Third Squad and the War in Afghanistan By David Koontz
“It is stupid easy to kill a person. I’ve killed a significant number of people. I counted 13 with my rifle, and then I stopped counting.” John Bohlinger was a young Marine, a 20-year-old lance corporal, when he shot and killed his first Taliban during the war in Afghanistan. “But with my radio, I killed a lot more people, a lot more people.” Bohlinger was a radio operator with the Third Squad from the First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment – known simply as the 1-5. The unit deployed to Sangin, Afghanistan in April 2011. When they returned to Camp Pendleton seven months later, 17 Marines from the 1-5 had been killed in action and nearly 200 more came home wounded. A 12-part documentary podcast, “Third Squad after Afghanistan,” debuted aboard the USS Midway Museum on Veterans Day. Before a captivated audience on the 24
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museum’s hangar deck, Bohlinger and other Third Squad Marines recounted their harrowing experiences in Afghanistan and how they shaped their lives over the last 10 years. The podcast, written and produced by award-winning journalist Elliott Woods, chronicles the experiences of a dozen Marines in Third Squad. Woods was embedded with the 1-5 in summer 2011 while they were waging war with the Taliban in Sangin. For the U.S. Marine Corps, the Battle for Sangin, which lasted nearly two years, is still considered the bloodiest battleground of Afghanistan. “Being with Third Squad in Sangin was intense,” said Woods, himself an Army veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2004. “They welcomed me and allowed me into their world without any reservations, but they were scared and strung out.” “I decided to participate in the podcast because I believe in the story and its intent,” said Bohlinger,
