“The most eventful mission in Irpin was when I was placed in the unit led by the legendary ROKSEAL.
We drove to a staging area and accepted a mission. Move through the city, take a building, ambush Russians. Simple, as briefings go. Unfortunately moving through these tightly packed neighborhoods proved difficult, we had to make a hole in every fence to cut through the yards.
At some point a local ran up to us and warned us where the enemy was. He helped us navigate the concrete jungle. I think guys like that are real heroes. Rest of us are professional operators, this is what we do, but this guy was some civilian in his fifties, he put his life at risk to make our op easier.
We made it to the house and we could hear the engine of an armored vehicle just on the other side of the building.
Boys rushed upstairs to find a vantage point from which they could fire an NLAW.
It didn’t go as planned. Our NLAW guy was spotted and he took fire, dropping the NLAW he ran downstairs. At this Point the ROKSEAL had already dropped two Russians escorting the BMD.
We expected it to turn it’s turret and rip us to shreds but the driver was so confused he started making an U turn in the middle of the road. That gave us much needed time.
Running downstairs I saw that one of our guys had taken a hit and was tended to by another. I gave him my shears to cut his kit to see the damage, it looked like a shrapnel wound. No biggie we thought, just shrapnel but he was losing blood. He lost consciousness but miraculously came back to the land of the living himself. I’ve never seen this happen, I thought once you lose consciousness you’re out until medic gives you adrenaline or something but no, this absolute madlad just woke up.
We patched him up and began evacuation. It was like Favela from call of duty, running through houses, yards, jumping fences under fire. It was the most high octane adrenaline packed event of my life. It also made me realize I should’ve gone easy on powerlifting and prioritized some cardio…To quote the great flannel daddy, ‘If you’re not fit you’re gonna die’.”
– “Viking” Eastern Volunteer. Battle of Irpin.
PART ONE
This story was documented by Nicholas Laidlaw.
Every soldier has a story, and every story deserves to be told.
*All photos belong to the original owner
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