Our story starts with a tragedy, that could have been avoided. It was 2011 in Tora-Bora Afghanistan and my Delta team was working with locals to help us find and identify the enemy, as well as his logistics. As we neared a village, our guides took off running, and we came under fire immediately.

During the firefight that ensued, we did battle with our enemies for nearly thirty hours before we had finally cleared the village,which was actually a trap, it was a a fake village. We killed nearly three hundred Taliban fighters, we suffered three KIA and one critically injured. The landing zone being safe now, we called in Para rescue to come gather us wounded brother.

As the Batallion leader, I travelled with my injured soldier. We arrived at Kandahar hospital, where our brother was taken in for surgery. He had been shot three times, all in the vest, but a RPG or hand grenade went off right next to him. He was full of holes, we exhausted all our medical gear keeping the pressure on the wounds and our medic kept him hydrated. So a team of Afghanistan Surgeons decend upon out brother. I was in the operating theatre and immediately noticed a large number of mice moving around the operating theatre with impunity. There were mouse droppings all over the OR. And several brave mice crawled up onto the gurney and began to attack his open wounds. The surgeons seemed not to care about this. I dragged my Hajji translator into the O.R. and had him explain in no uncertain terms, that if any harm came to my brother due to this mouse infestation, I would see revenge on every person who came in contact with my brother.

The surgery lasted six hours. At the end, he was taken to ICU and monitored. He died two days later, not due to his wounds from the battlefield, but due to Sepsis or Septic Shock, that he gained in the filthy operating room. True to my word, I brought the entire batallion of Delta, SEAL's, Para Rescue, Force Recon Marines, as well as the SAS, FSB and Mossad units assigned to me. I had four gunships in the air, six Apache attack helicopters, tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles etc. We were there to avenge the loss of one of our own. Had I given the green light, which was actually a code, and that 'go' code was 'I hate mices to pieces'. One of the surgeons came out realizing they were all facing death. He explained to all of us, that our brother had become septic and died to to mouse contamination.

And with the very limited budget that the hospital has they cannot, be effective at two tasks. One; healing the sick. Two; wiping out mice. I had my battalion stand down and return to base. I retired that day. And started 'The Pied piper' That was five years ago. And there never a day when I do not get weepy thinking about my brother, friend and teacher sometimes.