Elite Infantry by Carl Bowen

Author:Carl Bowen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 978-1-62370-032-4, military, fiction, capstone young readers, war, carl bowen
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Published: 2014-06-03T04:00:00+00:00

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES

- Minimize casualties

- Foster positive relations with the Colombian task force

- Remain undetected

MISSION THREE

EAGLE DOWN

Right up until the moment he touched ground in the jungle, Brighton’s assessment of the mission was that Operation: Nexus was going just fine. In fact, Brighton thought it was a nice change of pace to be doing something on his own — and on solid ground — after the last two seaborne, team-based ops.

This mission was a joint US and Colombian venture aimed at striking a powerful blow to the illegal Colombian drug network, or nexus. Their primary target was a low-tech shipyard hidden somewhere in the roadless jungles along Colombia’s Pacific coast.

Somewhere among looping rivers and mangrove trees was a facility that produced vessels capable of smuggling up to ten tons of cocaine at a time. And they were virtually undetectable. These vehicles, nicknamed “narco-subs,” were small fiberglass crafts capable of running just below the ocean’s surface, guided by periscope and GPS. A small crew could take one of these boats from the shipyard, sneak down the riverways to the coast, and get to the ocean with ease. From there, the narco-subs headed north to the coast of Mexico. Then they docked in various concealed ports to offload their illegal drugs to waiting distributors.

In recent years, this system caused a sharp rise in cocaine coming from Colombia, into Mexico, then into the United States. The Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel cut, distributed, and sold the cocaine. Elements of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (or FARC) rebel guerilla army produced the cocaine. FARC also outfitted the narco-subs and recruited the terrified fishermen who piloted them.

When the Sinaloa cartel sold the cocaine abroad, it gave back a percentage of the profits to the FARC guerillas. The guerillas then used the money to buy weapons, equipment, and supplies for their ongoing attempts to overthrow the rightful government of Colombia.

After a lot of talking about the problem and a lot of planning what to do about it, the US and Colombia had decided on a strategy that would cripple the FARC/Sinaloa drug trafficking arrangement. The Colombians had some general information about where they believed the narco-sub shipyard was hidden. However, they had lost every soldier and police officer they’d sent into the jungle. Even worse, none of them were able to confirm the shipyard’s suspected location.

The Colombians claimed they were committed to assaulting and shutting down the hidden shipyard. However, they needed help from the Americans to actually find the base and gather solid intel about it. They didn’t want a large number of American troops and military machinery plunging into their backyard to fight their battles for them. Instead, they just wanted some help getting off the ground.

That help came in the form of Staff Sergeant Edgar Brighton, the team’s combat controller. Because of his unique set of skills, and fluency in Spanish, Brighton was chosen by Lieutenant Commander Cross for the role.

The Colombians welcomed Shadow Squadron to use the tiny military base on the otherwise uninhabited Malpelo Island.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.