girls. With limited friendships, her passions revolved around riding her horse and playing the piano. Attending prep school in Connecticut, she studied hard and excelled in all subjects. She didn’t date anyone seriously.
Her father was a partner in a New York City law practice, which influenced her career choice. When she graduated at the top of her class in high school, she had her pick of colleges, choosing Boston College. She enjoyed living away from her parents, and the city provided the intellectual stimulation to encourage her to begin asserting herself. It was okay to display her brains; she enjoyed opportunities to debate issues with students around the city.
With more than 300,000 university students in close proximity around Boston, her intellectual skills were tested constantly. She loved it and developed a different, confident, persona. Her parents were delighted with her transformation. She also “blossomed” as an engaging beauty.
After graduation from Georgetown University Law, she went to work with the Defense Department. Her legal education was initially useful, evaluating compliance with international arms treaties as they related to U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS). A couple years later, she found herself promoted to a position in the intelligence directorate. In this position, she coordinated with all of the other military intel people, NSA and CIA. She also worked with many allied military departments around the world. Each day, she prepared a composite intelligence report for the Chief of Staff of the Army, which sometimes went all the way to the President with his morning “Situational Briefing” by the National Security Advisor.
Peter
By contrast, Peter Shields grew up in a coal-mining community near Wilkes-Barre, PA. Life revolved around the high school, even though many of the residents had not graduated. The town had a one-screen movie house and a bowling alley, but no library. In the summers, kids would swim and play around the old mining pits filled with milky green semi-transparent water. The ground water was polluted by the sulfur byproducts of the mining process, which probably affected the mortality rate, except most men died young of respiratory diseases from mining before anything else could kill them.
Peter was a happy kid, but suffered from boredom that overshadowed life in the hills of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He liked school, but there was little incentive to go to college and no way for his parents to pay anyway. Like all teenage boys, his stature in the peer community was measured by athletic achievements. The population had a high percentage of overweight people due to high carbohydrate diets and lack of exercise. Peter was different. He was a thin kid though muscular and played wide receiver and safety on the football team. He played as a forward on the basketball team. He grew up as an avid hunter and fisherman, at home in the woods and waters. He learned to coexist with nature, to be a sure shot and careful with weapons.
Following graduation, his father planned to enroll him in the Union and get him into the mines, but Peter wanted to get away, so he joined the Army. The Army quickly taught a person to think on his own and take charge of his life. When he graduated from basic training and went home for the first time in uniform, he had an entirely different demeanor. He was a no longer a boy, except for his childish good looks. He was composed, poised and spoke with authority, yet had a soft reverence for his mother. His father was proud even though he’d scoffed at the idea when he enlisted. With the Army routine and three full meals each day, he’d added about twenty pounds of muscular weight in only ten weeks. He filled out the uniform nicely.
After thirty days of leave, he reported to Ft. Benning, Georgia, for Combat Infantryman Training. His placement test scores at basic training were exceptional, and he was selected to be an acting Company Sergeant in training. Further testing and evaluations gave him more choices of career fields in the army than the average enlistee, but he wanted to be an infantryman. Training at Benning appealed to Peter, and he was a top performer.
He went directly from infantry to airborne training, again at Ft. Benning. He thrived at jump school and excelled beyond others completing the qualification course in High Altitude Low Opening, HALO, parachute jumps. He also qualified for the Army Marksmanship badge. After completing the courses in minimum time, he was assigned as a weapons specialist to the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, NC. He’d attained the rank of Private first class, E3, out of training, so he entered his first duty assignment one rank higher than most others. Within six months, he agreed to extend his enlistment to attend Ranger school at Benning. Again, the regimen and the curriculum were perfect for Peter. He didn’t enjoy every minute of it, but the bad moments were forgotten when he got his Ranger tab. He’d been in the army two and a half years and had extensive training, yet he wasn’t even twenty-one years old. He loved the Army.
After another thirty-day leave period at home, showing even more muscles and self-assurance, he was mobilized with his division to Mogadishu, Somalia. They departed in January to provide famine relief and to ensure supplies would get to the people in need. Peter deployed as a corporal.
When the Army arrived in the country, the situation was more hostile than the Government had predicted. America’s goodwill intentions created an opportunity for criminals to control vital food and medicine supplies, more valuable than gold. The Army found itself fighting factional battles with whichever warlord decided to confront them. The environment was antagonistic and unlike anywhere any of the young soldiers had ever been before. Instead of grateful citizens, they were facing armed thugs. It was truly foreign soil.
On an October evening, near the Olympic Hotel in Mogadishu, eighteen men from Peter’s brigade were cutoff and massacred by overwhelming numbers of militants. Peter and his other squad members watched video of the fight relayed from unmanned drones. They saw their brothers-in-arms killed and their bodies mutilated. The politics and the bands of warring factions were too complex for anyone to comprehend, but the Rangers in Peter’s Company felt a personal blow watching their brothers die horribly. The action had resulted from a gross miscalculation by the regimental staff, and from a policy dictated by the National Command Authority to minimize the amount of equipment and armor to be used in a civil action. The Rangers had been sent in alone, without support.
The following morning, before dawn, when the militias were still sleeping in drunken ignorance, Peter and eleven other volunteers jumped silently from a C130 Talon Gold aircraft fifteen thousand feet above the center of Mogadishu. Their mission wasn’t retribution per se, although it was a motivating factor. They were going in ahead of a mobile column to reconnoiter the scene of the fighting, and to locate and protect the bodies of their comrades. They jumped into the night with only a few lights below showing in the war-torn streets. Their fear changed to exultation as they plunged downward. They knew the streets would be cluttered with massive debris as their comrades had fought for their lives, and they needed to carefully navigate their parachutes between buildings to achieve clean landings. The broken buildings and burned cars engendered pride, knowing the Rangers had not gone down easily.
The exact events that followed this raid were classified, but it is known that most of the American bodies were recovered, and all of the raiders escaped, some with injuries, but none fatal. Peter received his first Silver Star for gallantry in action. He also received his first Purple Heart for multiple wounds from rocket fragments and small arms fire. Most in his platoon were similarly wounded. He was in action again within six weeks. Before rotating back to Bragg, he’d also earned a Bronze Star with Combat V for valor.
He returned to the states for a well-earned leave at home. While his parents were dazzled by his medals, both were concerned that their son had been in such dangerous circumstances. He was only twenty-two. He found it hard to associate anymore with his high school buddies working in the mines like their fathers, so he stayed at home most of the time alone, or with family.
He wanted to get back to Bragg as quickly as possible, but also knew his parents miss
ed him deeply and were concerned about his safety. He didn’t tell them immediately that he had been accepted into the elite Special Forces, the “Green Berets.” His next assignment was for more training under the Special Forces Weapons Sergeant program. The curriculum developed the most versatile and lethal soldiers in the world. It was also the most direct route to the most dangerous missions in the military. Peter occasionally reflected on his career choices, wondering if he had a death wish or was foolish. But he genuinely felt that he was serving his country and he was exceptional in his role.
Special Forces training, which combined elements of other services under their individual designations as SEALS, MARINE RECON, PARARESCUE, GREEN BERETS, provides extensive training in all military weapons and technology. To qualify, soldiers must have a rank of E5, Sergeant, and at least four years of obligated service after training. Peter, again, excelled and had decided to stay in the Army.
Following training at various military bases, he was assigned to Special Operations Command (SOCOM) with headquarters at MacDill AFB, Tampa, FL. SOCOM is a unified