Date : 21 May, 20XX
Location : Somewhere in Afghanistan
Time : 2100hrs
As we jumped out of the plane in a closely packed formation, we could feel the cold night desert air touching our faces.( We jump in closely packed formations as the plane is moving very fast, and even being two seconds late can prove to isolate you from your team.)
As we reached 5000 feet, (taking a look at our altimeters) we opened our parachutes, descending slowly. I guess, luck wasn't favouring one of my teammates, Paratrooper Venkatesh, as his pilot-chute (the small parachute that comes out first, and in turn, pulls out the actual parachute out) wasn't able to pull the main parachute properly. So I immediately hovered near him and, somehow took out my commando dagger (the constant friend of a commando) as it was really hard due to the wind resistance to reach my right ankle. I had to IMMEDIATELY cut his main parachute as, in some seconds we would have had descended to about 3500 feet and below that it would have been disastrous. This was because even if the reserve parachute opened after 3500 feet, it wouldn't do much difference, and thus injuring my teammate.The next moment I pulled the ripcord (a cord in the parachute that triggers a spring action to, kind of, propel the parachute outwards) of the reserve parachute.
We landed safely at point marked by green smoke. We had two unmarked vehicles, around which one of my old friends was waiting for me. He was none other than Lieutenant Rabbit.
Rabbit is a lieutenant in the US Army, and other than that is from the US Army Special Forces (a.k.a GREEN BERETS). He is from SOF-2 (Special Operations Force-2). We had trained together once in Alaska during a international excercise .
(Well the good part is you get to go around the world when you're in the Special Forces).
He greeted me and gave me a hand in packing my parachute, which I could have done myself. He told me that this place is pretty close to a Al-Qaeda stronghold. So we then mounted onto the vehicles and started our journey.
At Camp VICTORY
As we entered the compound that we were supposed to live in, it wasn't like an traditional army base, but more like a carnival. There were people from the UK's SAS and SFSG (Special Air Service and Special Forces Support Group respectively) US Army Special Forces, Irish Army Rangers and many more. The strength wasn't in accordance with the strength as, the soldiers were lesser for the area required. So before the mission briefing started, I thought of taking a stroll around and as I said , it was like a carnival as people here had put smoking barbecues PlayStation consoles and we're having chilled beers. Some were conditioning their firing skills and some were just talking or sleeping.
(Well I don't disagree as we Special Forces guys love to sleep whenever we have time).
In the briefing we were told by a Lieutenant Colonel of the US Army that we didn't have time to rehearse for the operation and to go in immediately.
After 2 hours
I and five of my DELTA teammates were sitting in a Chinook (CH-47) helicopter. Rakesh asked me if I still had those mints in my cargo pockets (as I usually have) So I gave it to him as we all were facing the adrenaline pumping.
After we reached the LZ (Landing Zone) the pilot hovered the helicopter at about 10 meters above the ground, just as mentioned in S.O.Ps(Standard Operating Procedures) for heliborne or helicopter insertion. As I held the rope waiting to slither out, the militants saw us and started firing at us from high risen buildings using MMGs (Medium Machine Guns). The pilot landed in the LZ which was an old ground between a big compound of old government buildings, as doing this would take us out of the sight of the enemy. We were about 2 to 3 meters above the ground when there was a sudden jerk and I fell out with my feet tangled in the rope. The problem was that the guys entered the compound at about a distance of 20 meters, my teammates and the Green berets were looking for me but couldn't see me as I was trying to untangle myself from the rope on the other side of the helicopter.
(If I didn't untangle myself from the rope, then I would be hanging from an altitude of about 500 ft and might fall down.)
Suddenly the rotors of the helicopter started moving faster which indicated that it was going to take off. I was trying to reach commando dagger and I think this time it's a bit IMPOSSIBLE.
To be CONTINUED...