40Look at this.
23:41I can't help.
23:42Blew straight through the back, not a scratch on one of these Joes.
23:46Mother.
23:47These guys are lucky.
23:53With one of their vehicles disabled, the soldiers are under orders to sit and wait for KBR,
23:59Kellogg, Brown & Root, a private contracting firm, to arrive and recover them.
24:04Right now we're waiting for KBR pickup.
24:07Nice hot day.
24:10It's about 130 right now.
24:12It's only like 10.30 a.m.
24:14It's hot as heck.
24:14Sit and wait game now.
24:28We've been here now eight and a half hours.
24:30KBR has still not shown up, so we took it on our own selves to get ourselves out of here.
24:37After eight and a half hours of standing out here in the sun, it's now almost dark.
24:42They had waited all day for KBR.
24:44Until a passing U.S. military convoy came to their rescue.
24:50Luckily this convoy came by.
24:51It's helping us out.
24:55That would be the old tire.
24:58Done.
24:59Gone.
25:02We're ready to roll.
25:03We're rolling with half of a Humvee.
25:06That's awesome.
25:07It was a pretty scary day.
25:16It's kind of scary to know that all your friends can be up there, you know, getting blown up by IUD or EFP.
25:21I can't tell you guys enough how much I really thought I was done with this crap.
25:30I was the sucker to keep that.
25:35It's really scary not knowing what's going on.
25:36So, you know, take every day like it's your last and try to make it as it is.
25:42When I was in Iraq last time, we had a soldier named Sergeant Jake DeMand.
26:02Great guy, father of two of his own boys and then a little girl that he had adopted.
26:06He was one of my friends.
26:12And he cared for people in a way that, you know, not many people ever have.
26:18Especially with what it took for him to leave this earth for some of us to stay.
26:27I haven't talked about that very often, so.
26:31Guy took 18 rounds on the ramp of a striker.
26:36Bled out on the scene.
26:38So everybody else could get on the striker.
26:42Not many people do stuff like that.
26:4490 seconds.
26:46Eight magazines.
26:49There's a real hero.
26:51Not many people know that, you know.
26:56I couldn't help but think about these two little boys and this little girl that
27:00will never really know what their father experienced over there.
27:05And I don't mean the harshness.
27:08I mean the sweetness.
27:11How he cared for his guys and was always good for a laugh and a great broiled salmon.
27:18And, you know, these are the stories that are important.
27:20The guys, the face that actually goes out and does what people can't imagine.
27:26It's just a regular guy.
27:27We are people.
27:33And people forget that.
27:35So what are you going to do for your birthday today, Sergeant?
27:37I'm going to drink this.
27:38The whole thing.
27:39I'm going to celebrate.
27:41I'll talk to you later, all right?
27:43I need privacy.
27:47Combat just kind of something that happens on the battlefield.
27:50Civil wanted, wants to know what you get somebody for their 75th birthday.
27:53The fellowship with the other guys, that's really what the experience is.
28:04Happy birthday.
28:04I came back just for your birthday.
28:05Whatever, dude.
28:07I'm worried about you.
28:10You'll never find friends like you've been to Warwick.
28:13This is you last night.
28:14Let me have a drink.
28:14You guys are left with me, so I'm not going to go to trial without you guys.
28:19I hate you guys.
28:21Somebody you trust with everything, your life, which is the biggest thing there is.
28:27Oh, look at me.
28:28I'm the American fun boy.
28:30I see Sergeant Baker's Schnitzelbahnhafen-Dorfen.
28:33That's why I volunteer to go this time.
28:37I do it for the guys I'm with, you know, not for anybody else, you know.
28:42Now it's getting old.
28:43Everybody needs to come home.
28:47Having an awesome time.
28:49It's great.
28:51I don't like the whole reason that we're over here.
28:53I love Iraq.
28:56There's not much going on out here.
28:57Again, nothing goes on here, except for when we blow up.
29:03That's about it.
29:05It's ridiculous.
29:06I hate it.
29:08You know, when are they going to start bringing guys home?
29:10You know, I think it's totally pointless.
29:12As the weeks and months rolled on, it became obvious how much the grind of their mission was wearing down Toby and his men.
29:34It's about five in the morning, and we are getting ready to go out on what we like to call a lettuce and tomato run.
29:47It's our smart-ass way of saying, you know, carrying nothing of military significance.
29:54You know, a lot of times you're taking stuff that you know an American soldier will never touch or see, and you're just doing it to hook up some, you know, private contractor.
30:05It's frustrating at times to constantly be doing this stuff.
30:11All right, we'll be right there in a minute.
30:12The leadership above us, they don't grasp, you know, the big picture.
30:15All they see is, we've got to get this many trucks from point A to point B, and they don't think about, you know, what effect that has on the vehicles, what effects that has on the soldiers.
30:31You're driving on the road for hours and hours and hours and days.
30:45It's very monotonous.
30:54You try to be hyper-aware.
30:57Hey, tell your tale, gun truck, and advise the rest of your gun trucks that the black Mercedes pulled in and beat Southbound Lane.
31:06It's kind of balling us up a little bit.
31:09If we're going to battle, hand them off to you so you can maintain eyes on.
31:12Constantly looking at every possible little thing.
31:15Roger, roger, roger.
31:16I want you to get up here.
31:17You've got a Southbound CC swamp pickup truck.
31:22You're going Southbound to the Northbound Lane.
31:27Is this guy trying to kill me?
31:28Is this guy pacing me?
31:30Is he counting how many men I got?
31:37Where's that white towed truck?
31:45It takes a toll on you.
31:5521, 7, hey, you're going to have a white towed truck curled up against the guardrail.
32:00Sandwiched up against...
32:00When I get done, I just want to close my eyes.
32:04Now, just hand them off to you.
32:05And my body's not physically fatigued.
32:08White towed truck.
32:08But my eyes are fatigued.
32:11And when you're moving large numbers of personnel and equipment around, you don't get a lot of rest.
32:22The people that are planning the mission, they look at a map of what it's going to take to get from point A to point B and how long it's going to be.
32:28But they don't take into consideration what could happen on the road.
32:35It was clear what was making Bad Voodoo's mission so long.
32:41Attacks like this one at a base in Kirkuk, where the convoy was briefly resting and refueling, could keep them trapped in place for hours.
32:49It's code red right now.
32:51As soon as we were leaving the tents, an explosion went off, which means probably indirect fire.
32:54Then the alarms went off.
32:56Code red means everyone needs to get inside and take cover.
32:59Unless it goes down to yellow, then we're not going to be leaving.
33:04Alarm black.
33:06Alarm black.
33:07It's getting worse!
33:09What should take a couple of hours ends up being an entire day.
33:13So we eat when we can, sleep when we can, drink fluids by the gallon, and hope to stay awake.
33:27There's a challenge, though, to drinking fluids by the gallon.
33:32Guys come down with urinary tract infections because they've been holding it in for so long.
33:39Kidney stones because they've been drinking too much Red Bull.
33:43We're just running ourselves into the ground.
33:54For me, that's been the hardest part to manage.
33:59I'm worried about my guys, and I'm always constantly looking at what they're doing and making sure that they're getting rest and eating well.
34:06Right now, I'm out here talking to you while they're inside sleeping because I can't sleep.
34:15I can't rest.
34:16This time is a lot different for me.
34:26Last time, I had a battle.
34:28A guy I could look to and share and confide in.
34:33And this time, I got you, I guess, my camera.
34:42Folks at home, maybe they'll understand, but I won't feel your compassion and sympathy and empathy.
34:53By the fall, messages from Toby were getting a bit more sporadic and unpredictable.
35:05Their missions were getting longer.
35:12In late September, Toby sent word that they were heading north again.
35:16He said that things were only getting hotter and that their odds of getting hit were getting worse.
35:24Here we are.
35:25It's about 2.30 in the morning on the 2nd of October.
35:31We have been on the road for a while.
35:33We are currently at Anaconda, or other known as the Balad Air Base, a long ways away from my home.
35:49We just got another change of mission, and we are going to go even further north.
35:55We're going to go into the Tikrit region.
35:58I wasn't too excited to get this change of mission.
36:06The stretch of road between Anaconda and Spikers, known as ID Alley,
36:11it's probably one of the worst stretches of road in theater.
36:15Hey, Bob, 7.
36:17Every time that we've taken it, the people in front of us and the people behind us have both been struck.
36:24And always with casualties.
36:28Roger, I took a good look at the flare all the way down Milton.
36:34The good news is the route clearance team did go north.
36:37The bad news is it was seven hours ago, and we are the only people going north tonight.
36:42So make sure all your people understand that we really need to pay very, very close attention tonight.
36:47Well, here we are. It's about 1.30 in the morning.
37:07We're all the way into Cree right now.
37:09We'll be leaving here in a little bit, and it looks like we're going to be going this route alone again.
37:18There are two Air Force airmen driving the vehicle in front of me.
37:36Bird Dog and this kid named Rev.
37:44Hey, tell Rev we really need him to pray a little more, all right?
37:49Rev, the kid that is actually driving, is very spiritual, very religious.
37:57Leads us in prayer for each mission that we go on.
38:00Is he a rev in that little bird?
38:02I don't know what he is.
38:09That ain't scared.
38:11Here we are. It's 4.30 in the afternoon.
38:23We drove down from Tikrit early this morning.
38:27We're just north of Baghdad.
38:29A fob called Tajji.
38:31We were very fortunate.
38:33We were the only people on the road last night other than a route clearance team.
38:37And they got hit. We didn't.
38:40You know, we've been real lucky the last three days.
38:43The last three days, you know, mentally and emotionally prepared for the worst.
38:50So when we got into our tents, you know, this morning, I just, you know, I don't want to show too much emotion in front of the guys.
39:00But I just, like, I go hug each one of them and be like, ah, made it, you know.
39:08So, well, I want to get some rest.
39:19You know, I'm tired.
39:22I've got to go out in a couple more hours.
39:24And tonight's probably going to be a tough haul.
39:28So I'll sign off with that and see you guys soon.
39:33Tonight's going to be a heavy night.
39:38Alright, tonight's going to be one of those nights that you can actually earn your money over here.
39:41The potential is ten times higher than it normally is.
39:46It's already pretty high, right?
39:48Alright, who here has an extra cat in combat action tourniquet?
39:52Who has an extra one?
39:53Well, everybody should, right?
39:55It's a theater requirement.
39:57Alright, you got one in your eye back.
39:58You have an extra.
39:59Go ahead and take that extra one out now and put it on your door side appendage.
40:04Put it on your leg, alright?
40:06Put it above the knee, below the hip.
40:10Alright, don't tighten it down.
40:11Alright, that way we come to you, the chances are if you're going to get hit in your truck,
40:15this is going to be on your door side, right?
40:18It's going to be hitting that lower appendage.
40:19This is going to be knocking you off.
40:21The sooner you can get that tourniquet tight, the sooner you are,
40:25the A, saving your life from a moral bleed out,
40:27and be saving the chance of a better quality of life
40:30when we get you out of there in the safe, okay?
40:33And I'm not saying this to scare you guys.
40:34I'm just trying to keep it cool.
40:36Alright?
40:36Alright, uh, come on in.
40:39James and the fellow brother.
40:43Dear Heavenly Father,
40:45Lord, we come to you this evening,
40:47especially tonight, to watch over us and all these convoys,
40:50no matter where they travel, to watch over us.
40:52We ask you to keep your hand over us.
40:54Keep us protected.
40:55Keep us awake.
40:56Don't let us get complacent.
40:57Keep our eyes out there.
40:59Let us see everything that you see.
41:01Lord, give you strength to see Jews and the gunshots
41:03for everything they do is good.
41:04And all good comes from you.
41:05Lord, we ask you to be with us as we travel these roads
41:08and as we push up north.
41:09Lord, we ask you just to keep your con hand over our families back home.
41:13Make sure they know that we're okay
41:15and just to keep their worries away.
41:16Just wash them away, Lord.
41:18And we ask you just to keep your eye,
41:19just to keep over us.
41:20Lord, let's have the name we pray.
41:21Amen.
41:22Amen.
41:22There had been some damage to a bridge.
41:41We had a temporary bridge in place,
41:52but we only had it over one lane.
41:54No problem.
41:55We had to share the northbound lane.
41:58We were southbound.
41:59All right.
42:00Let's see what we got here.
42:01Let's see what we got here.
42:03A group passed in the opposite direction,
42:06and we waited for them to come over.
42:07We jumped over to the northbound lane.
42:22Hey, Paul, burn out.
42:25Send it.
42:27I'll write the army.
42:29Please go to the bridge.
42:32Right, guys.
42:32And we were just coming off that bridge
42:35and getting ready to come up to speed.
42:44When, uh...
42:46ID.
42:48Oh, we have an ID dead.
42:50LBC.
42:51Let's go.
42:52Slow down.
42:54Slow down.
42:55Bird dog.
42:56It's dead.
42:57Pull up left.
42:58Pull up left.
42:59Voodoo 7, Voodoo 7, Bird Dog, IED left.
43:05Can you roll, too?
43:07It's negative.
43:08I'm scanning right now.
43:10I can't see.
43:10The smoke is heavy.
43:12The vehicle is burning.
43:14We have an IED dead.
43:16Hey, blood.
43:16Bird Dog, I got it.
43:185461, this is Bravo 27 Golf.
43:22Be advised, I just had an IED dead.
43:24I'm about 10 meters short of the 2-2, correction, 3-2 Alpha.
43:297, this is 1 Alpha, I'm coming up on your 6.
43:31Roger.
43:32See if you can go right.
43:34Bravo, this is Mike Brothers.
43:36We're not trying to believe I witnessed it.
43:38We can't have that report at this time.
43:41Negative, not at this time.
43:42We have no injuries to report.
43:46Bird Dog and Rev, they made it through, luckily.
43:49Hey, Bird Dog, it's 1 Alpha.
43:50How am I looking to the right?
43:52It went off right underneath them.
43:55Yeah, get the lights going again, Bird Dog, so we can advance.
43:57Blew the whole ass of their vehicle off.
44:00All right, on the right.
44:03The right old Mac O, what it is, the only thing that I don't see any wires coming from it,
44:07just try to check it out from your angle.
44:09You're trying to figure out what's debris, shrapnel, what's not,
44:14because an IED is typically an initiator for a greater action.
44:19Bird Dog, get them lights back on that thing you're showing me on the bridge.
44:22It's to sucker us into another event.
44:25They're coming.
44:29What the f*** is that?
44:32Be it a complex attack, a secondary device.
44:36Dude, keep looking at that and tell me what you think it is, bud.
44:39All right.
44:40All right.
44:40The biggest thing is you want to maintain that calm.
44:44You've got to look for them shooting,
44:45as well as scan every inch of ground that I possibly can
44:49to find out if there is secondary devices.
44:53That looks like, I want to say, like, two PVC pipes sticking up.
44:58Yeah.
44:58Maybe about, does it look like two or three feet apart?
45:02Yeah, but what could it be?
45:03There's no sound of the road.
45:04I thought you still want to go like that.
45:07Yeah, but I think that's a secondary.
45:14Booty 7, Booty 3, where is the current location of your secondary device?
45:19It's about 10 feet in front of me.
45:27They didn't just put one bomb, they put many.
45:29But we knew where they'd come from.
45:37The bomb had been placed in the road, in a pothole,
45:41and someone had just put that out.
45:45Bird dog, you see that median?
45:47Because the time from that element coming northbound
45:50and us getting across that single-lane bridge,
45:54going southbound was 10 to 15 minutes at the most.
45:58The bomb had blown up, right at an Iraqi police checkpoint.
46:12Meaning that the people at the checkpoint are the ones that emplaced it.
46:16There we are, 4 October.
46:20We just got hit by an ID.
46:21I want to point out the blast hole,
46:23but if I get you to come at this angle,
46:25I want you to see that there's an Iraqi checkpoint right behind us.
46:29They put shrapnel in the ground, in this pothole.
46:46People don't understand what shrapnel really is.
46:52This is like a spearhead coming through you,
46:54coming at you at 50 miles an hour,
46:56and when it hits your vehicle in an explosion,
46:59it just showers and sprays.
47:02It's like going through a hailstorm.
47:03Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka.
47:04That's probably the f***ing suckers right there that blew it up.
47:07The warrior in you is telling you,
47:10go over there and whack every single one of them.
47:13Engage them.
47:14Let them know that you know that they're the enemy.
47:21But then, you know, the leader and politician in you is saying,
47:25this is not going to help the cause.
47:28This is not going to win their hearts and minds.
47:31You know, I understand.
47:35You know, this is their country.
47:36They don't want to see Sergeant Nunn
47:40and his bad-vooted wheels of death
47:42rolling through their backyard every day.
47:44I got it.
47:44The secondary devices did not go off,
48:00so we were very fortunate.
48:04And instead of shooting at the Iraqi checkpoint
48:06that blew us up,
48:07I gave them a little smile and a wave,
48:09and I even saluted them, you know,
48:12so that perhaps they knew.
48:14that I knew.
48:16And it didn't work, so touche.
48:24I see you.
48:25There he is.
48:26Yep, there he is.
48:27There he is.
48:29There he is.
48:32Hey, Toby!
48:32Toby!
48:36In late October of 2007,
48:43Toby came home to California
48:45on a 15-day leave
48:47for the birth of his baby daughter.
48:51For me to come home,
48:53to be with my wife,
48:54we have our little girl.
48:56You know, it's just amazing.
48:58But in the days we spent filming him,
49:05Toby had a hard time relaxing.
49:07All this joy and, you know, overwhelming sensation
49:13is going to end abruptly
49:15because I have to go back.
49:18Did you just throw up a little bit?
49:20I'm a baby.
49:22I'm going to do that.
49:23There is guilt.
49:25You know, I have two sons and a daughter here.
49:28I have 34 sons there.
49:33It's my little girl right here.
49:34It's my little baby girl.
49:36It's such a double-edged sword.
49:39Oh, are you having a hard time
49:40with the milk there, wild child?
49:43It really pulls at you
49:44and separates you.
49:47Trying to flip that switch
49:49is very, very hard.
49:50Because they are still in danger.
49:57Huh?
49:57I'm still responsible.
49:59Don't that?
50:01You know, and that's not going to end
50:04until everyone's back here.
50:09And it's over.
50:19So what are you doing, Lee?
50:20Well, you know, I hung out with the boys.
50:27It's a nice, quiet, quiet family time.
50:33Toby and Jason Shaw both returned from leave
50:37in mid-November.
50:38My leave was good.
50:39It was, uh, got to see the girlfriend for a while.
50:42Everything was getting real rocky.
50:45Everything was getting real rocky
50:47before I went home.
50:48This deployment's had a big impact
50:51on my relationship.
50:53I'm not liking it at all, at all, so...
50:55It's hard on the both of us
50:57because I always have to worry about
50:58what's going on back at home,
50:59or at least I think I do,
51:01and she's always having to worry about
51:03if she's going to lose me the next day.
51:04Everything's pretty much gone downhill.
51:12Right now we're not together anymore.
51:16We're trying to take a break
51:17and take it easy,
51:19and hopefully everything works out for the best.
51:21By Christmas,
51:32the Bad Voodoo platoon had been deployed
51:34for more than six months.
51:37All right, stockings,
51:38this should be one for everyone, right?
51:41Right now we're at the halfway point.
51:45Yeah, everyone's in the mid-tour slump.
51:53Somebody promoted you this question.
51:55So maybe Santa did come.
51:57But everyone's relatively healthy.
52:02We got a bunch of bad knees and backs right now.
52:05Guys busted up and broken down,
52:07but we have all our fingers, all our toes,
52:10and we still have all our Joes.
52:14Well, enjoy Christmas today.
52:16You guys have a down day tomorrow,
52:19unless you're doing maintenance on a vehicle.
52:21Cool.
52:22And then the following day we go to Cedar.
52:25Check.
52:26On platoon mission.
52:35The men are still running convoy security missions
52:38throughout Iraq.
52:39They are scheduled to return home this May.
53:09This story continues on our website,
53:32where you can watch the full program again.
53:38Follow how things are going for the men of Bad Voodoo.
53:41It takes time, and it takes a toll on you.
53:43Through their personal blogs.
53:45Close the home.
53:49Maybe you'll understand, but...
53:50As soon as we're leaving the tents,
53:51an explosion went off,
53:52which means probably a direct fire,
53:54then the alarm is going on.
53:54Find out more about the making of this film
53:56from producer Deborah Scranton.
54:00Take a peek inside the world of military bloggers.
54:04Then join the discussion about this program
54:06at pbs.com.
54:08At pbs.com.
54:25Frontline's Bad Voodoo's War
54:27is available on DVD.
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