Private Military Contractor International April 2014 | Page 16

The second vehicle, the armored Chevy, is driven by Jordan
Hind. This vehicle will be used to carry the “package”
picked up at Camp Anaconda. Jordan’s experience had
been as a cage fighter and martial arts expert. Strangely, Jordan does not have a military or law enforcement
background. Crescent Security had accepted him and taken
some steps to train him in combat operations, weapons,
and tactics. Riding shotgun with Jordan is Kedar, a Ghurka
fighter. Ghurka fighters, a contingent of the British Army,
are from the Nepal region and are legendary fighters of great
skill. In the early stages of the Iraq war, many Ghurkas volunteered as contractors in Iraq. Insurgents in Iraq were particularly brutal in fights with the Ghurkas and many Ghurkas
left the country after a dozen of their ranks were beheaded.
Kedar remained.
In the trail vehicle, the GMC Yukon, Scott Schnieder is
driving, Dustin Benson’s at shotgun and an Iraqi called
Alowi is the tail gunner, with a mounted PKM machine gun
facing out the rear window opening of the vehicle. Scott is
in his mid-thirties, is blond haired, blue eyed, a muscular guy, with a
weather-beaten tan complexion. One might have thought he was a
muscle-bound surfer from California. He was from California but that’s
where the similarity stops. He served fourteen years in the U.S Army
Combat Engineers before leaving the service and working his way over
to Iraq.
Dustin, an old friend of Jake’s, is on his first mission with Crescent
Security. He is in his mid-twenties, a former Marine and a survivor of
extensive combat in the Ramadi region. During his tour with the Marines in Iraq, both his platoon sergeant and platoon leader were killed in
a battle and Dustin assumed command of the platoon for much of the
remaining fight.
The hours pass and the seemingly endless desert landscape takes on
more vegetation as they get closer to Baghdad. They are well aware
that with each passing mile they are entering increasingly dangerous
areas. Every few miles they pass the blackened hulks of vehicles previously blown apart and burned by insurgent planted roadside bombs.
The team stops at Iraqi checkpoints along the way to ask about enemy

activity ahead. So far, so good. It’s been a relatively quiet day.
About twenty miles north of Baghdad, at Camp Cook near Taji, the
team takes a fuel and food break. As they leave the camp on the final
leg to Camp Anaconda, darkness has fallen. It’s now beginning to rain,

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tensions are high, and the pucker factor is rising. No one is joking any
longer. Everyone is intently looking for any sign of trouble or danger.
Armored military vehicles patrol this section at night driving only with
their cat-eye blackout drive lights on. Fears of crashing into a Bradley
Fighting vehicle or Abrams tank are on everyone’s mind, not to mention
IEDs and insurgent ambushes. Swarms of bugs pelt the windows, the
wiper blades just smear the goo, and visibility is almost nil.
Suddenly to their front Wolf and Jake spot the outline of vehicles blocking the road. All three SUVs slam on their brakes, skidding and swerving to avoid colliding with each other. Their vehicles come to a stop
facing in various directions. Everything is silent. The rain is now coming
down heavier. Wolf and Jake strain to peer through their mucked up
windshield to assess the situation. Wolf has his AK47 directed towards
the threat. Jake is looking to both sides of the road, fearing that this
may be an ambush from the flanks. Wolf has that same fear and begins to creep his vehicle forward preparing to plow through a possible
entrapment if necessary.
At that moment Jake thinks he sees something directly ahead but
just as he is saying, “Wolf, hold up!”, he hears Jordan on the radio
screaming, “We’re taking fire! We’re taking fire!”. Scott can
be heard on the radio shouting, “Back up! Back up!” Wolf
grabs the radio mic, “Good job Jor…” but is cut off before
he can complete the sentence.
At that moment Jake detects dozens of muzzle flashes
coming from about 50 yards in front of him. “I swung my
AK around from where I had been pointing it out the right
window and leveled it at twelve o’clock just above the dashboard. I had no choice but to begin shooting right through
the windshield. I was dumping my entire clip through the
glass. All I could think of was pumping out enough bullets to
get some kind of fire superiority and buy us some time. Out
of the corner of my eye, I could see rounds coming through
the windshield and they just seemed to be walking in slow
motion across the glass toward me. Only a few second had
passed since I had seen the muzzle flashes, just the time it
takes for twenty-seven rounds to leave my AK on full auto.
Then I felt a burning sensation on my face and I went down.
I figured I’d been shot, and I remember thinking that I hoped
I would die quickly. I slumped over and began fading in and out of
consciousness.”
Wolf’s Toyota is under intense fire. Bullets are sparking off of his vehicle like fireflies. Seeing this, Jordan attempts to maneuver his armored