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Dove signals ets But don’t do it right now Wait twenty-five e (in which case, we shoot and make a messy, risky withdraw)

The twenty-five- out HVTs is almost unheard of The reason for it: due to the planned—and now canceled—early withdraw McVay called about, the guys at base aren’t ready and waiting in a chopper So—take out the HVTs in twenty Backup will, by that time, be twenty minutes away Not ideal, I think, but not the worst And then I realize, “Holy fuck”

I told Breck if Dove got the order to not elily Fuck immediately, I would let hi here thinking about my brothers

By the tiaffe is realized, Breck’s already a third of the way to Bluebell, about to give Blue the order to fire more than half an hour before our backup is in place

I realize this and I tell Dove We start to head toward Bluebell

Right about the time Dove and I near Bluebell and Breck, the caht by Bluebell They decide to aily Fuck—and Bluebell hits him The camel caravan scatters

Not five minutes lat

er, as we scra down froe of the ot here fast

By the time our withdraw chopper sets down in a small field on the back side of the peak, the four of us are surrounded on all fucking sides

Bluebell takes a bullet to the shoulder, but he doesn’t let that stop hied in the calf and catches soht on the trigger either Dove covers us all and takes out probably fifteen of the fighters on the high ground I take out another dozen or e At the center of the field in front of us is a bird: a beautiful Black Hawk that is a welcoht to all of us

I’—so when one fucker rises from the dead to spray the field with bullets, my brother Operators have already made it to the bird

I hit the ground, waiting for Breck, who’s on a drop rope, to cover ets me in the liver

I’m stabilized at base and flown to Landstuhl Hospital in Germany

I don’t re to Breck later, I ask about my brothers every time my eyes are open

In the Landstuhl ICU twelve hours later, I wake for the first tiery