Lone Target (2014) s01e02 Episode Script
Testing The Eagle
Narrator: Almost every country has a specialized military tracking unit [ All grunt .]
trained to capture terrorists [ Indistinct shouting .]
guard borders [ Dog barking .]
and hunt criminals.
Stand back! and now they're about to face one of their toughest targets Joel lambert.
Let's go.
Come on.
Narrator: A former Navy seal and expert in escape and evasion All right.
Come back.
Joel's mission is to put them to the test They're not prepared for this.
This is my turf.
Narrator: And evade capture for 36 hours.
Quitting is never an option.
I'm gonna die before I quit.
Narrator: And today Joel faces off against the army's elite phantom recon unit.
Man: He's using the tree line, but he ain't going too far.
Narrator: Over the next 36 hours There he is.
Joel tries to escape I'm gonna be hunting them just as much as they're hunting me.
Narrator: As they rush Really close, but I can't move.
Narrator: To catch him.
Contact front! Narrator: The hunt is on.
-- Captions by vitac -- captions paid for by discovery communications lambert: The army knows I'm breaching their facility today.
But they're not expecting me to drop in like this.
[ Radio chatter .]
Narrator: Joel's just touched down in the fort huachuca U.
S.
army training facility, home to phantom recon, the U.
S.
army's specialized search-and-rescue unit.
Man: Hey, chief, we got a situation.
Call the staff.
Narrator: They know that today Joel will be testing them.
0630 hours over northern sector in fort huachuca.
And they are ready.
One parachute was deployed.
We are at 535955.
This is the vicinity where his parachute was last seen being deployed.
Man: Let's find this high-value target, and I want him now.
I have to assume that they saw me coming down, so I've got to get off this spot right now.
But there's some good stuff here on the parachute I don't want to leave behind.
Narrator: Joel has brought with him just minimal supplies and acts quickly to scavenge his parachute for needed materials.
This parachute silk is gonna be really useful for either a night shelter or a day shelter.
I'm not sure what the temperature is gonna be, so I need to be prepared.
Here.
Good section of silk.
These lines can be used for all kinds of stuff -- making a tent, making a shelter, tourniquets.
Just no end to the uses a good wad of cord can have.
Narrator: In addition, Joel carries with him only a basic survival kit containing a knife, a compass, a flashlight, along with a pilot's radio and several nonlethal grenades.
He also has a canteen with 32 ounces of water, but no food.
Phantom recon specializes in tracking down high-value targets in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Here we go.
Got it.
Originally formed during world war ii, phantom recon includes more than 300 handpicked troops, including infantrymen, scouts, and communication specialists.
This unit is in the final stages of training, and today's mission will be their last test before being deployed to active combat.
It's gonna be really easy for them to track my direction, 'cause the grass is gonna lay down in my direction of travel.
So what I'm gonna do is do a quick deception path.
Hopefully, it will throw them off a little bit in that direction.
As a Navy seal, we learn counter-tracking tactics just like this, laying a false track going the opposite direction from where I actually want to go.
Trying to keep the grass in the same direction I moved from.
[ Breathing heavily .]
All right.
Now I'm gonna head off this direction, and as I step down on the grass, I'm gonna kick it back up so it doesn't look like I moved through here.
I landed just 2 Miles from phantom recon's headquarters.
I now have just 36 hours to travel 16 Miles South to my extraction point, where I'll have to radio for a helicopter rescue.
The phantoms have no idea where my extraction point is, and they must try to physically catch me before I escape.
Those mountains are at least 5 Miles away, and I got to move fast.
Man: No, go right side.
Back up.
Narrator: Phantom recon has access to a variety of army assets, but now they're focusing their efforts on their ground-tracking skills.
Try to find spoor.
All right.
Narrator: Leading the 10-man tracking team is sergeant Matthew overway.
Overway: Obviously, you got to find a direction of travel, and sometimes it's hard, because a lot of times, they're walking through this rocky stuff.
That doesn't leave a lot of trail.
We've got a parachute.
We're gonna try and acquire a good set of tracks leading out of here.
Narrator: His training adviser and mentor is Peter kerr, a 20-year military veteran.
He's now a tactical training specialist to the world's most elite forces.
Color change on the ground there.
Kerr: We're gonna have to do a big 360.
We'll mark this, and then we'll move, finish the 360, see if he crossed the road.
Just watch out for snakes.
Narrator: Because phantom recon must identify and confirm Joel's tracks, he gets a much needed head start.
What the hunter force is doing right now is trying to pick up my track.
I landed right here, but what I did was I laid a deception trail on this direction, backtracked, and then took off in this direction.
And they spread out and cast across, trying to find my track, pick up a deception trail or pick up on my track.
They'll cast.
They'll find it.
They'll follow it until they lose it again, in which case they'll cast again and try and pick up my trail.
The more they have to cast, then the more I can slow him down.
Kerr: Looks like he did some anti-tracking out of here.
He's trying to leave us no discernible print.
Good on him.
Makes it difficult for us.
It looks like multiple -- yeah.
More than one.
Narrator: Joel's false path has slowed phantom recon's progress.
I just want to find a partial in here.
While phantom recon continues to process the infiltration point, Joel has already traveled 1 1/2 Miles.
[ Breathing heavily .]
Ah! All right.
Now that I put some distance between myself and the pursuers, let's talk a little strategy.
This is my plan.
I've just parachuted in here, just west of the airfield, and I have to move all the way down, up into these mountains, to this high point right in here.
Once I get there, I'm gonna radio for extract, and they're gonna send the helo in to get me out of here.
They can't have the helicopter waiting there for me, 'cause that would give away where I'm going, so they're gonna be standing by until I give them the go-ahead.
I want to make it there as soon as possible.
I want to get out of here as quick as I can.
It's gonna be some hard going, though, so suck it up.
Moving out.
Narrator: As Joel continues moving South, phantom recon is still casting, having made only half a mile of progress.
Got a good one right here.
See that? Yeah.
That's a good one.
Old, Vietnam-style boot.
Positive spoor here.
We've identified a jungle boot.
Kerr: Where we were, where we just found the tracks, we can kind of draw a line and start tying it together, connecting the dots.
You guys take primary.
We're gonna push.
Narrator: Peter kerr splits phantom recon into two teams.
All right.
Let's go.
Sergeant overway's team will follow Joel's confirmed path While a second scout team leapfrogs forward.
This is an effective military strategy that allows units to gain distance on their targets and box them in.
All right, so the situation we have here is we're on this road.
We're here.
We have spoor on the road.
What we're gonna do is send team two from our position to leapfrog forward on the road and either, "a," find spoor on the road, or, "b," hopefully the seal runs into him.
We'll continue up to their position and move farther ahead, continue leapfrogging.
There you go.
Right here, too.
That's a definite shoe print.
Still headed South, over to the break line.
Narrator: Joel has gained 2 Miles on the phantoms, but if they continue leapfrogging, Joel's lead won't be enough to stay ahead.
Pushing across to the base of the Mountain, where we think that they're headed.
This overpass is a perfect place for me to set up a booby trap or an ambush of some sort.
I'm gonna leave a set of tracks up to a very obvious spot, and they'll know that.
So, what they will do if they're smart, they'll find a different place to cross, knowing that I came through here and those are good places to booby-trap.
Walking back on top of rocks will cover my backtrack.
All right.
We'll step off to the side now and lay my booby trap.
I'm gonna use a nonlethal smoke grenade.
What I'm doing here is I'm gonna wedge this grenade in this log attached to a tripwire, do what's called a dead man, an anchor point for the tripwire so I can work without disturbing the grenade.
I want to disturb the ground as little as possible as I'm doing this.
And I'm gonna run it.
In a real-world scenario, I'd be wanting to wound somebody, not kill, so I'd take him out of the game.
I'd take the guy who has to take care of him medically.
I'd take the guy who has to carry all of his gear out of the game.
And by wounding one, I've taken three players out.
In this scenario, I want to scare them.
I want to get in their head.
I want to let them know that I'm not someone to be trifled with, that I'm gonna be hunting them as I move just as much as they're hunting me.
One false move and boom.
Narrator: Former Navy seal Joel lambert's mission is to escape and evade the U.
S.
army's phantom recon tracking unit.
He's left a surprise on his trail to make them second-guess their tactics.
I've got prints here.
That's a good one.
Oh, yeah.
We're definitely on him.
Lambert: Got another nice, little, concealed wadi.
A wadi is a low area where water flows and runs when there's flash flooding, so generally rocky at the bottom.
There's foliage, 'cause there's water down here, so I've got concealment from the air, and nobody can see me down here.
Narrator: Joel's extraction point is approximately 14 Miles South and 10,000 vertical feet above his current location.
Recon 1 is gaining ground, but Joel's trail is taking them straight to the booby trap.
Yeah, there's a boot print in here.
It appears to be a jungle boot.
This one looks pretty legit, too.
Jungle boot.
Check for any tracks and false trail.
Watch yourself over there, Callie.
Man: We got a popper.
It's connected to a trip.
Got it? What is it? It's a hand grenade-type booby trap with a tripwire.
Don't pull it.
Don't pull it.
You gonna unarm it? Well, is it release, or is it pull? The pin's still in.
It's rendered safe.
Be careful walking up still.
There's a wire between the log and Callie's position.
He's got it set.
Clip it.
Kerr: What does this tell us? He knows what he's doing.
Yeah.
And? He's counter-tracking.
He's counter-tracking.
Kerr: It goes like this.
Anti-tracking -- all right.
We'll just catch you.
Counter-tracking, putting out booby traps, trying to blow us up -- it's game on.
Be on the lookout for it.
You see choke points, you see he's trying to draw us into those areas, bypass and try to pick it up on the backside.
Anti-tracking is one thing.
Counter-tracking -- [Bleep.]
That.
He's a dead man.
Whenever I'm forced to cross a road like this, I want to do it at 90 degrees, even if my direction of travel is different than that, because 90 degrees doesn't give anything away about my direction of travel, and it can be a really good time to change my angle, throw them off a little bit.
If they're tracking along this angle and they expect me to continue to track along that angle, the road is a good time to take a different tack, see if I can throw them off a little bit.
Kerr: We're pushing South, cutting this wadi as we're in our movement, see if we come across getting a confirmation.
Or do you just want to push in that direction? What you got, brother? I don't see anything in here but old trail.
Overway: So as of right now, we've lost spoor on our guy.
He's been doing some anti-tracking.
He's been doing a really good job of it.
So, we're gonna have to call in one of our assets.
Narrator: Phantom recon is about to deploy a u.
A.
V.
, or unmanned aerial vehicle.
They've been given access to the gray eagle, a $21 million drone that has a flight range of 30 hours, can reach altitudes of 29,000 feet, and is equipped with multiple cameras to track a target.
Phantom recon, Roger.
Joel's situation has just taken a turn for the worse.
We are up and away.
What's going on here? Where is he at now? Sir, currently we have both assets en route.
They should be about 3 minutes away.
Running the drone team is chief Flores, who will monitor everything the drone sees from the forward operating base and report coordinates back to the tracking team.
Flores: We have a high-value target on the ground.
We cannot afford to lose this guy.
We should have him by the end of the day.
[ Propeller blades whirring .]
Lambert: [Bleep.]
U.
A.
V.
Get in here.
Get under.
Narrator: Equipped with sophisticated navigation and state-of-the-art camera systems, the gray eagle can spot a license plate from 5 Miles in the sky.
Lambert: I'm trying to move from concealment to concealment, trying to stay in the shadows to minimize my exposure to them.
I can see it.
There it is.
Just got to keep moving.
Man: Our cameras should be on the target.
We're still a bit away, but we are looking at individuals moving in southeasterly directions.
Yeah.
See him move? There he is.
That's the guy we want.
Hot doggie.
We got him.
Tell recon 1 and recon 2 to close up their gap.
Narrator: As the command center positively I.
D.
S Joel and his crew, GPS coordinates are radioed to the phantom recon field units.
1, 2, Romeo.
Whiskey, Victor, 5, 7, 2, 5, 8.
Break.
Kerr: All right.
Let's go.
With this, we're gonna be able to cut off about five clicks.
If we move to last known, we can eliminate all this ground between our current position, be able to close the time-distance gap on him and capture.
Narrator: Phantom recon is finally back on Joel's trail.
Go, go, go, go! Lambert: I just don't know what the situation is right now.
The u.
A.
V.
'S such an effective tool for reconnaissance, so I have to assume that they know exactly where I'm at and that they're on my tail.
I got to keep moving.
I do not feel safe here at all.
Narrator: Joel pushes up the hillside, still 10 Miles from his extraction point.
Behind him, recon 1 and recon 2 converge on his position just 400 yards away while the u.
A.
V.
Continues to be their eyes in the sky.
There he is.
All right.
We need to move recon 1 and 2.
Grid is 57715.
Roger.
I copy.
Whiskey, Victor, 5, 7.
No, no.
Son of a bitch.
There's a guy on a rock.
I see him to the left.
I got you.
Narrator: For the first time, phantom recon has eyes on Joel on the ground.
You see him right here? Yep.
You got eyes on him? Yeah.
We got to get up there.
Roger.
Now they must physically capture him, and Joel is unaware of how close they are.
It's fair game.
Narrator: 10 years of combat training prepared former Navy seal Joel lambert to escape and evade any tracking force.
But the phantom recon unit has deployed a u.
A.
V.
And has now determined the position of Joel and his crew.
There he is.
Tell recon 1 and recon 2 to close up their gap.
He's coming in through the tree lines, also.
[ Propellers whirring .]
Lambert: [Bleep.]
U.
A.
V.
A u.
A.
V.
Is an unmanned aerial vehicle.
It's a drone.
Basically, they have a little remote-controlled airplane up in the air, looking for me with cameras on it.
Narrator: Losing the u.
A.
V.
Is Joel's top priority, so he sticks to the tree cover, making it difficult to track his movements from the sky.
Where is he at now? I don't see him.
Phantom, this spoor -- that's a negative at this point.
I told you guys he was gonna use the tree line and the Ridge and that creek.
We've lost him.
We have no idea where he's at.
Are we doing our job? Are we doing our job? Yes, sir.
We're doing our job.
It doesn't seem like it, 'cause we lost the high-value target.
We spend all morning on this guy, and now we've lost him? The sun has left the valley, so pretty soon it's gonna drop beyond the horizon, and then it's gonna get really dark in here.
And I am hungry.
My blood sugar is low.
I'm starting to not think very clearly, and physically I'm starting to flag.
Moving in this kind of terrain at night, I can't do it.
As much as I'd like to do it, I can't do it.
This terrain is too dangerous to navigate in the dark.
I'm gonna find a safe place to stop down for the night.
With daylight fading fast, speed is of the essence.
Narrator: Having lost Joel and with night approaching, the u.
A.
V.
Returns to base to be fueled and prepped for relaunch come morning.
Kerr: We got to get out, get down into the canyon, find some place to set up for the night.
When you lose the light, you lose the shine.
You know, light gives us the ability to see things -- the reflection off of the ground spoor, the aerial spoor, et cetera.
So, at night you lose it.
You can track using white light, green light, red light, or night vision, but you've got to weigh it.
If we're out here moving around and we illuminate our position or we come up close, he's gonna see it, and from there he'll take off running.
Lambert: I've just found my campsite.
I've got soft ground here with a lot of insulating material that's gonna keep me from the earth, 'cause it's gonna get really, really cold tonight.
I'm gonna set up some sort of early-warning system around my campsite.
I'm gonna tie some lines across points of entry so I can see them approach if they're tracking me at night.
And if somebody's coming up on me, they're gonna hit it with some part of their body and snap that pretty easily, make a loud, dry snapping noise, and I will definitely, definitely hear that.
Now I got to go find something to eat.
Narrator: Neither Joel nor phantom recon know that they have camped just 1,000 feet away from each other, separated by only a ridgeline.
However, since Joel carries no rations, he must leave the safety of his campsite to find food in the dark.
This is prickly pear cactus.
It's edible.
And right now, I'm down for anything that's edible.
I can have something to eat.
Prickly pear has these little patches of small, hairy spines.
If they get in my mouth or even in my hands, I'm gonna be feeling it.
I've been going for 18 hours, and tomorrow's gonna be rough.
Pretty clean.
Still being really careful.
And there's dinner.
Mmm.
Except for the veins, it's actually really tasty.
[ Sighs .]
Now to get some shut-eye.
Narrator: With his dinner complete, Joel makes his way back to camp.
Meanwhile, phantom recon sets up a night patrol, looking and listening for any sign of Joel, knowing he was last seen just a quarter-mile from their current position.
We're setting up a patrol base.
We're gonna hold this position.
Which enables us to rest and conduct patrol-base operations.
Narrator: Military adviser Peter kerr sets a wide perimeter, with a radius of 1,200 feet.
And Joel, returning to his campsite Kerr: And I want you to move towards it.
Narrator: Has just unwittingly crossed it.
Man: Roger.
Let me grab my pack.
Get down! Get down! Lambert: Got to move really slow, really quiet.
I got to be really careful with my footsteps, testing each step before I put my full weight down, because one snapped twig, and that could give my position away.
We're there.
Come on.
We're gonna hide right here.
Kerr: I want you to move towards it and then get into a fixing position.
[ Static .]
Getting really close, but I can't move.
All I can do is stay put.
Narrator: The hunter force is now within 50 feet of Joel.
Down at the base? Yeah.
[ Twig snaps .]
Narrator: Former Navy seal Joel lambert is being hunted by the U.
S.
army's phantom recon unit.
All I can do is stay put.
Man: They're coming this way? Narrator: And he now lies in hiding just 50 feet away.
[ Twig snaps .]
Take two on the right? Yeah.
Having no idea how close they were to Joel, the phantoms regroup, giving Joel an opening.
Got to get out of here, get back to my campsite.
Narrator: Joel retreats 1,000 feet South to his campsite, giving him the protection and cover of the ridgeline.
There's only a few people, kerr: And you think about who would pursue him.
This dude's in shape.
I mean, no joke, he's in shape.
Hauled ass up that hill.
He's applying the right skill sets.
His anti-tracking was good.
It's just somebody that's highly trained.
He may have already passed through.
If he has, we'll get on it, and we'll start running.
All right.
That's all we've got.
Nice.
For the coffee in the morning.
Narrator: The advantage that the phantoms now have, like any hunting force, is well-stocked supplies.
They have fire, rations, and safety in numbers.
He's out there with probably no water at this point, eating whatever grubs he can pull out from the ground.
Boy's got to be hurting.
You guys pushed him hard.
I can tell you he's tired.
We've still got tomorrow morning.
Right on.
Into that Indian country.
Lambert: It is really, really cold, and it's only gonna get colder before the sun comes back up, so I'm gonna do something I ordinarily never would do, which is light a fire, because now it's a matter of survival.
All right.
Here's some.
Got good, flat rock.
I've pulled a 9-volt battery from my emergency strobe light and some steel wool from my pilot's kit.
There's an electrical charge, a 9-volt battery.
When the steel wool touches the terminals on the battery, electrical current flows through the really thin wires of the steel wool, and the wires get really hot really fast.
[ Blowing .]
There we go.
Matches or lighters can get wet or fail, but this is more reliable.
I've minimized the risk of being spotted by building the fire in a low-lying area, and I'm concealed by thick tree cover all the way around.
All right.
I have a fire.
My parachute silk is gonna come in real handy right now.
I'll be able to just tie the bottom together.
This is gonna keep the air that my body heats trapped inside and not escaping out the bottom.
I'm trying to keep this parachute material as enclosed as possible so I don't lose any heat out from any cracks, let my body heat warm up this cavity as much as possible.
Oh, it's a long night.
I know those guys are gonna move out at first light, so I want to be out of here way before that.
I'm not gonna give them the opportunity to catch me laying down.
I got to get moving.
Got a really horrible trek ahead of me with a lot of elevation, so I'm dumping everything that I'm not gonna need so I can make the best time I can up this Mountain.
It's just barely light enough for me to move, but still too dark for them to track effectively, so I'm trying to make time while I can.
Narrator: But the phantoms are already up and planning their attack.
Remember we did the I.
E.
D.
Lanes when we parked? They're gonna go up onto that Ridge.
He's expected to be around here.
If he does go this way, we want to push him over this.
We don't want to let him take any of these easy routes.
Yeah.
That's kind of the intent here is push him up one of the hills.
Just smoke his ass.
With Scott moving away Narrator: As the sun comes up an hour later, phantom recon splits into two teams and moves out.
As recon 2 moves up the Ridge, sergeant overway and recon 1 are about to discover just how close they were to their target.
We were that [Bleep.]
close all night? Kerr: He spent the night here.
He was able to start a fire.
We're not sure what he had to start it.
Overway: He had a fire, and he had it all blocked off so you couldn't see the light from too far away.
He knew what he was doing.
Narrator: As recon 1 processes Joel's camp and looks for spoor, Joel has already moved a mile up the Ridge, but still has another to go to reach his extraction point.
Recon 2 continues to advance along the ridgeline half a mile to the east, hoping to spot Joel and physically capture him.
Lambert: [ Breathing heavily .]
I'm aiming for that bit of sky you can see between the trees.
That tells me that there's a ridgeline up there.
The last known spoor.
Trying to get ahold of him.
Overway: It's fresh dirt, along with right there it's fresh dirt.
You can kind of see a pattern going up the trail here.
Path of least resistance.
Narrator: Recon 1 has Joel's direction of travel and quickly advances.
Joel's been on the run for 26 hours, burning 6,000 calories.
In that time, he has had almost no food and just 17 ounces of water.
For the past hour, he has been climbing straight uphill at a 90% incline.
Lambert: I'm sure this was not the easiest way to this extraction point, which means if the guys pursuing me know this area well, they're going a much easier route, and they may have even gotten ahead of me.
Narrator: The u.
A.
V.
Is back up in the sky looking for Joel.
Due to the sparse tree coverage, the drone spots Joel almost immediately, and the coordinates are sent to phantom recon.
Guys, he's using the tree line, but he ain't going too far.
We got him.
Lambert: My legs are on fire.
My calves are burning.
My thighs are screaming.
And the air up here is so thin because the elevation and dry because of the high desert that it's dehydrating me.
[ Breathing heavily .]
I'm starting to get a headache.
Narrator: At 6,000 feet, Joel's body is losing twice as much moisture as it would at sea level.
Kerr: If he stays on that, we're good.
[Bleep.]
Stay to the wash [Bleep.]
we're gonna take the trail up.
Narrator: With the coordinates from the u.
A.
V.
, recon 1 closes on Joel from behind while recon 2 boxes around and tries to cut Joel off.
At this point, we're taking the path of least resistance up.
1 Romeo 1.
Extract Should be right When I get to the crest.
I'll make comms, and hopefully they'll be able to come inbound and get me right away.
I don't have much left.
Man: Be advised.
Got three rabbits in your vicinity.
Narrator: The hunt is suddenly interrupted when chief Flores receives a call from the local border patrol, who have spotted drug smugglers in the immediate area.
Flores: Roger, sir.
We're currently on those individuals right now with the warrior Alpha feed.
Narrator: With this new real threat taking priority over a training mission, chief Flores is forced to redeploy the u.
A.
V.
For the border patrol's use.
Our mission has gotten bigger, and our day is gonna get longer.
Overway: Be advised that border patrol reported possible drug smuggling in our a.
O.
Break.
So if we see anything like that, I'll send it up to you.
Just push that to team 2.
Narrator: All aircraft permits are pulled for the area.
Man: You need to play support.
Narrator: Discovery producers are also told to temporarily ground Joel's rescue chopper.
Man: Roger.
We're being shut down.
I made it.
Now I just need to go radio for extraction.
Doghouse, doghouse, this is black dog.
Over.
[ Static .]
Doghouse, black dog.
Ready for extract.
Over.
[ Static .]
Doghouse, doghouse, this is black dog.
Over.
Narrator: The phantoms are closing the gap fast.
He's on this thing.
Now within 4,000 feet of Joel Lambert: Doghouse, doghouse.
Narrator: And Joel still has no idea that rescue isn't coming.
[ Static .]
So, fort huachuca apparently was founded in 1877.
This was the original cavalry base where tracking got its start in the U.
S.
army.
Apparently, the apache Indians actually taught the U.
S.
cavalry tracking skills, and the program has been going on ever since.
And this is the birthplace of the army's tracking program.
This is some hallowed military ground.
Narrator: For the past 36 hours, Joel has been evading the army's phantom recon unit.
He's reached his extraction point and is ready for rescue.
But earlier today, the U.
S.
border patrol spotted drug smugglers in the area We're currently on those three individuals.
Narrator: And have grounded all air traffic, including his rescue.
Doghouse, doghouse, this is black dog.
Narrator: Unaware, Joel waits for communication as phantom recon closes in.
Man: Black dog, stand by.
We have a situation.
Repeat, we have a situation.
Black dog, do you copy? That is a negative on the extraction.
I repeat, negative on the extraction.
Break.
Border patrol has temporarily shut us down.
Black dog, move to next extraction point, 27.
00 kilometers bearing 180 Sierra.
How copy? Roger, doghouse.
I copy move to secondary extraction.
Over.
How copy? [ Sighs .]
This is no longer where I get picked up.
We have to move to the secondary point, which is a long ways away, and the hunter force is on my tail.
I have no food.
I have about 6 ounces of water, and I got to start moving.
Narrator: Joel's new extraction point is 2 Miles to the southeast.
Taking the direct route, while faster, would expose Joel to phantom recon and the u.
A.
V.
, so Joel's plan is to travel along the wooded Ridge to provide cover and then work his way South to his extraction point.
This sort of thing is totally normal in combat operations.
It happened to us all the time in Afghanistan.
But that doesn't make it any less frustrating.
God, ow! [Bleep.]
I just came off an insanely steep hill, and now I got to go down and go up another one.
Aah! And I've got insanely steep terrain ahead of me.
Come on.
Out of the way, man.
Where's all my platforms, all my assets? Are they up? Narrator: 30 minutes later, the border patrol has the drug-smuggler situation under control, and the u.
A.
V.
Is returned to chief Flores' command.
We got the technology.
We got the experience in here.
We can get this guy.
Let's make that happen.
Narrator: And air traffic in the area can now resume.
Lambert: I just moved off of that really high peak, and I'm moving down into this extremely steep valley.
[ Sighs .]
That would cost so much energy for them to come down and search, there's no way they're gonna do it unless they're sure I'm down there.
So, I've got to use all of my tactical skill to move as stealthily as possible to evade those guys and not give away my track.
We're gonna push down the finger on the west, all right, hopefully channelize him into the low ground.
Once we do that, hopefully we can cut out in front of him, set up an ambush, and then get this dude.
Narrator: Sergeant overway is setting a trap.
With their u.
A.
V.
Spotting Joel's new direction of travel, recon 1 continues pressuring Joel from behind, while recon 2 now waits for Joel at the bottom of the Mountain.
Kerr: You let them know we're gonna keep eyes on.
If he tries to squirt down, we'll get him when he comes down.
We just got to make sure he doesn't use this as an exit.
This is the path of least resistance right here.
Lambert: [Bleep.]
I have to assume that the u.
A.
V.
Has spotted me and they know where I'm at.
If I were them, I would try to get troops around in front of me to block me in and possibly get a flanking maneuver in, as well, and send me right into a trap, which means the only option I have is to try and get ahead of them as quickly as possible any maneuver that they might be trying to do.
I see movement up on the ridgeline.
The hunter force is probably looking in this direction using optics to scan.
I've got to stay undercover, in concealment as much as possible, hopefully get some terrain features between them and I so they don't spot where I'm at.
Get down, get down, get down.
Get down, get down.
Narrator: They're right on top of Joel.
The strategy of pinning Joel down from two directions is working.
Lambert: They're right on me.
Pretty freaked out.
Looks like they're moving away.
Come on.
Let's move while we can.
I got to find a way around it with minimal exposure on that hillside, and I'm afraid there just isn't a way.
Got to stick to the shadows.
If I were to move out into the open right now, I'd be sunk.
Narrator: The u.
A.
V.
Has locked in on his position, despite Joel's plan to stick to the shadows.
He's tired.
Worn out.
He is worn out.
That train gets nothing but worse.
And that's coming to our advantage.
[ Beep .]
Man: The target has slipped past you.
[Bleep.]
Man.
I can see them.
That means they can see me.
Kerr: Approximately 350 meters.
Eyes on.
We have pid.
Three, if we push him off the canyon then, you guys have a blocking force.
Let's do this! Narrator: With eyes on Joel just 1,100 feet South, the phantoms rush to physically capture him.
Out of options, Joel is forced to make a break for his extraction point.
[ Panting .]
We're close, dude.
He's only about 300 meters in front of us.
[ Indistinct shouting .]
Doghouse, this is black dog.
I am at extract.
Doghouse, you identify.
Contact front! Contact front! [Bleep.]
Bird's inbound.
Be advised.
Hunter force is inbound.
I say again, hunter force inbound.
Let's go! Contact front! Chopper's coming.
Don't let him get away! We've lost.
[Bleep.]
Overway: He definitely knew what he was doing.
He was covering his tracks.
He was doing some anti-tracking.
Even though we weren't close enough to physically put hands on him, he definitely would have been done.
We definitely were close enough to shoot him with our rifles.
In a real-world scenario, the bird -- that would have most likely been shot down if it came too close, and then he would have been captured or killed.
Lambert: Missions are always complicated, and with live ammo flying around, who knows how this would have turned out? But today I got away.
trained to capture terrorists [ Indistinct shouting .]
guard borders [ Dog barking .]
and hunt criminals.
Stand back! and now they're about to face one of their toughest targets Joel lambert.
Let's go.
Come on.
Narrator: A former Navy seal and expert in escape and evasion All right.
Come back.
Joel's mission is to put them to the test They're not prepared for this.
This is my turf.
Narrator: And evade capture for 36 hours.
Quitting is never an option.
I'm gonna die before I quit.
Narrator: And today Joel faces off against the army's elite phantom recon unit.
Man: He's using the tree line, but he ain't going too far.
Narrator: Over the next 36 hours There he is.
Joel tries to escape I'm gonna be hunting them just as much as they're hunting me.
Narrator: As they rush Really close, but I can't move.
Narrator: To catch him.
Contact front! Narrator: The hunt is on.
-- Captions by vitac -- captions paid for by discovery communications lambert: The army knows I'm breaching their facility today.
But they're not expecting me to drop in like this.
[ Radio chatter .]
Narrator: Joel's just touched down in the fort huachuca U.
S.
army training facility, home to phantom recon, the U.
S.
army's specialized search-and-rescue unit.
Man: Hey, chief, we got a situation.
Call the staff.
Narrator: They know that today Joel will be testing them.
0630 hours over northern sector in fort huachuca.
And they are ready.
One parachute was deployed.
We are at 535955.
This is the vicinity where his parachute was last seen being deployed.
Man: Let's find this high-value target, and I want him now.
I have to assume that they saw me coming down, so I've got to get off this spot right now.
But there's some good stuff here on the parachute I don't want to leave behind.
Narrator: Joel has brought with him just minimal supplies and acts quickly to scavenge his parachute for needed materials.
This parachute silk is gonna be really useful for either a night shelter or a day shelter.
I'm not sure what the temperature is gonna be, so I need to be prepared.
Here.
Good section of silk.
These lines can be used for all kinds of stuff -- making a tent, making a shelter, tourniquets.
Just no end to the uses a good wad of cord can have.
Narrator: In addition, Joel carries with him only a basic survival kit containing a knife, a compass, a flashlight, along with a pilot's radio and several nonlethal grenades.
He also has a canteen with 32 ounces of water, but no food.
Phantom recon specializes in tracking down high-value targets in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Here we go.
Got it.
Originally formed during world war ii, phantom recon includes more than 300 handpicked troops, including infantrymen, scouts, and communication specialists.
This unit is in the final stages of training, and today's mission will be their last test before being deployed to active combat.
It's gonna be really easy for them to track my direction, 'cause the grass is gonna lay down in my direction of travel.
So what I'm gonna do is do a quick deception path.
Hopefully, it will throw them off a little bit in that direction.
As a Navy seal, we learn counter-tracking tactics just like this, laying a false track going the opposite direction from where I actually want to go.
Trying to keep the grass in the same direction I moved from.
[ Breathing heavily .]
All right.
Now I'm gonna head off this direction, and as I step down on the grass, I'm gonna kick it back up so it doesn't look like I moved through here.
I landed just 2 Miles from phantom recon's headquarters.
I now have just 36 hours to travel 16 Miles South to my extraction point, where I'll have to radio for a helicopter rescue.
The phantoms have no idea where my extraction point is, and they must try to physically catch me before I escape.
Those mountains are at least 5 Miles away, and I got to move fast.
Man: No, go right side.
Back up.
Narrator: Phantom recon has access to a variety of army assets, but now they're focusing their efforts on their ground-tracking skills.
Try to find spoor.
All right.
Narrator: Leading the 10-man tracking team is sergeant Matthew overway.
Overway: Obviously, you got to find a direction of travel, and sometimes it's hard, because a lot of times, they're walking through this rocky stuff.
That doesn't leave a lot of trail.
We've got a parachute.
We're gonna try and acquire a good set of tracks leading out of here.
Narrator: His training adviser and mentor is Peter kerr, a 20-year military veteran.
He's now a tactical training specialist to the world's most elite forces.
Color change on the ground there.
Kerr: We're gonna have to do a big 360.
We'll mark this, and then we'll move, finish the 360, see if he crossed the road.
Just watch out for snakes.
Narrator: Because phantom recon must identify and confirm Joel's tracks, he gets a much needed head start.
What the hunter force is doing right now is trying to pick up my track.
I landed right here, but what I did was I laid a deception trail on this direction, backtracked, and then took off in this direction.
And they spread out and cast across, trying to find my track, pick up a deception trail or pick up on my track.
They'll cast.
They'll find it.
They'll follow it until they lose it again, in which case they'll cast again and try and pick up my trail.
The more they have to cast, then the more I can slow him down.
Kerr: Looks like he did some anti-tracking out of here.
He's trying to leave us no discernible print.
Good on him.
Makes it difficult for us.
It looks like multiple -- yeah.
More than one.
Narrator: Joel's false path has slowed phantom recon's progress.
I just want to find a partial in here.
While phantom recon continues to process the infiltration point, Joel has already traveled 1 1/2 Miles.
[ Breathing heavily .]
Ah! All right.
Now that I put some distance between myself and the pursuers, let's talk a little strategy.
This is my plan.
I've just parachuted in here, just west of the airfield, and I have to move all the way down, up into these mountains, to this high point right in here.
Once I get there, I'm gonna radio for extract, and they're gonna send the helo in to get me out of here.
They can't have the helicopter waiting there for me, 'cause that would give away where I'm going, so they're gonna be standing by until I give them the go-ahead.
I want to make it there as soon as possible.
I want to get out of here as quick as I can.
It's gonna be some hard going, though, so suck it up.
Moving out.
Narrator: As Joel continues moving South, phantom recon is still casting, having made only half a mile of progress.
Got a good one right here.
See that? Yeah.
That's a good one.
Old, Vietnam-style boot.
Positive spoor here.
We've identified a jungle boot.
Kerr: Where we were, where we just found the tracks, we can kind of draw a line and start tying it together, connecting the dots.
You guys take primary.
We're gonna push.
Narrator: Peter kerr splits phantom recon into two teams.
All right.
Let's go.
Sergeant overway's team will follow Joel's confirmed path While a second scout team leapfrogs forward.
This is an effective military strategy that allows units to gain distance on their targets and box them in.
All right, so the situation we have here is we're on this road.
We're here.
We have spoor on the road.
What we're gonna do is send team two from our position to leapfrog forward on the road and either, "a," find spoor on the road, or, "b," hopefully the seal runs into him.
We'll continue up to their position and move farther ahead, continue leapfrogging.
There you go.
Right here, too.
That's a definite shoe print.
Still headed South, over to the break line.
Narrator: Joel has gained 2 Miles on the phantoms, but if they continue leapfrogging, Joel's lead won't be enough to stay ahead.
Pushing across to the base of the Mountain, where we think that they're headed.
This overpass is a perfect place for me to set up a booby trap or an ambush of some sort.
I'm gonna leave a set of tracks up to a very obvious spot, and they'll know that.
So, what they will do if they're smart, they'll find a different place to cross, knowing that I came through here and those are good places to booby-trap.
Walking back on top of rocks will cover my backtrack.
All right.
We'll step off to the side now and lay my booby trap.
I'm gonna use a nonlethal smoke grenade.
What I'm doing here is I'm gonna wedge this grenade in this log attached to a tripwire, do what's called a dead man, an anchor point for the tripwire so I can work without disturbing the grenade.
I want to disturb the ground as little as possible as I'm doing this.
And I'm gonna run it.
In a real-world scenario, I'd be wanting to wound somebody, not kill, so I'd take him out of the game.
I'd take the guy who has to take care of him medically.
I'd take the guy who has to carry all of his gear out of the game.
And by wounding one, I've taken three players out.
In this scenario, I want to scare them.
I want to get in their head.
I want to let them know that I'm not someone to be trifled with, that I'm gonna be hunting them as I move just as much as they're hunting me.
One false move and boom.
Narrator: Former Navy seal Joel lambert's mission is to escape and evade the U.
S.
army's phantom recon tracking unit.
He's left a surprise on his trail to make them second-guess their tactics.
I've got prints here.
That's a good one.
Oh, yeah.
We're definitely on him.
Lambert: Got another nice, little, concealed wadi.
A wadi is a low area where water flows and runs when there's flash flooding, so generally rocky at the bottom.
There's foliage, 'cause there's water down here, so I've got concealment from the air, and nobody can see me down here.
Narrator: Joel's extraction point is approximately 14 Miles South and 10,000 vertical feet above his current location.
Recon 1 is gaining ground, but Joel's trail is taking them straight to the booby trap.
Yeah, there's a boot print in here.
It appears to be a jungle boot.
This one looks pretty legit, too.
Jungle boot.
Check for any tracks and false trail.
Watch yourself over there, Callie.
Man: We got a popper.
It's connected to a trip.
Got it? What is it? It's a hand grenade-type booby trap with a tripwire.
Don't pull it.
Don't pull it.
You gonna unarm it? Well, is it release, or is it pull? The pin's still in.
It's rendered safe.
Be careful walking up still.
There's a wire between the log and Callie's position.
He's got it set.
Clip it.
Kerr: What does this tell us? He knows what he's doing.
Yeah.
And? He's counter-tracking.
He's counter-tracking.
Kerr: It goes like this.
Anti-tracking -- all right.
We'll just catch you.
Counter-tracking, putting out booby traps, trying to blow us up -- it's game on.
Be on the lookout for it.
You see choke points, you see he's trying to draw us into those areas, bypass and try to pick it up on the backside.
Anti-tracking is one thing.
Counter-tracking -- [Bleep.]
That.
He's a dead man.
Whenever I'm forced to cross a road like this, I want to do it at 90 degrees, even if my direction of travel is different than that, because 90 degrees doesn't give anything away about my direction of travel, and it can be a really good time to change my angle, throw them off a little bit.
If they're tracking along this angle and they expect me to continue to track along that angle, the road is a good time to take a different tack, see if I can throw them off a little bit.
Kerr: We're pushing South, cutting this wadi as we're in our movement, see if we come across getting a confirmation.
Or do you just want to push in that direction? What you got, brother? I don't see anything in here but old trail.
Overway: So as of right now, we've lost spoor on our guy.
He's been doing some anti-tracking.
He's been doing a really good job of it.
So, we're gonna have to call in one of our assets.
Narrator: Phantom recon is about to deploy a u.
A.
V.
, or unmanned aerial vehicle.
They've been given access to the gray eagle, a $21 million drone that has a flight range of 30 hours, can reach altitudes of 29,000 feet, and is equipped with multiple cameras to track a target.
Phantom recon, Roger.
Joel's situation has just taken a turn for the worse.
We are up and away.
What's going on here? Where is he at now? Sir, currently we have both assets en route.
They should be about 3 minutes away.
Running the drone team is chief Flores, who will monitor everything the drone sees from the forward operating base and report coordinates back to the tracking team.
Flores: We have a high-value target on the ground.
We cannot afford to lose this guy.
We should have him by the end of the day.
[ Propeller blades whirring .]
Lambert: [Bleep.]
U.
A.
V.
Get in here.
Get under.
Narrator: Equipped with sophisticated navigation and state-of-the-art camera systems, the gray eagle can spot a license plate from 5 Miles in the sky.
Lambert: I'm trying to move from concealment to concealment, trying to stay in the shadows to minimize my exposure to them.
I can see it.
There it is.
Just got to keep moving.
Man: Our cameras should be on the target.
We're still a bit away, but we are looking at individuals moving in southeasterly directions.
Yeah.
See him move? There he is.
That's the guy we want.
Hot doggie.
We got him.
Tell recon 1 and recon 2 to close up their gap.
Narrator: As the command center positively I.
D.
S Joel and his crew, GPS coordinates are radioed to the phantom recon field units.
1, 2, Romeo.
Whiskey, Victor, 5, 7, 2, 5, 8.
Break.
Kerr: All right.
Let's go.
With this, we're gonna be able to cut off about five clicks.
If we move to last known, we can eliminate all this ground between our current position, be able to close the time-distance gap on him and capture.
Narrator: Phantom recon is finally back on Joel's trail.
Go, go, go, go! Lambert: I just don't know what the situation is right now.
The u.
A.
V.
'S such an effective tool for reconnaissance, so I have to assume that they know exactly where I'm at and that they're on my tail.
I got to keep moving.
I do not feel safe here at all.
Narrator: Joel pushes up the hillside, still 10 Miles from his extraction point.
Behind him, recon 1 and recon 2 converge on his position just 400 yards away while the u.
A.
V.
Continues to be their eyes in the sky.
There he is.
All right.
We need to move recon 1 and 2.
Grid is 57715.
Roger.
I copy.
Whiskey, Victor, 5, 7.
No, no.
Son of a bitch.
There's a guy on a rock.
I see him to the left.
I got you.
Narrator: For the first time, phantom recon has eyes on Joel on the ground.
You see him right here? Yep.
You got eyes on him? Yeah.
We got to get up there.
Roger.
Now they must physically capture him, and Joel is unaware of how close they are.
It's fair game.
Narrator: 10 years of combat training prepared former Navy seal Joel lambert to escape and evade any tracking force.
But the phantom recon unit has deployed a u.
A.
V.
And has now determined the position of Joel and his crew.
There he is.
Tell recon 1 and recon 2 to close up their gap.
He's coming in through the tree lines, also.
[ Propellers whirring .]
Lambert: [Bleep.]
U.
A.
V.
A u.
A.
V.
Is an unmanned aerial vehicle.
It's a drone.
Basically, they have a little remote-controlled airplane up in the air, looking for me with cameras on it.
Narrator: Losing the u.
A.
V.
Is Joel's top priority, so he sticks to the tree cover, making it difficult to track his movements from the sky.
Where is he at now? I don't see him.
Phantom, this spoor -- that's a negative at this point.
I told you guys he was gonna use the tree line and the Ridge and that creek.
We've lost him.
We have no idea where he's at.
Are we doing our job? Are we doing our job? Yes, sir.
We're doing our job.
It doesn't seem like it, 'cause we lost the high-value target.
We spend all morning on this guy, and now we've lost him? The sun has left the valley, so pretty soon it's gonna drop beyond the horizon, and then it's gonna get really dark in here.
And I am hungry.
My blood sugar is low.
I'm starting to not think very clearly, and physically I'm starting to flag.
Moving in this kind of terrain at night, I can't do it.
As much as I'd like to do it, I can't do it.
This terrain is too dangerous to navigate in the dark.
I'm gonna find a safe place to stop down for the night.
With daylight fading fast, speed is of the essence.
Narrator: Having lost Joel and with night approaching, the u.
A.
V.
Returns to base to be fueled and prepped for relaunch come morning.
Kerr: We got to get out, get down into the canyon, find some place to set up for the night.
When you lose the light, you lose the shine.
You know, light gives us the ability to see things -- the reflection off of the ground spoor, the aerial spoor, et cetera.
So, at night you lose it.
You can track using white light, green light, red light, or night vision, but you've got to weigh it.
If we're out here moving around and we illuminate our position or we come up close, he's gonna see it, and from there he'll take off running.
Lambert: I've just found my campsite.
I've got soft ground here with a lot of insulating material that's gonna keep me from the earth, 'cause it's gonna get really, really cold tonight.
I'm gonna set up some sort of early-warning system around my campsite.
I'm gonna tie some lines across points of entry so I can see them approach if they're tracking me at night.
And if somebody's coming up on me, they're gonna hit it with some part of their body and snap that pretty easily, make a loud, dry snapping noise, and I will definitely, definitely hear that.
Now I got to go find something to eat.
Narrator: Neither Joel nor phantom recon know that they have camped just 1,000 feet away from each other, separated by only a ridgeline.
However, since Joel carries no rations, he must leave the safety of his campsite to find food in the dark.
This is prickly pear cactus.
It's edible.
And right now, I'm down for anything that's edible.
I can have something to eat.
Prickly pear has these little patches of small, hairy spines.
If they get in my mouth or even in my hands, I'm gonna be feeling it.
I've been going for 18 hours, and tomorrow's gonna be rough.
Pretty clean.
Still being really careful.
And there's dinner.
Mmm.
Except for the veins, it's actually really tasty.
[ Sighs .]
Now to get some shut-eye.
Narrator: With his dinner complete, Joel makes his way back to camp.
Meanwhile, phantom recon sets up a night patrol, looking and listening for any sign of Joel, knowing he was last seen just a quarter-mile from their current position.
We're setting up a patrol base.
We're gonna hold this position.
Which enables us to rest and conduct patrol-base operations.
Narrator: Military adviser Peter kerr sets a wide perimeter, with a radius of 1,200 feet.
And Joel, returning to his campsite Kerr: And I want you to move towards it.
Narrator: Has just unwittingly crossed it.
Man: Roger.
Let me grab my pack.
Get down! Get down! Lambert: Got to move really slow, really quiet.
I got to be really careful with my footsteps, testing each step before I put my full weight down, because one snapped twig, and that could give my position away.
We're there.
Come on.
We're gonna hide right here.
Kerr: I want you to move towards it and then get into a fixing position.
[ Static .]
Getting really close, but I can't move.
All I can do is stay put.
Narrator: The hunter force is now within 50 feet of Joel.
Down at the base? Yeah.
[ Twig snaps .]
Narrator: Former Navy seal Joel lambert is being hunted by the U.
S.
army's phantom recon unit.
All I can do is stay put.
Man: They're coming this way? Narrator: And he now lies in hiding just 50 feet away.
[ Twig snaps .]
Take two on the right? Yeah.
Having no idea how close they were to Joel, the phantoms regroup, giving Joel an opening.
Got to get out of here, get back to my campsite.
Narrator: Joel retreats 1,000 feet South to his campsite, giving him the protection and cover of the ridgeline.
There's only a few people, kerr: And you think about who would pursue him.
This dude's in shape.
I mean, no joke, he's in shape.
Hauled ass up that hill.
He's applying the right skill sets.
His anti-tracking was good.
It's just somebody that's highly trained.
He may have already passed through.
If he has, we'll get on it, and we'll start running.
All right.
That's all we've got.
Nice.
For the coffee in the morning.
Narrator: The advantage that the phantoms now have, like any hunting force, is well-stocked supplies.
They have fire, rations, and safety in numbers.
He's out there with probably no water at this point, eating whatever grubs he can pull out from the ground.
Boy's got to be hurting.
You guys pushed him hard.
I can tell you he's tired.
We've still got tomorrow morning.
Right on.
Into that Indian country.
Lambert: It is really, really cold, and it's only gonna get colder before the sun comes back up, so I'm gonna do something I ordinarily never would do, which is light a fire, because now it's a matter of survival.
All right.
Here's some.
Got good, flat rock.
I've pulled a 9-volt battery from my emergency strobe light and some steel wool from my pilot's kit.
There's an electrical charge, a 9-volt battery.
When the steel wool touches the terminals on the battery, electrical current flows through the really thin wires of the steel wool, and the wires get really hot really fast.
[ Blowing .]
There we go.
Matches or lighters can get wet or fail, but this is more reliable.
I've minimized the risk of being spotted by building the fire in a low-lying area, and I'm concealed by thick tree cover all the way around.
All right.
I have a fire.
My parachute silk is gonna come in real handy right now.
I'll be able to just tie the bottom together.
This is gonna keep the air that my body heats trapped inside and not escaping out the bottom.
I'm trying to keep this parachute material as enclosed as possible so I don't lose any heat out from any cracks, let my body heat warm up this cavity as much as possible.
Oh, it's a long night.
I know those guys are gonna move out at first light, so I want to be out of here way before that.
I'm not gonna give them the opportunity to catch me laying down.
I got to get moving.
Got a really horrible trek ahead of me with a lot of elevation, so I'm dumping everything that I'm not gonna need so I can make the best time I can up this Mountain.
It's just barely light enough for me to move, but still too dark for them to track effectively, so I'm trying to make time while I can.
Narrator: But the phantoms are already up and planning their attack.
Remember we did the I.
E.
D.
Lanes when we parked? They're gonna go up onto that Ridge.
He's expected to be around here.
If he does go this way, we want to push him over this.
We don't want to let him take any of these easy routes.
Yeah.
That's kind of the intent here is push him up one of the hills.
Just smoke his ass.
With Scott moving away Narrator: As the sun comes up an hour later, phantom recon splits into two teams and moves out.
As recon 2 moves up the Ridge, sergeant overway and recon 1 are about to discover just how close they were to their target.
We were that [Bleep.]
close all night? Kerr: He spent the night here.
He was able to start a fire.
We're not sure what he had to start it.
Overway: He had a fire, and he had it all blocked off so you couldn't see the light from too far away.
He knew what he was doing.
Narrator: As recon 1 processes Joel's camp and looks for spoor, Joel has already moved a mile up the Ridge, but still has another to go to reach his extraction point.
Recon 2 continues to advance along the ridgeline half a mile to the east, hoping to spot Joel and physically capture him.
Lambert: [ Breathing heavily .]
I'm aiming for that bit of sky you can see between the trees.
That tells me that there's a ridgeline up there.
The last known spoor.
Trying to get ahold of him.
Overway: It's fresh dirt, along with right there it's fresh dirt.
You can kind of see a pattern going up the trail here.
Path of least resistance.
Narrator: Recon 1 has Joel's direction of travel and quickly advances.
Joel's been on the run for 26 hours, burning 6,000 calories.
In that time, he has had almost no food and just 17 ounces of water.
For the past hour, he has been climbing straight uphill at a 90% incline.
Lambert: I'm sure this was not the easiest way to this extraction point, which means if the guys pursuing me know this area well, they're going a much easier route, and they may have even gotten ahead of me.
Narrator: The u.
A.
V.
Is back up in the sky looking for Joel.
Due to the sparse tree coverage, the drone spots Joel almost immediately, and the coordinates are sent to phantom recon.
Guys, he's using the tree line, but he ain't going too far.
We got him.
Lambert: My legs are on fire.
My calves are burning.
My thighs are screaming.
And the air up here is so thin because the elevation and dry because of the high desert that it's dehydrating me.
[ Breathing heavily .]
I'm starting to get a headache.
Narrator: At 6,000 feet, Joel's body is losing twice as much moisture as it would at sea level.
Kerr: If he stays on that, we're good.
[Bleep.]
Stay to the wash [Bleep.]
we're gonna take the trail up.
Narrator: With the coordinates from the u.
A.
V.
, recon 1 closes on Joel from behind while recon 2 boxes around and tries to cut Joel off.
At this point, we're taking the path of least resistance up.
1 Romeo 1.
Extract Should be right When I get to the crest.
I'll make comms, and hopefully they'll be able to come inbound and get me right away.
I don't have much left.
Man: Be advised.
Got three rabbits in your vicinity.
Narrator: The hunt is suddenly interrupted when chief Flores receives a call from the local border patrol, who have spotted drug smugglers in the immediate area.
Flores: Roger, sir.
We're currently on those individuals right now with the warrior Alpha feed.
Narrator: With this new real threat taking priority over a training mission, chief Flores is forced to redeploy the u.
A.
V.
For the border patrol's use.
Our mission has gotten bigger, and our day is gonna get longer.
Overway: Be advised that border patrol reported possible drug smuggling in our a.
O.
Break.
So if we see anything like that, I'll send it up to you.
Just push that to team 2.
Narrator: All aircraft permits are pulled for the area.
Man: You need to play support.
Narrator: Discovery producers are also told to temporarily ground Joel's rescue chopper.
Man: Roger.
We're being shut down.
I made it.
Now I just need to go radio for extraction.
Doghouse, doghouse, this is black dog.
Over.
[ Static .]
Doghouse, black dog.
Ready for extract.
Over.
[ Static .]
Doghouse, doghouse, this is black dog.
Over.
Narrator: The phantoms are closing the gap fast.
He's on this thing.
Now within 4,000 feet of Joel Lambert: Doghouse, doghouse.
Narrator: And Joel still has no idea that rescue isn't coming.
[ Static .]
So, fort huachuca apparently was founded in 1877.
This was the original cavalry base where tracking got its start in the U.
S.
army.
Apparently, the apache Indians actually taught the U.
S.
cavalry tracking skills, and the program has been going on ever since.
And this is the birthplace of the army's tracking program.
This is some hallowed military ground.
Narrator: For the past 36 hours, Joel has been evading the army's phantom recon unit.
He's reached his extraction point and is ready for rescue.
But earlier today, the U.
S.
border patrol spotted drug smugglers in the area We're currently on those three individuals.
Narrator: And have grounded all air traffic, including his rescue.
Doghouse, doghouse, this is black dog.
Narrator: Unaware, Joel waits for communication as phantom recon closes in.
Man: Black dog, stand by.
We have a situation.
Repeat, we have a situation.
Black dog, do you copy? That is a negative on the extraction.
I repeat, negative on the extraction.
Break.
Border patrol has temporarily shut us down.
Black dog, move to next extraction point, 27.
00 kilometers bearing 180 Sierra.
How copy? Roger, doghouse.
I copy move to secondary extraction.
Over.
How copy? [ Sighs .]
This is no longer where I get picked up.
We have to move to the secondary point, which is a long ways away, and the hunter force is on my tail.
I have no food.
I have about 6 ounces of water, and I got to start moving.
Narrator: Joel's new extraction point is 2 Miles to the southeast.
Taking the direct route, while faster, would expose Joel to phantom recon and the u.
A.
V.
, so Joel's plan is to travel along the wooded Ridge to provide cover and then work his way South to his extraction point.
This sort of thing is totally normal in combat operations.
It happened to us all the time in Afghanistan.
But that doesn't make it any less frustrating.
God, ow! [Bleep.]
I just came off an insanely steep hill, and now I got to go down and go up another one.
Aah! And I've got insanely steep terrain ahead of me.
Come on.
Out of the way, man.
Where's all my platforms, all my assets? Are they up? Narrator: 30 minutes later, the border patrol has the drug-smuggler situation under control, and the u.
A.
V.
Is returned to chief Flores' command.
We got the technology.
We got the experience in here.
We can get this guy.
Let's make that happen.
Narrator: And air traffic in the area can now resume.
Lambert: I just moved off of that really high peak, and I'm moving down into this extremely steep valley.
[ Sighs .]
That would cost so much energy for them to come down and search, there's no way they're gonna do it unless they're sure I'm down there.
So, I've got to use all of my tactical skill to move as stealthily as possible to evade those guys and not give away my track.
We're gonna push down the finger on the west, all right, hopefully channelize him into the low ground.
Once we do that, hopefully we can cut out in front of him, set up an ambush, and then get this dude.
Narrator: Sergeant overway is setting a trap.
With their u.
A.
V.
Spotting Joel's new direction of travel, recon 1 continues pressuring Joel from behind, while recon 2 now waits for Joel at the bottom of the Mountain.
Kerr: You let them know we're gonna keep eyes on.
If he tries to squirt down, we'll get him when he comes down.
We just got to make sure he doesn't use this as an exit.
This is the path of least resistance right here.
Lambert: [Bleep.]
I have to assume that the u.
A.
V.
Has spotted me and they know where I'm at.
If I were them, I would try to get troops around in front of me to block me in and possibly get a flanking maneuver in, as well, and send me right into a trap, which means the only option I have is to try and get ahead of them as quickly as possible any maneuver that they might be trying to do.
I see movement up on the ridgeline.
The hunter force is probably looking in this direction using optics to scan.
I've got to stay undercover, in concealment as much as possible, hopefully get some terrain features between them and I so they don't spot where I'm at.
Get down, get down, get down.
Get down, get down.
Narrator: They're right on top of Joel.
The strategy of pinning Joel down from two directions is working.
Lambert: They're right on me.
Pretty freaked out.
Looks like they're moving away.
Come on.
Let's move while we can.
I got to find a way around it with minimal exposure on that hillside, and I'm afraid there just isn't a way.
Got to stick to the shadows.
If I were to move out into the open right now, I'd be sunk.
Narrator: The u.
A.
V.
Has locked in on his position, despite Joel's plan to stick to the shadows.
He's tired.
Worn out.
He is worn out.
That train gets nothing but worse.
And that's coming to our advantage.
[ Beep .]
Man: The target has slipped past you.
[Bleep.]
Man.
I can see them.
That means they can see me.
Kerr: Approximately 350 meters.
Eyes on.
We have pid.
Three, if we push him off the canyon then, you guys have a blocking force.
Let's do this! Narrator: With eyes on Joel just 1,100 feet South, the phantoms rush to physically capture him.
Out of options, Joel is forced to make a break for his extraction point.
[ Panting .]
We're close, dude.
He's only about 300 meters in front of us.
[ Indistinct shouting .]
Doghouse, this is black dog.
I am at extract.
Doghouse, you identify.
Contact front! Contact front! [Bleep.]
Bird's inbound.
Be advised.
Hunter force is inbound.
I say again, hunter force inbound.
Let's go! Contact front! Chopper's coming.
Don't let him get away! We've lost.
[Bleep.]
Overway: He definitely knew what he was doing.
He was covering his tracks.
He was doing some anti-tracking.
Even though we weren't close enough to physically put hands on him, he definitely would have been done.
We definitely were close enough to shoot him with our rifles.
In a real-world scenario, the bird -- that would have most likely been shot down if it came too close, and then he would have been captured or killed.
Lambert: Missions are always complicated, and with live ammo flying around, who knows how this would have turned out? But today I got away.