Delta

Heavy Breach Cell: The Secret Weapon of Delta Force

Editor’s Note: Geo’s memoir, “Brothers of the Cloth,” a true account of special mission unit soldiers, has sold out in hardcover and will soon be coming out in paperback! You can keep an eye out for it here.

I’m put squarely in mind of an amazing brother of mine who went by the call sign “Crapshoot.” It is the vision of him I see just past his breaching through an incredibly thick steel vault door with a Broco exothermic plasma torch.

Crapshoot half crawled and then was pulled out of the hole in the door like a rat. His face was black and he was coughing, having pulled his gas mask off at some point during his ordeal. He had crawled in there with a full leather welder’s apron on over his combat load. It hung down to his knees and was spattered with slag burns.

His hair and mustache were singed and he had smoke coming off him… somehow. He was helped up and sat down with his back up against the concrete bunker. One man was left to stay with him while he rested for a spell and traded the contents of his lungs for actual air. He cradled his rifle in the crooks of his elbows like a man whose hands were burned.

One by one we wormed through the hole in the gargantuan portal door. We all regarded Crapshoot in a positive manner as we passed him: a sap on the leg or the shoulder, a punch in the arm, and a compliment for a job well done. Crapshoot had an imitation grin on his face, but otherwise closed eyes that were so glad to be done fencing with a demon for the last 20 minutes.

A cartoon I did in honor of Crapshoot’s breach through a vault door. It depicts him standing with welders leathers and mask (A-TM) offering to assist our 2-Troop with their share of the breach.

Those were the days of the inception of the Hardened Deeply-Buried Targets (HDBT) problems. The target set that included hunting and accessing nuclear weapons cached in deep underground structures was a unique one, and we had to invent a way to cope with approaching and destroying such threats.

With already full plates on our hands, the HDBT problem was a heaping ladleful of mashed potatoes that started to flow over the edges of those plates. I distinctly remember thinking of my brothers and me as engines that the unit kept trying to put bigger and bigger transmissions on. And when the transmissions weren’t spinning fast enough they just kept trying to soup-up that same engine time and time again — eventually, that engine is going to throw a rod and blow!

It is not unusual for a thrown rod to actually punch through an engine block, especially if the engine is a Japanese POS like this.

If Rod Serling will imagine, we have a fully kitted-out operator ready to lay down some original smoking scunion. Now he has to affect heavy breach operations — how much more can be piled onto this guy?

We practiced chopping through heavy steel vault doors and several feet of reinforced concrete wall — and doing it all while down in bottomless holes and (seemingly) endless tunnels and drifts. So many problems are associated with that sort of work.

In the realm of being nearly overburdened with equipment, all paratroopers are familiar with this painful trudge from their impact point on a Drop Zone (DZ) to a Rally Point (RP); in some cases, the trudge can be thousands of meters — Airborne All The Way!

The atmosphere deep underground may be poisonous or nonexistent; we had to wear open-circuit pressed air or closed-circuit oxygen rebreather systems — all heavy and cumbersome affairs. Now, a breacher wielding a welding torch has to drape himself in a full posture of leather floor-length aprons to be protected against molten slag. Everything was hot and heavy and men keeled over out “cold” from overheating. It was dangerous work, I’m here to tell you.

A closed-circuit rebreathing apparatus used in the mining industry.

Every heavy breach seemed to sport its own personality, each being a major brain-buster to defeat, as well as a physical nightmare to tackle. The buzz phrase for every event became:

“HOLY CRAP — NOW WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO??”

Beyond learning the function of the breaching tools, systems, and apparatus, the pattern of maneuver was on us to figure out. As with most special operators, the temptation was very often too great for the pipe hitters who were responsible for pulling security while the brothers breached. Security kept letting themselves get sucked into the breaching work like they were on the Event Horizon of a Goddamned Black Hole!

I mean some folks might be happy as a pig in shit that they are not caught up in a particular struggle within their eyeshot, but pipe-hitters seeing their bros having a tough time with a thing are all in. “Sucks being you” is an expression that is vigorously filtered through the Unit’s personnel firewall. Indeed, it occurs to me that I may have never heard: “Hey, can you give us a hand over here?” a phrase that is simply not necessary with pipe-hitters.

Delta brothers all pitched in to help dig out Gear-King Markey-Mark “COS” Stephens when his gear collapsed on him in our team room.

The matter ultimately came down to this: the men can no longer be expected to fight and breach. The decision was clear, though it gave rise to the next problem — how to remedy that issue into a cogent solution. The answer in, my what-it’s-worth, opinion was brilliant: We outsource all our breaching to the Chinese! I’m absolutely kidding about the Chinese; I actually wouldn’t even outsource rectal boil lancing to those haters.

The Unit formed another internal group that was to be the dedicated heavy breach cell. The men to handle the work (this was the brilliant part) were 18-Charlie Engineer sergeants from the Green Beret (GB) Groups. It was a stellar deal for the GB Engineers who wanted to be in the Unit but were not necessarily able to pass the Selection and Assessment trials. It also provided a sergeant major with a leadership position to fill, thus allowing him to remain in the Unit.

Such was the fate of a master sergeant (MSG) getting promoted to sergeant major (SGM, Smadge) in Delta. There was no guarantee that there would be a position in the Unit for the new SGM, resulting in him being reassigned outside the Unit — even back to Big Army! That horrifying threat alone was enough to make a brother resort to snorting crushed glass.

A photo of me snorting some lines of crushed glass rather than going back to Big Army.

The new 18-Charlie GB engineer pipe-hitters did a bang-up (no pun intended) job. Well, they did an absolutely remarkable job at an ultimately stellar level. Not only did you have a shit-hot team of heavy breacher bubbas, you still had all the treasure trove of skills and abilities that Green Berets — arguably the most versatile race of people on the planet — bring to every situation.

“By George (no relation), I do believe I am one brilliant son-of-a-bitch!” suggested the Unit commander regarding his decision to establish the heavy breach cell.

“Yes Sir, I do believe you are ready for the post-examination!” brown-nosed his suck-up executive officer.

“How did the breaching get done before the heavy breach cell came to the Unit,” a junior operator once asked me.

“We did it ourselves — we had to. We slung our assault rifles and we breached,” I replied to the incredulous little brother.

It sucked, really (REALLY) truly sucked, but I’m glad I was involved at the inception of the heavy breaching capability. I respect my time standing around in pissing rain with 70 lbs of assault kit and breaching gear hanging off me while staring at a failed breach:

“HOLY CRAP — NOW WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO??”

In fact, the huge concrete core-cutter barrel did grind its way through the approximately three feet of solid concrete. The cutter was shaped like a huge three-foot hardened steel cup that mounted to the wall hydraulically, spinning and cutting deeper into the concrete as we dumped a steady stream of water into the hollow of the cut. It was a welterweight chore to keep it running.

A large core-cutter barrel mounted to anchor rails above it spins hydraulically and cuts into the concrete barrier.

“WATER UP!” and a pipe hitter with gat slung across his back came jogging up toting five-gallon water cans — one in each hand.

“HEY, YOU PHUQRZ NEED TO GET BACK ON SECURITY — DROP THOSE WATER CANS!”

With the cut complete the core cutter barrel was yanked out of the hole, but the concrete core slid right out of the barrel and lay there in the hole like a giant plug — enter:

“HOLY CRAP — NOW WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO??”

“By God… that is enough!” hissed the Grinch.

The Grinch (L) seen here in Iraq with sorely-missed, dearly-departed brother Tom Greer AKA Dalton Fury AKA Red Fly.

The Grinch, who was always already pissed off from the very beginning of EVERYTHING, had had enough. He stomped over to a Pinzgauer and started thrashing around with lumber and cargo straps. He configured (I am not shitting you) a battering ram with a 4 x 4 wooden beam strapped firm to the bed of the Gauer protruding about three feet past the edge of the Gauer.

“STAND CLEAR!” someone hollered as the brothers pulled back away from the wall. Grinch backed the Gauer until the ram was just touching the concrete plug. He lined up, then pulled forward about 40 feet, put it in reverse and — slowly at first then picking up speed — he headed at a healthy clip toward the wall aiming for the plug.

6 x 6-wheel drive Austrian Pinzgauer rough terrain vehicle.

The grinch spanked the plug hard and popped it right through and into the building with a helluva din. It had taken one shot, just one shot — badass Grinch!

“I hope nobody was standing in front of that thing!” I shouted to the grinch in the pissing rain.

“I do!” the Grinch certainly shouted back at me with a look on his face that was just a smidge south of enchanting.

We pipe-hitters threw breaching gear away, snatched our gats forward, flung a baker’s bushel of bangers into the gaping hole, and started pouring through the tunnel in the wall, heads-first, spitting lead.

In Delta, it was good to be king, even while snaking through a concrete tunnel in the pissing rain.

Breach affected through a solid concrete wall with a core-cutter saw.

By Almighty God and with honor,
geo sends

My brother MSG Gaetano “Guido” Cutino (KIA) languishing momentarily in the bed of our breaching Pinzgauer.

SOF Video of the Day: SEAL students in the surf

Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUDs) students participate in Surf Passage at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, Jan. 21. Surf Passage is one of many physically demanding evolutions that are a part of the first phase of SEAL training.

U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Russell/Released

Learn more about Navy SEALs Surf Passage training in the video below:

SOF Video of the Day: Hopping a ride in a CV-22 Osprey

Members from the 3rd Special Forces Group watch as a U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey lands Feb. 26, 2018, at Melrose Training Range, New Mexico. At Emerald Warrior, the largest joint and combined special operations exercise, U.S. Special Operations Command forces train to respond to various threats across the spectrum of conflict.

U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Clayton Cupit

See U.S. Special Operations CV-22 Ospreys in action in the video below:

SOF Video of the Day: The Joint Special Operations Forces Medical Element (SOFME)

A Joint Special Operations Forces Medical Element (SOFME), which includes Flight Surgeons, Physician Assistants and Independent Duty Medical Technicians (IDMT) and their augmentation team, Public Health, Bio-Environmental and Administrative Personnel, conduct a medical scenario during Emerald Warrior 18. Combined Joint Special Operations Forces participate in Emerald Warrior 18 in the Special Operations Air Component, at Hurlburt Field, Florida on Feb. 28, 2018. At Emerald Warrior, the largest joint and combined special operations exercise, U.S. Special Operations Command forces train to respond to various threats across the spectrum of conflict.

US Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Joshua L. DeMotts

Watch Airmen assigned to the 1st Special Operations Wing Special Operations Forces Medical Element conduct training in the video below:

SOF Video of the Day: Force Recon doesn’t request permission to board

Force Reconnaissance Marines assigned to Force Reconnaissance Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force along with British Royal Marines with J Company, 42 Commandos and Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 5 (EODMU-5) conduct special insertion and raid training on the submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40) moored at Naval Base Guam, March 21, 2018. The units are conducting joint-combined training in order to develop shared standard operating procedures in a visit, board, search and seizure environment so they can provide a more flexible and mission-ready capability to geographic combatant commanders in the Pacific. EODMU-5 is assigned to Commander, Task Force 75, the primary expeditionary task force responsible for the planning and executing coastal riverine operations, explosive ordnance disposal, diving engineering and construction, and underwater construction in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.

U.S. Navy Combat Camera photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nicholas A. Groesch

Watch Marines conduct board, search and seizure training in the video below:

SOF Video of the Day: HALO jumping with US Air Force Special Tactics teams

Airmen of the U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Training Squadron prepare to conduct a high altitude, low opening or HALO, mission near Fort Walton Beach, Fla., March 16, 2010, during Exercise Emerald Warrior 2010. U.S. military servicemembers participated in the U.S. Special Operations Command-sponsored, 19-day joint training exercise at multiple sites along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Clay Lancaster

Watch Air Force PJs conduct a HALO jump in the video below:

SOF Video of the Day: Special Forces training in Alaska

U.S. Soldiers with the 3rd Special Forces Group (SFG) out of Fort Bragg, N.C., and the 5th Squadron, 1st Calvary Regiment out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, participate in a pilot recovery exercise Aug. 4, 2017, during RED FLAG-Alaska 17-3, at the McMahon Range, Alaska. The 3rd SFG is the lead SFG on operations in Central Asia.

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Isaac Johnson

Watch U.S. Army Special Forces in action during Red Flag in the video below:

Tunnel-mapping tech may be the most important special operations gear of the 21st century

Recently, NEWSREP Editor-in-chief Jack Murphy reported on the U.S. military’s standing plan to infiltrate Iranian underground bunkers housing integral elements of the nation’s nuclear apparatus. If war between the United States and Iran were ever to come to fruition, these facilities (commonly referred to as hardened and deeply buried targets, or HDBTs) would be among America’s top priorities. But taking them out of commission would require a more dramatic approach than America’s preferred method of warfare by ballistic missile.

Many of these HDBTs are constructed deep underground, often by tunneling into mountains. The natural barrier provided by 2,000 feet of rock would, in some cases, render even America’s bunker-busting munitions useless. Instead, infiltrating and destroying these facilities would fall to America’s elite counterterrorism unit, the 1^st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, or Delta Force.

Although Delta has been training for these potential underground combat operations in Iran for years, the risks associated with such an operation have grown in tandem with the increasing number of potential enemy states—including North Korea, China, and Russia—all of which maintain (or are rumored to maintain) sizable underground facilities meant to shield against weapons of mass destruction and potentially afford protection to command and control elements from surveillance or engagement.

Soldiers of 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, prepare to clear a corridor during subterranean operations training. (U.S. Army)

As Jack Murphy pointed out in his NITRO ZEUS piece, “Numerous countries have sought to conceal and protect vulnerable military resources underground inside facilities hardened with reinforced concrete, vault doors, internal environmental systems, and more, such as the United States has done at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.”

Put simply, fighting in enclosed spaces deep underground, where communications are limited and the stakes are at their highest, isn’t just a tactical nightmare, it may also become a pervasive part of what nation-level warfare looks like in the 21st century.

It’s likely with this concern in mind that America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has issued a request for information regarding advanced technologies and methodologies that can be employed for the “3D mapping and surveying of underground environments.”

“What makes subterranean areas challenging for precision mapping and surveying, such as lack of GPS, constrained passages, dark or dust-filled air, is similar to what inhibits safe and speedy underground operations for our warfighters,” said DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO) Program Manager Timothy Chung. “Building an accurate three-dimensional picture is a key enabler to rapidly and remotely exploring and searching subterranean spaces.”

If you’ve seen the film “Prometheus,” this effort may seem familiar. In the movie, crew members deploy floating drones that use lasers to quickly map out the subterranean cave complex they’re exploring.

It doesn’t seem likely that DARPA’s cave-mapping drones will defy gravity like those depicted in “Prometheus,” but with small drone technology rapidly advancing, a “floating” mapping device doesn’t seem entirely out of the question. Of course, propulsion is far from the only technical hurdle faced in this initiative. Maintaining connectivity to the operator, processing the data captured and rendering it in a usable manner, and even concerns about battery life versus added weight are among the litany of hurdles developers will need to either mitigate or eliminate in order to make such a device a reality.

A soldier assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, provides security during subterranean operations training. (U.S. Army)

In many ways, special operations war-fighters operating in these tunnels will be doing so without any access to external digital or communications infrastructure, meaning the mapping system will need to be entirely self-contained between the probe and the operator’s gear. Cloud computing or outsourcing any of the computational work via any sort of network simply won’t work beneath 2,000 feet of rock

The challenges DARPA faces in this endeavor are not insignificant by any stretch of the imagination, but a breakthrough in this sort of technology could provide American and allied forces with a much-needed advantage in what would be sure to be brutal fighting inside confined spaces. America’s special operations troops may be the best trained in the world, but training doesn’t stop bullets. In tunnel warfare, a defender’s familiarity with the space, the terrain, and any potential hazards can offset a significant training advantage had by the attackers.

Despite not quite garnering the same sort of attention as programs like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or new hypersonic missiles, tunnel-mapping technology may prove to be the most valuable tech in America’s war-fighting arsenal. After all, fast-moving missiles may help win a conventional war, but the only way to win a nuclear one is to prevent it from starting in the first place.

Feature image courtesy of the U.S. Army

SOF Video of the Day: What are Air Force Guardian Angels?

A U.S. Army Task Force Brawler CH-47F Chinook releases flares while conducting a training exercise with a Guardian Angel team assigned to the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, March 26, 2018 in the image above. The Army crews and Air Force Guardian Angel teams conducted the exercise to build teamwork and procedures as they provide joint personnel recovery capability, aiding in the delivery of decisive airpower for U.S. Central Command.

Per the U.S. Air Force website:

Guardian Angel is comprised of Combat Rescue Officers, Pararescuemen, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Specialists and uniquely trained support personnel dedicated to the Air Force core function of Personnel Recovery. Together, these warriors are the soul of a non-aircraft, equipment-based, human weapon system.”

U.S. Air Force Courtesy Photo Edited by Tech. Sgt. Gregory Brook

Learn more about Air Force Guardian Angels in the video below:

No sh*t, there I was: Delta operator strafed by his country’s own F-16 Fighting Falcon

Most of us have never had an air superiority fighter strafe us during a gun run. I would venture that most of us would not care to have that happen to us—not at all. Even a simulated gun run is a trouser-crapable event, especially if it catches you by surprise. Such was the case with my crew and me at the Nevada Test Site.

The test site was where my next career began following my service with the U.S. Army’s Delta Force. On this day I led a group of nuclear scientists and support crew to the northwesternmost corner of the test site, where an above-ground nuclear detonation—called Schooner—had taken place years ago.

A taxi line of badassery heads for the runway. (Photo courtesy Geo Perspectives LLC)

The objective for the following two days was to collect radioactive soil samples containing post-blast byproducts at regular intervals across a swath of ground. Please don’t ask me to explain anything beyond that. Most of the nutty experiments that nuclear scientists dream up push my brain to near-vapor lock.

I hadn’t really signed on for collecting dirt samples in tiny plastic pipets for two days, but I fancy myself one who rises to the nation’s causes at every opportunity. “I shall collect this dirt and put it into tiny pipets to the best of my mortal ability,” I told myself as I paired up with another scientist to work as a team.

“So how did we want to dig this hole?” the doctor—who I called Daktari—inquired.

“With this trowel that Dr. Joyce gave me?” Dr. Joyce was the task leader who had developed the experiment and presented it to Sandia National Laboratories. She set up shop on the tailgate of a pickup truck we brought and waited for dirt.

“No, I mean do we want to dig straight down to depth for our sample, or do we want to sneak up on it from an oblique angle?”

Glancing around for a sharp stick to jam in my eye, I answered, “Look, Daktari, I don’t want to dig any holes at all, Ann Frankly, I hadn’t planned on getting as scientific as you over digging a hole in some dirt. What say we just take the direct approach and go straight down?”

An interesting thing about these 100-pound heads—nuclear physicists and rocket scientists—is that they don’t get offended easily. It’s like they’re too smart to get offended by the petty misbehaving of a chunk of ice from the Early Pleistocene whose welterweight cranium only ever weighed in at 88-ish pounds.

“Hey, Daktari, this is kinda fun. Can you dig it?”

Daktari returned a gaze that was every bit as enthusiastic as that of a slumbering sloth. Another thing about these geniuses: They had a strange sense of humor. They were not as pie-in-the-face as much of my material. It seemed like jokes required at least the first three dimensional planes of the Space-time Continuum before they would decide if they would give it any of their fourth-dimension time.

I looked around. The Nevada Test and Training Range was about five miles to our north. Fast-movers (fighter jets) maneuvered in the distance, twisting and writhing in various patterns. I could just barely see that they were F-16 Fighting Falcons. If ever a jet truly physically resembled its name, it was the F-16.

Satellite view of the Schooner Crater with a range meter revealing its 934-foot diameter (Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps).

“Howz by yooz, Dr. Joyce?” I playfully inquired as I took a break from ol’ happy there, overthinking his six-inch dirt dive. It was good to check around to account for everyone and what they were doing. Visitors were not permitted in these remote areas unsupervised. There was just too much crap (radiological contamination) and too many opportunities to get into dire straits on these atomic bombing ranges.

On that note, I am quite certain the next time someone asks me if I glow at night as a result of exposure to this radiation, I shall immediately and without qualm or reservation shatter their pelvis and let them bleed out slowly through their anus. All apologies, but that is simply how I feel about it.

Dr. Joyce had racks and racks of small metal stands arranged on the truck’s tailgate, into which she had placed rows of pipets. She carefully recorded each one in her growing ledger. She was definitely invested in her program and well organized. It was completely admirable by my estimation.

“Nice racks, Doc.”

“Excuse me?”

“The racks. They’re nice. How they each can organize 10 pipets in a row like that…it’s…nice.”

“Oh, well yeah, I guess.”

An F-16 Fighting Falcon lifts off from Nellis AFB during the 2014 Aviation Nation air show. In the background rests a B-1 Lancer bomber. (Photo courtesy of Geo Perspectives LLC).

Being the social white dog turd that I was, I felt it more advantageous to the project to return to the dig with chuckles. The hours wore on and the urge to sing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” or “99 Bottles of Beer” became almost overpowering.

Then it happened.

I stood with a man from the other dig team some 20 meters to the west side of the truck, answering some trivial questions. I was facing the truck as we chatted. Beyond the truck where Dr. Joyce toiled was a low ridge about 2,000 meters away.

An F-16 taxis back in from a mission during a Red Flag exercise. Reg Flag is an annual training exercise for pilots in aerial combat (dogfighting). Photo courtesy of Geo Perspectives, LLC.

Suddenly a motion just over the ridge caught my eye. I recognized instantly that it was an F-16. It had, in a split second, popped over the top of the ridge and dove toward us, low and at breakneck speed. I opened my mouth to shout a warning—GUNS, GUNS, GUNS—but the jet closed too quickly.

I only had time to slam my palms against my ears. Though there was no noise yet, I knew the roar would be ear-shattering when it came. And it came. My vision blurred a bit as the jet swooped overhead, blotting the sun for an instant. Then the roar of the engines came crashing down on us.

I just managed to jet (no pun) a glance at Dr. Joyce’s face as the sonic crash completely trashed her racks of pipets. She wore an expression as though she had just been zapped by a fallen power line. The entire crew was in shock and completely petrified.

The falcon went immediately nose up and launched itself vertically, corkscrewing in a victory roll as it climbed. I extended both my arms up toward the jet shooting him the double-digit epithet until he was just a pinpoint in the sky.

NTS map segment showing the location of the Schooner Crater in the remote NW corner of the site. The border is highlighted in red. The Nevada Test and Training Range is to the north (Gold Flat). Photo courtesy National Security Technology LLC.

“We’re dead. That jet just killed us.” I grinned at all the eyes that were on me. Dr. Joyce’s mouth would not actually close again for the next couple of days. None of her soil sample pipets had actually opened, spilling contents, and her sterling record-keeping enabled her to quickly restore her world order on the tailgate of the truck.

The F-16 circled back at a greatly reduced speed, passing very low above our position, this time wing-walking in salutation. I raised my arms again, but with fingers extended in V-for-victory symbols of peace toward our murderers. Many months later the jet’s gun camera footage made it to my management and I was gifted a viewing. There I stood, double peace signs extended, looking like former POTUS Richard Milhous Nixon.

It was good to be king even for a day, even if only of a swath of radioactive dirt.

Dr. Joyce…oh, brother. The first thing she said to me the next morning was, “OMG, I still can’t get over that jet yesterday. It was just the most amazing thing I’m sure I’ve ever experienced.” She confided that she awoke during the night thinking of that event, and it was again the first thing she thought of when she woke up. I appreciated and was pleased by her outlook.

I dropped them off at their accommodations for the last time. We bid each other goodbye.

Daktari gave me the thumbs-up signal. “Thanks for everything, Geo. Take care, and don’t do anything stupid!”

“No worries, Daktari. My mind doesn’t really even function in that…dementia.”

He shot a glance back and chuckled. “Good one. Not bad!” The day had not been lost.

Later, I studied a topographical map of our location and postulated that the F-16 had very likely dropped into a canyon far south of our location and followed that contour before busting out of the canyon and turning west toward our shallow ridgeline. There, the pilot recognized his target would lie some 2,000 meters west from the crest of the ridge.

A satellite image of the canyon route that the pilot took to sneak up on our location. Terrain roads and washes snake along the floor of the canyon where it runs from SW to NE (photo courtesy of GoogleMaps).

And that, mes amis, is the very essence of our nation’s badass Air Force.

By almighty God and with honor,

Geo sends