I wrote another post about combat on here a couple days ago, it is not usually

something I discuss. Once a month, me and the men that served in my Ranger

team in under my command, meet on an online format and talk. All 16 of us

came back to the States alive, but that was some time ago, and since 4 have

passed, one to a drug overdose, one to colon cancer, one in an automobile

accident and the oldest of us, the noncommissioned officer that was my right

hand man and what molded me into any kind of officer, had a massive coronary

last year and did not survive it. That was a sad day for humanity, he was one of

the greatest men I have ever known. So, I am going to post one these from time

to time, some are horrible, some are funny, some I am not sure what people

would make of them. Please keep in mind this for several years was my life. I put

the uniform of this country on, went to where we were sent, and was willing to

give it all for our great nation. For the ones that seem funny, please remember

it was all combat, and generally human lives were lost. During combat as it is

with the cancer I fight now, one is always a razor's shaving close to that edge,

never being sure when you may fall off. All names will be changed for the

protection of my identity, not because I am ashamed, or this is like classified

stuff, I just like my privacy.
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Down the Rabbit Hole

I was a First Lieutenant in the Army Rangers, and quite young to be so. I was

skipped two grades in school, the 3rd and the 5th. So, I began ROTC and college

when I had just turned 16. I was only 20 upon entering the army and finally

graduating basic and Ranger training. Because of what of the nature of what I

was to do, I was then sent to West Point and completed that in a little over three

years, it was an intense curriculum based on me and people fulfilling the job

those like me were supposed to do. It consisted of Rangers, Delta Force mostly

, then we spent six months in Texas leaning HALO insertion, and regular diving,

then six more months in southern California, where we learned certain

amphibious type landing techniques. All the men that served in my unit also

received the training in Texas and southern California. I am the luckiest devil

alive, as I had only finished having been paired with my team before the forces

of Iraq invaded Kuwait. This was swiftly followed by the gathering of allied forces

in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the beginning of operation Desert Storm. I did not

see the Saudi Arabia to begin with, my unit along with several others dove in, we

were there to repel the Iraqi forces from Kuwait and weaken the overall military

state of Iraq without causing a regime change. The coalition forces were

represented by 42 different countries totalling 200,000 troops. 130,000 was from

the United States, 1 was me. We were facing an Iraqi military numbering over

one million strong. We got this briefing on the plane we were flown over in to

dive from, so you could say it was rather a startling revelation. It might seem like

the coalition was at a disadvantage yet through technical superiority, all domain

combined arms tactics, and easily achievable air dominance, they didn't have a

chance. HALO diving stands for High Altitude Low Opening, with the ideal being

you are over enemy radar range and land with them having no ideal you are

there. We went in after midnight and it is not a ride at Disney World, nor a fun

proposition. Normal skydiving begins at an altitude at around 14,000 feet of

altitude, we went out into the night at 32,000 feet. If that sounds like just

numbers to you, please just try it and see what you think. To give some

perspective on that, one falls for approximately 4 minutes until a preset

altimeter on your suit opens your parachute just enough to slow you down so

you don't break anything. From the time you jump from the plane, about 12

seconds later you are travelling at terminal velocity, which is the average of

gravity will accelerate you, you are falling at 120 miles/hour. To those of us good

at math and had done the training it is not lost on us. You find yourself praying

that that overpriced piece of junk altimeter made by Haliburton then, works

because if it doesn't you're the soup du jour'. One wears a sealed suit, with a

supply of oxygen as at that altitude the amount of that is rather thin. We

jumped from an airplane called a KC-135, which is primarily a refueling plane,

our particular one and others being escorted was loaded with rather high

octane, us and people like us. We were being escorted by F-15's, for you airforce

and naval aviator guys covering us, thank you very much. The plane is full at the

back, there is equipment in racks which will be pushed out by operations

specialists, which is carrying all of our equipment. These specialists go through

and give everyone's suit a good check before it is party time. Learning this skill

and practicing this skill in one thing, doing it over Baghdad at night into part of

a swarm of an enemy million man military is quite different. I think I had one

nerve in operation and it was frayed, yet we were trained well and the mightiest

military juggernaut on the planet. I am religious so I am not a hypocrite here,

you do some praying as you wait. The specialists go to their designated places,

the lights go red, it is time. The back cargo bay opens, it is hard to describe what

I saw. You could see Baghdad lit up below, and ordinance going off as cruise

missile strikes and some of the first wave of bombing is going on. All of the

objective of this is to cripple their command and control capabilities. You don't

just jump and hope you land in a good spot, that has been determined, and

there is a specialist at the back next to open cargo door who signals when to go.

Baghdad had a fairly new anti aircraft system set up by the Russians that was

lighting up the night sky. It had fallen victim to the Navy's and Air Force's

strategic cyber groups they were firing a lot, just not hitting anything but

ghosts, their systems had been tricked into. We get the signal you do not wait,

you jump out into the night and begin to disburse. I have mentioned four

minutes to the threshold, where your chute opens. This was the longest four

minutes of my life. Training gets us all in proper formation, then you fall and

watch it slowly get larger as the AA is nowhere close to us. It is dark, you will get

glimpses of the men close to you, but still dispersed well. This being the desert

and at night you also see some atmospheric static discharge from time to time. I

am guessing and according to what my guys I still talk to about this stuff, many

prayers are being said. You work on controlling your breathing to keep the

adrenaline pushed down. It seemed forever, but everything ends, by the time

you get a look at the ground that is about the time your chute breaks open. For

a few moments you are experiencing quite a few G's because of the change in

inertia and you are rapidly negatively accelerated. You hit the ground trying to

catch your breath, welcome to Baghdad, the drops were executed flawlessly. Us

and all of our equipment is just outside the perimeter of the city, no one would

usually think about except strategic command planning our insertion. That is

how it begins.