But ayah lawd

It was September 10^th 2012, day 0ne of our off road seven man convoy towards Nahuyn; a small village in the east of Saudi Arabia now controlled by an infamous terrorist group called Blackriver. This group has been held liable for dozens of assassinations and mass murders in the Middle East including the killing of 15 British Soldiers. Recently one of their dealers slipped up when a transaction went wrong and lead to a gun battle where he received multiple gunshot wounds. Luckily enough he survived and was apprehended by British intelligence and brought in for questioning.

Five days later here we are being guided by a GPS as our Husky drove through dessert terrain. Our mission was straight forward, infiltrate the enemy's base, gather Intel, and leave before reinforcements arrive. However Commander Michael received an urgent call for backup ten clicks north from our current position. A squad had come under relentless enemy fire in an area where they were at a disadvantage. Max informed the fire team behind about the emergency situation and they quickly took lead as we followed. Their vehicle was more weaponized than the Husky, being equipped with a 7.62mm L7 machine gun with a grenade launcher attachment mounted on the roof and mine armor protection, the Panther is perfect for providing fire support.

Within the five kilometers mark the sound of war became eminent over the roaring of our engines. Commander Michael readied his MK40 while shouting, "Safety off men, guns hot, shoot at will." Max took one last puff of his cigarette and threw it out the window. He loaded his gun and adjusted the focus of its scope. Ronny sat calmly in the driver's seat with a serious but almost excited look on his face as he glared into the abyss of dust in front of him. It became obvious how nervous I was after my twelfth deep-breath exhale and constant time checking. It was half pass one when the Commander turned to me and said, "Jacob, I hope you're not having a nervous breakdown cause now is not the time," I replied, "No Commander I'm fine. Just a little gas sir!" everyone laughed.

At the sound of the Panther's Machine gun firing, Ronny switched into 5^th gear and rushed over to the position of the pinned down team. The fire team was doing a great job pepping the enemy with bullets and grenades giving us enough cover to reach the team. As soon as the Husky stopped we Max and I leaped out and sprinted towards the half blown apart two bedroom concrete shack where the squad was. Ronny and the Commander exited the Husky running their guns hot in an attempt to repel the enemy from advancing closer to our positions. Max cautiously approached the squad with his gun ready as I scanned the area for anything or anyone suspicious behind. One on the squad members had been shot in the leg and was laying there with his gun pointed at Max. I came over and told them we're here to help so no need to great with guns. His other three team mates finally noticed us and asked, "what's the plan fellas," at that exact moment our Commander walked and replied, "Delta Squad 4 we are only here to keep you alive until the extraction chopper arrives. HQ says it's just ten minutes away."

We then took up positions near every opening of the building guarded with our guns. Max being the trained medic cared the wounds of the endured soldier. The fire team nearing the end of their ammo retreated to the rear of our fort but not before taking out a couple RPGs. We continued defending the fort while tallying the number of enemy men taken out by the glowing bullets of our guns. However it did not matter how much of the enemy fell, when dozens more appeared at the sound of howls and screaming. I conserved my bullets and left the wasteful shooting to the others. My task was to mark RPG users and snipers and kill them before they killed us. A simple task that proved difficult with the high wind, clouds of dust, and hot pieces of metal zipping through the air. The scent of gun powder and burning lead was a constant reminder that I was no longer in Slough fixing cars and trucks, but in the battlefield.

We were all now down to our last two rounds of ammo and became restless and impatient. The Helicopter was already 20 minutes late. Plan B would be to all cram up in the vehicles and hope to avoid being hit by RPGs as we fled. At that moment we noticed what sounded like helicopters approaching. Ronny let out a sigh of relief and we all got back to defending our positions. The Helicopter ascended over the dessert Boulders behind us into the Commander's plain sight. The enemy will run now I thought, until my Commander slipped out an "Oh shit," and from then my hoped faded away. Our rescue chopper was spiraling towards the ground whilst engulfed in flames. It had been shot down but by whom? The answer came hovering above us, an unknown helicopter, equipped with weapons that could blow even our vehicles to pieces. The unknown helicopter fired two missiles at the Husky flipping it over. Ronny quickly got onto the Panther's mounted machine gun and engaged the enemy helicopter with the 50 cal. We were in the worse scenario possible moreover over graves were dug for us here. The helicopter flew off in the distance to avoid the machine gun firing and to align itself for the take down. At that point in time an opportunity arose and I switched to my 800 meter range sniper rifle, waiting to for the Helicopter to face us. As it aligned itself for firing it became in the range on my rifle. Immediately I pulled the trigger firing three shots through the wind shield taking out one of the pilots. Ronny then fired the last RPG blowing the tail blade of the chopper to pieces however as a consequence the chopper came crashing towards us. We all tried to evacuate the building but weren't fast enough. The impact of the blast propelled me far enough to avoid being hit by debris. As I came to I realized the squad did not escape the building in time. Ronny helped me up onto my feet while two soldiers of the fire team pulled max out of the debris. As max stood up he watched the guys who had helped him fell to the ground covered in blood. We had nearly forgotten that we were in the midst of a battle. There was now no cover protection and the commander could not be spotted. We assumed the Commander had been buried under the debris but we would be shot to death before getting near there. A decision had to be made while there was still a means to a quick escape.

Ronny made a dash to the driver's seat of the Panther and started her engine. At the sound of an RPG whistling pass our right ears we too desperately dashed for to the Panther, Max tossing his remaining smoke bombs at the enemy while I gave covering fire. Max got into the front as I landed in the back seat. Without a moment to spear we were speeding down the lifeless hill with no destination in mind. Escaping alive was our only priority. We drove for two hours not letting a second go by without moaning for the lost of our comrades. It was a traumatizing experience for Max to watch two soldiers die in front of him. He kept silent the entire journey, but I wouldn’t blame him we were all saddened as the reality of war sunk in. Everything doesn’t always go according to plan. I had tried contacting HQ for instructions on how to proceed, but it seemed all our radio transmitters were damaged; maybe the explosion had caused an EMP. According to army protocol in these situations you are to either return to base empty handed or complete the mission. A decision had to be made at that moment. I knew deep down we all wanted to return HQ as quickly as possible but our circumstances wouldn’t have so easily allowed that. HQ was sixty miles away and the Panther could have only taken us thirty miles with the fuel she had left. In addition to that we had no rations, little ammo, and 1.5 liters of water each. All of the supplies had been blown up along with the Husky. Max and Ronny both turned to me with a confident look on their faces. Max asked me, " So what will it be Jacob? Which path shall we take?" I was a bit shocked from the question. I wanted to ask why but Ronny answered my question before I could ask it. He said, "Jacob the way you easily took out that helicopter pilot today showed us your capabilities. I've never seen someone as focus and as accurate as you. Your ability to analyze a situation and act is much higher than ours. If it's anyone that can keep us alive it's you."

Max said, "Lead the way." I started thinking out loud, if we headed to HQ the Panther would take us half way and the rest of the journey would be made on foot and in case of an ambush we would last seven minutes before ammo runs out. However the mission target is ten miles from our current location and at the enemy's base we would have the opportunity to resupply ammo and find a radio. Of course that would be like three wolves walking into a den if tigers. The original mission required a team of seven soldiers to be successful; would an army of three be able to pull it off without dying? Night descended upon us, we had been traveling all day so we decided to setup a camp for the night. Each man stood watch for three hours allowing the others to get some rest.

At day break we headed out to Nahuyn to complete the mission. I was slightly nervous, wondering if I had made the right decision for the team. If Max and Ronny die it would be my entire fault. However it was too late to begin cowering over my decision. I needed to act confident and stay focused in order to successfully pull off this covert mission. We arrived at Nahuyn at 8:05 am and made the rest of the journey by foot. We were dressed as commoners wearing robes to conceal our small weapons. Not trying to arouse suspicion we searched around the village for the enemy's base, but it proved to be more of a treasure hunt without any clues. Lucky a suspicious truck with masked men passed in our direction and we trailed the truck right to the enemy. Their base was an abandon apartment complex; two stories high by a hundred feet wide Now that phase one of the mission was done it was time to gear up and execute phase two; silent breach. Max planted some fifteen minute timed detonators on empty buildings near the enemy's location. The explosions provide the distraction we needed to breach the building undetected. Once we were in we moved quickly but with caution, silently removing any target that got in our way. There was not as much activity as we originally thought. This worked out in our favour as we searched the rooms for any useful Intel on the enemy's objectives. We found a cell phone, a map with areas of interest circled in red and a folder with marked up photos of men. Ten minutes passed, we had already over stayed our visit but we still needed to find a radio.

With the sound of footsteps in the corridor, Max closed in and locked door. That moment I knew what we are thinking as we positioned for battle. At this point we were hoping to avoid anymore confrontation with the enemy but it appears luck was not on our side as the door knob started rattling. Max stood behind the door as it opened while Ronny and I hid behind a desk in the far corner of the room. The two figures entered the room abruptly as if they were in a hurry. They searched the desk for the files we had stolen, becoming alarmed when as realization told them the files were missing. It seemed our presence was unknown to the enemy. Just as they left I accidently tipped over a trash bin which caught the attention of one of the enemies. He walked in slowly, Max pulled out his knife, I stood up to capture the enemy's attention. As he was about to alarm the others, Max Covered his mouth and assinated him, but his partner had also turned around and came to find him. He saw Max and radioed backup. Ronny took him out with his silent pistol. We all made our way out the room but not before grabbing the radio. As enemies poured into the building I radioed HQ for an extraction. We made our way through the back exit of the building guns blazing. HQ radioed back letting us know that there were friendlies heading to our positions now and all we had to do was stay alive. Ronny found cover for us and we defended that area. Lucky for us the enemy had no RPGs so the worry of being blown up faded.

Our support arrived not a moment sooner and with air support to level the enemy's base. The team greeted us and told us we fought well. We boarded the helicopter and ended our mission sucessfully.

Facebook and Twitter

Over the years Facebook and Twitter have grown into very popular social networking services, claiming an active user base of more than five million it is obvious why they have became such powerful media and interaction tools, especially amongst the younger generation. Both sites are unique from each other in terms of design and function but deliver the same social satisfaction. Within these networks lays the latent potential to be used as an educational instrument in schools.

Facebook provides easy tools for creating pages and groups on their network. Teachers and students can create facebook groups or facebook pages and share educational links, documents or engage in online debate. These groups and pages also have the option of being made into either a closed or open network. Closed groups allow only a selected few to view and access its content whereas open groups are public; meaning its content is available for all to view and modify.

Twitter being design as a blog (micro blog) is much simpler to navigate and allows readers to become followers of other twitter accounts. Being a follower means you are subscribed as a member of that profile and receive notification on the tweeting activity. Teachers and students can subscribe to one another's twitter and continue unfinished class discussions. Using twitter you can:

Strengthen the classroom community; Teachers and students learn about each other as they interact on twitter therefore leading to better mutual respect in the classroom.

Get instant feedback; with twitter's message pushing to mobiles (a feature that has to be setup) teachers can tweet for feedback on lectures and receive prompt replies.