In Enemy Territory

April 17 2007 – 2 miles outside Ababa
Joe was a Marine sergeant assigned to special duties as a forward observer in an area known to be under the control of the Taliban. He had been flown in by a black-hawk and dropped along with his equipment to observe the traffic going through Sebeka pass past the village of Ababa in eastern Afghanistan.
Joe had his rifle, pistol, spotting scope and his radio and very little else and he was already thirsty and hungry after two hours of sitting on a lonely hillside above the tree line. The weather was clear but it was cold and windy. The view of the road from Pakistan down through the valley below was clear.
Everything depended upon his ability to communicate with the patrol aircraft somewhere out there. He could neither hear nor see it. For the past hour or so he had been trying to get some response from command center over his radio. The battery was good, but there just was no signal to pick up in response to his transmissions. He was under orders to update his position and situation every hour.
Nothing was happening down there in Ababa as far as he could observe. There had also been nothing on the road below aside from a herd of goats and a few lonely travelers. The ‘road’ was nothing more than a wide trail winding through the rocky terrain. It could not be maneuvered by a humvee, but it was suspected of being one of the main Taliban supply routes coming from Pakistan. If that were the case he should be seeing something on the road below soon. Joe thought back on all his training. He had been through boot camp and special technical and survival schools. He had been briefed on the high risk of his assignment. He was aware that even now he could be in the sights of a Taliban sniper armed with Russian equipment coming from Pakistan. He had been trained to minimize his movements for this reason. He fought his rising fear of being cut off from his command. His function out here in the lonely mountainside meant nothing if he could not report back to headquarters. He thought of sending up a flare, but that would neutralize his position. His first thought was that the transmission from the aircraft might have been jammed, but the radio normally had a way to get through that. There just was no signal of any kind out there. He was still in the process of getting adapted to the higher altitude. His equipment told him he was at 10,000 feet. The air was thin and a cold wind was blowing off the mountains to the east. There was still snow on those peaks he could see in the distance. The dry air tended to desiccate anything that stayed out in it for a period of time. He thought about home back in West Virginia. It would be spring time there. The trees would be turning green again. He’s watch was about 8 hours ahead of the time back home. From his post, he couldn’t see a single tree; just patches of green. But there were a thousand places a Taliban operative could be hiding in the rocky terrain. Far below to his left there was a small flock of goats grazing on something growing on a grey hillside. He hadn’t spotted a shepherd or anyone watching the flock as yet. Suddenly Joe spotted activity at the upper part of the road. Carefully he brought his binoculars up to have a closer look. Sure enough there was a column of armed men coming down from the pass. Some of them were burdened with some very heavy canisters…explosives no doubt. Now Joe became desperate to reach headquarters with the news. This was just the kind of event he had been briefed about. But there was only silence, as he continued to watch the deadly foe march along the trail far below. The day was drawing on and the sun began to beat down unbearably. All of his training was paying off, but without water all of the psychological gymnastics of survival training would eventually play out and he would begin to feel the effects of dehydration. Joe knew that headquarters must be concerned about him and would be sending out a black-hawk soon to check on him, or so he hoped. He knew the radio sometimes did not have the ability to connect because of these mountains. It was a line-of-sight only and the communications path could be easily blocked by a mountain. He had asked for a satellite device but they were just too short of these back at the staging area. He could not help but feel abandoned. The operation was supposed to be just a half day and it was already 8 hours. Had somebody back there forgotten him? So Joe watched in silence as a column of fifty five men wove their way down to the village of Ababa. He did all he could to avoid detection, but his thirst was making it very difficult to stay still. When the column of men had disappeared into the village, he began to note exactly where they were staying and what kind of activities they were involved in. When there was no further activity to note, Joe turned his attention to the flock of goats below. He was hoping that there would be a watering place that he might get to in the night and that whoever was taking care of these animals would lead him to it. Sure enough just before sunset, a young boy appeared and led the flock to a spot on the hillside that was obviously a spring-fed pool. Joe licked his parched lips in anticipation. He used the range-finder to determine the distance to the pool and computed its location. The problem was he had no proper container to hold water. He would have to use his helmet for now. He was also somewhat concerned that he might leave a trail in descending to the valley below. He was not prepared for a pitched fight against so many of the enemy and he also did not have any night vision gear. His post was supposed to be daylight only. He laid plans to approach the area at maximum darkness and be back to his post before the moon had risen above the surrounding mountains. He used his situation computer to determine when the moon would rise for his position and altitude and what phase it would be in. He also tied some cloth over his boots to cover any tread marks that might give him away. There was just a soft bluish glow in the East when he set out for the valley below. It was a trial getting through the rocky terrain without making a sound and without getting hurt. The boulders thinned out as he got near the spring. He appreciated the fact that the spring was a good distance from the village. It was midnight when he got to the pool.