Afghan Commandos Turned On Us — Two Green Berets Didn’t Make It

About this video

Ritland recounts his experiences working with Afghan commandos during a deployment, describing the challenges of training local forces with varying competence levels and the constant threat of insider attacks. He then shares the detailed account of a mission in November 2012 where his close friend Kevin Ebbert was killed by enemy fire while in an overwatch position in the mountains. The emotional narrative covers the tactical planning, the moment Ritland realized his friend had been shot while speaking to him on the radio, and the harrowing hours-long effort to carry Ebbert’s body out of the mountains.

Key takeaways

• Ritland describes the Afghan commandos as having only about five highly competent operators out of a thousand, with most being unreliable and some posing a danger to coalition forces through green-on-blue attacks.
• Ritland shares that his friend Kevin Ebbert was killed by a single shot from a concealed enemy fighter during an overwatch mission, with Ritland hearing the shot over the radio mid-conversation as Ebbert was providing his grid coordinates.
• According to Ritland, the mission involved a complex plan with overwatch elements positioned in the mountains, but difficult terrain forced Ebbert’s team to stop their descent and remain in an exposed position until daylight, where they became vulnerable to enemy fire.

Episode details: published November 15, 2025 · 64.1K views · 22:08 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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