About this episode

Fred Lough shares his experiences as a surgeon in Afghanistan and discusses various military topics.

Fred Lough began his Army career as an engineer officer before deciding to leave military service to attend medical school and become a surgeon. After rejoining the Army to support the Global War on Terror, Fred later served two combat tours in Afghanistan, where he was part of a mobile forward surgical team. In this episode of The Spear, Fred speaks with MWI's Charlie Faint about his experiences in Afghanistan at FOB Shank and Herat, as well as his thoughts about Ranger School, the Haqqani Network, and damage-control combat medicine.

People in this episode

Host: Charlie Faint

Guest: Fred Lough

Topics covered

• combat surgery
• Afghanistan
• military medicine
• Ranger School
• Global War on Terror
• mobile surgical teams

Keywords

• combat surgery
• Afghanistan
• Fred Lough
• Ranger School
• Haqqani Network
• military medicine
• FOB Shank
• Herat

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Army, Global War on Terror, Haqqani Network

Places: Afghanistan, FOB Shank, Herat

More episodes of The Spear

• Long-Range Precision Fires and the Fight for the First Island Chain · April 20, 2026 · 46 min
• Staying Alive in Iraq and Afghanistan · March 24, 2026 · 1h 7m
• Ranger Missions in Iraq and Afghanistan · March 10, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Combat Interpreter in Iraq · February 10, 2026 · 1h 6m
• Route Clearance and Counterbattery in Iraq · January 15, 2026 · 56 min
• Recovering a Downed Marine in Afghanistan · September 10, 2025 · 1h 21m

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