The Fight
Tom was about to leave for his third tour, stationed in Iraq to fight against the militant group called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Tom was a well trained navy SEAL (SEa, Air, and Land) and graduated Bud/s (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training) class 235. He had always dreamed of becoming a navy SEAL and was ready to fight for his country.
Tom lived in a small town in Colorado. He had a wife, Elena and two kids, Shane and Sam. He woke up early to leave for his flight departing at the military base near his hometown. “Bye, Elena. Bye kids. Have a good time” said Tom as he jumped into a cab.
As he arrived at the military base, Tom was greeted by four of his SEAL team members named Matthew, Philip, Michael, and Marcus. “Are you prepared for this Tom?” asked Philip. “Hell yeah, I’m ready for this!” shouted Tom with a stern look on his face.
Once they arrived at the American military base in Iraq near Baghdad, they planned out how they were going to attack a small ISIS stronghold located near the Syrian border. Since the stronghold was very isolated, they had to travel by air with a helicopter. The team very was well trained to parachute out of helicopters and land successfully. In order to take out as many of the ISIS fighters as possible, they had to be well equipped with suppressors attached to snipers and rifles in case they had to kill fighters from up close.
The Navy SEAL team left at around dusk to be as stealthy as they could. “Okay hop off!” yelled the co-pilot of the helicopter. For the first few minutes of being down there, no word was said when the five man team landed near the stronghold. They were all wearing night vision goggles. Because without them, it would be pitch black. “This is perfect” whispered Marcus as he slowly inched his way up on to the side of the hill. “We can pick them off easily from up here” he said. “Hey, I have an idea. How about we all split up and have all eyes around the stronghold” suggested Marcus as he loaded his sniper rifle.
The whole team agreed on doing that so they all went their separate ways. Once they were all in the spot they were supposed to be at, they were ready to shoot down their targets. A few minutes into waiting slightly behind the hill for something to happen, Tom spotted a guy standing with an AK47 on top of a medium sized tower. He aimed the sniper towards the fighters head so that it would be a one shot kill. He held in his breath and gently pulled the trigger. “Tango down” Tom whispered into his transmitter as he reloaded his sniper rifle. “Good one, Tom” Matthew replied.
A few moments later Michael heard an aggressive growl from behind him. He rolled over onto his back as fast as he could and was shocked to see a big wolf staring at him. “Holy smokes” he muttered. He glanced around to look for his assault rifle but it was too late. The wolf jumped onto him and attempted to scratch him with his sharp claws. Michael held him up with both of his hands and then with all of his strength, he threw the wolf to the side. He rapidly grabbed one of his knives out of his vest pocket and jumped up. He was too scared to stab the wolf so he just threw all of his three knives at it. Luckily, all of the knives got stuck to the wolf. The animal was wounded badly as it made one last howling sound before it fell onto the ground.
“Man, that beast must've had some problems because wolves usually hunt in packs” said Michael as he pulled his knives out of the wolf's flesh. Tom recognized three men with black masks run up the stairs towards the dead guy that he shot only minutes ago. He didn't think that the ISIS fighters had heard his shot because he had used a silencer. They must have just seen him lying on the ground.
Moments later, the entire SEALs team heard a loud siren that they believed came from the stronghold that they had surrounded. Matthew shouted into the walkie talkie “We will meet where we split up!” “Roger that” replied the SEALs.
When the team finally met up they were all somewhat exhausted having carried all of their equipment up and down the slopes. “Crap, what are we gonna do?” asked Philip. They were all frightened by the loud sounds of the sirens ringing. “The ISIS fighters are looking for us, guys. We need to move back into the bushes. That's the only way for us to not get caught” said Marcus as he looked into his binoculars.
Suddenly, they heard a sound coming from the entrance of the stronghold. It were the voices of the ISIS militants speaking in Arabic shouting like crazy men. “We need to move, NOW” whispered Marcus as loud as he could. “Okay, let's go” replied Michael.
By the time the team had moved back by a mile or so, the sun was about to rise. The five Navy SEALs were in for a good fight as they heard the sound of multiple footsteps nearing them. Philip hiding in a one of the many bushes around him, aimed his assault rifle at one of the men that went a different way to look for any signs of life. Luckily, they all had silencers attached to their assault rifles as well so if he did take a shot at one of them, the sound wouldn't be loud enough for the enemies to hear it. Philip’s heart was pounding as the fighter came closer to the bush he was hiding in. It was necessary for him to take a shot, so he did. He aimed to the head and took one shot. Although the silencer did keep out some of the noise, it still was pretty loud especially since it was very silent around the wilderness. A group of twenty fighters were patrolling the area and knew they heard something not too far away from them. At last they spotted one of the SEALs lying behind a bush and the fighting began. It was Marcus they had spotted.
“No! I’m done with you!” he shouted as he quickly got out his rifle. Fortunately, there was also a big rock next to the bush where he was sitting. He took advantage of the rock and took cover. He popped his head out and quickly aimed down his sights and sprayed bullets at the fighters that were all standing out in the open. Of course, he was better trained than the ISIS fighters.
His teammates came to help as Marcus was distracting the fighters. The ISIS fighters all bunched up at Marcus and didn't notice that that the Navy SEALs snuck around them. After a good amount of bullets were being sprayed the SEALs were sure that they only had one more guy left to kill. “There’s one more guy behind that huge rock over there!” yelled Tom. “Yeah, I'm gonna throw one of my grenades at him” said Matthew. He lobbed a hand grenade at the enemy but it landed and detonated right on the other side from where the ISIS fighter was hiding.“Aww, crap” shouted Matthew angrily. Then Philip saw a grenade flying at them. “Watch out, there's a grenade!” Philip yelled. Tom was aware that the grenade landed right next to him. “Brace!” he shouted as he plunged on to the grenade stomach first. His teammates looked at him and jumped away from Tom. A loud explosion was heard as the SEALs were taking cover with whatever they had. The SEALs had minor injuries from the explosion. Tom’s body protected his teammates from the blast of the shrapnel. “No!” cried Michael. Michael was so mad that he popped out of the rock he was behind and threw all of his grenades he had at the fighter behind the rock. He eventually killed the fighter with a lot of effort.
After the fight, they contacted the US military base in near Baghdad. “Bring a chopper over here now! We are in a little bit of trouble, we’re all somewhat injured and need medical support fast. Do you copy?” asked Marcus. Once the helicopters arrived near them, it was already getting dark. Although the group of Navy SEALs only killed about 75% of the ISIS strongholds population, they still felt like it had been a tough mission, especially with only five men.
After a few days of spending time in the hospital, the remaining four men finally got the chance to meet their families again. After some some days went past, the families of the navy SEALs all attended Tom’s funeral. Tom also received the medal of honor for the heroic deed of falling on a grenade to save the rest of his teammates that were near him. Tom’s family, Elena, and her two kids, Shane and Sam became very poor. Elena had to work at McDonalds for the rest of her life. After Matthew’s last tour, he became a successful hedge fund manager. Marcus became a social worker who helped veterans get back onto their feet after being released from the army. Michael became homeless and an alcoholic. Philip developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and later killed himself. War truly had a very big impact on the five navy SEALs and their families.