Book 3 The Show Down C39-41

(C-39)

And the beat goes on,

ālea iacta est ("the die is cast").

0630 EST

  Bruno hated this part of his morning run, the last half-mile all up hill. But he did like the feeling he gets when it’s all over, the exhilaration of having completed what he considered a hard work out. Getting to the top he slows his pace turns and starts an easy jog back down, his breathing was easier today, as he thinks, not to bad for an old man.

  About half way back down the hill the disposable phone he’s being paid to carry everywhere vibrates, letting him know his current associate wants to talk. Slowing to a walk he takes the phone opens it up and says, “OK.”

  The voice on the other end belongs to one of the Princes hired men that he talked to last week. “My boss needs to move the meeting up to today. He say’s it to be no later then 4 P.M., at the address you gave us on East 193rd street!”

  Bruno wonders why the rush, and he doubts the FBI has their people in place yet as this is four days before the originally planned meeting. But he also knows that he has been constantly watched and tailed since they’re first meeting, either by the Prince or the Feds, included his trip out to Kansas for his target check, then back to here. Even now. he can feel hidden eyes on him and can occasionally see people hanging around that were out of place. So making up an excuse would be out of the question, as he answers, “Yeah, I can make it at four o’clock sharp. I’ll be bringing Tony along, why the rush?”

  “Things are heating up out west and we have Ice Cream to move by tomorrow, bring your friend, later.”

Bruno knows that the FBI has this phone under 24 hour monitoring, so he doesn’t need to alert them. And if they are listening, so will the Princes people, doing the same. It’s just a game with in a game, within a game, as he smiles and thinks; it’s a good thing I learned to play chess at a young age. So many moves and plans laid out for each of the opponent’s next three moves.

  Still clutching the phone as he continues his cooling down walk, Bruno’s mind is racing working on a plan and a back up plan. Using the phone he calls Tony, who picks up after two rings, and in a sleepy voice says, “This better be Bruno!”

  “Ya got me, I’ll need a car, and I’ve got an errand to run today. Ya got one I can use?” With the schedule moved up he wonders if Tony would be a good man to have along to help him?

  “Sure what time do you want me to come by, and when will I get it back?

  “Around nine this morning, we are going shopping,” he said hoping Tony will catch on, “I’ll have you back home before sundown”

  Tony did catch his drift as he answered, “I’ll be here, see you then.”

  Bruno knows that Tony understand his meaning and will alert the FBI through his lawyer to set up a last meeting for coordination. Now back to his planning, the cooling down walk helped as he heads back to his place. While walking he observes the normal early morning day-to-day activity of the city, to an outsider it might look the same everyday, but any local would see the differences right away. Just like he does picking out the surveillance team that's watching him, getting an idea and with a smile he wonders if the Feds have any agents who can drive a garbage truck? Cause it's trash day in the area of the meeting, and he knows that the trucks are usually around about 4PM, picking it up and making a lot of noise. Another sly smile shows, that would make the perfect cover, doing the routine. With a laugh he thinks, 'The Feds would be the ones doing most of the dirty work this time, fitting very fitting. All I have to do is bring the garbage to them.'

(C-40)

Crossing the Rubicon

Keep thinking, keep up the pressure, and draw the enemy out from his hidden positions by any means that you can. Once they are moving it is easier to destroy them and you can then win.

Kansas Militia, Soldiers Hand Book

When the general is weak and without authority;

when his orders are not clear and distinct; when there

are no fixes duties assigned to officers and men,

and the ranks are formed in a slovenly haphazard manner,

the result is utter disorganization.

Sun Tzu

0400 PST

 Useless and with out any purpose, that’s what he has become. As the Corp commander hand selected by the Khan he was to be in charge of China’s most modern fighting force here in northern California. He had been selected because of his proven skills and ability not on who he knew. And now after a few set backs that he had no control over he is ordered to follow some very foolish orders and watch his command destroyed, or transferred, and he was powerless to prevent it.

  And now with two more of his brigades decimated in senseless frontal attacks against an enemy his commander has completely underestimated. Where those two brigades were ambushed and destroyed yesterday afternoon well ahead of the American positions as they were advancing down the road. Even with scouts moving ahead of the main column by a full kilometer, the main units drove head long into a well-prepared valley of death with no escape, and again for nothing. And then last night another four of my battalions were badly mauled in their four separate reconnaissances in force probes I was ordered to do.   

   How many more men will I lose following the commander’s exact orders, to do it his way? This is utter madness; we are given orders that won’t allow any deviation no matter what, this is asinine micromanagement at it’s worst. Leaving no room for the unit commanders on the ground to direct the battle, to take advantage of it’s ever shifting opportunities, as a quick glimpse appears then disappears in the every changing fog of war.

History repeats itself and I’m helpless to prevent it, no not helpless, as his commands were direct and deliberate, I’m ordered to fail by an incompetent ass. We are repeating the same mistakes as at the end of World War II when Hitler had continually ordered his Divisions to attack, and attack again. But they weren’t Divisions anymore just weak Battalions and sometimes just a hodgepodge collection of Companies thrown into the meat grinder in a desperate attempt to stop the advancing American and Russian Armies.

  These misguided tactics and other insane stupid command orders from 10^th Army would soon see his remain divisions, maybe even his whole Corp reduced to a collection of a few numbers on a map board.

It’s unmistakable, an easily seen fact, this American Militia knows how to use the ground to their favor, it’s as if they were born to this type of warfare. They have hidden eyes in the woods and brush watching our every move, the all-seeing eyes of wolfs as my soldiers believe. Maybe they can really smell us coming as some of the troops whisper to each other. And their name the ‘Prairie Ghost’ just added to the mystique surrounding them, one that’s helped nourish my soldiers unnatural fear of them. These Americans may not relish war, but they were born for it.

  General Chen looking at his map can see at a glance that the Americans down at Plymouth should be in a precarious position, or so it would seem to a non-tactical trained mind. Especially when I have two Divisions just south of them with two more to the north, and the 31^st Corp has another three division to their west. All seven divisions should have the Americans boxed in and we can destroy them easily when ever we want to.

But looking closer at the detailed topographic map and it’s easy to see that it’s the Americans who have the advantage, short supply lines and our own weapons and equipment to use against us. Especially since they have captured the two artillery brigades of the 35^th and 43^rd Division, where they are using those guns against our attacks. According to our computer monitored radar counter fire and control center, in less then twenty-four hours they have expended over three thousand rounds against our attacks and recon probing. With the large supply of ammunition we had stored there for the artillery, they fire off rounds without a worry or any fear of running short. They have more then enough rounds to fire for two weeks at this rate; and a lot can happen in two weeks, it’s our forces that haven’t time on our side.

  Disgust shows on his face, using our own weapons against us to defeat us. He mentally admits, these Americans are good soldiers, well trained and even better lead. And it is my commander who has fallen into their trap, as he gives us reckless orders to attack as fast as our soldiers can be brought up, either by battalions or brigades headlong down the highways, no maneuvering and taking the high ground. And our soldiers die and the Americans in hiding are wiping the blood from their knives and tomahawks waiting patiently, knowing we will try again, and again to free my two trapped divisions.

  Gobi is a fool, can’t he see that the ground favors the Americans, narrow valleys lots of hills and low mountains and sparse vegetation that won’t hide any units larger then a platoon to approach them undetected. And when my soldiers are found out these Militia soldiers wait patiently drawing the unit in, exposing more of my men, then suddenly and without any warning my men die with out ever seeing the enemy. They die by the score to the accurate and deadly fire of our own captured artillery and by our own Chinese made rounds.

That sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach has returned, we are losing this fight and my men are dying for what? To buy time, to hold off the obvious disaster they could all see rushing at them like a runaway avalanche. Our smaller patrols have men shot and killed from hidden snipers, sometime the sound of the shoot comes from behind them as a man is shot in the back some how the patrol must have walked past these hidden ghost.

  Listening now he can hear the drums echoing through the hills, the war whoops of the wild men as they spring up from the ground or step out of trees, to hack at his defenseless soldiers with their bloody tomahawks, taking the scalps of the fallen and holding them high over their heads as a trophy to be proud of.

This is impossible where have all of these American soldiers come from? We have five million trained men here in California, and they can’t have more then a few thousand soldiers maybe even up to 100,000 men. The rest of the Americans are just Militia, they aren’t organized to fight us here in their own land, at least not like this.

Hearing a loud shouted warning behind him he turns as he reaches for his pistol, it’s not there but in its place he finds a long sword. He draws it knowing that any weapon is better then nothing as he watches a whirlwind of dust approaching, a cloud made from the thundering of countless horses hooves. This makes no sense the modern weapons of war have made horse soldiers as obsolete as a massed infantry charge would be, suddenly the sound of the charging horses stops and it becomes deathly quiet. As the dust starts to dissipate he can make out the lone figure of a large man sitting on a horse watching him. Even stranger, the man looks like a young version of the actor John Wayne, right out of an old black and white film. Sitting tall on the horse he easily holds a Winchester style rifle in his hand. The dust completely clears now and he can see this man smiling as he said, “You brought a knife to a gun fight son, it might be a big knife but you still lose.” The man takes aim with the rifle, I know he will shoot me straight through the heart, he’s a man, he won’t make me suffer.

  Well Duke you won’t take me with out a fight as he raises the sword above his head to charge.

 Sitting up right in his bed General Jiu Chen lets out a curse shouting, “Damn you, I’ll fight to may last breath.”

  “Sir, Sir, General Chen what’s wrong,” his aide is shaking him with one hand on his shoulder.

  “I, I don’t? I thought we were being slaughtered by American Indians, and John Wayne was getting ready to shot me.” He has a dazed look on his face as he said, “I must have dozed off and had a bad dream, a nightmare.” Still confused he asks, “What time is it, how long did I sleep? And what’s the tactical situation?”

  “It’s now 0420, and you have been asleep just over three hours sir. The tactical for our Corp area is the same, the Americans still occupy the area around Plymouth and wait on more of our attacks, and there is no movement up on highway 80. In the 31^st Corp AO they are still attempting to clear the highway to San Francisco but with out any luck. They lost over 15,000 men yesterday and last night where they only gained two miles of ground. They think they have fixed the front lines of the American defenses and will attempt a break out later.”

  General Chen shakes his head knowing that General Gobi will waste lives for nothing. If the troops under his control gained only two miles and it cost us 15,000 soldiers, we will be bleed dry long before the Americans become sick of the killing.

  Damn can’t the old fool see that the Americans will give ground, they won’t be pinned down. Gobi doesn’t have a clue in what he faces, he can’t maneuver and he hasn’t enough air power left to assist his attempts, and where his artillery is counter barraged every time he uses it.

  The Americans have him right where they want and the man isn’t up to the task. If he continues these wasteful attacks in a few days it will be over. With a little luck he might even last a week, but soon even he will see that he has very few options left. But before then how many more of our men will die?

  And the results will still be the same, only the pile of dead will be stacked higher, then how many more families will be in mourning? He frowns knowing that things should have been different; we were supposed to be the winners this time. We were to be the people who are to write the new history books, changing the world and giving it a new direction.

  Instead we lose, unless, he pauses a second as a stray though pops in to his mind, I could be wrong, the actions of just one man can change the outcome, even though that’s very unlikely to happen. Thinking back to his nightmare where the wild men are holding their bloody trophies he wonders if that is to be our fate, to be scalped?

  Pushing that thought from his mind he asks, “Any word from General Gobi about my request for the 11^th Corp to attack Ione from the west as my two trapped divisions attack from the east?”

  “No sir, we know they received the request, the latest satellites photos came in an hour ago. The Americans units that took Iona moved northeast and are in the hills, as you said they would be. If the 11^th Corp attacks now they would be attacking into very rough terrain. Maybe the 11th Corp are making their plans now?”

  “Ha, that is a good joke. Our Army commander can only manage a single chore at a time; right now he is fixated on his problem to the west and saving his own skin. We are on our own,” then looking at his watch he is surprised it’s just 0420; despite his nightmare he was able to rest for three hours, now he remembers, that’s what his aide told him when he first woke up.

 “Call the five divisions commanders have them stop following the plans to attack Plymouth that were sent to them by 10^th Army. Have them come to the rear TACHQ by noon today we have to come up with a separate plan to rescue our 2 trapped division, we can expect no help from 11^th Corp.”

(C-41)

The third bridge.

0430

Do not repeat the tactics which have gained

you one victory, but let your methods be regulated

by the infinite variety of circumstances.

Sun Tzu

  This part was the hardest, even though radio contact had been made, this moving in the dark and approaching the Chinese position at the bridge, anything could go wrong. Even with the Chinese guide riding in the first vehicle, maybe it's a rouse by them? Don't know how they would know? That we had switched sides, but anything is possible? Just thinking about the many possibilities can drive a man nuts. Even if Major Z had told him not to worry, Ricardo couldn't help himself, there were just too many if's.

  Maybe Lt. Colonel Maritz was a tactical genus’s and this simple plan as he had called, there were still a lot of risks, and it's me with my Company's neck on the line again. Ricardo smiled at the thought of when the Z man asked for volunteers he had surprised himself when he stepped up and said, “My Company can lead the California Battalion in, the Chinese are expecting a Jihad Battalion, we will dash their moral when they find out its a Aztlan unit.”

  Everyone laughed at that, and it had sounded good at the time to him, to be leading the battalion again. Colonel Ito the California Militia Brigade CO had nodded his head in approval and asked for as many spare uniforms that they had, for his men who would make up the bulk of Ricardos Company. That way the Chinese wouldn't suspect a thing until it was too late, and hopefully they would take the bait. Lt Colonels Maritz plan was for the Chinese to pull out and rejoin the rest of their battalion on the I-80 Carquinez Bridge at Valona.

  If they took the bait, we replace their men on the north side of the Bridge and as they all move back to the south side here and start to board our trucks for the trip, Our Tanks and APC's turn their weapons on them and demand that they surrender. With their CO, Lieutenants and senior NCO's already captured at their HQ we shouldn't have to shoot them up. At least that is what we planned and with a couple of the Chinese Free Army people that Colonel Ito in his battalion that would hold this bridge after we take it, it should work? Still too many if's, got to stop worrying.

  Chinese Free Army, no one told us that several hundred thousand of the Khan's Army had been taken prisoners, with over 100,000 of them now working with the US Army.

I guess that no stranger then Major Z's Battalion of the Jihad Army becoming Christians again and switching sides. Just like my Company did, Ricardo understood the why, but it sure was strange too.

  The Convoy stops and using his night vision he watched the Chinese soldier get off of the first vehicle and approach a sandbagged position. One of the Guards steps out and Ricardo knows they are exchanging their pass words. They both shake hands and several more guards stand up and wave at the first of his vehicles.

  The Convoy starts moving again slowly as their guide walks in front and directs for them to pull over to the side of the road. And then into a small vehicle park that will hold only the first platoon's vehicles. When Ricardo's vehicle is even with the Guard Post one of the Chinese, motions for them to stop and then climbs on board. In very broken English he says, “Sir, I your guide. Pull out head,” he pauses trying to think of the English words. The Free Chinese Major with Ricardo says something to the guide in Chinese.

  The guide flashes a smile and he answers with a flourish of words in Chinese. Ricardo knows he feels relief in not having to struggle with words in English that might be misunderstood.

  The Major tells the driver to pull around and head up to tools booths and then to the building to the east of them. To Ricardo he says, “Have all of your vehicles follow us, we will see in a minuet if this plan works? It should, this man,' Indicating the guide, “is from their HQ unit and he said they were really glad to see us, especially their CO as Major Z had informed them you had the Heavy Armor with you. I just hope the don't recognize the last eight tanks aren't the ZTZ-99’s like the first four are?

 If we get them off loaded from the low boys we can sale this plan with out having to kill my country men here. Keep your fingers crossed LT, and pray. I am!”

The plan is a success, the Chinese 10th Army has lost another bridge and the Free Chinese soldiers along with the California Battalion take over the radio duties with all of the codes captured. And they make contact with the Kansas units to the North of the bridge, freeing them up to rejoin their units.

Ricardo and his Company along with Major Z's four ZTZ-99’s tanks turn around and head back to their unit at the Antioch Bridge, just as the sky to the east lightens up before sunrise. They have a long day ahead of them preparing for the next fight, with the Jihad units.

Book 3 'The Show Down' C 36- 38

(C-36) 

2346 hours

Bad Comms, Mis-Comms, or No Coms = confusion or even Death

(Bad Communications, Missed Communications, No Communications)

General Rong Cui was getting a little mad at what he considered impudence by Colonel Wang Pu as he switched strategies, “Do you have these orders in writing? Placing you in charge of my Division, I can't rely on just your signals officer word. If this was the intentions of the the Field Marshall I would have received word too.”

“No sir I don't have written orders, the message we received was over the radio, it was encoded in the Commands code and with the proper number sequence following such a command,” Colonel Pu replied. “As you can see, what we have written down makes sense after our success today.”

With a laugh General Cui retorted, “The Americans have over ran several Commanding Officers positions today, and they can be using the codes to their advantage. As for making sense, I say you were lucky, as the Americans let you advance because they wanted to shorten their lines of defense.”

“Sir I protest, your tone of voice, it insults my dead soldiers and the wounded, in what they were able to accomplish today. Our changing tactics and working in small teams allowed us to push them back over 4 kilometers. We know where their skirmish line is, and where their first and second lines of defence are located. It may be a trap that they have set for us, but we carried out our orders with just two brigades.”

“Colonel don't attempt to upset me, I'm not saying that your units sacrifices were wasted. Yes you were successful in stopping them, and maybe forcing them back into a temporary defensive position. I'm sure they are regrouping and planning on resuming the attack, but my division will remain under my command. They will follow my orders,” looking at his watch, “in less then five minuets my first Brigade will attack from where we relieved you units. When we have punched through the Americans front line the second brigade will be ready to continue the attack and push through to their rear elements. My last brigade will then start the mop up, and the other arriving divisions can then push through to the I-80 bridges. Reestablishing contact with the few Divisions still down in the San Francisco area.

General Gobi told me that the American Militia have overextended their advance this time. Their five divisions can't hold onto such an extended line, they have made a very bad error in tactics, and we are to make them pay for that now.”

Colonel Pu shook his head as he said, “Sir, no disrespect to you or to General Gobi, but you both continue to underestimate the Americans and these Militia units they have. There attack along highway 49 where they destroyed three of our divisions and the attack at the same time on the two Divisions holding the passes had to be the work of more then five Divisions.”

“Maybe so Colonel, maybe so, I won't speculate. I will follow the orders I was given this morning and I will do my job.”

“Then it will be the death of your Division General, we switched tactics and won. You can learn from what we accomplished today and go from there.”

“Your small unit attacks had them off guard, by now they have changed their tactics. Our mass attack will take them by surprise, catching them in mid stride when they aren't ready.”

And aide to the General hands him a paper, he signs it and then hands it over to Colonel Pu, “Now these are proper orders, I relieve you of command. Please take you unit back to Sacramento

report to Corp, I'm sure they will have you rearm and make ready to assist somewhere else.”

Not waiting for an answer, General Cui turns to his G-3 (planning officer and asks, “When the second brigade arrives at 0100 hours have them march forward to take over from the first brigade as planned......”

Colonel Pu takes the orders and as he turns he hears the remark made to the G-3 and thinks, 'He hasn't listened and he's not waiting for intelligence from the success or failure of his attack, no wonder the Americans have us trapped. Our senior commanders assume to much, this isn't the same America we attacked last fall. They have lost the fat and any self doubt, they are fighting for their homes and families. Shaking his head no he whispers to himself, “We assumed to much! Myself included. The price we will have to pay will be great, even if the Americans show the same compassion like they did after World War Two, we will still pay.”

The attack of the 171st Divisions first Brigade is a disaster, the massed units are hammered by the American Artillery and when the decimated Battalion fight their way past the faked skirmish line. They come under very well aimed shots of the Militia Rifleman that are five hundred meters away in the real first defensive line.

The Chinese have to now skirmish across this zeroed in firing range, where they are the pop-up targets. Only a few hundred soldiers make it to within a hundred meters of the hidden Militia line.

The attackers or what's left of the 3,00 men that started are scattered across the whole front of one Militia Battalion, Where each of the defenders are making their shots count.

The Chinese are stopped and with the unrelenting rifle fire coming at them forced to fall back. But this is not an easy task as they are under constant fire even as they retreat and lose even more men.

The ranking officer, a Major reports back to General Cui, “The Americans were waiting for us, any future attacks will need Armor, APC's and Artillery support. I do not think it's wise to have the Second Brigade make the same type of attack that we attempted.”

Rong Cui glares at the man and his off the cuff remark, but losing a full Brigade in 30 minuets makes him reconsider his plan. He asks, “ Did you see any sign of American Armor? Any direct fire weapons, that might be anti-tank?”

“No sir, just indirect fire of artillery and mortars. Their infantry are very skilled with their rifles, the last five hundred meters, they made us pay for ever meter going both ways.”

Cui directs his G-3 to hold the 2^nd Brigade when it arrives, to wait for the Armor unit that is following, “then we will show them what a combined force attack is like.”

(C-37)

Gracias a Dios, for men like this,

(Thanks be to God)

Day 2, 0035 hours

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.

~ George S Patton

“Well you’ve earned a Purple Heart son,” the Doc said, “now wait here and we will get you evacuated back up to the brigade medical station.”

That's when I said, “No way Doc I haven't got time! My buddies, they're waiting for me up at the front lines, just patch it up, and give me a shot of antibiotics.”

“Your attitude is commendable Private Williamson but your in no shape to return to the front lines, only God knows how much shrapnel there is in the back of your leg. There are six entry points, if things get bad you won’t be able to run back to the next line.”

“Sir I mean no disrespect to you, but my platoon doesn’t plan on running away, don’t take that wrong sir we aren’t out for glory. You see we are dug in on a knife ridge and the Chin’s, they can only come at us on a forty or fort-five meter wide front without climbing up over the scree.”

“The what?”

“Scree, that’s a layer of loose stones, sort of like marbles on a flat floor, and it’s on a good slopping hill with close to a sixty degree angle. The scree is over a hundred meters deep on that part of the hill. And the sides are too steep to for them to scramble up so we can pore very heavy fire into anyone coming up those side ravines. Besides they have attacked us twice and both times they failed before they could get within hand grenade range.”

“Then how do you explain your wounds then?”

“They’re from either a mortar round or a rifle grenade, I’m the only one wounded from my squad and the second in our platoon of 39 people. David Martinelle who you just treated for the wounds to his left arm was our other man, and you let him go back up.”

“I was able to pick out the two metal slivers he had in him, they were like thorns and they came right out. Your wounds are deeper and the metal is down under the muscle, if just one of them is jagged and it moves a little, it might cut deeper and damage more tissue. You need to head back to Division medical and have an X-ray, and for one of the surgeons to look at you wounds.”

“I can’t do that sir my friends need me and you did say ‘it might’ sir. If I man a grenade launcher I’ll be lying behind it and not have to move around much, just aim and shoot.”

Shaking his head and knowing he wasn’t going to change this young man’s mind the Doctor said, “I understand how you feel, but I’m going to sign the order sending you to the rear, if you’re not there when the ambulance is ready to leave you will be written up. Then I’ll have to sign those papers too, if I have time in a day or two. Then they will be forwarded up to division then back down to your brigade commander. Then he will send them on down to your battalion and from there to your company commander. Very time consuming, that process will take several days maybe longer.”

The Doctor turned to a medical box behind him as he asked, “Are you allergic to any of the penicillin family of drugs, what’s your first name Private?”

“My name is Doug sir. And no sir I’m not allergic to anything that I know of?”

Picking up a medium size plastic bottle full of pills he writes on it ‘1 tablet 4x a day, until they are used up’, a second smaller bottle he writes ‘take 1 or 2 for pain every 4 hours, not to exceed 8 tablets a day’. Handing them to the private he say’s, “Doug the larger bottle is for infection, take one with water every six hours until they are all gone. And the smaller bottle is for pain it’s just a strong aspirin, it won’t make you drowsy so you can still function. Your platoon medic has more if you run out.” With a wink after looking at his watch he said, “Now I want you to go out side and wait for the evacuation ambulance, they won’t be back for another fifteen minuets or so. That gives you time to grab some hot chow at the supply point in the tent across the gully, they also have ammo if you need any. Do you understand me and do you need anything else?”

“I understand perfectly sir, and yes I could use two magazines for my FN, when I got hit I had two in my butt pack, they both took a lot of the shrapnel and they can’t be fixed, I’ve still got ten but no spares if I need them.”

With a smile the doctor walked over to the corner of the tent and opened his Alice pack and removed two magazines that weren’t loaded, “You’re in luck I carry four spares, you can borrow two.”

“Thanks Doc, I thought a lot of you medical guys carried only pistols or an M16.”

With a laugh the Doctor retorted, “When I joined the Kansas militia ten years ago I had an AR15, almost everyone else had the FN or a G-3 clone. After shooting the FN a few times at the range and hitting the targets hidden behind the railway ties, where the 223 wouldn’t penetrate three inches, I saw the light and switched, I got me a better rifle. I still have the AR and I left it for my oldest boy to help defend the home if necessary. Glad I did too as we live just five miles as-the-crow-flies from Dan’s place. After what happened there just after Christmas our sub division started an armed neighbor hood watch program. I feel better knowing my sixteen year old is skilled with it and can be of help if needed. Enough talk son, now get out of here grab some hot chow and keep your backside down, and take your medicine.”

“Yes sir I will, and thank you.”

Soft Ground and Flooded Rice Fields (0045 hours)

Good the noise from the ZTZ96’s or 2000’s was louder, that means they are closer now. Their lead tanks had finally found the one dry tract the engineers had left intact across the flooded fields and around the drainage channels and they were moving quickly now into the kill zone.

Our few scouts that had stayed behind had reported at least a full Armor brigade of the monsters were a coming, 130 of their top of the line tanks with lots of APC’s carrying infantry, followed by at least another battalion of infantry in open trucks. Really hard to get a count in the dark, but it could be as many as 3000 troops were moving into the trap. Another slacker must be in charge, a good Commander would have sent at least a company size reconnaissance force ahead to make sure it wasn't a trap. Oh well, their mistake our opportunity.

Lieutenant Colonel Justin Miller executive officer of the 2^nd Brigade 2^nd Kansas Division shook his head in disbelief, he can’t understand how any commander would sacrifice unarmored troops like that. Oh well his job was to see to their destruction and the two anti-tank companies under his command and the battery of 152MM guns across the river were ready.

Watching the laptop computer screen of a live cast shot from the orbiting UAV that was 5,000 feet overhead he can see the lead scout vehicles that were now spreading out, they didn’t know they had one last major obstacle between them and the ambush. In less then a minuet the scouts got to the main drainage channel above Liberty Island and were halted by the wide and deep water. But the end of the column continues moving and closes up as they cross the bottleneck, good the back door can now be slammed shut

With a chuckle Sgt. Weiss said, “Our engineers get to count first Coo sir.”

Smiling in return he answered, “Yes they do, radio them to open the slough gates and flood that deep ditch behind the Chinese. They can be proud of all of the hard work they did today, from welding all of the gates shut on the drainage ditches from here up to Dixon and then filling both sides with tons of dirt to stop the Chinese from just blowing them open and letting the water drain from them and the fields.”

Still watching the screen he continued, “The enemies scouts will spend twenty to thirty minuets looking for another crossing, but this time they won’t find any. Once they figure they can’t move any further west they will have to turn that whole snaking file around and try another path, by that time the ditch will be flooded, but we aren’t going to give’em the necessary time.” Picking up the field phone he tells the man on the other end, “Commence firing now zone A-1 and all along the snake line.”

Five kilometers behind him eight tubes of 120mm mortars fire their pre-plotted fire mission at their designated coordinates. Firing their allotment of six Strix* Precision Guided rounds each, the battery crews know they will take out 48 targets, it doesn’t matter if they are Tanks, APC’s or trucks full of troops, as each hit vehicle will be a burning road blocker.

On the south side of the shipping channel the six captured Chinese 152mm guns start firing a Chinese copy of the Russian ‘Krasnopol-M’ rounds, in support. These rounds are very similar in capabilities to the American ‘Copper Head’ rounds, and just as deadly. Each round will home in on the inferred beams from the six special UAV that were over head and circling, when the crewman flying these remote controlled planes see his target hit he will switch to another and another until they are all destroyed. And then concentrations of infantry will be dealt with using old fashion HE and WP. ^

* Bofors of Sweden developed the "Strix" smart mortar round, which fires a single smart munition. The Strix looks much like a conventional mortar round, with tailfins that unwrap from the end of the round. The Strix has been in service with the Swedish Army since 1994, and has been ordered by the Swiss Army. The “Strix’ is a hollow-charge gliding munition that uses imaging infrared technology to find, hit and kill its target. ( information taken from http://www.vectorsite.net/twbomb_11.html#m6)

^HE High Explosive

WP White Phosphors

O247 hrs Tough Decisions 

Southern Part of the Line

“Sir, the two front battalions in the second brigade are down to around 70% effective manpower strengths, that includes the walking wounded who have moved back up to the front. Another hard Chin push in the right spot and they might break through! The Chins have been using their manpower to locate and attempt to swamp our forward positions, I know they are wasting their soldiers but they are hurting us in the process.”

“We knew this might happen, send a message back to the staff include everyone from the G-1 up to G-5, have them send up half of their people, same with the AA brigade, tell John to take half of his missile battery people and make a reserve battalion in case we have to fill in a big hole fast. They are to wait at point Blue in well dispersed dug in positions.”

“Even with the people from division support we will only get back up to 85% strength.”

“Yeah that’s what I figured too,” taking his helmet off and wiping the sweat band and then his forehead with a towel he says reluctantly, “OK.” General Stoddard’s facial expressing was hard no emotion showing as he then said, “No one is going to like this, but we do the 'Grave Robber' plan.”

The G-3 looked at him in complete disbelief as he questioned, “Sir?”

“We all talked about this, Dan and all of us didn't like the idea, but it's already agreed on. Now make it happen!”

Still in a bit of shock that it might come to this he asked again, “Are you sure sir? Maybe we ought to bounce this one up to Corp?”

“Yes I'm sure, it's a tough call but one that has to be made. The order is to put the KIA’s back into the front decoy positions, take a couple of hand warmers, activate them and put them in the dead men’s front top pockets.”

“Do we really have to do it sir,” his G-3 asked again? Wondering if he had heard the General give that order..

“It’s a bad choice I know, but we have to fool the Chinese thermal scopes and make them shoot up that decoy line again and waste more Ammo and time clearing it again. Don’t look at me like I’m crazy Arron, you were at that planning session. I later talked it over with Dan, we both agreed on this as a back up plan. We have to take the pressure off of the real line, so have the men take their ground sheets and two of them can drag one of our dead men forward and place them in position. When the Chinese attack again our snipers between the two lines will be able to pick out their men firing at our dead, as those Chins will be the ones with the thermal scopes. If our men use a grenade launcher and kill them it should also damage the thermal scopes or enough of them to shift the advantage back to us.”

“But sir?”

“No butts about it, you know I mean no disrespect for our dead. The spirit is already gone but we still have a need for the body, this way our dead will save more of our men’s lives.” Softening his tone he said, “Now go ahead and issue the order Gary, I didn’t like having to give it, if there was any other way to save more on our men’s lives, I would do it.”

“Yes sir,” he answered but his voice betrayed his reluctance to pass on this order that he knew was correct, no maybe not correct but still necessary.

“And make sure the RC guys plant their special AK’s among our dead men.”

“They said they would help place our dead in the right places to cover the most likely regrouping and assemble areas. I was told that a little luck on their part that would give us results beyond any one’s expectations.”

Red shuddered a little as he said in a low voice, “It will. I know it would scare the hell out of me.”

Later that night/ early morning, after Doug returned to his unit he found out about the Chinese second attack and how his platoon was able to beat them off again. The men he was with also found out how hard it was to stay in their positions; later in the cold dark hours before first light, we could hear the Chinese wounded crying out for water, one of them must have been wounded pretty bad, we would hear his voice getting weaker and weaker as he called out, “Shui, shui,” water, water and it would sound like shway, shway. After what seemed like an hour of listening to the man’s pleas that were now getting intermittent and weaker, our Platoon leader called back up to company HQ on the field phone and asked for permission to send out a fire team to bring the wounded Chin soldier back to our lines.

The CO said no and that was an order. Because the Chinese soldier might not be wounded and it might be just a bluff to get some of our men out and into an ambush, he said his father told him about that trick being used in Korea and our platoon sergeant said the VC had used the same trick in Nam on his older brother. They were counting on the Americans compassion for the wounded, and how they would use it against us, to kill our men if we fell for it. If it really was a wounded man the Chinese didn’t care, as that was the oriental mind set of what’s another life. For us it was hard to keep from disobeying orders and not go out to help him.

After what seemed hours of hearing his plea for water the LT called in a mortar fire request for the area we suspected the man was in. Six rounds of 120mm airburst did the job, if he was a decoy we would never know now. Just before dawn Doug told his best friend, “I don’t know if I’ll ever get the sound of that wounded man calling out for help? Shui, shui, damn, war is hell.”

The Chinese attacks continue all along the line, and each one is repulsed with loses on both sides. But each new Chinese attack has less impulse; their troops are losing their courage they are afraid, tired and thirsty. Their lack of in depth logistics especially in water and food for the front line troops is taking a very heavy tole.

(C-38)

0350 hours

Spookier

Smitty asks, “You sure do a lot of praying Parson, what do you pray for?”

“I give thanks to the Lord for the time and the place son.”

“The time and place?”

“The time to live and the place to die. That’s all that any man gets,

No more, No less.”

From the movie 'The Alamo'

“This is nonsense, you know that Marshall Gobi will not accept failure, and I didn’t give any orders to fall back. I order you to tell me the name of the officer who gave that command!”

Lt. Colonel Ni Sichong answered in a forced calm voice as he tried to explain for the third time, “As I told you sir there was no order given. After we captured the Americans first trench line again, that's their fake line. As we were regrouping to push on to the second line, the troops in one’s and two’s dropped their weapons and headed back to our lines, the Company Commanders, Platoon Lieutenants and NCOs called for them to return and they wouldn’t listen. As Captain Yitang just told you when he ordered a squad Corporal and some men to go and bring them back, he could hear them arguing and soon after the Corporal came back alone as his whole squad had gone back with the other men.”

Recently promoted General Wang Pu had returned to the front line with written orders, and took over command of the decimated 171st Division, he turned and glared at Captain Yitang, “Why didn’t you go yourself?”

“I still had the majority of my company with me at that time sir, and it was almost time to begin the assault against the next defensive line.”

“And that’s when the so called ghost arrived,” General Pu retorted?

In his own defense Yitang answered, “I did not see any ghost sir, that is the words our men used to describe what happened next.”

“You said that several of the dead Americans came back to life and started firing off their weapons in the trenches hitting several of your men.”

“Yes sir, and they had been dead just a few minuets before. The one closet to my command group I had place two shots into him myself just to make sure. That was two or three minuets before he opened fire on us. When the dead American opened fire several others and I started firing at him again and we could see his body jerking each time one of us hit him. Only when a 37mm grenade ripped him apart did he stop firing. And we weren’t the only ones having to kill these corpse again, I could hear this going on all across the front.”

“And this is when the majority of your men started retreating?”

“Yes sir, I had just given the order for my medics to attend to the wounded, and ordered some men to help the lesser wounded back to our line of departure. As I was talking to my Lieutenants more of the enemies dead started shooting again and we had to dispatch these too. After that I could see that many of our men were gone and I knew they weren’t wounded. Platoon Sergeants that were still with the few remaining troops then called in and reported the men with them refused to advance. That is when I called Colonel Sichong and told him that I had lost over three quarters of my men, that they were falling back without orders.”

“That’s when I ordered my companies to start the second phase of the attack,” Lt. Colonel Sichong blurted out. “The word was passed up and down the line and the officers, senior NCOs and only a few men jumped up and moved forward, the few others they froze, the men wouldn’t get up and advance. The American snipers were shooting at the few of us exposed and we took cover and called out to the troops in the trench to advance, but they wouldn’t. So when the few soldiers with us laid down suppressive fire we fell back to the first line. Even threatening the men that still remained with death they refused, they wouldn’t advance. They’re faces were filled with fear as they were watching the few dead Americans , ones that they said had been killed twice if not three times. The word spread quickly that troops down the line were now retreating in larger and larger numbers. That's when the Americans started dropping mortars rounds, you could see the fear and terror in the faces of the few men that remained, their spirit had just melted and there was nothing left inside of them. Then in one’s and two they got up and ran back to the trucks. In my command group I had only five men with me, I knew I could do nothing, that our part of the attack was over. I did not order a retreat, but I did order for a regrouping back at the line of departure.”

“When we got there only a few of the troops were waiting, they said that others had continued on back to where we got off of the trucks. I ordered my executive officer and the NCOs to go and collect the battalion and prepare defensive position in case the Americans attacked, while I reported back to brigade. Colonel Nu said the Brigade attack was a failure and what we experienced had happened to all of the attacking units.”

General Pu shook his head in disgust as he muttered, “Superstitious peasants, what else could we expect from men who are uneducated, and without motivation. To make a Army you need more then peasants.” Looking at his officers with a hard glare, then his face turned to shame and he looked down at his map, balling his fist he says in frustration as he said in a low angry voice, “Damn this American General, he knows us better then we know ourselves.”

Book 3 'The Show Down' C 33-35

A warning if your a bit squeamish, this might be a very tough chapter for you.

(C-33)

A glance through La Porte de l'Enfer

(translated The Gates of Hell)

There but for the grace of God, go I.

‘Lord I ask of thee to please help these people, I can only do so much

as I haven’t the skills necessary to save but only a few.’

Gavin Marion

‘When we first landed I saw my brother Neil for a few seconds working on the wounded, man was I glad to see him. Someone had told me that he had been listed as MIA, I was glad my little brother was here alive and proved that rumor wrong.

With my medical team we quickly set up a small triage station and I sent most of the medics up to the refuge convoy to handle the forwarding of the worse wounded back to my best two medics and myself. After a few minuets and from somewhere two doctors arrived with their field surgical teams and relieved my two medics who then went up top to help out. The Doctors had seen the ever-increasing number of causalities coming in and they knew that I was needed here at the triage station, they told me to stay, and to keep handling the lesser hurt. They assigned three of their nurses to help me and the lead one was very good, she answered a lot of question I asked in doing several procedures that I had only seen preformed once in my two week stint in the ER during my Para Medical training.

Working as fast as possible we uncovered wounds from the sterile dressings placed there by our front line medics, assessing the damage and doing what we could.

By the hundreds, severely hurt patients were sent back to us to be treated, where we stabilized them, then we sent them out by air to receive more attention at a field hospital.

When the Brigade Commander checked in on us the senior doctor asked him to call for more doctors to assist us. He told us that he had already asked but his request was denied as there were several other battles being fought at this moment and there were no spare medical teams available. I heard the Colonel ask my lead nurses where had I come from. Her hurried and blunt answer was the simple truth. “He and his men arrived with the first helicopters, they were here and working when we showed up, and they are making a difference. Now excuse me sir we have work to do.”

As the late afternoon turned into evening, finally the blistering hot sun was going down, as the natural light lessened some one had set up several shop light trees and a generator was started so we could continue our work.

Earlier I had to thank the lord for the heat as the sweating helped hide my tears, as there was no relief in sight from this never ending bloody horrible parade of civilian casualties. Children, women, men, from the very old to babies in their mother’s arms, dozens and dozens were carried in. Our makeshift triage and treatment center always had 3 upon the plastic covered stretches, held up by the wooden sawhorses, we used for exams and if necessary operating tables, the medics working the site of the destroyed and machine gunned trucks attended to as many as they could and the worse cases were then carried or lead by the lesser wounded down to us. Thus the approaches leading to our aide station was constantly lined with a queue. Thank God the better medics in the battalion treated the lesser injured, but that left the worst cases for the two doctors and myself. Where we would quickly treat the open wounds and do our best to stabilize the ones that could be helped and ready them for the helicopter evacuation back to the surgical field hospital. Where possible we set broken bones and placed splints to immobilize the fractures. Not being a doctor but just a Para-medic I did all that I could for the lesser wounded that I treated. And the doctors if necessary operated on the ones they could save. Several times some of the mangled bodies had died while being carried back to us. Checking for life signs and finding none, we instructed the litter carriers to take them down to an area under the bridge that was being used as a temporary body holding area. And to make matters worse more then a few of the worse off cases were still alive, but too badly wounded to save, so we had to use military triage rules knowing they too would die very soon. That’s the part I hate the most, knowing that any attempt to save them would be a waste of our limited resources and the precious time that could be used to treat those that would survive.

I recall Cody’s dad saying once, ‘You honor life by helping those that you can help, and there is honor in death too, by letting those who will die to do so in peace.’ So we would give them a dose of morphine to easy there pain and place a red tag on them, indicating that they were not to be treated anymore and that they only had a few more minuets to live. The families of the wounded that were helping their loved ones quickly caught on to our system, some handled it very well; others cursed us and demanded that we do more, a few MP’s had to come over and help remove the more vocal ones. My heart went out to them but we had to do our best for the ones that could be saved. I quickly lost count of how many times I wanted to say ‘I’m sorry’, but that doesn’t help much in knowing your loved one is dying and that there was nothing on earth that could be done for them.

For what seemed like hour after hour we worked and evacuated and still the flow continued. And these were the most horrible wounds I have ever seen, of every type and severity. Children’s heads with skulls so badly smashed that bone and brain were mixed together in a misshaped sack of skin and yet somehow they were still alive; old people whose faces had deep and horrible lacerations; several with their lower jaws that were completely blown away, leaving only two sad eyes pleading for relief from the pain. Middle-aged adults with chests pierced through with shrapnel wounds that spouted blood from deep gushing holes, some with large pieces of jagged metal sticking out yet somehow still alive. All ages where arms were mangled as unrecognizable pieces of flesh left hanging by stretched tendons and ribbons of flesh, waiting for the amputation blade. There were abdomens pierced by shell splinters and displaying coils of intestine, for them very painful and in some cases deadly wounds where the injured person was bleeding out faster then we could replace fluids, close the wounds and stop the loss. But the leg wounds seemed to be the most prevalent! Thighs splint open from the hip to the knee, others with huge chunks of meat missing; knees without kneecaps, legs without feet, red mangled flesh with blood flowing off of the stretchers and making our footing precarious on the concrete road way. One of the civilians helping the wounded organized some of the others to get water and they washed down the area we were working in, it helped and had the added benefit of pulling the heat out of the pavement.

And other civilians not wounded at all standing about and trembling uncontrollably sobbing like children, as they watched us work on their loved ones who were strapped to the stretchers and struggling to be free; somewhere along the way and for close to thirty minuets we ran out of pain killers of all types. Before then the sounds had mostly been a low moaning or cursing but that soon changed to loud screaming from the pain and agony, and for some of them it was too much and they were now crying and pleading, begging for a merciful end to their suffering. Thank God one of the returning helicopters brought back more supplies and very soon the worst of the screaming was over.

Towards the end another Doctor joined us, Dr. Bowers he had been up working with the medics in and among the smashed convoy, his help there had saved countless lives and his help here was a Godsend.

At first I didn’t know that Audi was also here and helping until I called for some supplies and I heard her call out my name. Later when we finished the last few cases around nine PM. I saw that Her helmet had several plums of material sticking up and I was told by one of the cons, the Jihadist soldiers who defected over to us, that she had saved all of us here at the triage station. That’s my angel, saving people, I know that seeing her smile and the few words we were able to exchange afterwords saved me too, otherwise with out her soft and kind words I might have gone insane especially after what I witnessed and had to do today.’

My Dad had warned me that being a medic was not for the faint of heart, and that war was like a picture window onto hell, with the sounds in full stereo. When he first told me what I could expect, and as much as Dad tried he couldn’t find the proper words to describe the sights the sounds or the smells to me, or the range of emotions I would have.

And you were so spot on Dad, how many times I’ve marveled on how correct your knowledge about war was, but this is one time that I wish you had been wrong.

You were so right, there are no words to describe what I saw today along with the sounds of the wounded people and their loved ones crying, pleading for succour, and as hard as I tried with my limited skills only providing a pittance of what was needed.

And as with you and Grand Dad had found out so many years before, I now know that freedom does come with a very heavy price tag. One that has to be paid in turn by each generation least we forget the value of what Freedom and Liberty really mean.

To often the Tree of Liberty has to be nurtured with the blood of Tyrants andPatriots.

And sometimes the Patriots are the very young and the very old!’

War is truly hell, in your face and something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

I didn't have to remind myself to do my job. It was therein front of me and I did it.

I mean what else could I do?

The above was taken from the personal log of Lt. Gavin Marion

An Angel with an M16A2

Baptism of Fire

Sportsmen and Labors (soldiers) sweat.

Gentlemen perspire,

And Ladies, lightly glow.

Audi’s heart skipped a beat, she was surprised to see Gavin here and working so hard, she didn’t think that he saw her he was so busy. But still she was thrilled just to see him; hoping that maybe latter they would be able to be together to talk, even if it was just for a few minuets.

As the medical team starts to assist, Gavin yells that he is running out of supplies and for some one to run back down and grab some more of their extra medical kits that they had unloaded from the helicopters. As the medical records officer Audi hasn’t been assigned to assist any of the trauma teams, and she answers him, “I’ll go get them, Gavin” and turns and hustles off.

Gavin looked up for a second at hearing his name called and smiles as he sees Audi running off to get the requested supplies. ‘Talk about a bright ray of sunshine for a moment in a tough and one of the bloodiest afternoons of gloom and toil.’

Having ran back down to the drop off point Audi secured four of the medial bags, before she can turn and head back up the ramp she feels a tug on her helmet. Glancing over her shoulder, but there is no one. With her head turned she feels another pull on her helmet but this time she realizes that some one has tossed something and hit her. Suddenly there were chips of concrete flying all over the place as she hears the sonic sounds of rounds screaming past her.

Turning back to look she can see maybe a squad of guys in black, forty meters or so off to her right go to ground and they start firing. She can see another squad of men in black uniforms just to the left of the first group spring up and run forward maybe 5 meters and go to ground and they start firing. Then the first group she saw jumps up and they move forward again. One of the men looks at her and aiming point blank shoots her in the chest. The bullet rips through the one medical bag causing a couple of the 500-milliliter bags of saline to explode and then it smashes up against her vest. The armor plate behind it stops the bullets, but being off balance she sits down hard, flat on her ass, the bullet strike and falling to the ground knocks the air out of her.

The Jihad soldier can see the expression on her face and smiles; he mistakes it for a knock out hit and turns back to continue the assault with the rest of his platoon.

For a second Audi is dazed and her mind tries to sort out the surprise of their shooting at her and their moving toward the people on the bridge approach. This surprise vanishes instantly and she’s angry, those bags of saline were badly needed to save lives and now they are wasted. She also knows that the medical teams are all in real danger, and it’s up to her to do something.

Dropping the four M5 bags she quickly un-slings her M16A2, bringing it up to her shoulder and flips the switch to full auto. Still sitting she takes aim at the group that is firing, with controlled 3 to 4 round burst, she opens up as this group jumps up to advance. Since she is on their right flank and shooting down the line her controlled burst are very effective and she is able to kill or wound all of this squad with her first 25 or 27 rounds.

As she has practiced many times, with the index finger on her right hand she hits the button that allows the almost empty magazine to fall free. With her left hand she unclasp the pouch on her web belt and plucks a full magazine out rotates it and pushes it up into the magazine well as she grabs the triangle fore grip and resumes shooting at the other squad, all in less then five seconds.

About half of this second squad is hit and down before they realize that there worst threat is from this flank and two of them turn and shoot at her. Two of their rounds hit her on the helmet again, as they ricocheted off leaving two more deep scars in the Kevlar, and one more round hits her square in the chest. With the air punched out of her a second time, and thanking the lord that Gavin had insisted she wear the vest with the strike plate in it when ever her unit was close to the front, she rolls over takes a deep breath reloads and then rising up and knelling on one knee she gets ready to resumes firing.

Gavin hears the shooting but was to busy to look up, he was trying his best to fasten a hemostat on a young boys badly damaged and partially seared femoral artery, and then to wrap with sterile dressing the bloody shattered stump that was left of his leg, once that was done he could worry about the shooting and after that to get this young man evacuated on the next available chopper.

As quickly as the assault started its over, all of the people who had attacked the detail guarding the bridge have been mowed down by members of Ricardo’s Company, Where at first they had been taken by surprise, so when the shooting started their first instinct had been self-preservation as they all dived into cover.

Watching the one female medic fighting those first few seconds alone, embarrasses Ricardo who quickly recovers, he stands up and starts shooting and shouting, “Mata, Mata a kiss for you from my AK, mi amigos,” his actions and shouting galvanizes his men to stand up and to attack their attackers. The fight is quickly over with the last of the attacking jihad soldiers mowed down in a storm of bullets.

(translated from Spanish, Mata, Mata means, "I kill, I kill".)

As the shooting finishes, Audi flicks the safety lever on her rifle to S and with out any words said, grabs the medical bags she had dropped and heads back up to the triage station, where they were badly needed.

Ricardo orders a platoon of his men to sweep out and make sure the area is clear and to post their guard teams further out this time. He then orders another platoon to collect the weapons and ammunition from the dead attackers. And orders two of his men to pick up the rest of the medical bags and take them up where they are needed.

His 1^st platoon leader asks, “If there are any wounded, what do we do?”

“You won’t find any wounded, understand!”

“Yes sir.”

“Award of the Silver Star to Lieutenant Audra E. Logan Medical Corp, an officer with the 1^st Medical Battalion, 1^st Division California Militia for Gallantry in action against the enemy in the vicinity of the Antioch Bridge on Sherman Island, California July 12^th. After a surprise attack by an enemy platoon where Lt. Logan was in an exposed position retrieving medical supplies and coming under direct fire, she was hit several times. Realizing that a retreat was not an option Lt. Logan using her weapon placed the advancing enemy under a withering fire. Where she quickly devastated their first squad. Reloading she then engaged a second enemy squad where she was hit several times again. By diverting the enemies fire unto her position, her actions allowed the surprised bridge guards and security detail to recover and to successfully eliminate the enemies platoon assault. By her actions she was able to thwart the enemies attack against the many wounded civilians and the Militia medical teams rendering assistance.”

Within a minuet

Eli was about half way across the bridge when the ground attack suddenly started and just as quickly failed, turning around and running he headed back to the north end to assess the situation.

After talking to Lt. Sanchez and his people about what happened, he doesn’t berate them for their reaction but he knows he needs experienced people guarding this end of the bridge. He calls Sgt Chirau on the radio and asks him to get the California Militia Commander on the air.

In less then a minuet Col Paul Ito the Brigade Commander is on the radio and Eli tells him of the situation, and asks if his lead battalion can come on down and secure this end of the bridge.

Col. Ito agrees and then request that Eli get at least one lane of the bridge open so that his brigade won’t be trapped here on the north side if the bridge gets taken out.

Eli informs him of the mess on the bridge, and that any help the Cal Militia sends forward will be a Godsend. He adds that within an hour they ought to be able to open the southbound lane? Maybe?

Eli also informs the Colonel that he needs to work out some type of an arrangement with the Jihad Battalion that has come over to our side, and he has to clear an idea with D, one that he is still figuring out.

Col Ito agrees to send up a battalion to help guard the helo landing area he has already dispatched forward most of the unit’s medics to help out on the bridge.

Eli calls Lieutenant Sanchez over and tells him, “The Militia Brigade is sending down more medics and a full battalion to secure this end of the bridge. Work with me on this son as we really need the help with the wounded.”

“Yes sir, I understand when they get here and are in position I will have my men help the wounded and load them out on the helicopters.”

Eli says thanks and then heads back across the bridge again so he can talk face-to-face with Major Zannia. With out stopping to look at the mangled trucks or the smashed bodies of the dead and wounded he hurry’s past noting that Neil along with the Chinese LT and his people are working very hard, giving assistance too the wounded. Getting to the other side he finds chaos as all of the civilians not hurt in the attack, which is the majority of them, have gotten off of the undamaged two dozen or more vehicles on this end and want to assist. Several men armed with M1 Garands are trying to keep the crowd of people off of the bridge, holding their rifle across their chest; they are very vocal in insisting that the majority of the people stay back. Among them are several of the former Jihad soldiers assisting them and pleading with the people to stay off of the bridge and let the medics do their job.

Walking up to what looks like a command vehicle Eli looks in and can see several men talking on radios, listening for a few seconds he knows they are talking in Arabic. One of the men who is supervising the operators glances his way and holds up a hand as he makes eye contact and says, “Just a second please.” Then he turns and tells another operator, “I’ll be outside.”

As he steps out he asks, “Are you with the American Army?”

“Yes, I’m Lieutenant Colonel Maritz where’s your commander.”

“Sir I’m Lieutenant Garret, Major Z is out checking on our stop groups, making sure our men have expanded a defensive perimeter on this side, the XO is setting up another helo LZ on this side, so we can help get the wounded out.”

“How big of a perimeter is he establishing? And do you have an extra radio so I can talk to your commander? I gave Ricardo’s back to him before I came over. I also need to know your unit’s strength, equipment assists and capabilities.”

“I’ll have to get permission to give you the last info sir, as for the perimeter, Major Z said roughly a kilometer out from our present location.” Taking a street map the LT shows Eli the boundary and the scattered static guard points as he adds, “We have six more roving patrols out past these positions, but with this mess here and the one company helping we don’t have enough men to cover all of the side streets.”

Eli agrees, “Yeah the number of civilians killed and hurt are staggering, we have more medical people coming to help. But we have to make sure this bridge is secure, I need to talk to Major Z now.”

Reaching back into the vehicle Lt. Garret picks up a radio and hands it to Eli as he said, “This radio has been pre set to the three frequencies we are using.” Pointing at the buttons he instructs, “here is the on/off switch, press A9 for our main channel, B9 for the second and C9 for the third.”

Eli took the radio switched it on, pressed A9 and with out any fanfare said, “Harvey this is Eli again, I’m at your Comm. van now and need a face-to-face with you ASAP, how soon can you be back here, over?”

With in five seconds he is answered with, “Harvey here, Eli I’ll need at least ten minuets to finish up with my present task and then a couple more minuets to get back there. I want to make sure our rear is covered in case we have guest, over.”

“Copied, Harvey the man who gave me this radio,” Eli pauses for a second and looks at Lt. Garret.

The Lieutenant with out being asked tells him his call sign, “Billy.”

Eli continues on the radio, “Billy, seems to know a lot, I need for him to give me an accurate picture of your units TO and E so I can make plans, over.”

Z answered, “Billy can fill you in and give you our last orders from Division. Reading that will take ten minuets or so, if you can wait for me I have an idea or two that might help, over.”

Eli answered, “Copied, I’ll be right here, Eli out.”

When Lt. Garret heard the OK from Major Z he reached back into the van and pulled out his brief case and took out about a dozen typed sheets of paper, when Eli finished talking on the radio Billy offered the papers to him as he said, “These papers list our current strength, plus I’ve written in the man power of the armed civilians and weapons they have. The last page I have added is a count of our dead and wounded, but that’s before the incident here at the bridge. I don’t have any idea or even a close head count on the number of civilians we were escorting out as we kept stopping and picking up more people. The original estimate was for a little over three thousand total.”

“Give me your best guess.”

“Four thousand five hundred, maybe as high as five thousand, the trucks were all packed pretty full.”

An involuntary shiver runs up Eli’s spine as he quickly pushes the picture from his mind of the smashed trucks and maybe the thousand or so bodies of the wounded and dead that he had to walk past a few minuets ago as he asks, “Ok and the armed civilians did they have a commander or a leader and where is he.”

“There where two men in charge, one of them is over there,” Garret points, “he’s the old guy, wearing the desert camo. Sorry sir I don’t know his name.”

“Send one of your men over to get him please, Major Z said something about your last orders from Division, can I see them?”

Handing over another stapled bundle of papers the Lieutenant with a sly smile said, “Major Z said these would help our side in winning.”

Eli took the papers and after quickly scanning through them smiled as he thought, ‘this will save lives and really help.”

Looking at the hand written notes on the next to last page were their latest orders, he smiled and thought, ‘they want some of the people from this bridge to go and help guard another bridge to the north. And we know where the Jihad Corp main strength is located and all of there radio frequencies and codes, I’ll have to get a hold of D or Dan they’ll know what to do.’

After Eli and Major Z link up they exchange ideas and work out a plan. When Col Ito sends his first battalion across to augment the Z force. Getting together with the Brigade Commander, Eli informs him of the plans he would like to clear with D and Dan. The California Militia Brigade commander agrees it’s a good plan and for now he will keep most of his Brigade on the north side of the bridge. His battalion on the south side will stay hidden from the Chinese satellites when they pass over, giving them the false picture that the Jihad Brigade holds the south end.

Eli hitches a lift with the last of the helicopters taking Lt. Marion and his people back to Rio Vista, where he will present the plan to D first. Gavin after having his wounds looked at by one of the doctors stays behind and finishes working on his part in Eli’s plans.

(C-34)

Pressing the Counter Attack 2130 hrs

“Our first Brigade of the 171^st Division reports engaging the Americans between three and five kilometers in front of where we expected them to be dug in. Our troops are under very heavy small arms and mortar fire and they need more artillery fire support. The American snipers are killing our radiomen before our front line platoons or company’s can call back to the battalions for assistance, or to pass on important intelligence. The Division Commander wishes to wait for the rest of his men to get there before he makes another attack.”

This unexpected forward defensive position coupled with the complete failure of his ground and airborne Intel’s ability to locate the American main positions, is just another piece of the puzzle necessary in understanding his counterpart. This information doesn’t faze the General in the least, as this battle like all battles, was becoming a well thought out game of chess, one that he would win.

This American has fooled so many of his other Generals many times before, but not him and not this time. The Field Marshall is in direct charge now and he was more then willing to sacrifice his whole division of Communist party cadre just to find and fix this American Militia in place. Once they are located and their men in the front are pinned down, then he can attack them with three mechanized divisions from the 31^st Corp and destroy them.

“No he is to continue the attack with the men he has on hand, as his other units catch up they can follow on. Launch the last of the WeiShi’s rockets at the coordinates I just gave now,” General Gobi order “that will clear the road of any mines and kill all of the Americans out to half a kilometer on either side, as we planned, continue the attack on the left to split them by using the highway as our axis of advance.” Pointing to the map and indicating the English Hills he continues, “that is where we will find them and destroy most of their units, there in the hills.”

“Sir we cannot protect the launchers as they reload, the Americans have destroyed all most all of our air power. They have located and destroyed most of our Anti-radar units,. When we use any of our anti-air missile batteries radars to protect our heavy missile units they are locked on and destroyed by the American Artillery. And it is the same with our towed Artillery units, when they fire a mission the American counter battery radars locate them and fire upon their positions and destroy the guns and crews, if we use a Self-propelled unit the American aircraft are called in and destroy them as they are moving. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until dawn for our infantry to attack in mass, the Americans have a lot of night vision and will see us. ..”

“We have to attack and force the road open now,” Field Marshall Gobi words exploded in anger, “if we sit here boxed in they can attack us whenever it suits them, or bite off small sections here and there forcing us into an even smaller area. We have to attack now and all through the day and tonight and into tomorrow if necessary we will wear them down, we concede nothing, to wait even another day just allows them to prepare better positions. If we destroy one or two of their divisions while we lose six it is still a victory for us. If you are so worried to keep them from figuring out our direction of attack, then send a tank heavy Brigade combat team along the shipping channel, probe that flank hard it just might be open?”

“Your orders will be followed sir.”

“Now what of the attack by the 23^rd Division north from Stockton?”

“There attack never got off sir, when the men got to their assemble points the American Artillery devastated them, a few companies advanced but they were repulsed with staggering losses.”

“Then bring the two brigades up from Modesto to reinforce the 23^rd. They can then attack tomorrow, we have to cut the Americans supplies off.”

“Why not use the two Divisions of the Jihad Army, sir. General Ayman will have most of his men in position around midnight?”

“They seek glory and death, and victory would elude them in their death wish, so we let them sit. Have our brigades move up and attack tomorrow.”

“Yes sir, right away sir.”

Joe Six-pack:

Asleep at the wheel, Again!!!!

Close by the T-junction of Jefferson and McArthur, Winters CA

Some people make things happen, some people watch what happens, and others wonder what in hell happened?

“Shiiiit, damn it all to hell! “As the last four artillery shells land close by and the people in the basement hear the house shake and groan above them. Bill couldn’t help himself as he shouted across to his grandfather, “I thought you said it was like lightening, that it never struck twice in the same place?”

“I could be wrong, as my experience was back in World War Two. Maybe the new stuff can hit the same place twice in a row?” Grandpa Bill the senior shouted back across the room, hoping they heard him?

“Not a good time to find out the hard way,” Bill retorted!

“I hate to admitted it but I think you were correct Bill. Maybe we should have evacuated when the Militia told us too,” His father Bill Jr. shouted back.

Trying to make herself heard above the barrage Julie, Bills wife screamed, “Is it ours or the Chinese?”

“Does it make any difference,” Bill shouted back as the next rounds crashed just a bit father away? “If the artillery doesn’t get us the advancing troops might toss a grenade through the window first, and ask questions later.”

“I think this is Chinese artillery fire, the Militia, the Americans wouldn’t waste rounds unless the Chinese are right out side?” Damn me, damn me, why didn’t I recall what happened to the Dutch citizens at Nijmegan, when the Germans counter attacked? So many of them caught up in the crossfire, just like we are now. My friends in the 82 Airborne had told them to clear out, but they wouldn’t listen. And today I was told to clear out by the Militia and I wouldn’t listen, and it just might cost me my family.

Another two shells land close, closer then the last ones and they can all feel the overpressure from the explosions.

Bill shouts out, “Sorry Dad, Grandpa, I’m taking my family out of here. I’ll take the chance of getting to the west of here. If we stay here much longer they next few rounds will get us for sure.”

“OK, we all go,” Grandpa, shouted as they were all slightly concussed from this latest barrage.

As they all get ups stairs there is a few second pause between the shells crashing down, taking a head count and getting to 11, that’s all of them. Bill Jr. opens the door looks around and then runs west over to the next house. Looking all around he doesn’t spy any Chinese soldiers and waves for everyone to run across to him.

They join him on the side of the house as they hear the next rounds crash into the homes east of theirs.

Bill sprints west to the next house and repeats what his father did, looking all around, making sure the coast is clear. He then waves his arm for all of them to rush over to his position, and they do.

No sooner do they get there, and the next shells crash down, with one or two of them directly into their home.

Looking at each other with large bugged eyes, every one of them realizes that their escape was pure luck.

Thanking the Lord they all continue working their way west and north through the rest of the damaged and partially destroyed neighborhood, until they make the orchard just west of Suffolk court. That's where they stop and decide on the next move.

Grandpa suggested that they continue northwest, past the farmhouse and across the fields to El Camino road, and to follow it west and where it ends into the foothills.

With out a better plan they all agree.

Within the hour they meet up with a Militia Patrol and a ride is arraigned to clear them from the battleground.

Once the duce-en-half gets onto highway 128 and they are past the Damn of Lake Berryessa, do they consider themselves out of danger and they all let out a little cheer and smile at each other.

That is until the two Militiamen also in the back of the truck inform them they are all in a Pocket held by the Militia. With the 10^th Corp of Chinese Army to the East determined to wipe them out and make there own escape from Sacrament. And there is an undetermined number of Chinese to the northwest and south west of them that could help the 10^th Corp.

Grandpa tells the two Militiamen, “Back in WWII the Germans thought the same thing, that the 82^nd was surrounded and cut off. We proved them wrong, you boys will do the same to our present enemies. Americans fight harder and meaner when they are surrounded,” with a chuckle he added seeing the Militiamen’s shoulder patch. “Poor bastards, the Chinese won’t know until it’s too late, never corner a wolf. They go for the throat.”

Planning part of the payback,

“D yours and Eli’s first part of the plans make sense, I like the idea of using the defecting Jihad unit as the lead to take the Benicia-Martinez bridge and then to let one battalion of the 3^rd Californian Brigade hold it. But can we trust this Major Z?”

“Eli does, he’s asking to have two of his Companies ride along in Z’s extra trucks so the surprise will be overwhelming. When Eli presented his plan to me he said it would be another Pungwe or something like that sir?”

Dan shook his head no, “No not like Pungwe, because we won’t have the Chinese coming up to greet our raiders this time, not like the raw recruits of ZANLA did, the Chinese are way too disciplined to do that. The ZANLA terrorist weren’t soldiers they were a political mob with guns, remind Eli of that. Our men will have to disembark and be mingled among the Chins positions before we start shooting. It’s iffy at best and where are we going to get 200 plus sets of the Jihad’s army black BDU’s for Eli’s men?”

Eli listening in on a land line, decided to help argue his plans, so he said before D could answer, “Major Z had his men bring along their extra uniforms and that’s several hundred and he has over a hundred uniforms taken from the prisoners, the unit that was guarding the Antioch bridge, so we have more then we need. The Chinese unit at the bridge are expecting a Battalion from the Jihad Brigade to arrive soon. Major Z wants to send a small team up to make contact and see the defensive positions first hand before the rest of his men arrive and capture it. We need your OK now sir if we are to finish that recon, and attack at first light.”

With a sigh Dan agreed, “OK on the first part of your plans. But I do have doubts on the ruse for drawing the two Jihad Divisions into a trap. If we didn’t take the second bridge you unit and the 3^rd Brigade might not have enough men to set up the ambush. Other wise you’ll be minus close to 2000 men that must be detailed for holding the two bridges; I don’t really see this last part as doable. If anything goes wrong I have no reserve force of men to give you for this Op Eli, even if we had the men it would take a least two or three days to bring up the extra supplies they would need. Our priority on supplies, for now, has to be for the 1^st and 2^nd Kansas Divisions. With one battalion from Colonels Ito’s brigade to guard the southern end of the 680-highway bridge at Benicia after it’s captured that part we can do. As D said the Chinese there are expecting the one Jihad battalion to move up and reinforce them, your people will be attacking before they know what hits them.”

Eli not wanting to let his plan be only half accomplished offers a plausible solution, “Sir, as for manpower, I have two of my companies in reserve and if you let us, we can use the Battalion under major Z he has some heavy armor that would plug the hole below Antioch. He also has a company of the Aztlan forces that defected with him. And there is the company plus of men under the two Sgt Majors, Sinclair and Morales who’s people were ambushed crossing the bridge late yesterday. He has been training them since the invasion, and they got another three hundred volunteers from the neighborhoods men they helped escaped and picked up coming out. Major Z has already armed them and the two Marines started training them before last light. And D told me about the thousand plus men from the Stockton area his A-teams have been working with.”

“Eli a lot of those men are raw, I don’t think you have enough experienced fire teams to scatter among them to be effective?” Dan said, his tone of voice blunt, stating the truth as he added, “And can you really trust these former Jihad soldiers, and the Aztlan people with them? I’m asking because your staking your life on them staying loyal to our side, some of them have flipped flopped twice already.”

“I trust the two Marines sir, and they trust the others, that’s good enough for me. Just give me 24 hours and they will be ready for the task.”

Dan looked at D for support as his had doubts that this was even remotely possible, so he said, “If I remember right those men from Stockton don’t have enough weapons and they aren’t trained?”

D’s answer helped both of his friends, Dan and Eli as he said, “We know that Z and the two Marines want revenge, same with the group of militia from Stockton, and that factor might cloud their judgment. I trust Eli’s judgment he’s Ok that the Marines men can do the job, and Z’s unit has a lot of firepower as Eli said they are trained. The Stockton’s unit weapons situation changed yesterday morning, one of my A-teams working with 60 of their men seized a warehouse full of weapons, from small arms up to support weapons for a brigade and with more then enough ammunition for a months worth of heavy fighting.”

“Where did they find that stuff,” Dan Asked?

“From the Chinese 1078^th Transportation and Supply Battalion, that was stationed on the north side of Stockton. Seems like they had a party last night and most of their men were so drunk it was easy pickings. As far as training the Stockton men on these weapons, I had two of my teams working with them all day long in weapons and tactics; they were already very well organized. Since they do have a lot of older vets in their ranks with experience and with a few truckloads of the mines, grenades, machine-guns and mortars from the warehouse, we have more then enough firepower to give a warm welcome in the planned ambush. I can coordinate some assistance from the Cajun division artillery, and if we can have a little air support I’m sure we can bag the whole lot of them.”

Dan still skeptical answered back with, “What about Intel, besides what Major Z provided, we need a lot more Intel on these 2 Jihad divisions?”

“Yes sir, we are already working on that. I have a small team of men just above the Jihad’s two divisions, they are very close in listening and observing them. They have orders to snatch a few of their guard’s.” Looking at his watch he continued, “They might have them already and maybe if we get lucky we’ll snare a Sergeant or a Lieutenant that way we’ll know more about their moral and temper.”

“That’s good planning ahead, but it’s an if you can get a couple of prisoners? You did say that the railroad tracks had a deep flooded ditch on both sides,” Dan asked?

“Yes sir,” Eli quickly answered and added, “and with eleven kilometers between the two major rivers or water ways to cross and the adjoining two islands. All of the farm tracts are covered with a very heavy growth of weeds, reeds and grass, and the ground on either side of the tracks is too soft for any type of vehicles. The reeds along the banks bordering the rail line are perfecting hiding places for the claymores mines and napalm cans we will set up. Our men will be dug in over four to five hundred meters away with clear fields of fire to the raised embankment. Any air support or artillery fire we get will make it even better, and it’s very fitting that the Rail lines belong to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.”

Dan couldn’t help the smile that showed after Eli’s last sentence. “You really want to have a go at them in a day or two don’t you?”

“Yes sir, that’s if they aren’t ordered to move before then. Us California boys owe them a major ass whooping.”

“As I told you, I won’t be able to send any troops to your aid if things go bad. With the Chinese pushing out from Sacramento I have to win that battle first. The 1^st Louisianan Divisions Artillery can assist you if their units aren’t attacked. Do you need anything else?”

“I will need some helo lifts to get the men and material into positions sir,” D said smiling knowing that Dan was going to authorize his request.

Dan looked down at the map of the proposed ambush site and can see the name of the railway line and the obvious meaning Eli emphasized; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, as he thinks ‘Thank you Lord, that this battle is so far from home.’ Looking at the aerial photos Dan can see the wide water filled drainage ditches on both sides, it’s as close to a perfect ambush site as can be. With out looking up he asked D, “Your men are going to be spread awful thin. Where did you want to cut the railway line?”

D pointed to the map as he said, “Here just above the Orwood road between Bixler and Werner, we will also have to blow the roadway the bridge on the Orwood road that crosses the same slue.”

Turning to look at the J-3, the Corps planning and operations officer Dan said, “Walter help D by giving him a few men to help with the detailed plans.” Turning back to D and Eli at the other end of the phone line, he says, OK you have the go ahead on this part of your plans too, but there are conditions.”

Eli smiled and said, “Thank you sir.”

“As I said there are conditions, start making detailed plans, but it depends on D’s recon team getting a couple of prisoners, the interrogation of them and any other Intel that comes in.” Looking at D, Dan warned him, “It will be your call, gauge the new people that are being trained and call on the Cajun Division for one battalion of infantry to help you, and to have their Artillery to assist and help coordination the fire support. Also have the California Brigade at Antioch attach one of their battalions for this task. That way Eli’s now forming light Brigade has a better chance in the daunting task ahead of them, make good plans. You may only get 24 hours, the Jihad Army will be moved as and when the 25^th Army Commander feels he needs them too. With us having local and limited air superiority I don’t think they will be ordered to move until after dark. If its close to midnight when you engage them at the, ‘the quickening at the midnight hour,’ yes that would be a good time to give the hiding.”

Eli smiles as he replied, ‘Mist, fog and the dark of night, are the only true friend a band of patriots will ever have.” Telling D he said, “The General knows his Macbeth. ‘When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lighting, and in rain, when the hurly burly’s over and the battle’s lost or won.’ Our castle may have been surprised and our wife and babies slaughtered,” as he started to tell the tale.

Dan say’s, cutting him off, “But this time we write a different ending from what Shakespeare offered. It doesn’t matter if the three of us live or die, American will win.” With a smile he changes the tone, “We don’t have to wait on him to move. You said this Major Z has all of the codes and radio and satellite phone frequencies.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good have this Major Z prepare a written message, you can make the timing ours and when we have everything ready. Z can send a courier with orders for the two Jihad Division to move by the railroad line. The captured Chin helicopters we have, can be their air cover to move during the day. Your were correct Eli, Pungwe again, except they come to us.”

D with a big smile saw the plan in his minds eye as he said, “A good plan sir.” Then he asked, “If you don’t mind what was Pungwe?”

“No, thank both of you for seeing these two opportunities. D Pungwe, that was a major Terr transit camp in Mozambique when the Selous Scouts raided it, they killed over 800 of the CT in one go, that was the largest concentration of kills for us up to that part of the war.” Dan still with some doubt in his mind warned them. “And as for given an ass whooping, make it so, but Eli just make sure it’s not our ass getting the hiding.”

“Yes sir,” he answered with a smile.

Dan then said, “I want to thank you for finding Neil, Eli, that has helped ease the tension some.

Now what where you doing on the recon team, where is Neil, and is he OK?”

With no emotion showing Eli answered, “I was doing what I’m best at sir, tracking. And Neil is still down at the Antioch Bridge helping, doing his job. He asked to stay there, as he wants to be a part of what goes down when we smite the Jihad Army. He has a few shrapnel wounds, they are very minor and he’s OK. I also saw Gavin, he came in with the first medical helicopters and he worked very hard in saving a lot of lives today. You have two good men for sons sir, you are fortunate.”

Dan knew that Eli was snowing him, but the mentioning of his two boys did make him feel very proud. With a laugh he said, “I can’t fault you for doing your job, and if you hadn’t of been up there, we wouldn’t have this plan of yours either. Now get to work, less see if we can set up a nice warm welcome for the Jihad Army?”

(C-35)

In the Dead of the Night

‘If you decide to make a career out of cutting off heads,

Don’t be surprised when the real headhunters come for you.’

D Salvador

This position was a lot better then what the other battalions were billeted in, Lt. Colonel Awad thinks as he sets up, stretches his arms and turns to place his feet on the floor. His Command Post was a spacious building with more then enough room to hold most of his HQ staff with out being cramped.

The house he had for his own use sure beat a tent. It had a propane generator that supplied enough electricity for the air conditioning, the fridge and the lights. To bad the Americans who had been in hiding here had fled with their neighbors before we arrived.

Shacking his head helped him wake up, as he wondered why the Chinese hadn’t taken care of them, like we had been? At least they should have cleared them out before they were ordered back from Stockton, when the Americans had attacked.

Oh well, that was a matter that would be settled later after we finish with this pesky incursion from the Militia. He smiles as he mused about seeing a head attached to every fence post, yes we will take care of our infidel problem very shortly.

Standing up he takes his uniform and starts getting dressed, this is the part of his job that he really distasted. To get up just before 2 AM and go outside in all types of weather to inspect a few of his out post. To him that was the work of his Sergeants, not his, but his orders from General Ayman were very clear on this. The commanders were to do an inspection every night, they didn’t have to do a guard duty, but they did have to get out and show the men that the officers were sharing the same responsibilities.

He knew his men liked this location and there were enough houses and RV’s for the majority of them to be comfortable in. And the berm along the river was a natural fortification that kept the enemy from seeing their positions or movements. Along with the river on the other side acting as a good moat that kept the American Military at arms length. With his OP’s/LP’s hidden in the long grass we will see them coming long before they know we are watching and waiting.

Hearing a quiet knock on his door as he glances at his clock 2:07, he knows it Sgt. Rashid so he said, “I’ll be out in a minuet. I have to put my boots on.” We are a little later this morning then yesterday, but it won’t matter, I will do three or four stops and be back in bed before three and sound asleep soon after.

The last buckle is finished and he takes his dress hat with the gold leaves and standing in front of the mirror adjusts it to the right position, with a slight turn of his head left and right he then smiles as he thinks, ‘Officers must at all times look regal, after all we are not barbarians.’

Stepping out side he returns Sgt. Rashid salute as he turns and walks to the northeast, past the HQ guard post and toward the selected OP/LP eleven hundred meters down the road. He can hear Sgt Rashid walking respectable two-steps behind him, as it should be. Walking slowly and quietly it takes him fifteen minuets to cover the distance.

To make sure he doesn’t walk past the hidden position up at the top of the berm and give his troops any reason to scorn him, he had them place a white post at the road for all of the positions, showing the path to the top. Taking two steps off the road and before he makes the short climb up he says in a soft whisper, “Don’t shot it is I Colonel Awad with Command Sgt Rashid.” Listening he doesn’t hear a thing. For a second he is puzzled and wonders if the men had placed the post in the wrong place.

Taking one step up he again whispers, “Don’t shot it is I Colonel Awad with Command Sgt Rashid.”

This time he is answered with a single soft-spoken word, “Quiet.”

Awad is mad, from the mans impertinence, at the least he should have said, “Quiet Sir,” showing him the proper respect he deserved. Turning to Sgt Rashid behind him he says, “See to this mans attitude check tomorrow, 10 lashes.”

Sgt Rashid nods his head and answered, “Yes Sir.”

Stepping up the short flight of stairs, and ducking down, as his head is level with the berm, Awad and Rashid are in the chest deep trench with the two guards, one of them turns and holds his finger to his lips for them to be quiet. The other man is looking through his issued night vision binoculars at the far shore. The man who had warned them to be quiet leans forward and in an almost inaudible whisper says, “We heard some movement on the far shore and can see a few of the bushes right at the waters edge moving.”

Awad knows that across the water is McDonald Island, isolated with out any connecting bridges to the north, the only bridge was just south of his battalions main camp, and his men controlled it. Thinking of strategy the Americans would do the obvious, as it is the perfect place to launch a probing patrol from. Where it was least expected. And this had caught him short as he had placed most of his OP’s up on the San Joaquin River at 100-meter intervals; not like on this side slough were they over 800-meters apart. Turning to the guard who had whispered quiet he says, “Call on the field phone and get the stand by Company to deploy fire teams between all of the OP’s here facing McDonald Island. Tell them they must be no more the 100-meters apart.”

As the man turns to pick up the field phone half a dozen men sit up on the sides and the rear of the trench, all of them are wearing Ghillie suits and pointing weapons at the Jihad commander, one of them says in perfect Arabic, “Stop, hands up,” as he shoots the two OP guards with a silenced pistol. Blood, fragments of bone and brains splash back onto Colonel Awad’s boots and pants legs as the two guards fall dead at the bottom of the trench.

Sgt Rashid, reacting with out thinking reaches for his pistol and is shoot by another of the dark figures. Instead of the clap of the silenced weapon, the sound is like the snap of an air pistol and Sgt Rashid falls down in convulsions.

Scared of dying Awad raised his hand above his head and surrenders.

The one man who had spoken then says, “Smart move Colonel, or we would have tazered you like we did Sgt Rashid.”

Telling his men in English, “Cuff them and gag them, we move in two minuets.” Two of the men grab the dead guards and stand them up and using some boards prop them up into their watch positions. When their replacements arrive they will be shocked to find them dead, but standing.

With out being told one of the men blinks a small red and blue LED light back across the water. A team of men across the water and just behind it’s levee stand up and carry a mid size flat bottomed boat down and place it in the water. One of these men gets into the boat, turns on the battery powered motor and speeds to the Jihad Armies side for the rest of his team and the two prisoners.

Once Awad and Rashid are bound and gagged, they are carried down to the water and placed in the bottom of the boat. And are set on by two of the heavily camouflaged warriors, the one that speaks Arabic then says, “Colonel Awad and Sgt Rashid, I’m Master Sergeant James Culpepper, with the United States Special forces, you will be our guest for the next few hours. You will be asked questions and one way or another you will answer with the truth, you can make this easy or hard, it all depends on you. I don’t care which way you choose, but you will answer our questions.”

He is silent for a few seconds and then says, “Sgt Rashid we have pictures of you hanging over twenty heads, last fall and late at night at the intersection of El Camino Real and Palm Drive.”

The look of amazement on the two Jihadist soldiers faces told him all he wanted to know, as he told them, “You may have thought you weren’t seen, but we have eyes everywhere, and the pictures to prove it.” Sgt Culpepper smirks, no need to tell them about the traffic control cameras and how they had been used to capture those pictures and many more of the atrocities these and others of the Jihad army had committed. The SF soldier smiled inwardly, their spirit has been shaken, good I’ll keep on them and soon the will give up all hope. After we cross this island, using the interior drainage ditches and our boats, we can start asking harder questions.

D will get all the information theses two have with no problem.