Word: patrolling
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...just three hours to climb the mountain under cover of darkness. For the next three weeks, they lived off the land. The survival skills needed for such operations take years to acquire - and are the source of one SAS nickname, "the chicken stranglers." According to the patrol sergeant, his men performed superbly. "It was considered one of the best patrols," he says. "Everybody else got compromised before it was time for them to withdraw from the area...
...that first mission, the Green Beret's presence was causing friction. "He had broken the radio before going out,'' says the patrol leader. "He had snapped off a knob and was going to use pliers to turn it on and off.'' The patrol leader was not going to tolerate such sloppiness again. For the next mission, he replaced the American with a young signaller who had undergone SAS training, but had not passed the grueling selection course. For the 20-year-old, nicknamed "G," the offer of a place on an SAS foot patrol was a thrilling opportunity...
...patrol leader dismissed their concerns, and on the evening of May 14, the six men silently slipped from a moving four-wheel-drive vehicle on a deserted rocky track south of Taraka Gorge, a steep-sided valley about 130 km southeast of Kabul. Their task was to set up an observation point overlooking a village suspected of harboring Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. Intelligence reports suggested there were gun emplacements and bunkers on the mountainsides and that the enemy were using part of the area as an escape route to Pakistan. The patrol was to observe...
...says one of the troopers, who spoke to Time on condition of anonymity. He describes the decision as a "curious tactic," given that enemy fighters in the area might have been expected to know the bunker's location. It was the first hint, the trooper says, that on this patrol, the leader wasn't doing things entirely by the book...
...following night, RK3 hiked deeper into the mountains. On the bare hillsides, the troopers saw "countless tracks, fortifications and bunkers along the ridge lines," the patrol leader later wrote in his report. When they reached their objective, a ridge overlooking the valley and the village of Bhalkhel, they discovered a gun emplacement and a Russian-built heavy machine gun with a range of more than 3,500m. The patrol leader - according to his own report - ordered his men to set up an observation post about 40 m from the gun. Because there were no rocks or shrubs big enough...