For God and Country

President Obama and his national security team watch the live feed from
the Bin Laden raid on May 2nd, 2011.

     Sohaib Athar heard the sounds of helicopters overhead and decided to start tweeting about it. It was a little after 1 a.m. on Monday, May 2nd 2011. Athar tweeted "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)." Unknown to Athar at the time, he was tweeting the results of the largest manhunt in history.

     The search for Osama Bin Laden began even before the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. He was placed on the FBI's "ten most wanted fugitives" and the "most wanted terrorist" list for his role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa that killed over 223 people. By this time, the US intelligence community knew his name and were aware of Al-Qaeda as a new hostile force to be reckoned with. After September 11th, 2001, Osama Bin Laden became the most wanted man in history and for the next ten years, the United States led the effort to bring him down.

     The cleanup at Ground Zero had barely begun in December, 2001 when the US launched an assault into the Tora Bora cave complexes in the White Mountains of Afghanistan where it was suspected that Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden himself was holed up. Using a joint force of US, British, German and Northern Alliance troops, the attack into Tora Bora lasted until December 17th, 2001. After a thorough search of the Tora Bora area in January, no sign of Bin Laden or any senior Al-Qaeda personnel could be found. It was assumed he must have slipped into Pakistan during a brief truce in the fighting.

     What followed was a frustrating six years of dead ends, false leads and misinformation concerning Bin Laden's true location. Some believed he was dead, others claimed to have seen him in various locations around the world in a variety of disguises. The news media turned the hunt for Bin Laden into a farcical  "Where's Waldo" that no one took seriously. However, this did not phase a key group of dedicated analyst and agents within the Central Intelligence Agency who relentlessly burned the midnight oil and chased every lead no matter how remote. What was known about Bin Laden was that he used couriers for communication with other Al-Qaeda operatives to avoid detection and that he never, ever used telephones and email. After a Herculean effort, a breakthrough occurred in 2007 when the real name of one of Bin Laden's couriers was learned. It would be another two years before it was discovered that the courier, Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed known as Abu-Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, was living in Abbottabad, Pakistan in a custom built compound located at the end of a dirt road less than a mile from the Pakistani Military Academy. Satellite photos of this area prior to 2005 showed an empty field, so the structure was new to the neighborhood and featured some very unique features. For one thing, the entire compound was surrounded by a 12 to 18 foot high concrete wall topped by barbed wire. The main three story building had an additional 7 foot high privacy wall on the balcony so that whomever was on the other side could walk around and not be seen. This type of building was extremely unusual for the area and immediately aroused suspicion within the CIA that this building was meant to hide someone of great importance.

     Immediately, the place was put under surveillance and it was further learned that the residents of the compound burned their trash rather than putting it out to be collected and the house had no phone or Internet connection. Still, analysts at the CIA could not definitively say that it was Bin Laden himself who lived there. Some felt that it was probably a well to do drug dealer rather than the world's most wanted terrorist. Through the use of high resolution satellites and an RQ-170 Sentinel drone, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was able to create a three dimensional  rendering of the house as well as identifying the number, height and gender of the residents of the compound. The circumstantial evidence was then put through a process known as "red-teaming" in which all the information is reviewed independently and it was concluded that no other candidate fit the profile as well as Bin Laden did. It simply had to be him.

     At this point, the mission to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden became "Operation Neptune Spear". It was decided to use a group of Navy SEALS from the ultra elite Navel Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) sometimes erroneously referred to as Seal Team Six in the media. Red Squadron from DEVGRU was on their way home from a deployment in Afghanistan at the time, so they were chosen to be the go-team as they could be redirected without raising too much attention. Operational security was of the utmost importance here, no one wanted to tip off Al-Qaeda that their boss had been found and targeted. A mock-up of the Bin Laden compound was built in a remote area of North Carolina and the assault team from Red Squadron practiced daily without being told who the target actually was. Special top secret stealth UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters were used for the raid due to the minimal radar signature.The stealth helicopters had been developed in total secrecy and featured a special radar reflective paint and extra rotor blades to aid in reducing any sound signatures. Pakistan had not been informed about the impending operation for security concerns, so stealth was all important. The idea was to insert quickly and quietly and be on the way back across the border before anyone knew what happened. 

     In addition to the assault team, a quick reaction force (QRF) was to be positioned nearby in heavy lift Chinook CH-47 helicopters in case the team had to "fight their way out". At last, everything was ready. There was no moon at this time in Pakistan, so the conditions were perfect for a nighttime raid. On April 29th, 2011 President Obama gave the final go-ahead for the raid the following night, however cloudy weather prevented the mision from going off as planed so it was decided to go on May 1st. At 3 p.m. that afternoon, the president and his staff moved into the White House Situation Room to watch the raid happen live on night vision feed from a Sentinel drone flying overhead. On board both stealth helicopters piloted by members of the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the two dozen men from Red Squadron sat in silence. As they approached the designated landing zone, one of the helicopters experienced a sudden and violent condition known as a "vortex ring state" caused by high air temperature and a loss of lift due to the compound's high wall. The aircraft bucked violently with the tail end clipping the top of the wall and the machine started to tilt. The pilot knew exactly what had happened and expertly drove the nose of the aircraft into the ground which prevented the craft from pitching onto it's side which would have been disastrous to the passengers. With one helicopter down, the remaining Blackhawk set down as planed and the SEALs made their way to the compound wall in total silence using only their night vision devices. In order to force their way into the compound, the assault team relied on breaching charges to blow the metal security doors. The concussive booms from these explosives going off startled nearby neighbors who began move outside their homes to see what was going on in the neighborhood.

     Moving just outside the main house, one of the two assault teams took fire from an AK-47 belonging to the courier al-Kuwaiti. He was killed by several rounds of 5.56 fired from the assault team's sound-suppressed HK 416 carbines. Kuwaiti's wife was hit in the shoulder but did not die. Next, the team encountered al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar in a room downstairs. He was shot and killed as was his wife, Bushra. Moving up the stairs, Bin Laden's son rushed the second assault team and was also shot and killed. Moving up the stairs to the third floor, one of the SEALs saw Bin Laden peer over the third floor ledge, then dart into a room. According to a team member, Bin Laden then glanced out into the darkened hallway and was immediately shot in the head by a team member and fell back into the room. The team member then entered the bedroom and saw two of Bin Laden's wives standing over his body on the floor. One of them started to scream at him in Arabic and looked like she was about to charge, so the SEAL tackled both women and forced them out of the way. A second team member burst into the room and shot Bin Laden twice more in the chest. The worlds most wanted terrorist and mastermind of Al-Qaeda,  died on his bedroom floor in the company of two American commandos. A quick visual inspection of Bin Laden revealed that the first shot was the one that most likely killed him.

  The high velocity 5.56 round entered his forehead and had blown out part of his skull so that his face was distorted. Brain matter was spilling out from the gaping hole and his face was covered in blood. Several digital photos were taken and then one of the Seal team members went out onto the balcony where a number of children that were found in the compound were placed. He asked one of the older girls who the dead man lying on the floor was and she replied "Osama Bin Laden". He then went to one of Bin Laden's wives back in the room and asked her the same thing. At first she didn't respond, so he grabbed her roughly by the arm and said, "Stop fucking with me now, who is that in the bedroom?" "Osama" the woman replied. They had confirmation from two sources at the location.  The SEAL team leader then radioed "For God and country, I pass Geronimo, Geronimo E.K.I.A." (enemy killed in action). This was a predetermined confirmation that Bin Laden was dead. The confirmation was sent live to the White House Situation Room where President Obama said "We got him".

     A body bag was brought along on the raid and the team members worked quickly to put Bin Laden's corpse inside and zip it up tight. A quick search of the compound netted numerous computer hard-drives, thumb-drives, disks, cell phones and paper memos. All in all, they hit the jackpot for Al-Qaeda intelligence.  All of this material was stuffed into several duffel bags to be brought back to the base at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan for analysis. As the two assault teams prepped to leave, one of the team members rigged the downed stealth helicopter with explosives to destroy it in place so that nothing could be gleaned from the top secret craft. As they were now down a helicopter, one of the nearby Chinooks was brought in to ferry the assault team back to base. In all, the raid to kill Bin Laden had taken less than 40 minutes from the time the first pair of boots hit the ground to when they were airborne once again. However, it took over 10 years, close to a billion dollars and numerous lives to even get to that point.

     I remember on the day that it was announced that we had finally gotten Bin Laden, I awoke early that morning and headed downstairs for a drink of water. It was my wife's birthday the next day and for some reason I just happened to glance at the news on my mobile phone. I went upstairs and climbed back into bed and told my wife the momentous news that we had killed Bin Laden. She said simply, "Best birthday present ever!"

My Boy Jack

     18 year old Second Lieut. John Kipling was weeping as he staggered through the mud. He lost his glasses and the pain from the bullet wound in his jaw was excruciating. How he wished he was back home instead of the stinking, filthy charnel house that was the Loos Battlefield. It was September 27th, 1915 and Kipling's regiment, the famed Irish Guards had taken a pounding while advancing on the German held positions near Hill 70. In reality, John (Jack) Kipling should not have even been here. His eyesight was so poor he was initially rejected from military service but was given a commission with the Irish Guards thanks to the influence of his father, famed author Rudyard Kipling.

     Jack had just turned 18 when he was posted to France. Within six weeks, 13 British divisions, including the Irish Guards, would be in action in what was to become the Battle of Loos. Initially, the huge number of both French and British soldiers gave them a brief advantage that allowed for the capture of the town of Loos. However due to communication and supply problems, the breakout could not be exploited and the delay gave the Germans time to reinforce their positions. This proved disastrous for the allies the next day as they attempted to take the fortified German lines. In four hours of fighting, there were over 8,000 casualties out of a total force of 10,000 men.

     Initially, Jack was listing as missing after the battle as were so many thousands of young men. The notion of being missing in combat can have several meanings. One can be unaccounted for, but completely safe in a different sector or, as is often the case, there can be no identifiable remains whatsoever. The body can be blown to atoms by high explosive shells in an instant or buried under tons of mud and earth. All anyone knew that 2nd Lt Kipling was missing from the battle. Rudyard and his wife, Caroline, were completely grief stricken. Using every possible channel and high level contact, they tried desperately to get any news of the whereabouts of their son, but as the weeks stretched into months and then years, it became apparent that Jack was dead and his remains had been lost. Shortly after he was declared missing in 1915, Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem for his son:

"Have you news of my boy Jack?"
Not this tide.
"When d'you think that he'll come back?"
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
"Has any one else had word of him?"
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind -
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide.

     In 1992, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission announced that a grave of an unknown Irish Guards Lieutenant located in the St. Mary's Advance Dressing Station Cemetery in Pas de Calais had been identified as that of Jack Kipling. However, that claim is in dispute for several reasons. The body that was found had rank pips belonging to a 1st Lt and Kipling at the time of his death was only a 2nd LT. Also, the location of where the body of the 1st LT was found was misidentified as well. The curator of the Irish Guards museum even stated that the body in the grave is most assuredly not Jack Kipling. So today, 2nd Lt. John Kipling has two memorials. One is the headstone in St Mary's Cemetery and the other is on the Memorial to the Missing at Loos that list over 20,000 men who have no known grave.

Shot at Dawn

     Called “shell-shock” during the Great War, today it’s known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it is a legitimate battlefield injury. Today having PTSD can give you access to medical care as well as disability benefits with the government. During the Great War, it could get you shot at dawn for cowardice.

     Between 1914 and 1918,  306 British soldiers were executed by firing squad for such offenses as desertion, cowardice, striking an officer, throwing away arms and falling asleep on duty. Those who were sentenced to death were denied legal representation and the right of appeal and were shot very soon after their court martial ended. In many cases, the men were not even examined by a physician before the hearing. The average length of a court martial hearing was about twenty minutes. Usually, the condemned was led back to his cell and shot by a firing party at dawn the next day.

     On the morning of the execution, the condemned soldier was led out of his cell or holding facility, having spent the night with the company of a regimental chaplain. He was then brought to the place of execution and tied to a single post. A small section of white cloth was pinned to the soldier’s chest over where his heart would be. This would give the firing party something to aim at and would, in theory, result in instantaneous death. If not, the commanding officer was obliged to shoot the wounded solider in the head with his pistol. The firing party was made up of six soldiers usually, and one would surreptitiously be issued with a blank round so that no one soldier could be 100% certain that he fired the fatal shot.

     One of the first soldiers to be executed was Private Thomas Highgate who fled from the Battle of Mons, unable to bear the carnage. He was found hiding in a barn and was immediately court-martialled and found guilty despite the fact that he was undefended as all of his comrades to a man had been killed in the slaughter at Mons. A senior officer insisted that Highgate be shot “At once, as publicly as possible”. Highgate was informed of his fate, and was shot 43 minutes later. He was 19 years old.

     Another tragic case was that of Herbert Burden, who at age 16, lied about his age to enlist into the Northumberland Fusiliers. Ten months later, he was court-martialled for fleeing the battlefield after seeing his comrades slaughtered during the fight for Bellewaard Ridge in 1915. At the time of his execution, Herbert was only 17 years old, not even legally old enough to be in his regiment. He was nothing more than a terrified teenage boy.

     To the British high command, these executions were necessary in order to make an example out of the condemned to ward off further desertions or other acts of cowardice. The fact that a large number of these men were no doubt suffering from post traumatic stress disorder did little to prevent their fate. In those rare cases when they were actually examined by a doctor, many of the attending physicians were predisposed by their own prejudices to find the accused of sound mind so that they might be executed.

     Nearly a century has passed and we look back on those dark days through 21^st century sensibilities. Today, executing a traumatized solider would be completely unthinkable as would the notion of forcing men to march slowly into machine gun fire. Perhaps if the British high command had paid for their criminal stupidity in these matters by they themselves being shot at dawn, the war would have been conducted very differently.

     In June 2001, a memorial to those 306 souls who were executed was unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. Mrs Gertrude Harris, the daughter of one of the 306 soldiers executed, did the unveiling of the memorial which features 306 posts that list the names of all the soldiers who were shot at dawn.

What Remains



The Somme battlefield 97 years on



     "How did they fight the battle with all these monuments in the way?" was an actual question that was asked at the Gettysburg National Military Park. It was gently explained that the monuments in question were in fact erected after the fighting had ceased. To many, a visit to an actual battlefield can be many things depending on one's level of interest. It can be somber and reflective, intriguing, morbid or it can be confusing. With Gettysburg, it became a tourist attraction quite literally when there were still dead soldiers carpeting the fields. Throughout the long years, as Gettysburg became a national park, the landscape changed somewhat but not dramatically. Today, there is a policy within the National Park Service to return the battlefield exactly to it's appearance as it was in July of 1863. To this end, orchards have been replanted, large areas have been clear-cut of trees and much vegetation has been cleared away. The effect has been a dramatic vision of the battlefield as the soldiers of 1863 saw it. The exception here being the paved roads and monuments, of course.

     For the battlefields of the 20th century, in particular WW1 and WW2, change in the landscape can either be dramatic or nonexistent depending on where one is. In the area around the French town of Verdun which was the scene of brutal fighting in 1916 there are still areas today known as "Zone rouge" (red zone) due to catastrophic damage to the environment which has rendered the land uninhabitable and unusable for farming and forestry due to the soil being poisoned by human remains, gas and unexploded munitions. Two of the main forts near Verdun, Ft. Vaux and Ft. Douaumont have been preserved as they were as well as the surrounding land. Although green grass now grows where only a sea of mud once existed, one can still clearly see the pockmarks of shell holes and shallow trenches. In the red zones, unexploded shells, human bones and rusted equipment litter the surface of the ground and are clearly visible even today.

     Much of the Western Front today has been erased from the land due to farming and expansion. Many of the battlefields were farmland back then and are still farms today. Farmers still regularly plow up shells, grenades and other deadly relics from the intense fighting that once raged over their land. It is estimated that one in four shells from WW1 never detonated and lie sleeping in the soil. To this end, the French Department of Mine Clearance recovers and destroys about 900 tons of rusted ordinance each year and it is estimated that this work will continue for the next twenty five years or so such is the staggering number of shells that were fired during the Great War.

     Many of the battlefields of the Second World War are in a similar state. With housing and industry expanding at an exponential rate, it's almost impossible to find what would be considered a "pristine" battlefield in this day and age. The exception here would be certain islands in the Pacific, such as Peleliu, which up until recently were largely untouched since the fighting ended. As little as ten years ago, one could still walk the trails and find rusted helmets, canteens and human remains in the numerous caves. Today, thanks to relic hunters and looters, this is no longer the case. Over on what was once the Eastern Front, many of the more obscure battlefields remain largely untouched in remote areas in Estonia and Latvia. Recently, some remarkable relics in pristine condition have been found in the numerous peat bogs that dot the area. Tanks, weapons, equipment and even human remains were found in incredible states of preservation due to the natural preservatives of the bogs.

      Despite all this, one constant remains. The land itself changes over time. The war torn landscape heals itself bit by bit. Shell holes and trenches fill in, barbed wire rusts away to dust, concrete bunkers crumble away and trees sprout up and grow thick over what was once barren and shell torn land. With very few exceptions, it's now all but impossible to stand on a battlefield and get a clear vision of what the area once looked like. Perhaps it's really for the best that way.