“We Thought We Were Going to Die Every Night” | Ramadi Veteran Story With Marin Raider Joshua Shores
May 11, 2026
37,909
456
45
1.32%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Combat Story Episodes Around May 11, 2026
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
2:09:45Now Playing“We Thought We Were Going to Die Every Night” | Ramadi Veteran Story With Marin Raider Joshua Shores
Chapters
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelToday on Combat Story, we hear the story of Joshua “Josh” Shores — Marine infantry combat veteran, Purple Heart recipient, former Marine Raider, retired firefighter, entrepreneur, and author of Counting on Death: A Marine Infantryman’s Journey from the Front Lines of Combat to the Fight for Peace.
Josh served with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines during some of the hardest fighting in Ramadi before later deploying to Afghanistan with Marine Special Operations. In this conversation, he takes us through the reality of combat as a 19-year-old Marine, the burden of surviving when others did not, and the long fight to make peace with the memories that followed him home.
Although AJ and Josh never served together, this episode becomes a deeply relatable conversation between two Marines who carried similar experiences through different units, deployments, and years of war. There are moments where the interview gives way to recognition, where both men are able to sit inside memories, ask harder questions, and give language to parts of combat that are rarely spoken about clearly.
This episode goes far beyond firefights and deployments.
Josh speaks candidly about the culture inside the infantry during the height of the Iraq War, the emotional toll of losing friends to IEDs, the confusion of counterinsurgency warfare, survivor’s guilt, shame, identity, suicide, and the struggle many veterans face trying to reconnect with life after combat.
There are moments in this conversation that are difficult to hear. There are also moments that every combat veteran will recognize immediately.
This is not a conversation about glory.
It is a conversation about consequence.
About brotherhood.
About grief.
And about trying to find peace after war.
🎙️ Guest — Joshua “Josh” Shores
Marine infantry combat veteran, Purple Heart recipient, former Marine Raider, retired firefighter, entrepreneur, and author of Counting on Death. He served with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in Ramadi before later deploying to Afghanistan with Marine Special Operations.
📕 Book (Counting on Death):
🎧 Audiobook:
🎙️ Host — AJ Pasciuti
Retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Marine Gunner, author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of Combat Story.
📕 Darkhorse:
📸 AJ Pasciuti Instagram:
🔗 Website:
⏱️ CHAPTERS
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.