When the Killer Man Comes Read online

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  This book is dedicated to the men and women I served with. You are a mighty and compassionate force, pitted against an evil so terrible that past generations must be conscripted to face it.

  You are the greatest generation, and to walk among you was to walk among giants. Thank you for counting me among your honored numbers.

  And to my family, both of blood and of the covenant, without whom I most certainly would have given in to my lesser nature, never returning from the abyss I so loved to gaze upon.

  May our fallen never be forgotten, may our deeds be told for ages, and may those of us still living never succumb to our wounds.

  Below, listed in reverse chronological order, are those Rangers of 75th Ranger Regiment killed during the War on Terror, as well as the SEALS I had the honor of serving with who also perished in this conflict, along with their aircrew of CH-47D Extortion 17, who perished on August 6, 2011, while attempting to relieve their brothers who were in desperate conflict with the enemy.

  The friends that we have lost do not repose in the bosom of the earth, but are buried deep in our hearts, and it has been thus ordained that we may always be accompanied by them.

  —Alexandre Dumas,

  The Count of Monte Cristo

  BATTALLONS

  1ST BN

  SGT Justin B. Allen

  SPC Marc A. Anderson

  CPL Matthew A. Commons

  SGT Bradley S. Crose

  SSG Jason S. Dahlke

  SPC Joseph W. Dimock II

  PFC Eric W. Hario

  SGT Tanner S. Higgins

  SSG Jeremy A. Katzenberger

  SGT Martin A. Logo

  SSG Kevin Pape

  SGT Jonathan K. Peney

  SGT Alessandro L. Plutino

  SGT Roberto D. Sanchez

  SFC Lance H. Vogeler

  SPC Christopher S. Wright

  SSG Anthony D. Davis

  2ND BN

  SGT Jay A. Blessing

  SPC Ricardo Cerros Jr

  SGT Joel D. Clarkson

  SFC Kristoffer B. Domeij

  SPC Christopher Gathercole

  SGT Tyler Nicholas Holtz

  PFC Christopher A. Horns

  SPC George V. Libby

  SGT Thomas R. MacPherson

  SFC David L. McDowell

  CPL Patrick D. Tillman

  SSG Ricardo Barraza

  SGT Dale G. Brehm

  SPC Thomas F. Duncan III

  CPL Jason Kessler

  PFC Nathan E. Stahl

  3RD BN

  CPL William M. Amundsen

  CPT Kyle A. Comfort

  SPC Ryan C. Garbs

  PFC Damian J. Garza

  SGT Patrick C. Hawkins

  PVT John M. Henderson

  CPL Michael D. Jankiewicz

  CPL Benjamin S. Kopp

  SGT Ronald Kubrick

  SGT Andrew C. Nicol

  SGT Michael C. O’Neil

  PFC Cody J. Patterson

  SPC Bradley D. Rappuhn

  SGT Anibal Santiago

  SGT Jason A. Santora

  PFC Kristofer D. S. Thomas

  MSG Jared N. Van Aalst

  CPL Andrew F. Chris

  SGT Timothy M. Conneway

  CPL Benjamin C. Dillon

  SGT Steven C. Ganczeski

  PFC Dillon Jutras

  SSG Nino Livaudais

  SPC Ryan Long

  CPL Ryan McGhee

  SSG James R. Patton

  SGT James J. Regan

  CPT Russel B. Rippetoe

  SGT William P. Rudd

  CPL Timothy M. Shea

  SGT Cameron H. Thomas

  SGT Joshua P. Rodgers

  PFC Kristofor T. Stonesifer

  SPC John Joseph Edmunds

  EXTORTION 17

  SGT Alexander J. Bennett

  SPC Spencer Duncan

  CWO Bryan J. Nichols

  CWO David R. Carter

  SSG Patrick D. Hamburger

  TSgt John W. Brown

  SSgt Andrew W. Harvell

  TSgt Daniel L. Zerbe

  PO1(SEAL) Darrick C. Benson

  CPO(SEAL) Brian R. Bill

  PO1(SEAL) Christopher G. Campbell

  PO1 Jared W. Day

  PO1 John Douangdara and Navy SEAL Dog “Bart”

  CPO(SEAL) John W. Faas

  CPO(SEAL) Kevin A. Houston

  Lt. Cmdr.(SEAL) Jonas B. Kelsall

  MCPO(SEAL) Louis J. Langlais

  CPO(SEAL) Matthew D. Mason

  CPO(SEAL) Stephen M. Mills

  CPO Nicholas H. Null

  PO1(SEAL) Jesse D. Pittman

  SCPO(SEAL) Thomas A. Ratzlaff

  CPO(SEAL) Robert J. Reeves

  CPO(SEAL) Heath M. Robinson

  PO2(SEAL) Nicholas P. Spehar

  PO1 Michael J. Strange

  PO1(SEAL) Jon T. Tumilson

  PO1(SEAL) Aaron C. Vaughn

  SCPO Kraig M. Vickers

  PO1(SEAL) Jason R. Workman

  Find what you love, and let it kill you.

  —Charles Bukowski

  EDITOR’S NOTE ON NAMES

  In spite of the brave exploits of men like Paul Martinez and those he served with, the United States is still engaged in the Global War on Terrorism in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. This means that many of the men whose deeds are described in this book are still serving overseas.

  These warriors would be in additional jeopardy if their names were revealed in these pages. For this reason, Paul has used pseudonyms to protect their anonymity, as well as to ensure their continued operational viability.

  FOREWORD

  America has one force with the single mission of direct action to capture or kill the enemy: the 75th Ranger Regiment. This special operations force—part of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command—is a unique and distinct entity within the U.S. military. No other unit in any other U.S. military service has this singular mission of direct action.

  Rangers stand alone as the most active brigade-size unit in the U.S. Special Operations Command, the lead U.S. combatant command engaged in the Global War on Terrorism. Since 9/11, the 75th Ranger Regiment has been the only continuously engaged unit in the U.S. Army, and for the last decade and a half, 40 percent of those deployed have been in harm’s way. Their mission is unique. Rangers don’t patrol, don’t train allied forces, and don’t engage in routine counterinsurgency duties. They have a single focus: to seek out the enemy and capture or kill them.

  Today’s 75th Ranger Regiment traces its roots to the century before the American Revolution, when colonists in Maryland and Virginia began to organize groups of men to patrol the perimeters of their holdings as a means of early warning of Indian attacks. In 1675—a full century before America’s war for independence—in response to attacks by the Wampanoag, th
e governor of the Plymouth Colony had Benjamin Church raise a company of men to conduct scouting and raiding actions against the tribe. Church’s written reports included the phrase “Today we ranged out four miles to the west,” and thus the word “Ranger” was born.

  The term Ranger was used again during the French and Indian Wars, which pitted the New England colonists against the French Canadians. The first Ranger Company was formed by a frontiersman named Robert Rogers. Rogers went on to form nine additional units. These ten companies took the fight for the British cause deep into French territory. Robert Rogers’s Ranger Standing Orders, written in 1759, is quoted in the Ranger’s Handbook, which is issued to every U.S. Army Ranger today.

  The Rangers continued to lead the way in America’s wars. In 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the formation of a number of companies of expert riflemen. General George Washington called these companies his “Corps of Rangers.” During the Revolutionary War, Colonel Francis Marion, widely known as the “Swamp Fox,” conducted direct-action raids against the British Army, a harbinger of today’s Ranger operations.

  Ranger campaigns continued in the following century. In 1835, the General Counsel of the provisional government formed the “Corps of Rangers” to protect settlers of the fledgling republic from marauding Comanche. This force then played a prominent role during the struggle for Texas independence, and later in the Mexican-American War.

  In the Civil War, both the Union and the Confederacy used Rangers to take the fight behind enemy lines. The exploits of the Confederate Ranger John Mosby, known as the “Gray Ghost,” provided another link in the chain to today’s Rangers. Following the Civil War and through the First World War, Rangers as we know them today all but disappeared from the American military. They resurfaced prominently in World War II.

  When the United States entered the War after the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, the country had a peacetime army and no special operations units. Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall authorized the establishment of the 1st Ranger Battalion the following year. Six additional Ranger Battalions were formed during the War, where they served with distinction first in the North African and European campaigns and later in the conflict in the Pacific.

  The exploits of the Rangers in World War II have been well chronicled in books and film, and their courageous actions have become part of the military—and, indeed, national—lexicon. From the Boys of Pointe du Hoc during the Normandy invasion to Darby’s Rangers in Italy to Merrill’s Marauders in the Pacific, Rangers have taken the fight to the enemy. U.S. Army Rangers continued to distinguish themselves in direct action in the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.

  Darby’s Rangers deserve special mention. Colonel William Orlando Darby was killed while leading what came to be known as Task Force Darby, part of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, spearheading the breakout of the U.S. Fifth Army from the Po River Valley bridgehead, where they were pitted against a large German force. Task Force Darby was sent on a crucial mission against overwhelming odds and walked into an ambush. That tradition will play out in these pages as Paul Martinez tells his story.

  Today’s 75th Ranger Regiment was formally established in 1984 at Fort Benning, Georgia. Since that time, Rangers have fought in every American conflict: Desert Storm (Iraq, 1991), Restore Hope (Somalia, 1993), Uphold Democracy (Haiti, 1994), and Joint Guardian (Kosovo, 1999). They currently fight in the Global War on Terrorism.

  I talked about the 75th Ranger Regiment’s actions to ensure America’s security and prosperity in my books The Reaper (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) and Way of the Reaper (St. Martin’s Press, 2016). Working as an Army Ranger sniper in Iraq and Afghanistan was my way of serving my country, fighting terrorists who would do our nation harm.

  I finished my service as a Ranger sniper in the 75th Ranger Regiment and moved on to other pursuits partly because I felt the war in Afghanistan was winding down. That would mean the need for the U.S. military, the Rangers, and especially Ranger snipers would diminish, to the point where I thought I would never face the intense operations I had experienced during my years in uniform. I was wrong. It turned out I missed the most intense action in the Global War on Terrorism.

  Soon after I completed my time as a Ranger sniper, our nation made the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in two years. The intention was good, but there were still a large number of senior Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders and other terrorists in secure locations throughout the country, especially in areas near the border with Pakistan. If the United States was to withdraw from Afghanistan with these terrorists and their networks still intact, they could quickly take over the country and undo all the gains we had made there.

  These guys needed to be eliminated, and there was only one force to do it: the Rangers. The mission to capture or kill these terrorists was assigned to the 3rd Ranger Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment. Naming this unit “Team Merrill,” after the Marauders of World War II fame, was prophetic. These Rangers faced near-impossible odds taking on an enemy who knew they were coming and employed every conceivable tactic to kill them.

  Team Merrill fought for seven months deep in enemy territory, and like their World War II predecessors, these twenty-first-century Rangers accomplished their mission and beat down the terrorist threat. In doing so, Team Merrill became the lynchpin of the U.S. counterterror/counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.

  My friend Paul Martinez was part of that team, and what he did as a Ranger sniper in Afghanistan helped turn the tide of that conflict in our favor. His experience in these high-risk/high-reward missions—in many cases, efforts that faced near-impossible odds—is a story we’ve all been waiting to hear. I’ll stop here and let Paul tell you this story in his own words.

  —Nicholas Irving

  San Antonio, Texas

  PREFACE

  He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

  —Samuel Johnson

  I grew up in Colorado and, like many young guys, dreamed of adventure. My earliest memories are of wanting to be an astronaut, a fighter pilot, or a sniper. And I was raised with a deep respect for the U.S. military, believing that everyone from Audie Murphy to the doctors in M*A*S*H to the men who received the Medal of Honor for their heroics in Iraq and Afghanistan was a hero and a good American.

  Right out of high school, I didn’t feel the calling to join the U.S. military. It’s probably because I didn’t see the point of being in the peacetime Army. Sure, the United States was fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but everyone was saying that all would be over soon. Little did we know how long those conflicts would last. Instead, I worked in the tech industry and in construction, not knowing exactly what I wanted to do with my life.

  Then things changed. I had several close friends come back from Operation Iraqi Freedom with ghosts in their eyes and gravel in their voices. They didn’t make it sound like we’d be out of Iraq or Afghanistan anytime soon. Suddenly, the war sounded very real, and my reluctance to be part of a peacetime Army faded away. Now I knew we weren’t at peace, and I felt that if we didn’t stand together as friends, as brothers, and as a country, we might not make it.

  I walked into a recruiter’s office in Westminster, Colorado, in December 2005 knowing only that I wanted to join the Army and get to the fight. When I learned I could qualify for an Airborne contract I was sold, and in April 2006 I was in the Army and shipped out for Army infantry basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Next came individual training for my military occupational specialty (MOS) as an indirect fire infantryman. What that meant was that I was a mortar man. (One of the decisions I made when I decided to write this book was not to dazzle you with military acronyms, but to use them as I would in normal conversation and then explain what they stand for.)

  From there it was on to Army Airborne School—otherwise known as “Jump School”—also at Fort Benning. Things were settling in as I was finishing Jump School, and got my orders to my first unit, the 173r
d Airborne Brigade Combat Team—the “Sky Soldiers”—in beautiful Vicenza, Italy.

  I was still training at Fort Benning and looking forward to my overseas assignment when my best buddy from basic training, “Easy” Esenzimmer, dropped by my barracks and said he had to go to a Ranger Indoctrination Program briefing. In the Army, you don’t go anywhere without a buddy, so I tagged along. I have to admit, though, that it was more than just keeping a buddy company.

  I think I always knew I wanted to be a Ranger. To start with, they had the best pictures and posters, with lean, camofaced, hatchet-wielding, badass looking guys. Their guns always looked light in their hands, and their kits looked like they were part of their bodies. I had read a book about Rangers while I was in Airborne School. It told me a lot, but only so much. They were, well, inscrutable as an organization. They called themselves the nation’s direct-action raid force, but what did that mean?

  Easy and I found ourselves in a classroom with a half-dozen other soldiers waiting for something, but not sure what it was going to be. Then two tall, lean Army staff sergeants walked in. They didn’t say much; they just put on a video. Most of the video was filmed using night vision devices and was a bit hard to see, but we were pretty sure we saw men jumping out of airplanes with dirt bikes. That got our attention! When the film ended and the lights came back on, one of the staff sergeants began his well-polished briefing.

  It was short and to the point. “Men, we want you to think about becoming Rangers. If you decide to try to become Rangers, you will be assessed during a mentally exhausting and physically grueling thirty-day indoctrination program. When you graduate, you will be assigned to a Ranger Battalion and deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. What are your questions?”

  Well, that was pretty abrupt! Some of the others asked questions while I processed what I had just heard. Then I couldn’t help myself. I raised my hand and said, “Staff Sergeant, is it worth it? I mean the dangerous training and then the intense—and seemingly endless—deployments?”

  I was ready for him to give me a long explanation of why becoming a Ranger was better than what I was going to be doing in the Army, but he didn’t do that. He just said, “Do you want to be the best?”