Deploying Navy SEALs To Unf*ck Afghanistan

About this video

A guest describes his second deployment to Afghanistan’s Argonom River valley with a SEAL platoon. He recounts nightly base attacks, close-quarters firefights, using local informants, and executing immediate action drills in combat. The deployment ended with the team burning down their remote FOB and abandoning the area, which the guest describes as bittersweet given the resources invested and risks taken.

Key takeaways

• The guest reports his team experienced effective enemy fire nightly at their remote FOB, with attackers approaching from ridgelines approximately 800 meters away.
• The guest recounts paying a local informant a couple hundred dollars per instance to signal impending attacks using an IR strobe from a distant ridgeline.
• The guest describes the deployment ending with orders to burn their FOB to the ground and withdraw, which he characterizes as bittersweet after the work and risk involved.

Episode details: published October 10, 2025 · 12K views · 19:52 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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