Victory Point - Ed Darack [96]
Three of the Marines had been instantly ejected from the highback’s open-topped rear; another three grunts and the interpreter lay beneath it. Hot oil, diesel fuel, coolant, and then blood showered the Marines in the front compartment, choking them as they hung upside down, suspended by crushed, hemorrhaging legs. As Donnellan sprinted to the smoking highback, he wondered just how many Marines had been killed by the immense explosion, then how many would be maimed for life.
Methodically chanting “Alla-u Akhbar, Alla-u Akhbar” as he watched the plume of superheated dirt and rocks settle around the annihilated vehicle, the videographer zoomed in on the destruction—then focused the video camera’s lens onto the scene’s magnified image projected by a long-range scope, possibly the Leupold pillaged from the SEAL recon team, and videotaped the ‘keyhole’ view of individual Marines, including Donnellan, fighting to save their comrades amid the twisted debris. Within days, Shah had the gruesome footage prepared for his next propaganda video. Released by As-Sahab, the video begins with Koranic verse and a computer graphic of an exploding and burning American flag, then shows footage of an interview of Osama bin Laden interspersed with old clips of mujahideen fighting the Soviets as well as bin Laden mulling about a training camp. The producers then spliced a translated interview of Ayman al-Zawahiri discussing how America was falling into the “abyss” in Afghanistan, just as the Soviets had, but at a much faster rate. Ironically, the next spliced sequence after Zawahiri’s declaration shows a nighttime ACM attack against Camp Blessing—where the videographer clearly sees his ultimate demise at the business end of a .50-caliber machine gun—followed by footage of Ahmad Shah (with his face blurred out) launching 82 mm mortars at Camp Blessing. The producers then ran a quick clip of two of the fallen SEALs of the recon team and a brief shot of part of one of the MH-47’s gearboxes that one of the locals of the Chichal area must have recovered after Red Wings II. Then the viewer sees the highback rolling up to the tan rock . . . and the huge ball of flame that completely engulfs the Humvee. The scene immediately following the highback hit shows the Watapor police chief’s vehicle, the remains of which the Marines of the convoy passed just an hour before the attack, as Shah’s triggerman makes a direct hit on it, instantly killing the chief. In the propaganda video, the explosion of the highback attack is clearly larger and more powerful.
But while Shah’s triggerman timed the hit against the Watapor police chief perfectly, he struck the key that sent current into the blasting caps of the highback’s IED a half second too early—an eternity when trying to destroy an up-armored Humvee, even with a large IED. As Donnellan emerged from his vehicle he eyed the disorienting sight of a Humvee flipped over, facing the wrong direction. He looked up to see three Marines already on their feet, digging to get the trapped grunts and the interpreter in the rear compartment freed. The driver and front-seat passenger were both conscious—and calm. The powerful explosion missed direct-hit status by about six feet, causing the vehicle to flip over instead of disintegrating completely. As Bartels and the Marines of the quick reaction force roared to a halt, the last of those in the rear of the vehicle crawled to safety, with only the interpreter seriously injured; he had a broken leg that healed fully in a few months. The driver and front passenger, now completely coated in oil, diesel fuel, and blood, cracked jokes and even struck up a conversation with Bartels as the lieutenant worked with other Marines to extricate the two—which they did