IN 2011, A young Marine is killed in action in Afghanistan. TEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH AND 20 YEARS AFTER 9/11, WE TRACK DOWN THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF HIS SQUAD TO TELL THEIR STORY AND TO EXAMINE WHY THE UNITED STATES SENT THEM TO WAR.
THIRD SQUAD is a limited podcast series focusing on the lives of 12 Marines who fought together a decade ago in Sangin District, Helmand Province, one of the most violent battlefields in the Afghanistan War.
The squad deployed to Sangin in 2011 as part of the “Afghanistan surge,” a drastic escalation of the war that resulted in staggering casualties. Iraq veteran and journalist Elliott Woods embedded with Third Squad in Sangin, using audio and photography to document their experiences.
Now, 10 years later, Woods will combine the original audio with new interviews to tell the story of the one squad member who did not make it home alive, Corporal Michael Joseph Dutcher, and to explore how the war has shaped the lives of his surviving squad mates. In the wake of America’s retreat from Afghanistan, Woods will weave the Third Squad Marines’ intimate narratives into a rigorous examination of the decisions that drove America into the bloodiest phase of its longest war.
ELLIOTT WOODS is a journalist, photographer and veteran
In 2004 he served as an Army combat engineer in northern Iraq before returning home and attending the University of Virginia, where he earned a degree in English literature. After graduating, Elliott decided to go back to war, this time as a journalist. Woods covered the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in 2009, the American withdrawal from Iraq, the Arab Spring and counterinsurgency fighting in Afghanistan. Back in the United States, Elliott has continued to cover veterans’ issues and the increasingly violent overtones of American politics and culture. His work has appeared in Wired, The New Republic, The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Men’s Journal and Outside. Elliott is a former Knight-Wallace journalism fellow and is the recipient of a National Magazine Award and an Overseas Press Club Award. He lives in Livingston, Montana.
tHE PRODUCERS
Tommy Andres and Maria Byrne are the founders of Airloom Media, a production company specializing in long-form documentary podcasts. Before founding Airloom, Tommy hosted CNN’s first podcast and was the Senior Producer at Marketplace. Maria was a field producer at The BBC for nearly 15 years.
OUR PARTNERS
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iHeart Media is the US’s #1 audio company, reaching 9 out of 10 Americans every month. Third Squad is proud to be distributed by iHeart.
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Third Squad is produced in conjunction with the Center for War and Society at San Diego State University.
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The Third Squad road trip was funded with a generous National Endowment for the Humanities grant.