u/blacksheepussy

In 2003, the US Army's 10th Mountain Division launched air assault raids across Kunar and Nuristan Provinces, with the goal of killing or capturing senior al-Qaeda, Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) commanders. In this particular raid, the 10th Mountain moved through arduous terrain over several days after being dropped off 22 miles from the target area. Carrying large rucksacks at high elevation in steep mountains while maintaining the element of surprise made progress extremely slow. After reaching the target village, they launched an aggressive raid at dawn on a set of compounds, capturing HIG commander Ghulam Sakhee and a few others, while killing several fighters.

Due to the extreme terrain, Chinook pilots from the Pennsylvania National Guard had to make a rare "landing" on the roof of one of the buildings to extract the prisoners. The 10th Mountain would continue this month long operation, being regularly picked up, dropped off, and resupplied by these PANG pilots while continuing to conduct raids throughout the region. The overall operation ended with the last raid involving dropping the men off on snowy ridges at 10,000 feet, where they maneuvered through difficult terrain before getting picked up again.

Merrill's Marauders were an elite unit of US Army infantrymen, specially trained to operate deep behind Japanese lines. Almost every operation they carried out required grueling long distance marches through intense jungle only to attack numerically superior Japanese forces. During all of WW2, no American unit covered more ground than them, spanning 1,000 miles during their time on mainland Asia.

Of the 2,750 Marauders to enter Burma, only two were left alive who had never been hospitalized with wounds or major illness. None of the horses and only 41 mules (originally 700 mules/horses) survived. In spite of this, the Marauders still boasted a 14-1 kill ratio against the Japanese.

The Marauders would eventually be disbanded and are the direct historical predecessors of the US Army's 75th Ranger Regiment. The colors/flash of the Marauders are still used by the Ranger Regiment to this day.