Jimmy and I were sitting in the small OP which in fact was only 4.5 feet deep, we were sitting there with 203’s and PNG’s (passive night goggles). We were wearing shamags, which we thought might protect our faces a bit from the sand blowing around.
Eventually at 23:30hrs when we were both relieved by the other 2 men in our team; Scott and Henry, they came stealthily and gave us both a great fright, I nearly soiled my shreadies.
Jimmy and I went back to camp, we were knackered so we got straight into the bivve we were sharing, they’re not too spacious especially when you’ve got your Bergen’s in as well. We both got to sleep fairly quickly, although I thought Jimmy’s snoring would keep me awake all night.
The morning came and I didn’t want to get up, I mean it was 06:00hrs for god sake. Anyway I got up with the rest of the guys, got dressed and started to gather wood for the fire (this wasn’t easy in the barren, sandy mountains that we were in).
We made a fire and ate breakfast, this was just a simple boil-in-the-bag but it was ok. After breakfast we all had a wash, and then Mike went to the OP to see if Scott and Henry were all right. He came back laughing at the fact that Henry was asleep and had been for the past couple of hours. He was shortly followed by Scott and Henry who were running shouting “quick Afghans coming”; we grabbed our gear and hid in a nearby cave kicking dirt over the smouldering fire as we ran. Scott started to explain, they was sitting in the OP watching (and eating) when they saw about 8 Taliban soldiers walking our way, they were about 500 yards away so they made a mad dash for it to tell us.
Mike and Jimmy sat at the entrance of the cave each with a 203 poised ready to fire, me being the lieutenant in charge; I ordered my men them not to fire unless fired upon.
The soldiers walked by slowly but surely, they were like scruffy dogs with no home, long beards, dirty faces and dressed virtually as homeless people, they were carrying AK47’s. We wanted for them to pass while we planned a route; we had to go through two mountains. The SAM site was just over the other site.
We left the cave cautiously checking from left to right, I thought that from the map we only had about 8 miles to go, which we could cover in an hour and a half, not a problem! after all we were the best of the best, we had trained for this sort of terrain. We got our packs on; they only weighed about 100lbs, which was light considering we had carried up to 240lbs before now.
We walked in pairs apart from Mike he walked on ahead as our recon man. Most of the way we were all silent concentrating on getting to the site and getting the job done. We had been walking quite quickly for about an hour and we could now hear the guards talking, we knew we must have been close.
In fact we only had to go round the next bend in the mountain. We got about 100 yards away from the perimeter fence and we were proceeding step by step. By now we could get a good clear look at the whole camp.
Jimmy noticed that I fact there were 2 SAM sites, one at each end of the camp. We split up into 2 groups; Jimmy and I went for the furthest site. Before advancing we arranged an RV (rendezvous), said our good byes and wished each other good luck.
Each of us had 66’s which were disposable rocket launchers, which basically looked like a normal tube, we all had them over the top of our Bergen’s, ready to pull them apart and pull the trigger then drop.
We hiked around the far side and got as close as possible, we were only 25 yards or so away, we needed a distraction; we were going to chuck a grenade a bit further along the fence to distract the guard’s attention away to make it possible to stand up and fire at the site, but to our surprise, there was an enormous explosion the rest of the team had taken out the other site.
YES!! We thought here’s our chance; 3 of the guards had gone to investigate. Jimmy got the 66’s ready while I got my 203, we had to take out the fence first, so I stood up and fired a single grenade. It landed just before the fence and blew the bottom out. The last guard came running over to stop us, he must have seen me standing. I’d stood to shoot him and ash shit, he got a direct hit to my shoulder. As I dropped to the floor I grabbed my pistol, (a shiny silver 9mm Berretta).
He was still advancing on me so I rolled to the left from behind the rock, was really near. I shot 4 bullets straight into him, 1 to the head and 3 to the chest; he dropped to the ground like a sack of shit.
I looked at Jimmy he just laughed and fired two of the 66’s blowing the site.
Mission accomplished!!!.....................
I remember Jimmy saying “let’s get the hell out of here.” we ran back to where the RV was. Mike was already there, he had been shot in the chest. Jimmy put a pad on the wound, Mike informed us that Scott and Henry had been killed by a grenade blast. Just before he died in my arms Mike muttered “get the hell out of here and oh yeah sir it’s been an honour serving with you,” and saluted.
I looked around for Jimmy, where the hell was he, I couldn’t find him anywhere. I knew I had to go and get home safely so I pulled off the dog tags from around Mike’s neck and then started to walk; I travelled roughly the same way as we had come. I didn’t see any other Taliban soldiers on my way, but I knew I was safe as soon as I’d crossed the border.
I never saw Jimmy again.
Rumour has it that he joined the terrorists, so they not only had my best friend, but one of the best soldiers I knew on their side…
But I cannot believe that!! Who knows??
