Solo Delta Operations - Lone Man Missions with John 'Shrek' McPhee | Mike Drop #195

About this video

Ritland’s guest recounts a solo intelligence-gathering mission in Afghanistan where he was sent alone to locate and film a target near Tora Bora. The operator describes traveling undercover in local clothes, hitchhiking through multiple dangerous checkpoints, capturing footage of the target, and narrowly avoiding detection through improvisation and aggression at armed checkpoints before making it back to coordinate an assault.

Key takeaways

• The guest describes accepting a high-risk solo mission without knowing he could refuse, believing he was the only option to accomplish the objective
• According to the guest, survival required constant vigilance, including staying awake with stimulants out of fear for his safety and bluffing aggressively through armed checkpoints
• The operator recounts successfully gathering intelligence footage that enabled a follow-on assault, demonstrating the value of unconventional tactics in denied territory

Episode details: published July 9, 2024 · 1.6M views · 8:18 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

← Previous: Sheriff of Baghdad John ‘Shrek’ McPhee · Next: Inside the White House on 9/11 - Secret Service Agent Ken Valentine Tells All | Mike Drop #196 →

All Mike Ritland videos · Mike Ritland profile · Mike Drop (official site)