Nick Jones says the mission began as a straightforward cave clearance operation targeting ISIS fighters in northern Iraq.Intelligence teams had spent weeks monitoring a network of cave entrances that commanders believed militants were using.By the time Jones and his team were assigned the mission, the number of fighters observed in the area had more than doubled, he recalls.The plan unraveled when one assault element discovered a cave that wasn't on any intelligence maps.
Nick Jones served 12 years in the Marines.
Courtesy of Nick Jones
Jones says the firefight erupted almost immediately. After reports of casualties came over the radio, he left his own position and ran toward the fighting. Heavy gunfire from ISIS fighters poured from a fortified cave entrance.Crawling toward the cave under fire, Jones helped pull a wounded French special operations operator to safety and tried to suppress the fighters with rifle fire and grenades.As the battle unfolded, he realized the mission had changed. It was no longer a cave clearance operation. It had become a recovery mission.
Jones, a Navy Cross recipient who served 12 years in the Marine Corps with eight of those years as a Marine Raider, expected combat when he deployed to Iraq in 2020.
