On March 24, 2016, a spokesman for the Russian base of Khmeimim in Syria said dryly: "In the area of the settlement of Tadmor (Palmyra, Homs province), an officer of the Russian special operations forces was killed while carrying out a special task of directing Russian aircraft strikes against ISIS terrorists."
The officer carried out a combat mission in the Palmyra area for a week, he identified the most important targets of terrorists and gave out precise coordinates for delivering strikes by Russian aviation. “The soldier died heroically, causing fire on himself after he was discovered by terrorists and surrounded,” the representative of the Khmeimim airbase concluded his message.
In this regard, dear readers, I would like to tell you a story.
Three minutes before death
As life proves to us every day, you can die in different ways. It is possible that no one will know. It is possible that many will recognize and remember for a long time. Sometimes even - obscenities. Or it is possible that they will remember for a long time and remember with a good word. Because a person did not just leave, but left, having accomplished a feat.
This is not the time or place to argue about the essence of this word. For some, a feat is "the consequences of stupidity shown by someone earlier." For some, this is a voluntary sacrifice, resulting in a heroic deed. We somehow think a little about how many heroes surround us. Authentic, they do not strive for publicity and show, therefore they are invisible. But they are. They keep our peace and safety. These people live according to the principles "I am responsible for everything" and "if not me, then who?" When everything is on the brink, these people are the first to take a step forward, covering the rest. Because their job is to defend their homeland. And not only his own.
Once in one Middle Eastern, and therefore not so distant, country, a person was preparing to die. The man was ours and very special, that's why he decided to die also on purpose, and in a very our way.
Of course, it would have been better not to die, but the person weighed all the pros and cons and chose death. The alternative seemed worse to him. I understand that for many it looks paradoxical, but - like this. The man deliberately made a choice in favor of “not living,” because he was very ours and very special. And since he was very special, then by virtue of his profession he knew for sure that he could not be captured by someone other than ours.
By virtue of the same profession, a person knew that the statement “life is priceless” does not always correspond to reality. Here, let's say, as in this case. Because in this very Middle Eastern country, the price of capturing a person like him alive is $ 50,000. Plus or minus, of course, adjusted for military rank. On the contrary, it seemed to be encouraging. After all, they will take them alive, oh-you!.. But the person who made the decision to die was able - again, by virtue of his profession - to calculate everything a few steps ahead. They will take, and then they will torture. It is in books and films that heroes die without a word. In fact, there are such craftsmen with the appropriate means that their dumb will speak. It was impossible for our man to speak. It was not only about the prestige of the state, honor, oath, military duty, although this, of course, too. Most importantly, to speak - meant to set up your comrades. Those who acted on the ground, and those who, with a jet roar, slashed the sky with contrails.
A long time ago, and on the other side of the Earth, the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo, vassal of Nabeshima Mitsushige, the third ruler of the Hizen lands, said: “I realized that the Way of the Samurai is death. In an either-or situation, don't hesitate to choose death. It is not hard. Be determined and act. A man in a Middle Eastern country hardly remembered the advice of the old samurai, if he knew about it at all. The person had no time to remember and reflect. The man was just acting. Probably, he was spurred on by adrenaline and pain. Pain, yes … If it had not been for a shot in the leg, he would have fought. And maybe he would even try to leave. Now it all came down to one thing - not to give the enemy another three minutes. Then death will come, but until that moment it was still necessary to hold out.
In a jumble of biblical ruins
They had been working hard for the previous week. “They” are a group of local special forces and they are assigned to them - also a special forces soldier, but with a different citizenship. The locals guarded him, and he performed the work of PAN - an advanced aviation gunner. And this was another reason why he was not recommended to be taken prisoner. Few people in war are so disliked as artillery spotters and advanced aircraft controllers. They probably don't like them anymore, only snipers …
So, all week they worked to wear and tear, moving in the vanguard of the offensive. Under the cover of darkness, they went far ahead along the scree, hid, and with the first rays of the sun "came into play." Crystals of salt on sweaty backs, chapped faces, eyes red from lack of sleep, crunching of sand on teeth, flashes of shots in the night and conducting bombs during the day - this went on for a week.
The offensive was on the ancient city - there was an order to spare as much as possible what had survived from it. In practice, this meant that in order to clearly identify targets, one had to get close to them. Otherwise, in the jumble of biblical ruins, it was simply impossible to understand what was ahead. One could, probably, under a plausible pretext, spit on such subtleties. To lie somewhere higher and from afar, using a laser rangefinder, grind all this "antiquity" with mines into fine dust. Together with the enemy. But our man could not do that. He came here not to destroy, but to protect. Therefore, without any hesitation, PAN and his group continued to crawl literally under the very nose of the enemy. For the sake of saving stones that remembered the ancient Jews, Romans, Parthians, Mongols …
Auguste Mariet, Heinrich Schliemann, Arthur Evans, Howard Carter, Austin Henry Layard - the names of these scientists, who have done a lot to preserve the historical and cultural world heritage, are known to many. The name of PAN, who was actually doing the same thing, was known only to his command, the rest of the initiates were content with only the call sign. The military scientific feat lasted, as already mentioned, for a week. Then, at dawn, the group was discovered.
The enemy's reaction was swift. The commandos were pressed down with fire, simultaneously pushing pick-ups with machine guns from two directions. An attempt to break away failed - the group was squeezed into a ring, which was shrinking with every minute. No, of course, help was immediately called in … But overnight the group moved too far from its forward positions. Now they simply did not have time. Artillery with aviation, too, could not do anything - the enemy approached the group at close range.
"Hold on!" - exclaimed on the radio. It was clear that the rescuers were pressing hard, but … But one by one the local special forces died or simply disappeared without a trace in a dance of shots. A PAN with a shot through his leg crawled into some hole, from where he threw grenades and fired back until the Kalash spat out a tracer bullet instead of the usual bullet. It was bad. This means that there are three pieces left in the magazine of cartridges - no more. Our man, equipping automatic "horns", was always the first to drive three or four tracer cartridges into the store in order to understand in time when it was time to reload in battle. So the tracer shot was really bad. BK was left crying. And the almost abysmal shooting was a completely disgusting sign. Therefore, the enemy realized that only one of the group survived, and he would now be taken prisoner. Alive.
Special profession
It was at this very moment that our special man must have decided to die. What he was thinking at that moment, now no one will know. He came here, to the Middle East, from a distant northern country, to defend this northernmost country here. To save what is left of the Middle East. People who do not want to live according to the laws of barbarism, and buildings, through the efforts of the barbarians, systematically turned only into illustrations for history textbooks. He did what he could. Now all that was left was to do what had to be done.
Dexterously, as he was taught, reloaded the machine gun. He figured that from his pit to the antique columns, the fragments and the shock wave of the FABs would not reach. I contacted a pair of bombers loitering to the north. I gave them my coordinates, accompanying them with the mark "stationary target." Waited for confirmation of receipt of data. I found out the flight time. With a few shots he put out of action the "Strelets" - the reconnaissance, control and communications complex. Then he took his last fight, a whole three minutes long, from which he emerged victorious. At least, he held out until the moment when his pit and the surrounding environs were raised to the dazzling Middle Eastern skies with an ammotol bomb. Together with himself, the enemies and their pickups. Those who dropped the "Sushka" had no idea that they had bombed in their own way, and for a long time afterwards they tried to get a "receipt" from the ground about the results of the bomb attack.
A la guerre comme a la guerre.
For the deceased, what he did was work. For us, what he did was a feat.
Then one of the surviving participants of the unsuccessful capture during the BSHU will be taken prisoner himself. Shell-shocked, with goggled eyes, he will talk about our man who did not give up during interrogation. In the Motherland, which recognized the death of its officer, they will then write that the local special forces abandoned him and fled without exception. Abroad, they will also write about the deceased, but more and more - shocked and with a bunch of exclamation marks. The British The Daily Mirror will even go bankrupt on this occasion: “Russian 'Rambo' wipes out ISIS thugs by calling airstrike on HIMSELF when surrounded by Jihadi forces”. Our pilots will avenge the deceased fiercely, turning all roads for the enemy fleeing from the ancient city into one continuous "bomb alley". Yes, there will be a lot of things later. But He will no longer be with us. He, a man, guardian, protector, warrior, will remain under that ancient city forever. Simply because our person had such a profession, a very special profession - to defend the Motherland. To protect her, if necessary, even at very distant lines …
Of course, in this text, all the characters are fictional, all coincidences are accidental. That does not negate the heroism of one of our very special people. Please remember him, who died for his friends. Remember him and those of ours who continue to defend their Motherland on the territory of one Middle Eastern country. As Nikolai Tikhonov wrote in his ballad:
Used to make nails from these people:
There would be no stronger nails in the world.
