allenjb42

On the long flight across Ethiopia the passengers aboard the CH-53E, a US Navy SEAL team, reflected that it was a little over 24 hours since they had been checking into a luxury hotel in Dubai. They had just started a well-deserved spell of R&R after a particularly intense period of operations in the Persian Gulf. Operating from Navy ships and aircraft they had been part of the protection for international shipping from Iranian aggression As well taking on the occasional covert recon of Iranian facilities.. (But that's a screenshot story for another time.) It seemed like no sooner had the SEALs checked into the hotel in Dubai when the call came that they were to be picked up and flown back to Bahrain as a matter of urgency. Transport was enroute and they were to grab their gear and head to the roof ASAP... 'Hey pilot, don't go yet. We're missing a couple of the Team that went straight to the beach to hang with some air hostesses we met on the flight down.' 'No problem, we'll pick them up on the way' A flight to Navy HQ in Bahrain, a hair-raising transit by speeding fully-loaded SUVs to the airport, and the SEALs were climbing aboard the Boeing 707 charity-chartered aid flight to Djibouti... 'Skipper, why couldn't we have just taken that flight?' ''We don't know who's watching flight arrivals in Djibouti. And in any case we're being met at the airport there for a connecting flight. that we don't need the other passengers to see. Now shut up and get some sleep. You don't know when you'll get another chance.' Turbulence shook the SEAL leader from his thoughts. The CH-53E was taking on fuel as it continued it's journey to Gondar, hub of USMC operations supporting the aid operation in-country on Ethiopia.. He opened the intel package that he had been handed on boarding the helo to find out just why he and his men had been plucked so urgently from the lap of luxury to exchange one desert battlefield for another. To be continued...