Operation Military Run (In Progress)

(11) Operation Military Run

As the day broke out on that Tuesday morning, we all had never felt more on edge in our lives until those last ticking hours we had.

The newbie to this mission, Private First Class Samuel Cooper, was one funny man. For the past two days when the five of us got together, he was trying to make light out of the situation. I understood that was his only defense to facing reality that we may not make it back, he was a kid, and him being the youngest at 19 years old, we had nothing to do but just let him keep his cool while the rest of us were no stranger to this feeling.

We sat in the briefing room with the map that was on the table as Major Hamilton continually repeated what we needed to do. He was very stern about the way we needed to attack the mountain to get over it effectively and make it to the wide stretch of mine fields so we could attack the village that resided on the other side. At points, after he said the plan for the seventh time, I would just nod my head and act like I was paying close attention, when in all reality, I wasn't. This was a nightmare for the Kansas boys, Kent and Elton because they had never hiked a mountain in their lives besides the hills we had to conquer in boot. For Beckham Wild and I, this was a walk in the park. Beckham grew up in the mountains of California and I had grown up hiking the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Samuel was another story... and although that was everyone's concern, mine was about the minefield that happened to be right in between the village we were raiding and the mountain we would have to cross.

We had a lot of intel from the last group that went out, claiming that there was more I.E.D's in that field then they could explain. Every time the Taliban made it across the fields, they wouldn't make it all the way back in one piece, and every night they were planting new ones. Where they were getting these mines from was a mystery, but with the satellite photos we obtained, we could tell that this village we were about to be raiding was way more serious then any of us had anticipated. Houses upon houses that did not narrow where Mohammed Uday was. That was not our concern for the while.

There was likely more then one hundred eighty soldiers to two hundred patrolling within those huts and houses, and having five of us and a dog was a death sentence from the moment I heard the words come out of Major Hamilton's mouth, but if this was executed correctly, there would be no mistake that we could win this. We had all the weaponry and personnel to do it, it was just the matter of actually executing it.

As night rolled around, I gave Zipp his last meal inside of his metal cage before we were to head out at 0200, and I think he understood what was going on because when he ate his food, he wasn't indulging it as fast as he usually did. He took his time, continually watching me to make sure I was still there. When he had finished, I turned away from him and made my way quickly back toward mine and Everly's room to where I grabbed my pack and was getting ready to grab Zipp out of his cage.

Everly looked up at me as I was grabbing my bag and watched as she saw the anxiety grow on my face. She smiled towards me and shook her head, "Never knew this was gonna happen, did ya?"

I sat down on my bed one last time as I opened my rugged laptop and began typing in my password in quickly, "No... I didn't."

She continued to watch me as I went to Facebook Messenger and messaged Joe and Tyler separately and told them about what I would be doing if they didn't hear back from me. After I messaged them, I scrolled and added my dad and my brother to a group text and sent the same message to the both of them. I told them how much I loved them and to not be so worried about me, just to live every day like they normally would.

I got messages back to back from all of them, Tyler being the first of the messages. I hadn't spoken to him since the night him and I had fought about everything, and with this being the first message to him in over a course of almost two weeks, it was no shock that he was not happy about it.