what the hells goin on! this story's all over the place. and to bigdog, the only thing that sounds stupid about it is that it doesn't have to have top secret weapons on it, because they're to be destroyed if they can't make it back home, unfortunately, chances are that planes would do it if they could. how about this, using the basic idea you gave at the start.
paratroopers work in groups to large to be forward observers. who often come from artillery and the like. they're in quite small groups, say 5 or so. other groups that would do similar jobs are special forces groups and assault pioneers, who are combat engineers basically. anyway!
you need to get in, they'll probably do it from air because it leaves no tracks on the ground, chopper or plane is hard to decide. i'd say c-130, if your having problems with speed and ejection, just use an MH47E made by the good folk at BAS. right, so your in and your on the ground, i'd say that you need to give them transport so that they're not sitting ducks, i'm guessing u want bloody yanks so give them a DPV, FAV, chenowith, whatever your calling it. don't worry about seeing it drop from the air. if you can't get it right then just place it on the ground, and have someone go, hey, the chenowith's over there. use it to get to your LUP, laying up position. then have some cutsceneof you hiding during the day, and when night comes, get out the chenowith and move your ass to whatever position you need, then ditch it out of view and walk up to the target. then u can view it, get info and all that shit. then u get spotted by a patrol that u didn't see because it was hidden in a wadi or something (assuming its in the desert). you see them and shoot as many as u can, but someones already raised the alarm (alarm goes off) and you get bombarded with sarin or somethin, just a smoke bomb would probably do. but have someone yell GAS!!! about 10 seconds before it hits, that way you can move away. then after that do a cutscene of you running to the chenowith, u turn around to make sure your mates are following u, but u see them dying in the gas, you know the NBC suits are in the chenowith and there's nothing u can do for them, so you leave to save yourself. u get in the chenowith and cheese it to your LUP to hide out till night. then when night comes, you've got to get back in, destroy the camp with explosives from the chenowith, find the bodies, and then after all your objectives are done, you get a mechanised group of baddies chasin you to the evac point. the evac point is a mh-47e with an AH-1 gunship for support. u get in and the mission is over