All real names have been changed.

 

I think it was October 2009 when I had my first solo kill — a kill where I was the only one shooting. Up to this point, and usually in most engagements we had, there would be at least two to three Rangers shooting the same bad guy. Sometimes even more than that. We weren’t there to win their hearts and minds, and everyone always wanted a piece of the action.

This was maybe my third or fourth time in Afghanistan, and I’m pretty sure we were at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Shank in Logar Province. We had been going after one specific guy for a couple of weeks now with no luck. I can’t remember exactly how many times we went after him, but it was more than 10. We’ll call him Blackjack. I can’t remember what level he was on the network food chain, but he definitely wasn’t a low-level pipe-swinger. He also wasn’t a head honcho, but he was known to have his own personal security team.

Different sources of collection throughout the day had Blackjack bedding down in an isolated compound out in the middle of the desert. I was a Bravo Team Leader in this deployment and had another three Rangers in my team. Unfortunately, the manifest only allowed for two of them to go out tonight, so I chose Peterman and Steinbrenner. Peterman was the more senior of the two.

This week, our squad was on containment, which meant we needed to position ourselves behind the compound as fast as possible. From there, our job was to make sure no one came in or out of the compound; usually a pretty boring job.

Tonight’s plan was to land on the “X,” which means landing within small arms fire of the target compound. That can be anywhere from 10 to 300 meters, depending on the terrain, type of helicopter, and pilots.

The pilot’s plan was to set the helicopters down about 50 meters from the front door of the compound, with the ramps of the Chinooks facing the target. In this configuration, the compound would be straight ahead of us as we ran off the helicopter.