Got to have a long talk one night back in the 90's over drinks with a former Spetnaz guy that had been in Kabul for Operation Storm-333, the attack on the Tajbeg Palace, when they whacked the PDPA general secretary Hafizullah Amin back in Dec. 79. Got to hear the inside story on that operation from a guy who'd been there. Knew the kind of details that weren't in any of the reports or books. We didn't know it then, but I would be in that same exact area later in '06 and '07.
Just drinking and talking soldier talk about places we'd been, shit we'd done and seen. About the same age, and after comparing notes we began to realize that on several occasions we actually hadn't been that far away from each other in places like Lebanon and Liberia. Marveling and shaking our heads at each other's stories about how such different organizations can be both frighteningly competent in some things, and yet also shockingly incompetent in others, both at the same time. You realize that you both have more in common with each other than with any of the lacy panty crowd in D.C. or Moscow.
Small fucking world.
What a great story. I admire the fact you got to have this conversation. Please share more if you have any others you feel good with sharing. What an experience.
Sometimes I feel like some kind of low-key Forrest Gump character, but not the main character. Just some extra that somehow managing to be near the scene when something happened. After a while it starts to form a kind of pattern. My problem is that I don't generally talk about myself because frankly, beside being constrained by a metric shit-ton of NDA's I've signed over the years, I just don't think of myself or the things I've done as being all that interesting. The people whose opinions I value were all there with me anyway, and these days it's very difficult to get into any of the details of anything without doxxing myself. Or having some assclown call me a liar and demand forms of proof that I have no inclination to provide. Don't need the hassle.
I have had the great good fortune to have been blessed with serving with some of the finest people I could ever hope to know, doing some of the best work I have ever seen. And any pride that I may feel is only in that I was able to hold up my end of the log in such company.
I realized once that I had personally known 6 MOH awardees. I mean like on a regular daily basis. Most people couldn't even name one, even if they had a gun to their head. Hell, one of them had been one of my 18X-Ray students in the SFQC. The cool thing about hanging out with cool kids and rock stars all the time is the reflected lime-light. Every once in a while somebody mistakes you for a rock star too. The downside is that it's harder to shine in a bag full of diamonds.
(post is archived)