Hostage rescue in Afghanistan

This is really cool. You've got to read the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:
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Meanwhile, at a base in Afghanistan, the task force was planning an operation to free the American captive. But although hostage rescue falls squarely within the mission profile of the units that comprised the task force, any operation to liberate him promised to be extremely demanding.
“Although these men are combat-tested and have executed literally hundreds of kill/capture missions, hostage rescue is completely different,” the special operations officer said. “The pucker factor is significantly higher.”
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and just a little more to whet your appetite for badassness:
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One of the commandos tossed a pebble against the hut’s tin door — a traditional way visitors announce their arrival in rural Afghanistan.
The rattle of the stone against the door failed to rouse the guards. “They were both zipped up inside their sleeping bags, sleeping,” one behind the hostage on the floor of the darkened hut and the other outside, the engineer said. But their prisoner was awake and suddenly alert.
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Like I said, read the whole thing. It's cool. When I was in the Army I had the good fortune to work with special forces operators. Talking to these guys in person, you'd never know that their day job is to go out and conduct movie-like almost unreal-seeming missions. It does indeed take a special breed to pull these things off.

For additional reading, the author of story, Sean Naylor, wrote an excellent book about Operation Anaconda. 'Not A Good Day To Die' is available on Amazon!