Personal Account Of The RIP-TOA Phenomenon

Everyone got back home safe, but with just small injures. My group walked all the way to the lake and around three mountains. We were picked up by a boat on the lake and brought to the rescue station. The troopers took us back to the bus. Jared and Caiden broke off from my group before we got to the lake. They got to the shore of the lake and saw us boat by on the boat that picked us up. Coach Wardlaws group was the only group that didn’t have to be rescued, but they still had a hard time getting back to the bus. Once everyone was rescued and brought back to the bus; we all had sandwiches and had the choice to go back home or go to a place to swim. We all choose to go

The squad loaded into their three Humvees with PFC Coleman in the lead vehicle, his memory was good and they found Storage Plus. The squad unloaded from the vehicles, there were eight men in the squad. Sergeant Torres set up security around the entrance to the facility while he and PFC Coleman checked everything out. The office was closed and the doors locked and there didn’t seem to be a living soul around. They decided to climb the

As they started down at the ground they could see much of the surrounding area, they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. At their altimeters hit a thousand feet they deployed their parachutes and glided them down to the small opening in the forest. It had overgrown a bit which was also good news it demonstrated no one had been in the area for some time. They pulled on the risers landing standing up which wasn’t the normal practice, but everything looked clear. They hurriedly gathered their chutes and headed into the woods then buried them. The A-Team quickly took positions to secure their perimeter, they listened for anything out of the unusual, finding nothing, they moved out in single file with the General and Sergeant Major in the middle.

Immediately following the set containment pieces 3rd squad moved to continue clearance of the objective. The squad was on line as they moved uphill and crested a knoll during the clearance. As they crested the knoll, backlit by the high illumination, the squad took fire from multiple enemies firing positions, including a bunker and a machine gun nest. During the initial bursts by the enemy on the squad, Sergeant Ryan Olech and Specialist Dick Dallas were struck. Sergeant Olech suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, biceps, and back while Specialist Dallas was shot in the helmet and body armor. At least one round tore through Spc. Dallas’s helmet through his NVG mount knocking him unconscious. As Sgt Olech lay wounded, unable to fight, Sergeant Kyle Oswald single handedly returned fire, eliminating several enemies. Spc. Dallas was able to displace to my location somewhat removed from the immediate fire. As Sgt Oswald continued to engage and suppress the enemy, my platoon sergeant, SFC Crouch moved to and pulled Sgt Olech from the immediate fire where he could be treated for his immediate life threatening wounds. Simultaneously, the isolation and containment elements of the platoon massed fires on known, likely, and suspected enemy positions in order to facilitate the retrieval of SGT

June 5 1944 I wake up on the HMS Ramillies hearing a barrage of our Naval Artillery being shot. I quickly rush to the deck to see a squadron of BF 109 airplanes diving in on the deck. In the heat of the moment I quickly hop on the AA Gun, and lay down a onslaught of shots that take out 2 of the 12 BF’s. They quickly take evasive maneuvers, and reset their formation. So, tunnel-visioned by my thought to be victory I wasn’t ready for the next attack. I turn around to see a MG C/30 round barreling towards me. I started racing away from the shot before it hit the AA Gun. I had just remembered I left the AA ammo right near where the round impacted. The explosion blew out most of the deck, and left me deafened and motionless. In the confusion a squad

My company was Delaware Company of the 1-501st Parachute Infantry Regiment 4 Brigade 25TH Infantry Division. If this particular outfit doesn’t rings any bells other than the rich history it does possess, I’m positive the name Bowe Bergdahl will. Now Bowe was in Comanche Company and we all basically know his story. This immediately led to our commander walking into our living quarters and informing us we had 20 minutes to pack our rucks we’ve got a DUSTWUN. That’s all we got, no mission time frame, nothing. We passed out two mortars each, every man carried his standard combat load, MRE’s for 2 days that were field stripped, whatever clothing we

Behind them, barely keeping up, were two other aircraft loaded with me from 1st SFOD-D, better known as Delta Force, this team was from Camp Parks in California. Imagine the surprise of the original Delta Force located at the Stockade on Fort Bragg, there was some heartburn over it at first by the Fort Bragg Delta members that was until they found out that one Brigadier General John Clayton, former Delta legend, had trained them. After that, they were all brothers in arm, not to mention that General Clayton told each of them he would personally kick each one of their asses if they didn’t find a way to get

Dear Stan, It’s been a rough couple of months so far here in Da Nang. Just an hour ago, the NVA moved up closer to the airfield and shot down a loaded C-130 transport plane. The wreckage was spread out all over the runway, killing around twentie two guys. At first, I didn’t even know the NVA had RPG-7’s. The Soviets must have supplied them well, I wasn’t surprised that they would support any country against us. Anyway, I’ve been unlucky in the recent months like I said before. It was August 2nd, and Cpt. Cole called in a Huey gunship. We needed fire support on hill 137, there were several NVA 50.cal positions that were dugg in. They also had plenty of RPK bipod mounts all over the mountain, we were ducked the whole time to avoid getting nailed

We were just about to move when we got hit the shell ripped through the armor and blew up throwing shards of metal all over the inside of the tank. The metal shards smacked Dan’s face our tank suffered immense damage . The Panzer III had 40mm armor piercing rounds. A friendly M1-Abrams destroyed the panzer with two shells. It was a decoy it was remote controlled tank. Very expensive, then we got ambushed there were soldiers and trucks all around us. “Any ways that’s all I have for you guys today.”The base alarm sounded right after I said that, The F.O.B (forward operating base) commander said it was an air raid so Dan and I got onto the flak cannons and fired everywhere it was night so the explosions of the cannons lit up the sku. We hit a bomber coming down and it started a chain reaction it ended up in 3 planes crashing, “RUN!” I looked up and I saw a plane right there about 30 feet away from me. I dove out of the way but my arm got hit by debris it was one of the strobe lights. It shattered and broke my arm. I ran into our compound to get a medic. No one was in there and it was dead silent. Then I heard the most terrifying noise in my life, The Orange Mist. It was a wailing noise I ran to the basement which had a bunker that went deeper into the ground. And I found all the base members cooks,

The sounds of the aircraft's flying past the camp woke up Alex and I. I was nervous about are training so I asked Alex if he was ready to shoot a gun. Sgt Miller yelled “Rise and Shine magots.” Everyone in the sleeping quarters woke up to the yelling. Sgt Miller wanted us to get dressed and meet him at the gun range. Alex and I got their last. Sgt Miller handed me and Alex a M1A1 Carbine, the gun weighed a ton. Sgt Miller told everyone to go to a target and get ready to shoot. Alex and I were getting in position to shoot. Sgt Miller yelled “Fire.” Alex hit the left arm of the paper target. I hit right in the middle of the head. Sgt Miller said to me “Kevin shoot again for me.” I shoot again and it hit right in the middle of the head again.

Second platoon, third squad was on a night time; unpartnered; dismounted patrol when I found myself suddenly rising higher. I slam head first into a mud wall that Zeus himself could not break. Unconscious for a few seconds I come to, and see the man in front of me laying on the edge of a crater staring blankly at where his legs used to be. I pause for a second. He looks at me; suddenly I realized where I was and what I needed to do. I run over to him and drag him back down into the crater the IED made. I put a tourniquet on his right leg and by that Doc the squad Navy Corpsman arrived to my position and relieved me. I took post to west weary of a surprise complex ambush. The rest of the unit came over to assist the casualty when another explosion goes off. Too close to this one as well I slam again to the wall, this time letting my face take brunt of it to keep my body from getting hurt. But it was this explosion which took two more legs and one

When one Special Forces detachment entered to a minefield, then trying to get out it, two commandos died and three extra ended up injured, as a result of that I went there to get them out of the minefield, the only way to get them out of it, without hurting them was deactivating the mines. Moreover, I could save them, it took me almost four hours, but I still needed to destroy every mine to avoid casualties. It was when one of the blasting caps exploded in my left hand. This blasting cap exploded by remote control, the guerrilla realized that I was destroying the mines so they came over and activated the mine. Subsequently, a combat began and as soon as the combat was over, the platoon sergeant reported to the battalion and asked for my evacuation, at that time the weather conditions did not allow the evacuation until the sky cleared up within four hours, and at that moment, I was in the military hospital to treat my

It was the fall of 1993, somewhere in the middle of South Korea, where I was stationed while serving in the United States Army. My unit was conducting a large scale field training exercise that lasted for thirty to forty-five days in the wilderness. During the exercise, a fellow Soldier and myself were assigned to man a lookout/observation post for a period of one week. The post was several miles from any other Soldiers, or people for that matter. We rotated shifts so that one of us was awake and alert at all times. A rucksack that contained a sleeping bag, hygiene kit, poncho, spare change of clothes, Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), and handheld radio was all the technology and comforts we had. When the mission started I was depressed, thinking

As described earlier, we deployed at to our first destination, which was a park that had an intense gloomy feeling to it preceded by the pitch black darkness of the night. Despite knowing getting caught would result in an agony of Airsoft BBs from the opposing drivers, yet we continued to drive onward. Our end route was another park across the neighborhood of about an estimated distance of 2 miles. We knew the trek through the neighborhood would be a high octane adventure of sneaking across an alien terrain. Magnifying the situation we had to actively dodge the looming presence of speculating drivers. Which also added to the fear of being pelted with BBs from Airsoft guns in an attempt at glorified

All I can hear is 2 guys screaming at the top of their lungs saying “shut up the hell up and, put your fucking head in your bag!” while riding in a truck that smelled like dog crap. After about 20 minutes of riding in that not saying single word because everybody was scared out of their mind, well at least I know I was. After the bus had stopped I started to get off then filed in to groups on the sides of the company buildings. They told everybody to open their bags and dump everything out while one of the drill sergeants pulled out a paper with a list of items on it. If 1 person out of the whole company was missing anything on that list we all got punished for it so you can understand me being at everybody’s throat