Level Zero Heroes by Michael Golembesky

Author:Michael Golembesky
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250030412
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

14

PRO 6 AND THE ENTOURAGE

WEST HELO PAD, FOB TODD

Sherman’s remains lay within a flag-draped body bag atop a stretcher. Six of his brothers stood ready beside him. All the available personnel at FOB Todd had arranged themselves in two long lines that faced each other across a few feet of gravel on the edge of the helo pad. There were Navy divers in their retro tricolor desert camo, the Italians in their light green digital cammies, and the men of the 82nd wearing ACUs. Sprinkled among the Americans and Italians were Afghan police and soldiers. The ANA looked like shabby country cousins in their hand-me-down uniforms, oversized coats, and dingy boots. The ANP looked even worse. No standard uniform for them, they wore whatever could keep them warm. Most had thin gray-blue slacks that did very little to insulate from the cold. A few had camouflage parkas or grayish-colored jackets. One guy looked like he’d raided his grandfather’s closest for a huge green overcoat left over from the Eisenhower years. Winter is not a season in Afghanistan, it is the time of year when many freeze to death or go crazy trying to fight it.

The ANA and ANP were mingled in with each other—unusual since they detested each other. For this one event, however, it looked like the stewing hatred between the two security forces had been stowed. The ANP stood, slope-shouldered and hunched against the cold in their ill-fitting castaway clothes next to the Afghan soldiers, their weapons a mishmash of stockless AK-47s, PKM light machine guns, and a few variants of the AK. For all the show of unity, it wouldn’t have surprised us if a fight broke out between them. It had happened before on many Coalition FOBs.

I stood next to Jack and a soldier from the 82nd, waiting for the medevac bird to land. We could hear it in the distance, a Black Hawk by the sound of its rotors. The birds emerged out of the foothills to the west, the most direct way in without being shot at. They swung into a circuit around the FOB, passed over the ruins of the old factory, and sent pigeons fleeing from their rotor wash. One touched down and the pilots killed the engines. As its blades slowed, the crew chief jumped out and opened the side door facing the assembled causeway.

The six paratroopers bent down and lifted Sherman’s litter to their shoulders. The two lines came to attention as the FOB’s IDF warning speakers played a recording of “Taps.” When it ended, Johnny Cash sang “Amazing Grace” as the paras slow-walked their brother to the helo.

They slid the litter onto the Black Hawk, then each pallbearer took a minute to say good-bye to Ben Sherman. They touched the flag on the body bag, then stepped away. As they did, PRO 6 and his Afghan Entourage stepped forward and lined up with their backs to us a few yards from the Black Hawk’s door. There were four of

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.