Marine Tells His Most Brutal War Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan!

Marine Corps machine gunner Matthew Dolan survived a massive IED blast in Fallujah, Iraq and that was only one of several moments that nearly killed him.

Today's Urban Valor podcast, Matthew shares what it was like serving as an 0331 Marine machine gunner with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. He discusses deploying to Fallujah, operating as part of a quick reaction force, being shot at by an enemy he could not see, surviving a double-stacked 155mm IED, and becoming trapped inside a military vehicle as it rolled into a river.

Yeah… this one gets WILD.

Matthew’s story isn’t only about explosions and close calls.

It’s about growing up with a younger sister battling cystic fibrosis…

Walking into a Marine Corps recruiting office after getting yelled at by his boss…

Training under veterans of Operation Phantom Fury…

And arriving in a completely blacked-out Fallujah as a 19-year-old kid from Kansas thinking, “What the hell did I get myself into?”

Matthew describes the strange reality of fighting insurgents who rarely presented a clear target. One moment, he was searching vehicles and tracking high-value individuals. The next, he was taking sniper fire, responding to indirect fire or driving roads known for improvised explosive devices.

Then came the blast.

Matthew’s vehicle was the fourth to cross an IED buried beneath the road. The first three vehicles passed over it without detonating the device.

His didn’t.

The explosion cracked the vehicle’s axle, tore away part of the Humvee and knocked Matthew unconscious. His fellow Marines pulled him from the vehicle, strapped him to a stretcher and rushed him to medical treatment.

What happened inside the medical bay somehow became one of the funniest...and most unfiltered...IED survival stories we’ve ever heard.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 Surviving an IED and a Sinking Vehicle
01:31 Meet Marine Machine Gunner Matt Dolan
02:02 Growing Up With a Sister Battling Cystic Fibrosis
08:43 The Family Legacy That Inspired Him to Serve
10:58 The Argument That Made Him Join the Marines
12:56 Telling His Family He Enlisted
15:02 Marine Corps Boot Camp
21:15 Becoming an 0331 Machine Gunner
23:51 Joining 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines
26:27 Arriving in Fallujah
28:49 Al-Qaeda Makes an Example of an Informant
30:13 The First Time He Was Shot At
32:03 Running Quick Reaction Force in Fallujah
36:15 Recovering a Fallen Marine’s Sniper Rifle
41:38 Fighting an Enemy He Couldn’t See
43:39 His Humvee Detonates a Massive IED
46:59 Rushed to the Medical Bay
51:22 Returning to Fallujah
56:02 A Four-Year-Old Girl Is Killed
1:00:00 The Reality of His Second Iraq Deployment
1:06:03 Marines Go Rooftop to Rooftop With Eggs
1:08:13 Surrounded by Iraqi Police
1:10:26 Sneaking Through an Iraqi Family’s House
1:28:51 A Marine’s Rifle Goes Missing
1:31:00 Japan, Korea and Australia
1:36:04 Losing the Combat Mindset
1:40:00 Preparing for Afghanistan
1:50:45 Remembering the Marines He Lost
1:55:08 Learning Matt Abate Was Killed
1:58:23 A Gunny Gives Him a Reality Check
2:11:26 Surviving the Vehicle Rollover
2:13:18 Watching a Massive Firefight
2:17:46 Pills, Alcohol and Returning to Afghanistan
2:18:09 His Fifth Combat Deployment
2:20:34 Completely Lost in His Own Head
2:21:31 A DUI and the Collapse of His Career
2:23:08 One Final Barracks Disaster

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DISCLAIMER: The views and experiences shared in this interview are those of the individual and are recounted from personal memory.