Episode Details

Graham Paul Roberts was 15 meters from a building in Syria when a man leaned around the corner. They saw each other and froze. The man stepped back, came out again, and raised his weapon. Graham fired first. Later, in a wood by the Menai Strait, while searching for his son, Graham saw that same man lean around a tree.

Graham Paul Roberts, author of Echoes in the Silence, sat down with Combat Story to tell what came before that moment and what came after it.

Graham was born in Wales in 1976, six weeks early and weighing two pounds, and doctors told his parents he would not live past 16. He spent 19 years in the Welsh Guards, from sentry duty at Buckingham Palace to patrols in Northern Ireland, instructing at Pirbright and Sandhurst, and a tour in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2012. After leaving the Army he worked close protection in Iraq and became project manager for a team of about 100. In 2015 he took a private military contractor job in Syria, mentoring a special battalion of Syrian fighters in the fight against ISIS.

In this conversation, Graham takes us through a childhood in a special educational needs unit and the bullying that came with it. He tells the story of a decision in Kenya, when he had a young soldier bury a grenade and a belt of ammunition to protect his company's name, and the rank it cost him. In Syria, he describes living in a mountain bunker, building a replica trench to train his battalion, first contact at 15 meters, a day pinned down in an olive grove, and a sniper's round from roughly 1,000 meters away that tore the rifle from his hand. He explains the moment he accepted he was going to die and the peace that came with it.

Then he follows the story home: the nightmares, the drinking, the face he began to see in every room, the loss of his sister and his mother, the point where he planned to end his life, and the day he asked for help. He talks about the diagnosis of complex PTSD, the way he learned to face his memories, the work he does now with children who have special needs, and the book he wrote hoping it reaches the right reader.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open and introduction
3:29 Born at two pounds
6:58 Joining the Welsh Guards
16:50 9/11 and Northern Ireland
22:00 Pirbright, covert surveillance, and Sandhurst
34:29 Kenya: burying the ammunition
40:00 Afghanistan and Bastion
47:35 Close protection in Iraq
51:21 The call that led to Syria
1:01:11 Crossing into Syria
1:14:27 First contact at 15 meters
1:21:12 Pinned down and the sniper
1:28:02 The moment he accepted death
1:31:09 Beirut, an IED, and a destroyed town
1:41:48 Fighting ISIS
1:48:52 Coming home
1:53:35 The woods and asking for help
2:00:14 Finding purpose and writing the book
2:05:00 Living with the echoes

Find Graham:
Echoes in the Silence (US): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/echoes-in-the-silence-graham-paul-roberts/1150973652?ean=9781972688755
Echoes in the Silence (UK): https://www.waterstones.com/book/echoes-in-the-silence/graham-paul-roberts/9781972688748
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roberts0902/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@grahampaulroberts
X: https://x.com/robbo76bng
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/graham.roberts0809

AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans and extraordinary individuals share honest, unfiltered stories of combat, survival, leadership, and life after adversity.

Find AJ online:
Darkhorse: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/Darkhorse
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/
Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/

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