Gary C. Schroen, CIA officer.
He was most famous for leading the first team of CIA people – probably the first team of Americans, period – into Afghanistan after 9/11.
Mr. Schroen selected seven men and gathered the weapons, outdoor gear and food they would need. The mission was code-named Jawbreaker. At least one representative from the military was supposed to join them, but the Pentagon pulled out of the mission at the last minute, declaring it too dangerous.
“There was no rescue force,” Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. case officer who worked frequently with Mr. Schroen, said in a phone interview. “If they got in trouble, there were no American troops to come rescue them.”
Before Mr. Schroen left for the mission, Mr. Black took him aside.
“I want to make it clear what your real job is,” Mr. Schroen recalled Mr. Black telling him. “Once the Taliban are broken, your job is to find bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back on dry ice.”
He also wrote a book, First In: An Insider’s Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan (affiliate link).
Darryl Hunt, bass player for the Pogues. I apologize for not inserting a musical interlude here, but I couldn’t find one that featured Mr. Hunt. If anybody has one, they are more than welcome to put a link in comments.
I read a story about this, but I cannot for the life of me remember where it was. I found it online somewhere, and read it, not a lot of detail, it was enough like a few of the other type of tales that I have read, that it doesn’t really stick out.
But I have read so many of this type of action/adventure stories in fiction form, that when I read one that is nonfiction, I can get it mixed up with the pretend. It is possible that I read either a portion of the book, or a review, with an extended passage.
No matter, those men and women, who end up working and doing that kind of job, are made of sterner stuff that me. And while we might wish otherwise, there is likely always going to be the need for such people. Thankfully there are such people willing to step up.
I think I may have actually read First In, but I can’t say for sure: it was a while back, and I want to say I picked it up at a grocery store instead of from Amazon.
One thing that I find kind of impressive about Mr. Schroen, but didn’t feel like I had space for in the obit: he was actually in the process of retiring from the Agency when he was asked to lead the team into Afghanistan. That usually doesn’t end well, but I’m glad it worked out in his case.