The Storm

this mission you will be dismissed from this operation without loss of rank or fear of no further advancement in rank, and this conversation never happened. What do you say?'" Henry continued, "Without hesitation I replied, 'I am good-to-go, Sir.' I sure wasn’t going to waste my months in training and weenie out now. And I had no intentions of blabbing like a reporter." “Thanks, Henry. I get your drift,” I stated. I felt the sting of the insult. Henry went on: “The Major was, of course, delighted with my response, but not surprised. What true American soldier wouldn’t reply in the affirmative?" "He then got down to the brass tacks of mission details: 'The CIAwill be watching this mission and having over-watch of this whole operation. This was the stipulation if we were to proceed militarily. They want total anonymity and will deny any knowledge of your existence. They are good at this. You will be counted as a rogue group of assassins with no authorization, and, if killed or captured, there will be no extraction to relieve you of your painful situation. You will be expected to die by self-inflicted means in the event of capture, and you will instruct your team to be considerate of their brother by an effective and accurate gunshot to save them the embarrassment and humility, as well as the pain, that we know the enemy has inflicted upon our brave soldiers.'" "The Major continued: 'You will be on your own. Quiet in, quiet-out. You will be informed when all of the mission objectives are accomplished, and then, and only then, your team will be extracted at a secure location. Count on at least two months in country to accomplish all tasks. You will be informed of your mission objectives on a need-to-know basis,

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