All language subtitles for Hunting ISIS S01E06 Those Who Stand Before Death 1080p Amazon WEB-DL DD+ 2.0 x264-TrollHD.Eng_Syned

- The end of ISIS
is now in sight.

What I'm looking
most forward to

is fighting
inside of Raqqa.

When Raqqa falls in Syria,
end of the book.

[explosion]
- Oh!

- Go, go, go, go!

I don't know what
the future holds,

but I know I'm
made to fight,

and I'm made to train.

-Reporter: Today,
50 ISIS fighters

attacked the city of Kirkuk.

- I worry about Pete.

He's pretty scatterbrained

and stressed out.

- I just wanted
out of here for awhile.

- I can tell he's calmer
when I'm working with him.

- But I have a vested interest
in the rest of this battle.

Mosul isn't done.

- ISIS, one of the most

dangerous terrorist
groups on earth.

They've brutally
conquered territories

all across the Middle East

and spread fear
across the globe.

Their goal is to create
a worldwide Islamic state,

and they will do
anything to achieve it.

[gunshots]
[explosions]

Against the advice
of the U.S. military,

some Americans
are fighting back.

- In the truck!
In the truck!

This isn't just their war,
it's everybody's problem.

Hold him, somebody grab him!

- Some of us were not able
to just sit back

and watch this happen
on the news.

- We're men of action,
not men of words over here.

- This is their story.

[drum music plays]

- It's pretty amazing
to be back,

for lots of reasons.

Like, this is what
I'm supposed to be doing.

- As much as I love
photojournalism,

I do feel like
I'm missing something,

like that tangible
being able to help someone.

But I speak Arabic.
I've worked in the ER.

I saw what they were doing,
and I was like,

okay, I can help you.
Why not?

- This morning, the forces
fighting ISIS in Iraq

have taken 60%
of the territory

once held by ISIS.

The terror group's fighters

are trapped inside
Western Mosul.

[gunfire]

The last road out of the city
is cut off.

[car horn honks]

[child yelling]

- What was this, home?

- Yeah.

- This morning before
I had my morning coffee,

we got the first
real trauma patient.

It feels like real work again.

Getting the instant
job satisfaction

of okay, I just saved
that person's life or,

you know, they're
gonna keep that leg

or whatever it is.

You don't have that dealing with
all the preparatory stuff,

making 30 phone calls a day.

It's different being
in a managerial role.

Just clean that off
just a little bit maybe.

[phone rings]

Oh, this is a call
I have to take.

The big NGOs who are
gonna support us,

you know, I have to
play their games.

Writing proposals
and spending 14 hours a day

staring at Excel spreadsheets,

dealing with phone calls
that you hate.

Skull fracture.

Which is fine with me,

because we'll get
the needed supplies.

Tourniquets on both legs.

Should be there in about
15, 20 minutes.

I think we were new to the game

and we made everyone
really uncomfortable

in the international community.

But you couldn't
stop treating people.

Just because you don't
feel like playing ball

doesn't mean the war
is gonna stop,

the battle is gonna stop.

Yeah, we're too far
right now, I think.

I.S.O.F. One keeps getting
dead on arrivals.

We had three this morning,
three yesterday,

like, that's the barometer.

If we're getting that many
dead on arrivals,

we need to be closer.

So we move forward when I saw
medical teams move forward.

We set up in parking lots,

houses, mosques, schools.

You got a big open space

where you treat
people in triage.

You got a wall around you
for security

in a centralized area

to give us the biggest range
of effective treatment.

So that's the main way
from the street to here.

The problem right now
is four I.E.D.s

about 70 meters that way.

So E.O.D.'s gonna come
in in a couple minutes

and blow them up.

Did we tell everyone here?

- No.

- So we're gonna set up in here.

It's close enough to the fight

where we'll get
patients quickly,

but not close enough
that we're gonna get hurt.

It's big enough we can move
everybody into here.

It will be a good spot.

This is the new home.

- Yeah?

- They're gonna blow
up the I.E.D., maybe?

- Now?

I don't want to go that way,
let's go this way.

- The glass over there.
No, no, them, them.

[explosion]

- It feels like proper work,

standing in a school
listening to bombs blow up.

[jet engines roar]

[singing]

♪ Everything's
got blood on it again ♪

♪ I'm back at the front lines
scoobity-boo-bitty ♪

Everything I did
in the Marine Corp,

I was trained to do,

and that lifestyle
and being a part of it,

it took quite a few years for
me to get away from that.

Okay baby.

- [crying]

- [speaking Arabic]

- I'll never ask him those
detailed questions

about exactly what went on
over there in the military,

but I think he needs to
balance out the fighting

side in the military

with the saving side
of this work, mentally,

even if he'd never say
that out loud.

I can tell why he's
doing what he's doing now.

It's definitely redemption.

[gunfire in distance]

- That's a car bomb.

Yeah. So we're probably about
to get busy in a second.

- We got a mass casualty event
out of nowhere.

Truck after truck after truck
just showed up in seconds.

These people are tore up.

- I thought I was kind of
immune to those dead bodies,

but I almost puked there.

- Okay, who still
has yellow patients?

- Right here.

- One, two.

- You gotta listen
for his breathing.

- The mass casualty
the other day,

I threw tourniquets at people,
pressure dressings.

I don't think I touch
a single patient.

Okay, we're gonna hold
greens for right now.

Only yellows.

I went from treating patients
to, like, dealing with people.

One, two, three,
four, five, six.

Or moving ambulances.

No, they're not going
in there.

Hold on. Adam!

We're not putting the children
with the dead bodies.

And sometimes the odds win.

At this point,
most of the time,

we are saving more people
than are dying.

[siren beeps]

I think we're saving
more than are dying.

I have to think.

- So I don't know how far

sabotage has gone
through the whole village,

but for the most part,

I mean, the roads are clear.

We've been cutting off escape
routes for ISIS around Raqqa,

and we've basically all
but surrounded it now.

This is where we took contact
from last night.

[gunfire in distance]

[whistles]

This guy screamed at out us,
"Hey, who's there, who's there?"

Then he started shooting at us.
The four of us responded.

We returned fire,
killed him.

They had visual on guys
going in and out of an armory.

Called in airstrikes.

[explosion]
[whistles]

We found five more
bodies in there.

That's what we do.

To enemies of humanity.

Fucking bastards.

- Yeah, dude.
I felt bad telling--

I didn't know all those guys
didn't know though.

They're like, yeah,
we took Shaheed today,

and I'm like yeah,
he was just here.

- He was the same guy
that was like,

"Where are you from?"
I was like yeah,

"My family lives in Dibasi."

He's like,
"What's your family name?"

And I said it, he's like,

we are in the same tribe,
me and you, man.

He said,
"What's your grandpa's name?"

So I said my grandpa's name,

and he said,
"I know your grandpa."

He got married like ten days
before the op.

He was not even
supposed to be there.

They started fighting
and he kneeled

just that opening by the wall,

and he just got one shot
right in the face.

He got shot in the face
and died.

- I've met guys from all over

that I now consider family.

Kurdish fighters,
Americans,

guys from around the globe.

And these guys, I mean,

I would take a bullet
for any one of them

just like they would
take a bullet for me,

and none of us would even
ask questions about it.

It's just the way it is.

- V.B.I.E.D. to the left.

It's getting stressful, man.

- The most I could hope for
is that it's a quick death,

not in the hands
of some ISIS captors

or me slowly bleeding out
on a battle field

thinking to myself,

this is the end
and this is how I go out.

[car horn honking]

[yelling]

[groaning]

[yelling]

- I was in a convoy of vehicles,

and I injured myself talking
a spill from a vehicle.

I could barely walk
for the first week.

Kind of a combat
inhibiting injury.

I'm slower than everyone else
around me at this point.

I'm more of a hindrance
than anything else.

Any station, any station,

this is front gate
radio check, over.

Typical.

So it was a lose/lose situation
in my mind at that point.

Me being okay with always
being behind the front line

or me going home,

Which one do I want.

["Push It to the Limit"
plays on radio]

So after a whole lot
of chasing,

I called it quits

and decided to leave it
all behind me.

I have so many great memories

and so many horrible memories.

So no universal question
has been answered for me,

nothing along those lines.

I just kind of realized that

I've had my fun fighting ISIS.

Most of these cities
have been liberated

outside of, like,
capital cities like Raqqa

and a little bit
of Mosul left.

These guys are done.

- U.S. and Iraqi officials say

ISIS will be defeated in days,

but don't expect
peace any time soon.

[explosion]

Reporter: ISIS sent
suicide bombers

to attack Iraqi soldiers
in Mosul.

It was an act of desperation.

U.S. backed Iraqi forces

are close to recapturing
the entire city.

- ISIS knows they're losing.

They're probably
running out of food.

They have no clean water left.

Ammunition, no matter how much
they stockpiled,

they're burning through
millions of rounds,

millions and millions
of rounds.

They're running out
of everything,

and now it's just a bunch
of sadist cowboys

running around doing whatever
the fuck they want to.

Reporter: We have heard that
there have been some

pretty accurate
coalition air strikes

on a number of targets,

however, we've been
hearing more about

this human shield,

this sort of rounding up
by ISIS of civilians,

which is a weapon of ISIS,
let's face it.

- This guy came up and asked
if we had body bags.

I said, "Okay, well, why?"

He said, "Well, I have
18 family members

that are buried in shallow
graves that we need to move."

His family was killed
in an airstrike.

So I started scrambling around
asking for body bags.

And eventually
I called the coalition.

I said, "Listen, there's a guy
here who needs 18 body bags."

They called me back and said,

"We found eight for you."

I remember I said to the guy
on the phone,

"Dude, listen, we spent
a million dollars on the bomb

that just killed
these 18 people,

let's spend 50 bucks on the
bags that they're gonna need

to put them in the ground."

Sorry, how does he want
us to help him?

The house had been flattened,

and somehow they had sifted
through massive concrete blocks

and pulled out these 18 bodies,

and then covered them with dirt.

And this was
definitely a situation

that was outside of the scope
of what we were doing.

- I said that to everybody,

like no one has to do this,

but, you know, it's something
that I think we should do.

So we laid out 18 body bags,

suited up, full masks
and everything.

- They've been there
for 20 days,

so a lot of them
are pretty bloated

and probably disease-filled.

That's why our people
who are digging them up

are wearing the
chemical-exposure suits,

except for Pete.

I'm not sure why
he's not wearing one.

The family wrapped
them in blankets

and buried them pretty shallow.

[speaking Arabic]

- Okay. So she's
saying her daughter

is the one
in the green blanket,

and her daughter's daughter

in the red blanket
next to her.

- When I think of
human shield,

I think of the shield part,

which is to protect yourself.

This isn't that.

God, somebody needs to come up
with a good term for this.

It's not a shield.

A shield is what you use
to protect yourself.

[gunfire in distance]

ISIS figured out their
standard operating procedure,

shoot at the helicopters,
shoot at them more,

shoot at them more,

eventually the coalition's
gonna blow them up.

ISIS figured let's make
it bad.

Let's put people in there.

Let's not only just,
go to houses where

we know there's
like a family of ten,

because one of these houses
had over a hundred people in it.

People in West Mosul
don't just suddenly gather.

They don't even go to the
mosque at a hundred a time.

I think ISIS jammed those
people into those buildings

and played their hand.

- They seem pretty numb.

I feel like if this
was my family,

I would need to be very matter
of fact about it,

just, like, get them out,
bury them,

and I don't know, everybody
reacts differently,

but, like,
I wanna cry right now.

- ISIS knows they're
gonna lose this war,

so they've already started
prepping for the next war,

making everyone in the coalition
and the Iraqi Army

really, really, bad guys

by having them intentionally
kill civilians.

Fucking assholes.

- Bro, I have [bleep] flashback.

This road.

- Look all the child.

The child, they are here
because we fight here.

From this wall, I was shooting.

[speaking Arabic]

Boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom.

[speaking Italian]

- [speaking Arabic]

- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

[gunfire]

[voices echoing]

[gunfire]

[children laughing]

- [speaking Arabic]

- Okay.

I'm very happy to see
where you sitting now.

[translator speaks]

I was very scared,
but I choose to fight,

and fight is not only
with the weapons,

it's with the mind.

It's with the heart,

it's with your soul.

In life when there
is moment difficult,

don't do like someone,

don't run away,
stand and fight.

[speaking Italian]

- Thank you.
- Thank you!

- Let me call you
a little later because

it's still pretty chaotic,
and I just have to--

I want to finish these numbers

and I want to get over
to the other place

and then we can talk.

Okay.
Eat something.

- That was Pete,
just checking in.

It's hard to say when
it's the end of the day.

It's like chaos.

A lot of it is not in our
control at all.

Reporter:
Iraqi and U.S. forces

on the verge of
a major success

in the battle
against ISIS,

taking back Mosul,

but thousands of civilians
are still trapped

by the fighting.

- My job is very different than
my job was three months ago.

Back then all I had to do
was receive patients,

treat them, make sure
they were gonna live,

and then send them on.

And that was great
until I found out

where they were
sending them on to

and how far away
that was.

And then we wanted
to fix that process.

- Sweet.
We can borrow that.

- Look at this.

Most hospitals
we've ever encountered

are like completely destroyed,

so this is like such
a goldmine right now.

- [laughing] This is the best
we've ever seen.

- This is amazing.

- It's the ISIS
Department of Health.

- It was a hospital
built by Saddam, right?

- Yeah, yeah, by Saddam
for the military.

- Then it turned
into civilian.

- And then for the civilian and
then for the ISIS and now--

- Now for us.
- For us.

- How will patients
come here?

- We were losing dozens of
people to transportation time,

and now we're not
going to.

We're going to have actual
field hospitals behind us.

- Did you see this?

Like, instructions on how
to keep your, uh...

beard, like, in regulation.

I never take any souvenirs,

so I figure I'll grab this one.

I know my goal originally

was I was always saying
I want to go home by choice.

It's a reward that
I've earned.

I started treating people not
because I was a medic,

not because I was a doctor
back in the States,

but because nobody else
was doing it.

That's no longer
true anymore.

There's plenty of people
here to help.

That's a good thing.

I gotta pack up my entire life
into two bags.

That's all I can afford,

and it sucks,
because I'm, like,

gonna have to leave
a ton of stuff here.

I do miss my family
back home.

My grandpa has cancer,
which I found out about.

I would've really liked
to stick it out

till the end of the war,

but that little sting of pride
and just saying,

oh, I need to stay here
till the war is over

means less than
seeing my family and friends.

I'm not gonna let
pride get in the way.

If I'm gonna be sentimental
about anything,

a patch is something is very
simple to keep.

It doesn't take up
too much space,

and this isn't one I bought
in a shop somewhere.

This is something I got
on the front line,

so that to me
is a little cooler.

This is like the I.S.O.F.
Command patch.

Iraqi flag.

Make Mosul great again,

that's definitely
one I'm gonna keep.

Oh, this one's cool.

Growing up I always wanted
to be an Airborne Ranger.

There was a time when we
were on the front line

training Peshmerga and
the 101st Airborne showed up.

There was like
this captain there,

and he was kind of
very stern with us,

but at the very end of it,

like, he was walking out
and he's like,

"Hey, guys, keep up
the good work, stay safe."

And he went--

and ripped the patches
off his shoulder,

and he gave me this one.

I guess decided I was
worthy of this patch,

so that one's kind of
special to me.

It's kinda cool.

I owe so much to Pete
for everything we've done,

of course, like, this wouldn't
have happened without him,

but I like to think

there's kind of
a yin and yang there,

and I kind of think I was there
to help him stay balanced

whenever he'd go a little
bit off the deep end.

I think definitely he and I will
always be friends.

I know Alex is a good person.

I know she makes
Pete happy.

I know that he is
crazy about her,

and I think she kind
of helps Pete

level out a little.

So I feel a little
easier leaving

knowing that she is here.

I don't know what
I'm gonna miss.

I guess that's to
be revealed.

- I saw evil happening
on the other side of the world

and had to come over
and help.

The only thing that I wanted was
for the people to be free

and have independence
like we have in The States.

[gunfire]

I think that was a bullseye
right there.

That guy almost hit dead center.

- This is me.
- No, that wasn't you.

That was the guy in
the back,

the little small kid.

We've taught them enough to be
able to defend themselves

against the threat that comes.

They know what they're doing
and they're in good hands.

That makes me
feel accomplished.

That makes me feel proud
and successful.

Landed last night
from Istanbul

and I got some bacon.

It's [bleep] delicious.

Being in and out of war
since I was 18,

I don't know if
I'm ever gonna be done.

I don't know what it's gonna
take for that to happen.

I feel like I have a lot of
things still incomplete,

and until I feel like
they're complete,

I'll always have that
emptiness to go back.

- They're always heavier

than you think
they're gonna be.

It's just a plain box

that has his name on it.

That's Levi's ashes.

- Welcome to the show.

It's not the worst place that
I've ever done stand-up comedy.

It's just like Cleveland
basically, you know,

except cleaner,

and with less
goddamn Ohioans.

[laughter]

- I'm still
trying to understand

what it means
to lose a child.

Time helps.

What I'm finding is
there's little things

every day that remind
you of that person.

This is for a comedy routine
that he did somewhere.

Okay. "There's
an all-new product out

"called The Kitty Wig.

"It's a wig you can
put on your cat, see?

"You can get--
you can get yours now

at www.getalife.com."

[laughing]

I like that,
that's really good.

Life doesn't really
have meaning

aside from the meaning
that you give it.

How do you go on through
the rest of your life

without your kid?
I don't know.

It's sort of like
one of those things

you just put on foot
ahead of the other

and you just keep
doing that.

- I've lost quite a few friends,
brothers in arms,

and I think about
every single one of them

often, very often.

This mother[bleep]
right here though.

Boom!
- Bring it in, bring it in.

- How you been, bro?
You good?

- Yeah, you good?

- Always good, man.
You look good.

- Look at you.
- Can't complain.

So how long have you
been back here now?

- Too long, man.

- Dude, I'm looking
at maybe moving to Colorado

or Northern California.

Just like kind of hanging out
there for like six months,

making a little bit of money

and then figure out
what my next move in life

would be from there,
you know?

Obviously, it's not
like a career path.

- Me and PJ are close.

Keeping in contact with him
is a very important thing.

You maintain that camaraderie,
that brotherhood,

just that, know if
they're okay still.

If they need anything from here
to the rest of their life,

you're there for them,

and you know
they're there for you.

- This is nice,
check this out.

- This is beautiful
up here, yeah.

- So there it is.

Glad to have you back, man.

Glad you're back.

Glad you made it back.

- Long time coming.

The allure of combat and
fighting never disappears.

I 100% look at this
as if it was a chapter

of a book and this
one is now complete.

The only problem is the
chapter that I'm about

to start is blank.

Who knows?
Maybe in the next couple years

I find Mrs. Perfect For Me,

and I decided to settle down
and have a family.

If that days comes, it comes,
and I'll embrace it.

This is live, yeah?
Detroit's playing.

I've gained a lot
from my time in Syria.

Acceptance into a new culture

and being part of a fight
that's bigger than myself,

and I'll always
carry that with me.

But I've spent so much energy
searching for combat

hoping to find satisfaction

in one of the most extreme
ways I possibly could.

In many ways
it was selfish of me

to seek satisfaction like this.

And I'm still looking
for something.

Maybe one day
war will call me back,

but for now,

I will look elsewhere.

Reporter: Iraqi forces fighting
their way through Mosul,

inflicting ISIS casualties.

U.S. officials say the terror
group is on the ropes,

down to its lowest
numbers ever,

but experts warn
the terror group

isn't close to total defeat.

- This morning we got
a 13-year-old patient

who had been hit by
a mortar,

and I just wrote about it.

She had been hit by
a mortar

not long before
she got to our door.

I'm sure she was standing
outside somewhere

because she had little bits
of leaves stuck in her leg.

I just have to swab
the blood out of the way

and feel for that
damn pumping artery.

Tying to keep pressure
everywhere.

We use massive amounts of gauze

and bandages to wrap
the whole thing.

I figured at some point
her eyes would just

roll to the back of her head
and we would call it.

I look at her IV lines and
they're not running anymore.

Her veins are collapsing.

And out of nowhere these
two big gorgeous

brown eyes lock with mine and bl

I let myself do something

I swore I would stop
doing long ago.

I started to have hope
that she will make it.

When you get a little hope,

it quickly turns
into a lot of hope,

then it turns into desperation
and then despair.

We get to the ER entrance,

and I'm still holding
her pale, cold hand.

I'm not much into
religion or faith,

but I am a fan of karma.

[child calling out]

Somehow I saved up enough
for this little girl

to still be alive
as she makes it inside.

She was afraid,
but for once, I'm not.

She's going to make it.

Hope is a powerful thing.

For the first time in a while
I gave into hope and won.

This one will stay
with me,

but I have to remind myself
of the reality.

I gambled with hope.

I was lucky to come out
on top of this one.

It could've
just as easily ended

with me sobbing in
a corner.

This the first thing
I've written

where I'm actually
really happy at the end

in a long time.

Usually it's so I can
get it down on paper

and not have to think
about it anymore,

but this one I can--

I can definitely reread
when I'm having a bad day.

Because we--
we fucking won one.

- No.

If ISIS surrendered
right now,

and the battle for Mosul
was over,

yeah, I definitely could,

but, you know,
it's not over yet.

At the end of the day, we're
doing a really good thing,

and I'm pretty happy
with that.

If it goes for
another three months,

I'll probably be happy
with that too.

It's a good moment
to take stock at your life.

I mean, why not,
in the middle of West Mosul.

We have a great team.

I've got a lot of really
good friends.

We've done good work.

I am batshit in love
with this woman.

I don't know how in the
middle of all this,

but life is pretty good.

Life's really good,
actually.

Yeah.

- Everyone comes
for a different reason.

We want to feel important.

We want to feel connected.

We want to feel like
we are redeemable.

The fact is,
we're humans,

and we're in
this together.

That alone is
worth fighting for.