Yay, meleeman's back with his second SEAL blog! Don't all jump up and read it at once :|
Meleeman's note: As with the first one, if not more so, this is way too long for me to read through and proofread. Sorry lads, but you'll manage, right?
So in the last entry I detailed what makes a SEAL a SEAL. They're definitely some of the most impressive soldiers in history, and now that you all have a good understanding of that, I can in good conscience detail the narrative that the novel focused on.
In 2005, Marcus and some other SEAL operatives were in Afghanistan. They were just there to be there; just doin' what they do best. The story, though, is found in one mission, or rather, one target. His name was "Ben Sharmak" in the book, he didn't reveal his name in the book, but I think you can actually find the real name here. I think Ben was still alive when he wrote the book, but has since been killed later.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Ben Sharmak there was the target. He was a very important, high up Taliban individual. I have since lent the book to a friend, so I can't be certain, but I think Sharmak himself was the one Marcus mentioned for being a notorious explosive user, constantly targeting US Marines in his attacks. But aside from his deadly explosives, he was also just plain ol' high up and important. Their mission was to get ahold of him and capture if possible, kill if not. Pretty straight forward, right?
Sounds like a very simple, too good to be true objective. At least, that's the impression I got. Is there really just a target elimination mission that is ever so simple? I asked myself. Apparently so...At any rate, here the military is in the treacherous mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush, trying to get ahold of good intel on Sharmak's position. There was 2 or 3 false starts for the mission before the final go, due to information flaking out; as in, no longer accurate because of Sharmak moving around.
At long last, however, the mission was finally a go. The four SEALs, being Marcus and his buddies Mikey, Axe, and Danny, were put down at night time high in the peaks of the Kush. It was dark, windy, and rainy. Perfect, right? :roll: They were forced to trek through the unkind terrain about four miles to their position. Their goal: take up an auspicious firing position in the mountain cover, take out Sharmak with one of their Mark 12s, and retreat safely. The issue posed was that Sharmak commanded a force of estimated 80-140 men with him, and if anything went wrong, or possibly even if it went right, the four man squad would have to deal with them. No worries, though, right?
The problem was, a group of three Afghan shepherds found the poor SEALs in those mountains. Not good, right? The men were then posed with a terribly tough decision. The harsh and militarian decision was to outright kill the three Afghans, one of whom was a boy of maybe 17. That's what they all wanted to do, and what they knew was all but the only choice. But the rules of engagement in all their wisdom would see them tried in the US later for murdering non combatants, and it would almost certainly condemn them all to death or jail. So, as tough as it was, they knew they couldn't kill them.
Then again, why not call HQ? If they sanction the termination of the civilians, then the soldiers can't get in trouble. Or maybe they'll just tell the SEALs what needs to happen? Either way, it couldn't hurt.
After trying the radio continuously, though, the four man squad could not manage to raise HQ at all! I wish I had the book now to quote it, but the radio man (Axe I think) said something along the lines of "It's working fine, there's nothing wrong, it's just like no one's there." The SEALs were furious. Hung out to dry doesn't quite cut it, you know? In the backs of their heads, they all knew what had to be done. They had to let the shepherds go. They didn't make the decision easily, but it was potentially die here in the mountains or potentially die in the US. Not much of a choice, right? So they took their chances in the fight.
Now, before I go on, a few people have asked me why they didn't like, tie up the shepherds or anything like that. That's actually a very good question. I have zero idea, and Marcus mentioned nothing of the sort in the book. My guess? If they thought of it, there probably wasn't a way to. *shrug* Would have worked better than what they ended up doing...
The shepherds were left on their way, and the SEALs at least excercised some intelligent strategizing here. They fell back, taking up a prime defensive position to counter the onslaught that was going to close on them in the coming hours. It's good they thought of that, you know? Better than sitting there and hoping for the best.
The other question asked to me was, "If they're sitting here on a mountain, staring at the town through sniper scopes, how did they even get challenged? They had like every advantage." Truth be told? They got taken from behind. The Taliban snuck up behind them, coming all the way around the mountain from the other side. This was, in my uneducated opinion, was the final kiss of death for our valiant troops. They went from being huddled up with a good defensive position on top of the mountain to being flanked from behind from even further up the mountain. Height advantage? Bye. Element of surprise? Reversed on them, at best. A fight ensued, and it's arguably the only reason I'm writing this blog.
There's those events in movies, books, and games that just seem to good to be true. Perhaps within the realm of possibility if all the circumstances were met, but what are the odds of that? A fight that just could never happen? A battle never won in reality? They're pretty prevelant in entertainment. It's cool to see something awesome happen, becuz it's the stories that never happen in reality that are cool to see elsewhere. This was that fight. I swear it was like a story of four stranded SPARTAN IIs in Halo's universe.
The final body count for the Taliban wasn't revealed in the book, but Marcus's rough estimates made on the battlefield put the total Taliban taken out at maybe 90, out of 140-160 at the start. (Again, I'm sorry if that's inaccurate, I can't confirm that, but I'm pretty certain that was his estimate.) The SEALs were just untouchable. They opened up with M4s and their Mark 12s (which, for the record, fire on semi auto, so they were practical in a combat scenario) at the tidal wave of Taliban soldiers who continued to round the mountain side and filled in the gaps of their fallen allies. Even when the SEALs were literally out in the open calmly moving to cover amidst thousands of bullets, they managed to tag countless enemies each, while remaining unscathed. The Taliban guys are very untrained, and more or less won battles from sheer volume of fire, not precise shooting.
That fact alone is what let the SEALs perform so well in this terribly lopsided fight. It would be like standing there with 150 guys shooting at you with their eyes closed. You gotta be careful, but the amount of people you can get all depends on how well you keep your cool and shoot true. And because of the SEALs' intense training, that is exactly what they did, even when faced with such staggering odds. It's not like they stood in the wide open forever, though. They quickly and steadily began descending the mountain, going to cover, taking out enemies, moving down, etc. Their goal, and only hope of living, was to totally descend the mountain and fall back onto flat ground where they very realistically could combat the entire enemy force and win. Or, even better, fall back into the town itself, shack up in a building, and have a turkey shoot. Even with the endless supplies of RPGs being launched at them, a few inches of solid wall could save them from a lot. So, amidst chaos, confusion, death, and bullets, the four men managed to formulate their loose plan and begin to carry it out.
Of course, they didn't just sit down and take their situation without attempts to call in backup. They took up some cover in a cave, or maybe in some rocks, to establish connection with HQ, hopefully to call in some helicopters with enough firepower to level a town. Unfortunately, there was no response again, with the mountain landscape interfering with the signal. The SEALs decided to make a brave move; to use a cell phone to make a call to base. The bravery is found in the fact that in order to do so, they had to break cover, which spelled nearly certain death.
Murphy took up the task, running out into the fray to make a telephone call. Thankfully, he got patched through alright, and desperately pleaded for any support they could get, saying that the SEALs were dying out there. He even got shot in the back during the call. He got up off the ground, picked his rifle back up, along with the phone, and continued to fire his assault rifle one handed while completing the phone call with uncanny calm. The conversation ended shortly after, and then Murphy was shot again in the stomach. He fell onto his back this time, and within moments, multiple Taliban soldiers had approached him and unloaded more ammo into him. If he hadn't already died, he was certainly gone now.
Meanwhile, another one of their teammates, Mikey, had been shot, five times (I think). One blew his thumb off, there was a few elsewhere, and finally he got shot in the neck. By that point, he fell down and wasn't moving. Now, as with a lot of soldiers, SEALs are strongly compelled to retrieve bodies of their fallen in combat, only, with the SEALs, it's basically a rule. They're dedicated to the grave. Marcus went into the fray this time, with the rocky mountain walls surrounding him doubling the lethality of the bullets coming towards him, serving to ricochet rounds even after missing initially. However, despite the chaos, he went out and began dragging Mikey to safety. This is amazing.
Mikey swiped Marcus's hand away, picked up his rifle, got up off the ground, and began to fall back while firing, on his own. After four shots, one of which was in the NECK! These SEALs are insane. So they took up more cover and resumed repelling the never ending waves of enemies. By now the body count is astounding. The SEALs are taking out an unholy amount of the Taliban cannon-fodder.
Pardon the memory failure, but I forget what bridges the events, but somewhere along the line, the valiant Mikey is shot, once more, for a total of five times, in the very base of the neck. This shot downed him for good, although when I read that, I still wasn't too sure he was out of the fight yet. After four times, once in the neck, and he was still fighting at full capacity? Like I said, entirely too good to be true. Only, it is true.
Then, Marcus and Axe fell back even more, sticking to the original plan. They were still a considerable distance from the bottom, but it was their only shot. At this point, Axe is holed up in some sort of cave, and Marcus was out doing something when he returned to the cave to find Axe with a wound in his head.
Unfortunately, the four had taken an unbelievably nasty spill down the mountain (the first of a few, actually). Basically, they came to a miniature cliff of sorts, and they had no choice but to jump off and roll down the almost sheer mountain side to a flat spot. Marcus equated it to a ski slope, only they were tumbling, it was rocky surface, and they were going break neck speed with no way to stop (that's the kicker). When they all crashed at the bottom into a heap on top of each other, Marcus had thought that none of them should have been able to live through it. And, like I said, there's a few more of similar ordeals later.
AT ANY RATE, during the spill, Marcus had actually lost his medical supplies, among other things (his helmet!). So he had to sit and stare hopelessly as his brother in arms Axe was suffering from a wound that was basically beyond repair. He said in the book that even in the best medical care in the world, he probably wouldn't have lasted an hour. But Axe was as defiant as any of them, and while he was bleeding pretty bad and couldn't really fight at full capacity, he had his pistol ready and was ready to go out fighting. It's that kind of determination that makes these men so incredible.
They didn't get much time to do any more damage because an enemy RPG struck ground just mere feet short of their position. Marcus was literally flung into another tumble by the blast, and Axe was, to his knowledge, killed in the explosion. It was revealed later that Axe had emptied his pistol clip when they found his body, meaning he had in fact lived on even longer and taken the fight to them until his last breath.
Meanwhile, Marcus's rocky trek down the mountain left him face down in a massive ditch, and curious enough, lacking pants. Better to get your pants blown off by an RPG than to die.
But yeah, like I said, he was face down in a huge ditch, to the point where when he first regained his bearings, he thought he might have gone blind cause he couldn't see. Then he realized he was upside down, and the hole was deep enough where he went unnoticed by the Taliban. They totally didn't see him. Eventually he climbed out and began a slow crawl to a rock formation in which to shelter himself. He barricaded himself in, and he was protected on all sides, save one, where he obviously looked out with his sniper rifle (which, in a series of miracles orchestrated by the guy upstairs, was still right with him through all he had done). Anyways, he waited there for, I dunno, eight hours? Just sitting. Waiting.
By now, he was parched, and had no water whatsoever. He said that his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth, so he couldn't speak even if he had a reason to, and he guessed that trying to detatch it would rip skin off the roof of his mouth in the process.
This just keeps getting better and better. How amazing are all these circumstances? The fact the SEALs were able to accomplish even half of what they've done so far is nothing short of a miracle, but also an undeniable testament to their training. However, it's not over yet, as Marcus is eager to prove, and he continues to do some amazing stuff solo next.
First thing he did was take out a Taliban soldier who had been patrolling the battlefield, looking for Marcus, a few hours after the battle ended. Marcus lined up a shot and blew his head straight off. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed!
So, Marcus happily shot two more Taliban guys who got too curious. It was great, he got one in the head again, and double tapped one in the chest before he could scream. I think he deflated his lung or something crazy like that.
After a little while longer, he decided to get back on the move. However, one thing Marcus was quick to tell us was how his large profile made him a less than prolific mountain climber, and he frequently would slip and/or fall in the mountains. Now he was pretty badly wounded, exhausted with no water, and lacking pants. He crawled on all fours all over the place, and that didn't even help that much. Not to mention, all the aforementioned things made him easier to track through the mountains than a bear leaving Reeses Pieces in a trail. He actually made note of a group of Taliban who he was certain were tracking him at their leisure, possibly even using Night Vision Goggles stolen from Russians a few years prior to spy him from afar. They were basically toying with him.
That was a mistake.
He lures them into a trap, placing himself behind a small outcropping of rocks that offer ample cover to take them out from a distance. Here's how Marcus stands at this point. His back is killing him, which is because of what he later finds out was three cracked vertebrae (OW!). He also has a large gash on his forehead, and whenever it gets opened back up, it bleeds right into his eyes. He tore his right side rotator cuff (something in your shoulder) and he was also shot in the left leg, high up, near the glute.
This happened when Marcus finally found a source of water. It was a waterfall, maybe thirty feet high, and at the bottom was obviously a pool from which he could drink. He found this at the top of the falls, though, and when he began his descent down, the Taliban guys tracking him shot him, right in the leg. He began another long, paaaaaiiiiinful journey down the mountain side, trying to slow himself down from what would surely this time be death. He ended up safe though, but he had lost all his ground, his water source, and now he was shot. Time to start over.
After much more arduous climbing, however, he was at his rock formation, eargerly awaiting payback from what he figured was a two man, sniper/spotter team. He finally got a visual on the one with the rifle, and silently dropped him with a shot to the heart. So far, this is just more insane performance by a critically wounded man who has every advantage stacked against him. He did all this while shot! But it's not over yet.
Little did he know, the two man team was one of three, and the two remaining men were right behind him. Behind him, and actually a little ways above him. They didn't know where Marcus was hiding, and when Marcus finally heard them and located their position, he took action. In one swift movement, which he recalled took maybe a second, he had revealed a grenade, ripped out the pin, heaved it at the spot right in between the two men above him, and rolled around to the opposite side of his rock cover in time for the grenade to annihilate the two Taliban intended for it.
Is that not insane?! To call this guy my hero would be like calling the Master Chief...my...hero...ok bad example.
At any rate, he eventually finds his way to water. But for the life of him, the man cannot stay out of trouble. Upon finally taking some water in, he's stumbled upon by more Afghanis weilding AK47s. Just his luck right?
....By now, some of you might have noticed this is reallllllly long, and that I said part 2 of 3 instead of 2. That's because I took a lot longer with this than I anticipated, and by now I doubt any of you are still reading it. If you got this far, congratulations, and I think you just got influence gained :P But yeah, uh, three times is the charm, right? It'll be up sometime soon. And, my normal blog update will be as well, with info on soccer wins, airsofting adventures, and probably impressions of Brisingr which I still haven't started :oops: Anyways...
Until next time, I've been irmeleeman5995, saying the NFL is lame, and that's a mouthful to say (and gonna get me shot)!
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