Detachment Delta by Don Bendell

Detachment-Delta knew about them. They essentially stayed to themselves, trained together, and were called the “Funny Platoon” by the other C.A.G. operators who sometimes worked with them. Most were military intelligence, civil affairs, or psyops specialists of varying expertise, and were used with male Delta operators when there was a need for covert activity and a married couple or boyfriend and girl-friend pair might raise less suspicion. They were also used when it was less conspicuous for a woman to be in a certain area than a man.
    She nodded at Pops when he got up and excused himself with the general.
    â€œFolks, I want to introduce you to Sergeant First Class Fila Jannat. She will be involved in this operation, too. Sergeant Jannat is a decorated combat veteran, an intelligence and language specialist, an expert skydiver, an all-around athlete, and a fully qualified and highly trained member of our unit.”
    She smiled and nodded at everyone in the room. Fila Jannat was an Iranian name, Charlie thought, and he wondered to himself what her story was.
    Fila was born in Tehran to a very strict, traditional Shia Muslim father. Her mother felt sorry for her, as her father was so strict, but she could never show her concern for her daughter to him. The youngster was extremely intelligent and even as a young girl was always the most beautiful female in the room, whether faces were covered or not. Her body was as beautiful as the rest of her, and it developed very early. When she was fourteen years old, Fila was assaulted but not actually raped by her first cousin, and he was caught by her father. She was naked, as he had torn her robe from her, but she had fought the lad off successfully. The young man was severely lectured by Fila’s father and his own father, her father’s older brother. The boy was even given seven lashes.
    Fila’s father made his decision about Fila as soon as he learned what had happened. His daughter had disgraced his family and would be stoned to death in an honor killing the next day in the square down the street. He intended to hurl the first stone.
    Fila’s mother risked her own life and well-being by waking the young lady in the middle of that night. She gave her a handful of rials and told her that her own first cousin, who was a merchant, was traveling to Baghdad and would secrete her there. Her mother had tears in her eyes, but told Fila to leave quickly and make her way to the mother’s cousin and hand him the money. She said the man could be trusted and indeed he could.
    In Baghad, she got a job in a downtown café and worked hard, saving money, and continued to grow even more beautiful. All was well, until she was spotted by several of Saddam Hussein’s top bodyguards one day walking with a coworker. She and the coworker were taken to one of the president’s opulent palaces on the Tigris River. The bullies soon learned that she and the young man were Shiites, and Saddam and those who were in his ruling class were all Sunnis. The men laughed while two of them raped her on a sofa, and while her friend wanted to help but watched helplessly. Afterward, she was escorted to the big gates on the giant compound and shoved out into the street. The young man was then sodomized and started crying, so one of the bodyguards put a bullet in his forehead while the others laughed. His body was dumped in the river.
    It took two days of hiding and abject fear, but Fila made it back to the café. She sat down with the owner, who was a man who had been trained to run a restaurant while in New York City for four years. He spoke about his positive experiences all the time in America. It was with his assistance that she was finally able to get a one-way ticket.
    On her way to America, Fila got into a conversation with the flight attendant. That woman’s husband was a Special Forces colonel commanding the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The