Mission #1

It would be several months more before I got to go on a real mission. At this time I am in the the special forces' sniper squadron, or more popularly known among those in the special forces as the "Brainbuster Squadron". In this squadron I made a few close friends, some of them with combat experience and medals.
In this mission I(a corporal) and one Sgt. Lee would be providing cover sniper fire for a bunch of operatives on a remote island off the coast of Sabah which doesn't have a name. According to intel there were some sort of extremist group which uses the island as a base. The island wasn't populated other than the extremist. It also is densely vegetated, which meant good news to us snipers. I and Sgt. Lee would be operating as a sniper/spotter team. There are two other sniper/spotter teams that would be in the field along with eight special forces operatives that would be doing the assault. I knew all the sniper teams but none of the eight other operatives. I know their faces, but I can't attach a name to any of those faces. Their mission would be to infiltrate and neutralize all of the extremists and blow up their base. The snipers would rain death from afar.
All the fourteen of us were inserted via amphibious methods. The island was small, and consisted of mainly hills and thick forest. The target zone was supposed to be located in a valley, which makes our jobs easier. Perhaps the extremists never thought about an attack on their base was possible. At the naval base we boarded fast attack ship, and about 10 km from the island we got on a rubber boat and made our way to the island. I was dressed in a ghillie suit that I made myself back in sniper school. Just imagine a bush that can walk, that's pretty much what I looked like at the time. I had even wrapped Shaz in burlap to avoid any metal glints.
We landed at four separate locations. We are split up into five teams. Our team would approach from the South, the second sniper tam would approach from the North-West, and the last sniper team would approach from the North-East. The first assault team would be tagging along with me and Sgt Lee while the other assault team would approach from the North. The extremist base is located 2km North off the centre of the island.
Each of us had our own headsets to communicate with. The four-man assault team each had a M16A2, except for the fourth operative of each team. He bore the huge M60 light machine gun. Two operatives from each team also brought along some explosives in their rucks. 500m from the base we stopped. The leader of the assault team that were with us gave us a thumbs up and lead his men on towards the target.
I assumed a spotter position as Sgt. Lee brought out his Steyr Scout and positioned himself in a comfortable position. We lay prone on a hill with 30% gradiency and approximately 500m away from the target. I watched from my spotter scope and calculated the wind speed and direction. My range-finder told me that we were 492m away from the nearest target. About 10 minutes after setting up my ear piece crackled. "Ferret in position,"(Ferret is the 1st assault team's codename, and mongoose is for the second. Us snipers just went by on sniper1, sniper2 and sniper3). A minute later Mongoose called in. It was time. Sgt. Lee took aim at the nearest target. The camp wasn't very large, It had one wooden building about the size of a badminton hall plus 4 outhouses I suspect to be depots or makeshift toilets. There were ten men patrolling the area around the buildings. Lt Adnan of Ferret(He's the squad leader) gave the orders, "snipers free." At that Sgt. Lee fired his first round right in between the eyes of one guy. He fell out of view behind a hedge in a puff of pink. Elsewhere around the base two other guards fell to the bullets of the other snipers. Simultaneaously, all of the assault men hurled grenades into the area. I watched as the rest of the guards got blown up. Whatever guards that remained alive were picked off by snipers. Sgt. Lee got two kills. The assault teams barged into the base compound. Several more bad guys emerged out of the large building but were quickly disposed by the assault team. One of the assault guys disappeared into one outhouse. Soon he came running out at full speed and 6 seconds later outhouse turned to flames. The same happened to the other outhouses. The assault dudes then stormed into the main building. I could distinctly hear the sound of the M60 firing away. Half a minute after entering all the operatives exited the large building and ran for cover. A few seconds later four explosions occured in the large building, bringing it down. Mission accomplished.
We were extracted by a Sikorsky helicopter. In this mission 34 enemies were killed, no surviviors. No operatives were killed, although one was shot in the arm and another shot in the leg. All target buildings were blown up. The first mission of my career completed, and I never fired a single shot.

Side Arms

Besides Shaz, I also use a SIG P-229 as a sidearm. I call him Siggy and he goes into my right hip holster. The P-228 is more widely used throughout by uniformed units but I prefer the P-229. Why? Because it packs more punch. The P-229 i use is the .40S&W whereas the P-228 uses standard 9mm rounds. By the way, most military units use the Beretta 9mm but as a special operative we get spoilt for choices when it comes to weapons. After all, there ain't too many of us around. However the P-229 has increased slide velocity and greater recoil forces compared to the P-228. But that's hardly a problem for me. Besides, it's grip is excellent and is very reliable. And a reliable weapon is something you would want when facing enemies. It's light and also easy to shoot. Actually I'd like to have the chrome slide but having a something shiny stuck to your hip isn't a healthy option if you know what I mean. Here's some P-229 stats.


Operation
Semiautomatic, mechanicallylocked, recoil operated
Trigger
Double-action/single-actionor double-action only
Safety
Patented automatic firing-pin lock
Caliber
.40 S&W
Length,
7.1"
Height,
5.4"
Width,
1.5"
Barrel length
3.8"
Rifling twist
1 in 16"
Rifling grooves
6
Sight radius
5.7"
Weight, w/o magazine
27.5 oz.
Weight,empty magazine
3.0 oz.
Trigger pull
DA 12 lbs., SA 4.5 lbs.
Magazine capacity
12 rounds

Dragunov

Sniper school wasn't much harder than camp hell, nor is it a walk in a park. Crawling 1000 yards through every type of terrain imaginable AND being invisible at the same time ain't exactly a piece of cake. But it was fun. The capability of being invisible and the power to bring death from afar was very appealing to me in the battlefield. But here I want to write about my new baby, The Russian Dragunov sniper rifle, or SVD(Snaiperskaya Vintovka Dragunova) as it is most commonly known is a very big toy. (In Russian characters it is Cнайперская винтовка Драгунова).
On entering Sniper School we were first given the WW2 M1 rifle. After that we used the US M14 rifle. On the more advanced course we got to choose the rifle we would carry in real missions. After trying out the WA2000, AW Covert, Steyr Scout and other various sniper rifles I decided on the SVD. Here are some of it's stats.


Cartridge:
7.62 x 54R
Operation:
gas, short-stroke piston, self loading
Locking:
rotating bolt
Feed:
10-round box magazine
Weight:
4.3 kg(empty weight)
Length:
1.22 m
Barrel:
622 mm
Rifling:
4 grooves, rh, 1 turn in 254 mm
Sights:
fore, adjustable post; rear, U-notch, tangent
Muzzle velocity:
830 m/s
Effective range:
1000 m

The SVD entered general service in 1967 to replace the Mosin-Nagant in the Soviet Army. It's maximum effective range is 1300m with a 4x telescope and 800m without. The SVD can fire light ball, heavy ball, steel core, tracer and anti-tank incendiary ammunition. But it obtains the best accuracy with light and heavy ball-type ammunition. It is also lighter than earlier sniper rifles because of it's open buttstock. I like the open butt as it is easier to hold the grip. I use the PSO-1 scope(4x24) on mine. It can even mount an AKM bayonet but I prefer to fire it without the bayonet. After all, if I do my job right I wouldn't even need a bayonet.
So that's my new baby. I name her Shazelina. Shaz for short.

Training

I won't go into too much detail of what happened during training. Some things are best left unspoken about. Camp Hell it indeed was. Nothing in boot camp ever prepared me for this. I didn't even think that some of the things they did to us were legal. But as soldiers we sold our rights to our country(or so the slave-runners told us). A few times I even stopped and thought about my decision to come here. Life was far more comfortable as a regular grunt. The worse part I guess was eating raw meat. And that ain't chicken meat either. Snakes, squirrels, bats, rodents, insects--pretty much anything that moves can be eaten.
At the end of the 3 month course, only the best among the best remained. And I'm glad that I was among the best. Among the 8 people that were from my original company, only I and Usup got through. There were also 4 others that made it. I remember as the weeks went by more and more trainees would drop out. Sam almost made it but he broke down during the final stages. It was a damn shame.
Anyway all that is behind me. Now I am a certified elite commando. Men of Gerak Khas. After that we were given several courses to choose from. Both I and Usup went for the sniper course. This meant another 3 months of doing nothing but crawling, hiding and precision shooting. This was something I looked forward to. As a child I sometimes followed my father hunting boar and deer in the oil palm estate I grew up in. As a young teen I would spend a lot of time with my cousin in his estate. He had this BB sniper rifle. It was powerful enough to kill birds. Finally I get to be a real sniper(assuming that I pass the course).
In the past 3 months I lost contact with the outside world. Upon reentering the civilized world, I found out that my girlfriend back home was cheating on me. Someone told me she's going out with one of my friends now. At this moment I would very much like to blow out both their brains out with a .50 Barett rifle.
My thought didn't have much time to dwell on that as I'm busy preaparing myself for sniper school. Oh boy..

Camp Hell

I woke up upon entering my new home, the home of the commandos. Reportedly only one in ten trainees ever make it. I scanned the faces of the thirty people on board the bus. Only three or four of us would make it, so the statistics say. I'm not thinking about going home, because I know I won't drop out. Perhaps.
I looked around as I left the bus. There was one Major and one Leftenant waiting for us. Even before all of us left the bus the Major began barking at us, ordering us to place our stuff on the ground. The Lt then began searching every rucksack, emptying each one and when he's done not bothering to place it back. The Major then introduced himself. "I am Major Badrul Hafiez. Welcome to Camp Hell." He then grinned and left us to the mercy of the Lt. He found a dirty magazine in one of the trainees bag. The owner was kicked in the gut. When the guy next to him tried to help he found himself eating a fist with a lot of power behind it.
We looked on and was yelled at for looking. We were yelled at on our way to our barracks. We were yelled at in the barracks. We were yelled at in the mess hall. We were yelled at pretty much all of the time. I had read up on training a few weeks ago. This first 3 weeks was supposed to be orientation. This isn't the sort of orientation that happens to newbies in universities. The words that the Major uttered came back into my mind. Camp Hell.

The recruit

I've finished 6 months of boot camp in the army. I'm not one to brag but it wasn't as bad I thought it would be. Not everyone shared my thought though. Some wimped out, but that was hardly a surprise is it? I finished as the top recruit in my company. The top 10 finishers were given the chance to try out for other elite squads. Along with 7 others I tried out for the commando unit Gerak Khas. 2 others decided to try out for the airborne commando's and the other guy, a big hairy ape called Mark(I never knew his surname) decided to go on being a regular grunt. He never was very outstanding anyway so I guess it was wise of him.
The 7 others are Abdul Hamid, Mohd. Saifful Rizal, Abdul Karim Abbas, Cassy Lim(the only chinese), Jinoh Kantagong, Usup Limpas and Sam Nathan. Among those 7, I was only close to Usup, who had the bunk next to mine in boot camp and Jinoh, our squad leader in boot camp. Usup is one of the smallest soldiers I have ever seen. When running the course, he has to jump to climb the 6 foot wall and also the monkey bars. Jinoh is about 5'8", looks mean and is ripped to the bone. He has a scar on his left shoulder. Supposedly his father was a bit unwired and tried to slash him with a parang. None of us really know because Jinoh refuses to talk about it. Saifful is the sort of guy that you would usually see on the streets. He looks just like the average malay citizen. Hamid has a mouth that seems incapable of uttering a single sentence without the use of profane words. But what's admirable is that he never boasts. He talks a lot, but never boasts. Weird. Karim is the exact opposite. He hardly speaks and is more of a listener. He has small eyes and a large nose. We make fun of him a lot but all he does is smile. That makes him dangerous. Cassy looks like a boiled lobster. He entered boot camp looking like a white sheet. He was so fair then. Noot anymore. Sam, naturally was already dark before he ended up in boot camp. He actually got good grades for his exams but he says he's tired of learning. So like all hot blooded foolish boys, he packed his bags, left a note for his parents and ran away to join the army. Idiot.
So here we are, the 8 of us sitting in the army bus(from our company, that is), headed for our 3 month course to become the elite, to become a commando, a green beret. We all were silent as the bus rumbled along the pot-holed road to our destination. I think I'm going to nap for a while.