!free! | Commandos Beyond The Call Of Duty

Navigating an expansive island layout to neutralize anti-aircraft emplacements.

For commandos, the "call of duty" is already extreme. Parachuting behind enemy lines or conducting maritime counter-terrorism is the baseline. Therefore, to go beyond that requires a suspension of the survival instinct so absolute that it borders on the mythological.

While not revolutionary, the expansion adds: commandos beyond the call of duty

, who received the Medal of Honor for saving eight men in Vietnam while suffering seven major gunshot wounds, bayonet wounds, and a broken jaw, later admitted he wished he had died in the jungle because "living up to a legend is harder than dying."

This article explores the psychology, the history, and the visceral reality of those who went far above the standard expected of even special operations forces. Therefore, to go beyond that requires a suspension

Lest we forget.

The mission: Destroy five 155mm German guns aimed at Utah Beach. When Lomell and his small team crested the cliff, they found the gun emplacements empty—decoy positions. The mission had failed. The mission: Destroy five 155mm German guns aimed

When the team was compromised by goat herders and subsequently ambushed by over 50 Taliban fighters, the situation was hopeless. The four were pushed into a ravine. Murphy knew his only chance was to call for support, but they were in a dead zone. To get a signal, he had to move into an open field, directly in the line of enemy fire.