Free Hunters: U.S. Snipers in the War on Terror by Milo S. Afong

most SF schools happened.

Cave Clearing
    The Zhawar Kili caves were frightening. In January 2002, Chris’s platoon; two Navy explosive ordnance disposal techs; two Air Force combat controllers; an Army nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare soldier; fifty marines; and two FBI agents were set to move in. The group was informed that bombs had destroyed everything and that they would be assessing battle damage on the area. DNA samples, fingerprints, fingernails, and hair samples were to be collected to see if any high-value targets had been killed. It was likely that al-Qaeda was still in the region, and possibly even Osama bin Laden was still there.
    The flight to the area took three hours. The teams were shuttled in by CH-53 Sea Stallions and dropped seven miles from the objective. Sparse vegetation sprinkled the barren landscape, and it was amazing that anyone wanted to live in such a remote location. The world’s most sought after terrorists, however, had no choice. This was their backyard.
    Within the group, each unit had separate objectives. The marines would hold security for everyone, while the SEALs were to do the cave clearing. The explosive ordnance disposal sailors would destroy any explosives found, the combat controllers would direct air support, and the FBI agents would examine the dead. When they finally reached the area, they realized that the bombs had done little to no damage to the tunnels and infrastructures.
    The caves were dug into a cliff on the side of a small riverbed. Above the cliff was a small village. Other small buildings were in the riverbed. As the team closed in, Chris noticed that the cave entrances were semi-buried. The bombs had missed their targets and had thrown dirt everywhere. The combat controllers marked the smaller entrances with a GPS, and when they reached the main tunnels, the SEALs prepared to enter.
    Searching the caves was nerve-wracking. It would be close-quarters combat if anyone inside decided to fight. Chris anticipated everything from enemy fighters to land mines. To add to the stress, when he started in, the light from his surefire flashlight disappeared in the blackness.
    The tunnels were big enough to drive a truck through. The SEALs pushed inside while the marines held the high ground outside. Chris stuck close to the man in front of him but could not see much in the darkness. He prayed that they would not step on any booby traps. As they made their way deeper, the SEALs began to discover random items.
    “Look,” said Chris’s teammate, motioning to the ground.
    Chris glanced down at a human foot in the dirt. Moments later, they came upon a jail cell, complete with bars and locks. Next, they found small rooms. Chris entered while others held security. His light revealed boxes upon boxes, stacked from the floor to the ceiling, full of small arms ammunition.
    Throughout the caves, the SEALs found more weapons and explosives, enough to supply a small army. Surface-to-air missiles were uncovered along with tanks and Russian-made amphibious track vehicles known as BMPs. They found rifles, land mines, mortars, and radios. By the end of the clearings, Chris was amazed at the inventory. They found literally hundreds of thousands of rounds of small arms ammunition, thousands of rifles, tens of thousands of mortars and land mines, but there were no bodies or men. The occupiers must have fled into Pakistan, only three kilometers (two miles) away.
    After hours in the caves, the group prepared to patrol back to their pickup point. Before leaving, they marked the locations of the cave entrances and the vehicles for follow-on bombing. All the while, the FBI agents attached had not found bodies to examine. It was no surprise to them, knowing that in the enemy’s culture, burials happened within twenty-four hours of death. The problem was that when the commander learned that no dead had been found, he canceled the extract ten minutes before pickup and ordered the group back for