Deployment Helmet Cam Videos

I figured I would share an interesting playlist of videos compiled by a guy on YouTube named "Funker530." I'm sure many of you have seen a video or two of these, but I wanted to share the whole playlist.

For the leaders and officers, this particularly good to watch through a leadership study perspective. I've watched the firefight videos with a "what would I do" lens and it's proven to be pretty insightful. For those of us without a deployment yet, this is a good way to learn. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FUNKER530/videos?view=0

 

I've been to both Iraq and Afghanistan. If you haven't been deployed and you're curious about what a soldier experiences, I'd highly recommend the following:

- Read War by Sebastian Junger. It gets into not just what the Soldiers did, but how it affected them. Absolutely the best book I've read about the current conflict in Afghanistan.

- Watch Restrepo as filmed by Junger and by Tim Hetherington. It lacks the details of the book, but provides the visuals that the book lacks.

If you read no other books or watch no other documentaries, those two are the ones to get. Other really good ones follow:

They Fought for Each Other, by Kelly Kennedy. Iraq. Excellent book about the bonds that develop in combat.

Greetings from Afghanistan - Send More Ammo, by Benjamin Tupper. Written by a former Advisor to the Afghan National Army, early on in the Afghan conflict. I've been an Advisor on two deployments, and early on these guys had a crazy tough mission, going out in pairs with the ANA.

Those are a few of my favorites.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I've seen Restrepo and read Kennedy's book - both were really interesting. I'll check out Junger's book as well.

 

Thx for the link! There goes my productive Sunday. Couch Here I come.

 

I've got three dudes in my squad alone with helmet cams. One for me (squad leader) then one from a team leader and one from my 249 gunner. It's going to be awesome to just see everything from three different perspectives.

Round 2 for Afghanistan coming up in a week or so.

 

That's awesome. Have fun and be safe brother.

 

Our CO told us if he caught us with one of those he would fry our ass.. just a way to get in trouble I'd keep it turned off.. just my .02

 

My CO is an old Force Recon and Ranger Regiment guy. He doesn't care about helmet cams. As long as we do our job he really doesn't care.