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The Debrief Project History & Healing: Sharing veterans’ stories to preserve history, honor service, and promote healing through honest conversation, connection, and legacy.
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COL (Ret) John Cyrulik pauses before discussing the battle to thank Colonel Fee and Colonel Goins, describing them as tw...
09/29/2026

COL (Ret) John Cyrulik pauses before discussing the battle to thank Colonel Fee and Colonel Goins, describing them as two of the finest combat leaders he ever served with and as father-figure role models during some of the most difficult moments of his Army life. He explains that leadership, values, family, and trust mattered deeply in combat — and that the soldiers’ survival and effectiveness in Baqubah were shaped in no small part by the example set by those two men.

Major Cyrulik pauses before discussing the battle to thank Colonel ...

Retired LTC Bruce Stanley breaks down the staggering math behind the Battle of Baqubah: 1-12 Charger Battalion and 1-82 ...
09/16/2026

Retired LTC Bruce Stanley breaks down the staggering math behind the Battle of Baqubah: 1-12 Charger Battalion and 1-82 Wolfpack aviation made up less than 1% of U.S. troops in Iraq, yet for months absorbed roughly 30% of U.S. casualties in country. Stanley argues that enduring that level of combat pressure for six straight months was not just significant — it was heroic.

Retired LTC Bruce Stanley breaks down the staggering math behind th...

Major John Cyrulik uses his wartime notebook to show how quickly Baqubah changed, comparing early September concerns lik...
09/16/2026

Major John Cyrulik uses his wartime notebook to show how quickly Baqubah changed, comparing early September concerns like housing, generators, and PT tests with late November priorities like flares, 30mm am******on, Hellfire loadouts, and battle-damaged aircraft. Looking back, he says this was the moment the city “flipped” — when enemy contact, casualties, equipment losses, and aviation demands transformed the deployment from routine operations into a major fight.

Major Cyrulik uses his wartime notebook to show how quickly Baqubah...

In this 15-minute story, COL (Ret.) Dave Fee, Wolfpack 6, explains how his Apache battalion arrived in Iraq during the r...
09/16/2026

In this 15-minute story, COL (Ret.) Dave Fee, Wolfpack 6, explains how his Apache battalion arrived in Iraq during the relatively quiet summer of 2006 and was soon pulled into the escalating fight for Baqubah alongside 1-12 CAV. Fee describes how Wolfpack’s early low-level tactics left their aircraft vulnerable, taking repeated hits, until new Apache sensor technology and a move to higher altitude changed what they could see and do. From higher altititude, his crews could identify IED teams, mortar crews, and enemy fighters from miles away, transforming the Apache from a vulnerable observer into a hunter. As the rules of engagement shifted, Wolfpack went from almost a few engagements to daily combat, with its mission becoming clear: protect the soldiers fighting on the ground in Baqubah.

In this 15-minute story, COL (Ret.) Dave Fee, Wolfpack 6, explains ...

LTC Fee explains that Wolfpack arrived in Iraq in July 2006, several months before 1-12 CAV, during a quieter pre-surge ...
09/04/2026

LTC Fee explains that Wolfpack arrived in Iraq in July 2006, several months before 1-12 CAV, during a quieter pre-surge period when convoys moved cautiously and Apaches rarely fired. By the time 1-12 arrived, the rules of engagement had changed, the fight was becoming more kinetic, and Wolfpack’s focus shifted toward Baqubah alongside the ground force.

LTC Fee explains that Wolfpack arrived in Iraq in July 2006, severa...

LTC Morris “Mo” Goins explains the brutal “troop-to-task” math of commanding 1-12 CAV in Baqubah, where every mission — ...
09/03/2026

LTC Morris “Mo” Goins explains the brutal “troop-to-task” math of commanding 1-12 CAV in Baqubah, where every mission — government-center security, COPs, OPs, MiTT teams, and combat patrols — consumed manpower the battalion could not easily replace. With no real option to tell higher headquarters “no,” Goins had to decide where to concentrate combat power and where to assume risk, summed up by the old military truth: “He who defends everything defends nothing.”

TC Morris “Mo” Goins explains the brutal “troop-to-task” math of co...

Retired LTC Bruce Stanley, School of Advanced Military Studies, explains that 1-12 INF Charger Battalion was facing an e...
08/31/2026

Retired LTC Bruce Stanley, School of Advanced Military Studies, explains that 1-12 INF Charger Battalion was facing an enemy force ratio that may have ranged from 5-to-1 to as high as 12-to-1 in Diyala and Baqubah. He argues that, on paper, any schoolhouse plan built around those odds would have been considered tactically unsound — but the true scale of the enemy buildup simply had not been recognized yet.

OIF 06-08 / History and Healing

Retired LTC Bruce Stanley explains that Charger Battalion was facin...

COL Morris “Mo” Goins (Ret.) explains how 1-12 CAV deployed expecting to serve as a theater reserve in Kuwait, only to b...
08/31/2026

COL Morris “Mo” Goins (Ret.) explains how 1-12 CAV deployed expecting to serve as a theater reserve in Kuwait, only to be redirected at the last minute to Baqubah, a city he had to find on a map. He breaks down the battalion’s core problem: they had tanks, Bradleys, and massive firepower, but not enough dismounted soldiers for a city of roughly 650,000 people while also supporting MiTT teams, government-center security, and advisory missions. What began as a relatively quiet handoff from the previous unit quickly revealed lawless areas, thin coverage, and impossible choices about where to assume risk. Goins frames the early deployment as a commander’s brutal math problem: “he who defends everything defends nothing,” and soon after those first tactical decisions, all hell broke loose.

In this 15-minute segment, COL Morris “Mo” Goins (Ret.) explains ho...

Major John Cyrulik describes Wolfpack’s relief-in-place as they arrived in Iraq in 2006, saying the outgoing force was t...
08/27/2026

Major John Cyrulik describes Wolfpack’s relief-in-place as they arrived in Iraq in 2006, saying the outgoing force was tired and told them there “wasn’t too much to worry about” in the Baqubah area. Looking back, he contrasts that early handoff with what followed: a far more aggressive ground fight, dramatically higher aviation tempo, and a level of enemy contact the incoming unit had not yet been led to expect.

Major Cyrulik describes Wolfpack’s relief-in-place as they arrived ...

LTC Morris “Mo” Goins explains that 1-12 CAV arrived in Baqubah with enormous firepower — Bradleys, tanks, scouts, engin...
08/26/2026

LTC Morris “Mo” Goins explains that 1-12 CAV arrived in Baqubah with enormous firepower — Bradleys, tanks, scouts, engineers, mortars, and support elements — but limited dismounted manpower. He was not worried about the battalion’s ability to win a fight; the bigger challenge was having enough soldiers to cover the city, hold ground, and meet every mission at once.

LTC Morris “Mo” Goins explains that 1-12 CAV arrived in Baqubah wit...

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