Mind the Gap: a Spy School Collection

High Value Target

[Redacted]

[Redacted]

Northern Ecuador

[Redacted]

0030 hours

[For the sake of clarity, Mike is referred to as "Mikey."]

Chip POV

First of all, "zero dark thirty" is a thing, but not to the degree that Hollywood and civilians consider it to be. More often than not, what's said is "oh dark thirty," along with "oh dark stupid."

Because come on, who in tarnation wakes up that early? Or rather, who in their right mind would do so?

Also, it doesn't really refer to any specific time, just the middle of the night, when no normal person is awake. Only by chance was it 0030 at that moment.

Slang and griping aside, it was oh dark thirty, and we were deep in the jungle. Save for the chirping of crickets and a few other creatures, it was quiet. It invited a slew of memories, from camping as a boy to midnight hunting to working my way through SERE exercises. But this was no time for recounting memories. We had a job to do: a certain high-value target needed to be wiped off the face of the planet.

But first, let's start from the beginning.

We were attached to JSOC elements supporting SOUTHCOM's Joint Interagency Task Force South. The task force had provided intel on several human, drugs, and arms traffickers, which we successfully managed to kill or capture. However, during what was supposed to be our last raid before we went stateside, we discovered intel during SSE that pointed us towards the leader of a terror cell—the same one responsible for an attack on a US embassy in Peru and a consulate in Ecuador.

The information was relayed up the chain of command and after a few days of analysis and deliberation, the brass made a decision: the leader—Objective Goose—was to be eliminated.

Unfortunately, our mission was hindered before it even got to us. Rules of engagement dictated that we had to keep the op as quiet as possible, couldn't bring in a larger force, and were extremely limited in what kind of support assets (i.e., fire support) we could have. These rules were, of course, come up with by (for the most part) jackasses that couldn't tell you the difference between a carbine and a machine gun.

Hallelujah for idiot politicians, celebrities, journalists, academics, and all the blue check marks on Twitter.

Anyways, these orders were then passed down to Echo Troop of DEVGRU's Gold Squadron. After some discussion with the troop's commander and chief, a plan was made. Eight SEALs from Echo plus four CIA tag-alongs—namely myself, Jawa, Ben, and Mikey—would be inserted some distance from the target building, which was deep in the forest. We would patrol in and use the darkness to our advantage, setting up close to enemy positions. At the perfect time, we would utilize speed, surprise, and violence of action to storm the building, kill the high-value target, conduct SSE, and get out. Simple, right?

Wrong. Two hours before we left the Wasp—an amphibious assault ship assigned to the Navy's Fourth Fleet and our forward operating base—we had a new mission. On a separate raid, the rest of the SEALs from Echo had captured one of Goose's lieutenants, discovering the names and locations of several prisoners in the process. One of them was Frank Townley, a DIA officer that had gone MIA a week ago while tracking the terror cell.

And lo and behold, his location was the same safehouse where Goose was going to be.

When the troop commander informed us of this development, I felt my stomach churn. It was one thing to take down an HVT, but it was another to do so while trying to rescue a hostage. Hostage rescue is a dangerous mission because most useful assets—close air support, artillery fire, and general fire superiority—are often declared null and void, since the force conducting the op has to be mindful of the hostage's safety.