Just after first light they heard the terrorists praying for the first time all night. Christian Craighead told the Kenyans to get ready, then started singing the Hail Mary. On "amen," four grenades came down the stairs.





Part 3 of 3 — the finale. The seventh-floor standoff through the night: the iPhone charger, the fire alarm that ran for fifteen hours, the minibars. Then Iraq, 2003 — three men walking into an armoured division with no air support, the whisper behind the berm, a black dog on a knoll at dusk, and the night he took communion from the brigade Padre in a factory near the Garden of Eden. Then back to the hotel for the final assault, the kitchen with every stove left on, the basement in ankle-deep hot water and total darkness, and the last two.





It ends with a speech to the Kenyan officers, a list of missing names, and a cup of tea.





CHAPTERS


0:00 Cold open — the black dog


0:39 Part 3


1:41 How did they have that many grenades?


3:36 "Are you American?" — the US mentors ordered out


4:44 "What's your plan?" "Wait for them to come down and kill them."


6:06 Four terrorists, two injured, no hostages — no longer a rescue


7:17 Grenades "for the love of the game"


7:36 1:30 a.m. — the iPhone charger


9:07 Fifteen hours of fire alarm


10:15 The minibars: "Isn't that theft?"


11:49 Two terrorists in the basement


12:20 First light — the low point


12:36 Iraq, 2003 — the Pathfinders and the mission nobody wanted


14:32 Three men into an armoured division, no air


18:39 Cleaning the guns because you're going to use them


19:18 Blacked-out faces, no body armour, no helmets


20:19 The decision: take the track


21:42 Whispering behind the berm


23:24 The rifle jams. Grenade. Pistol. Five.


25:36 "This is why we do the two-mile test"


26:43 Nobody followed. "We wanted more."


27:19 The black dog on the knoll — "I think we're gonna kill people tonight"


28:34 "The best day of my life" — communion with the Padre


32:56 Back to Nairobi: they start praying


34:13 Answering with a Hail Mary — "at the hour of our death, amen"


34:34 Four grenades. The final battle.


35:35 Terrorist one, terrorist two — "Cease fire"


36:21 "You don't f*** with Kenya" — dancing in the kill zone


37:19 Photographs of the dead


38:04 102 rooms to clear; room 316


39:30 "We need six guys." Four step up.


40:40 The kitchen: every stove left on for fifteen hours


42:07 The basement — hot water, steam, pitch black


43:51 A terrorist steps around the corner


44:57 The glass doors and the middle finger


45:50 The glass goes


46:22 The grenade that landed a few feet away


47:16 "They're dead." "Make sure."


47:38 "I'm trying to take photographs here"


48:14 The speech — "Remember what we all did for Kenya today"


48:41 The missing list; walking the hotel alone


49:18 "I went home and had a nice cup of tea"


49:23 "This almost didn't get printed"





—


Christian Craighead served 28 years in the British Army, including the Parachute Regiment, the Pathfinder Platoon, and the SAS. On January 15, 2019, while serving as a liaison officer in Kenya, he responded alone to the Al-Shabaab attack on the DusitD2 complex. He was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.





Send Me is hosted by Michael Blevins.


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