Shock and Awe

"It looks like we're rolling in with everything we got. We get Al-Asad, we end this war right here, right now. Lock and load, Marines."

Shock and Awe is the tenth campaign level of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It is the last level where the player controls Sgt. Paul Jackson.

Plot
Sgt. Paul Jackson and the rest of Lt. Vasquez's squad attack what they believe to be Khaled Al-Asad's position. Jackson provides firing support with the Mk 19 grenade launcher as 1st Force Recon attacks Al-Asad's capital city. Vasquez and his team relieve a squad that is being attacked. Once clearing the area, the Marines start extracting from the city due to a nuclear threat to the area. As they are leaving, a Cobra helicopter is shot down and Vasquez's squad stops to rescue the pilot. As they are leaving the city, the nuclear bomb detonates and the blast wave causes the helicopters to crash, eventually killing the player and about 30,000 other troops.

Aftermath
The nuclear bomb that explodes at the end of this mission is revealed to have killed 30,000 troops, according to General Shepherd in the final mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, "Endgame". Arguably, the events of Modern Warfare 2 may not have happened if the nuclear bomb did not go off.

Tips

 * The most dangerous enemies while manning the Mk. 19 are AA emplacements, infantry with RPG-7s, and BMPs. It is possible to die while manning the grenade launcher, but it is not possible for the chopper to get shot down.
 * After the player rescues the squad being pinned down, two enemy helicopters will come and unload troops. Before they unload troops, switch to the M203 Grenade Launcher and shoot the one on the right. Deadly will come and destroy the other one. Both helicopters only take one grenade to destroy.
 * When rescuing the pilot, it is not necessary to attack any enemies. The quickest way to complete this section is to just sprint to her and carry her back.

Enemy Intelligence

 * Laptop 15 is on the second story of the building with green smoke lying on the ground to the right of the pinned squad.
 * Laptop 16 is in a closet on the second floor in the building to the southeast of where the friendly squad is pinned down, a machine gunner is firing at you from this room.

Xbox 360 Achievements

 * The First Horseman (40 points) is obtained by completing "Shock and Awe" on Veteran difficulty.

Trivia

 * The first time the player gets off the helicopter, there is a wooden fence in front of them; if they look through they will see some OpFor soldiers running. Shooting them will result in an odd death animation for them, and in Arcade Mode they don't provide the player with any points.
 * Griggs is not physically present in this mission because he was among the first wave of dismounted Marines on-board Jackson's SeaKnight.
 * It is possible to obtain an AT4, which is a U.S. rocket launcher only found in this mission, by using the "give all" command (only on PC).
 * After finding the Recon team on the second floor, the logical move would be to return to the LZ along the same way the player just came. Instead, the player must fight their way directly through the enemy position.
 * This mission is set around a fictional city in the Iraqi province eastern border of Al Basrah, but it is never stated.
 * Pelayo is one of the few females in the game, along with the News Caster and those seen in "The Coup".
 * When the helicopter is dropping off teammates, it is possible to shoot down the statue of the man with an AK-47 in the center of the square by using the Mk 19.
 * If the player is fast enough to take down the enemy choppers with one shot from the M203 Grenade Launcher, they'll see that Deadly just pass by instead of destroying the choppers.
 * It seems strange that it takes only one grenade fired from the Grenade Launcher to takedown the enemy choppers in this mission, but in the other missions it takes three grenades from the Grenade Launcher to take down a single chopper.
 * The level is named after the military doctrine of the same name. A doctrine of overwhelming firepower and total domination, it was used to describe the primary U.S. Military strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
 * The level bears many references to the movie Black Hawk Down.
 * By using the noclip cheat using the in-game console on the PC version, when leaving the helicopter, the player will notice that the two pilots in the chopper are two clones of Lt. Volker.
 * If the player activates the slow motion cheat when the helicopter is crashing, they can see the helicopter crash next to a tanker (nearby a destroyed BMP and a ZPU), yet the player is in a different location in the mission "Aftermath".
 * The door-mounted gun on the Seaknight (either a heavy or medium machine gun) should be manned by members of the helicopter crew instead of a passenger, but the normal gunner could have been killed earlier without a replacement.
 * It is a Stinger, not an RPG-7, that takes down the Cobra near the end of the mission. This can be seen when the rocket homes in on the Cobra - a feature which the RPG-7 cannot do.
 * The operation may have been a trap for U.S. forces, set by either Khaled Al-Asad or the First Horseman.
 * The nuclear explosion in this level was voted #2 on IGN's "The Wednesday 10: Best Nuclear Explosions in Games".
 * In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in the final level "Endgame", the primary antagonist General Shepherd references the nuclear explosion saying that, "Five years ago, I lost 30,000 men in the blink of an eye, and the world just fucking watched." Apparently, 30,000 personnel didn't get to minimum safe distance, or this could mean that 30,000 troops were killed, wounded, and no longer combat effective.
 * Just after the player saves Pelayo and returns to the helicopter, they will see that the Seaknight they're in doesn't go in the same direction they were travelling before landing to save Pelayo.
 * When Deadly shoots down a group of Opfor troops near the destroyable statue, if you shoot the remaining ones with the "Bad Year" cheat on, they will not turn to tires.
 * In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the multiplayer map Karachi contains areas of "Shock and Awe" outside its map boundaries.
 * In the beginning cutscene the Marine commander states that Seal Team Six confirmed the nuclear threat in the city, Seal Team Six was disbanded in 1987 and instead became DEVGRU, the Navy's highly classified Tier 1 Counter-terrorism and Special Mission Unit.
 * This is the only mission in which Jackson uses an M1911.

Transcript
Opening Cutscene

Command: Marines, we have a possible fix on Al-Asad in the capital city. 1st battalion is en route. Intel gathered by S.A.S indicates that Al-Asad may have a Russian warhead. Speed is critical. N.E.S.T teams have been deployed to the area. Force recon and wild weasel untis have taken out most of the air defenses bu Al-Asads ground forces still pose a serious threat.

Lt. Vasquez: Looks like we're rollin with eveything we got. We get Al-Asad, we end this war right here, right now. Lock and Load Marines.

Game play

(You start out on a helicopter in the capitol city)

Pilot: Objective, 30 seconds.

Cobra Pilot: Outlaw, this is deadly, We'll take out the big targets, mop up any trouble makers with the Mark 19.

(You then fly over and can only watch as your tanks move in for Al-Asad.)

Command: All Callsigns this is overload,we're seeing enemy armor in the bobgrows? west of the city.

(After that you head into the capitol city and take out some ground forces.)

Pilot: RPG'S on the rooftops.

(After you take them out)

Pilot: Right armor, take it out!

Pilot: Right infantry, watch it!

To BE CONTINUED