Danger Close Page #2

for the entirety

of their mission?

No, I... I was with them

for a good week or so

and then it was time

for me to dis-embed.

I was trying to get in with the

Special Forces Teams in Iraq

and I had a hit date

to try to get in there.

And so it was time for me

to hitchhike my way to Iraq.

I went to Diyala province,

which is the size

of Massachusetts

along the Iranian border,

because that's where

I was going to embed

with the Operational

Detachment Alpha 0-7-2.

O.D.A 0-7-2 was

a so-called rough team...

Very austere, out there

on the fringe of the empire...

Where every day was truly

a fight for survival.

Even their Special

Forces Commander

called these twelve men

hard-charging

and living the Special

Forces Dream...

but they'd just lost

one of their own,

Rob Pirelli, who I knew

from an earlier SF mission.

QUADE:
Tell me... um...

tell me about Rob.

CHIEF JIM:
Rob was the

senior engineer on our team.

- He...

- Which means what? What does an engineer do?

Well, the engineer

is responsible for

anything that

we have to build or destroy,

or... he's responsible for

movement of all our equipment,

accountability for

all our equipment.

Um, basically he's the

logistics expert on the team.

QUADE:
So an engineer- So building

stuff and also, like, blowing stuff up?

- Yeah.

- Okay, so, but building stuff too

because I think a lot

of folks don't understand

- that you guys do all sorts of things.

- Right.

When we moved into this outpost,

it was a house,

basically in desert,

surrounded by barbed-wire fence.

Within a month,

Rob had built the camp.

(rock music plays)

This ain't no world

for the weary eyed

This ain't no game

for the foolish child

This ain't no place

Got to fall in line

- Gone awry...

- He did everything from install the protective barriers

to running electricity

for the house,

repairing generators.

He was literally working

until he went to bed.

He'd wake up in the middle of the

night to play some online poker,

go back to sleep,

wake up in the morning,

still in his AC-Which

and his boots,

ready to work in the morning

with a smile on his face.

We thought it appropriate

to name the camp after him

since he did so much

of that work on his own.

QUADE:
We've been kinda holding

off on this one a little bit,

but let's talk about

Rob and about that day.

Yeah, it's a difficult

subject to talk about,

but any questions you want

answered, you want to...

find out about it, I'm more

than happy to talk about it.

QUADE:
Bring us- Let's

walk through that day.

We drove out there,

in an area

we've never been before.

There was the makings

of a small village

and so we stopped.

My gunner, he had told me that he

saw somebody on top of the roof,

somebody who was

wearing all black.

And he had an AK, and he was

running around on top of the roof.

(man on radio) The compound

directly to your North,

we have one individual

up on the roof.

CAPTAIN JASON:
And he had seen people

maneuvering towards

his building,

and he was sporadically

firing his weapon

from off the top of the roof.

And they started moving aerial

assets over to our location.

(radio chatter)

My team Sergeant,

he said "I've been shot,"

you know "Man down, eagle down."

(man echoes)

Eagle down!

I directed my medic

to maneuver up to the building

where we thought that he was.

MEDIC:
And I looked over to my right

and I saw my Senior Charlie

at the time, Rob.

He was laying on his back.

I just remember reaching

around the corner

and grabbing the strap

on his kit,

and pulling him around

the corner of the building.

It was crazy

because he looked...

Other than the fact

that he was unconscious,

he looked like

nothing was wrong with him.

And then I looked on his helmet,

and there was a... uh, an

entry mark on the helmet

basically the round

and pierced his helmet.

The individual who

shot at Rob and Don,

he was the battalion commander

for all of al-Qaeda

in that area.

So I pulled back the Iraqis

and we used an F16

to do a couple runs

on this objective.

- When you heard, what, uh...

- I was devastated.

Um, yeah, you know,

it hits deep your heart.

I've been able to, uh...

To work pretty closely

-with Rob's family,

and I'm gonna, uh,

build, you know...

With the loss of Rob,

be able to build together

and help each other, you know.

They feel a great

loss for their son,

and my wife and I, we feel a

great loss for... for a friend.

The next big mission

that happened

after Staff Sergeant

Rob Pirelli was killed

was a mission slated

for 9/11 time frame.

(vehicle engine turns)

The men that I was with

were going out

and raiding houses

and going after targets

and going after targets

and going after more targets.

- It's a big one, huh?

- That's gonna be a big one.

It's gonna be a lot of assets.

It's gonna be going on two-

From 2300 to 1400 the next day.

It's gonna be

a lot of stuff going on.

- A lot of bad guys out there?

- Hopefully.

Maybe not after we're done.

MAN:
(on radio) We've got

approximately 24 total vehicles

- going to get this objective.

- Okay, Roger.

QUADE:
There were multiple

ODAs on this ODAs,

and I was to be a

part of Assault Force 4

in ODA 0-9-ODAs vehicle.

The men of 0-9-4

were serious gunners

and their motto was "machs gut,"

a saying from a German

sniper in World War II

meaning "make it right."

And that's what 0-9-4

was all about,

getting it done.

MAN:
(on radio)

At this time, I'm located

just to the east of that mosque

we were talking about, over.

Okay, Roger, at this time,

we're gonna start systematically

clearing this objective.

- (door bans)

- Move! Move!

Go, go, go, get in there.

- Let's go, let's go, let's go.

- That's it!

Watch your six.

- Hey, that's it!

- Sir, we got two.

Let's get out of here.

It's more like the one

guy we wanted too.

QUADE:
There were insurgents

that had squirted out

from some of these targets and they

were hunkering in a palm grove.

The aircraft overhead

thought that

they were digging up

weapons caches

and things like that.

The next morning,

the Green Beret's called in

and used air strikes.

GUNNER:
Is that cache

right around the area

where they were low-calling

and sh*t too, you think?

Yeah, there's six of them now.

Six?

Yeah.

And he met up with his buddies.

There he is.

You spot him?

Okay, Roger, did your call

at 4 to 10 seconds now.

He's got it cleared hot.

Agent 3-3 Bubba 0-4.

I have visual on four

at this time... men target, over.

(aircraft engine whirs)

SOLDIER:
F*** yeah!

4-1-1 Bubba 0-4,

good hits and...

- Yeah!

- You ready?

(chatter)

QUADE:
It was like a

modern day cavalry charge

through this

dried-out lake bed

in these deep ODAs.

We've got still

two up ahead on the left.

- (clinking)

- What is that?

- They're up. Pick up the speed.

- We got it, Chief.

Did you see where he came from?

Negative! I did not see where

he came from directly.

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