1st Sergeant Mohammad (Mo) Ayaz:
Serial Number: 1739258324
DOB December 12 1981
Marines, Marine Survival School, Marine Para-rescue, Delta Force.

Mo is something of an anomaly in the early 21st century United States military. His parents, Iqbal and Serina fled Iran in November of 1978 during the final stages of the collapse of the Shahs goverenment. Iqbal left behind a career as a civil engineer and Serina abandoned her career as a teacher. They hoped to restart their lives in the United States but were unfortunately unable to get jobs of the caliber they were used to in Iran. None the less they rented a small apartment in a in Brooklyn, Iqbal got a job working for an all night grocer and Serina began teaching math courses at night at a community outreach center.

Through his family’s encouragement and support Mo always excelled at school. He was also the captain of his high school soccer team and ended up valedictorian for his graduating class. Unfortunately his family could not afford to pay for collage and in his senior year he was convinced by a marine recruiter that the Marines were an excellent way to pay his way through school.

After graduating in 2000 Mo took a year off to help his dad in the shop before joining the Marines and entered boot camp in August 2001. It was 9 am on September 11th and Mo’s platoon was in the middle of PT when crowds of soldiers began running towards the mess hall. Mo stood along side his fellow soldiers watching in horror as the planes crashed into the WTC. Mo had been raised a devout Moslem and the idea that those who profess to follow the same faith as him could commit such acts against his families adopted country shook him too the bone. After much introspection Mo’s faith emerged stronger than before and he took it upon himself to serve as a sort of ambassador of the Moslem faith.

The next few months were difficult for Mo but he stuck it out through basic training always attempting to explain his faith to soldiers that were confused and scared of what he represented. Mo’s inherent compassion for his fellow soldiers began to develop into an aptitude for first aid. After completing boot camp he took his drill sergeants advice and began training as a combat medic. When one of his friends Private Harrison showed interest in applying for a survival course Mo agreed to apply as well so that they could help support each other through the grueling 8 week course. Though Harrison dropped out after 3 weeks due to a broken ankle Mo graduated with honors and attracted the attention of one of the instructors who was normally based with an elite Marine Pararescue Company. The idea of dropping into hot zones to help extract friendly troops under fire and generally going places no other medic would go interested Mo. After completing the pararescue training once again with honors Mo began to see the Marines as a career in and of themselves rather than a means to an end. He loved the discipline he found in the service and his easygoing nature had caused many of the barriers between him and his fellow soldiers that had been built up by September 11th to slowly degrade. Soon he was just another soldier and a damn good one at that.

By late 2002 Mo’s unit was sent into the mountains of Afghanistan and he experienced combat for the first time. Mo’s unit racked up decorations for performance during missions to extract American, Canadian British and Afghani troops under fire, Mo himself was awarded a silver star in early 2003. One day in December of 2004 Mo’s unit responded to a call from a ranger unit cut off by an ambush in a mountain pass. Mo was in the process of helping to carry a wounded soldier back to the Chinook when a mortar round went off less than 10 feet away from him, killing both the soldier he was carrying and another para-rescue soldier standing beside him. Mo was blown down a ravine by the blast and after a RPG round struck the side of the Chinook his unit was forced to evacuate leaving him for dead.

After coming to Mo quickly took stock of his situation. He realized that a uniform was a death sentence out here and quickly lost it replacing it with the baggy shirt and trousers of a Taliban soldier. Fortunately he had grown up speaking Arabic at home and was able to pass himself off as Iranian who was there to resist the American invasion. He slowly made his way across the Afghan countryside until an SAS unit attacked a group he was traveling with. Mo’s excitement at his potential rescue almost got him killed as he broke ranks and began running towards the British soldiers. In the end though it all worked out he was held as an enemy combatant for about 2 weeks before he convinced a CIA operative that he really was an American soldier. His knowledge of how Al-Queda moved around the Afghan wilderness proved invaluable and after extensive debriefing he was given six months leave Stateside.

Upon returning to duty he was sent to Iraq where he worked hard to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. They quickly came to recognize the friendly American soldier who spoke fluent Arabic and always had some hard candies in one of his ammo pouches for the kids. In late 2005 Mo’s convoy came under attack. Carefully timed roadside bombs blew up the first and last vehicles in the convoy as it passed down a narrow street in Tekriet and the trapped Hummers came under heavy small arms fire. Mo was riding shotgun in the second Hummer when the attack happened. Almost immediately after coming under fire Mo leapt out of the vehicle and dashed to the winch on the front of his Hummer pulling it almost 15 feet in the middle of the road under fire to reach the destroyed Vehicle before attaching the winch cable dashed back to the relative safety of his Hummer. Before he got back in though he somehow heard a cry for help over the deafening noise of the firefight. He realized that one of the passengers in the destroyed Hummer had survived the blast. Mo sprinted back across the dirt street which was by now pitted with bullets to rescue his injured comrade before running back to his original Hummer. Only once he was safely inside his Hummer did he realize he had been shot, not once but three times. He was awarded a bronze star and a purple heart for his actions.

After spending 6 months in a military hospital he was offered a coveted position in the elite but brutal Delta Force training school. After graduating with honors he began serving with Delta Force units working at putting down the various native rebellions that were beginning to flare up.

Mo’s Silver star also happens to be the reason he ended up joining the Delta Force. In August of 2003 his unit responded to a call for help from a small Delta Force unit only a few miles from the Pakistan boarder. There was no space for a helicopter to land so they were forced to rappel down and attempt to aid the Delta Force operatives in a withdrawal to a better LZ. One of the DF soldiers a Captain named George Richardson had been walking point when the unit came under attack and was wounded and cut off from the remainder of his squad. Mo and one of his fellow pararescue soldiers sprinted across the open brush to a makeshift foxhole that Richardson had dug. Mo’s comrade took a clean shot to the head in the mad dash over to him and after arriving Mo realized that Richardson couldn’t be moved in the condition he was in. His right lung had collapsed and the bullet was still somewhere in his chest cavity. Mo shouted the situation back to his comrades and told them they were going to need to get Richardson onto a chopper from where he was. His team agreed to radio in his co-ordinates for extraction but they were forced to evacuate with the remainder of the DF operatives down to the planned LZ. For the next half hour until a chopper arrived Mo alternated between providing frantic first aid and suppressive fire when the enemy soldiers got too close. All the while Richardson watched the young man in action and developed an appreciation for his skills and bravery. Richardson kept in touch with Mo from that point on. They became close friends during Richardson’s recovery and though Richardson’s combat days were finished after finding out that Mo was interested in joining the Delta Force he began slowly pulling strings to get Mo a position in the militaries most elite unit.