Chapter 4

That was the only time items from her suitcase were used on our honeymoon.

When we returned home Angel confirmed her pregnancy with her doctor and we had a party to celebrate.

The next morning, I was called back with just enough time to gear up, get briefed, and loaded on a plane.

We jumped into Honduras a few klicks from the border of Nicaragua. The two were fighting about the border again but this time it was seriously getting out of hand. We were supposed to get in, get a picture of what was going on, then get out and report. The locals were not told about our mission so we would not be led or fed what the locals wanted us to see or know.

We moved around quietly and quickly avoiding any contact. We got a lot of intel on just what was going on. Then, we went in ‘headfirst screaming and it was ankle deep’. We had just moved up to a border outpost and were on the backside away from the border. The Nicaraguan attackers had sent two units to flank the outpost one on each side. They formed a ‘V’ wedge and waited for the main attack from the border. When the main attack started our team started to beat feet out of there, only we ran into the ‘V’ wedge attack eliminating their surprise. We were just as surprised as they were, we just recovered faster and just pushed through them and kept moving away, they didn’t follow as they were still trying to take the outpost. The Honduran artillery had preset firing solutions and it only took a few seconds to correct those and fire on the Nicaraguan units to the rear and sides of the outpost. We were just outside the artillery barrage when it rained down wiping out the Nicaraguans allowing the outpost to hold off the frontal attack.

Every one of us got shot at least once, yeah I got hit on my left forearm, lucky for me it went straight through between the bones and didn’t do any serious damage. Hurt more when I had to open or close my hand or hold something. Well, I did take some rounds to my body armor and had the bruises to show for it too. The worst injury to our team was SFC DeMonate, he took a round mid-tibia which meant he couldn’t walk or bear weight so he had to be carried. Luckily he wasn’t one of the bigger guys on our team. Unlucky was the fact that only three of us could carry him because we didn’t have lower extremity wounds. Yes, I was one of the three and SFC Demonate was about 50 pounds heavier than me.

Since the entire team was shot up, everyone had been wounded, we were put on convalescent leave for 30 days, then training cycle for 30 days. The official story was “the buildup of forces made for a ‘look see’ and we followed the Nicaraguans as they crossed the border and as we were moving to report them they attacked.” Neither side believed it and most everyone else probably didn’t believe it either, but no proof otherwise meant that was the story and the end of the questions too.

Our team all got Bronze Star with Valor since we stopped the outpost from being overrun or destroyed. Yes, my second Purple Heart, was the first for only three, and only one was his third.

Training cycle was actually Air Assault for me, yipe, another badge for my uniform. I didn’t push to be in the top 10 and got yelled at by my team leader, but I was still recovering from my injury (he didn’t buy that excuse either).

Angel had a miscarriage while I was on this mission and found she would have trouble carrying a baby to term. We both were devastated but realized that with my job having a baby now was not a very wise thing. We decided that when I retired we would start a family or adopt.

Everyone returned from whatever training they had been sent through and we began preparing for our next mission.

Let me tell you about my team:

Team Commander COL Chet Afrecatilon call sign<Boss> 47 years old drafted into Vietnam and received combat promotion to officer where he constantly proved himself. Skills CMD/Wpns/IT/Electronics/Commo/Intel/2CBTJumps

Team Leader 1 MAJ Jai Chen Lee call sign <sensi> 35 years. Skills Linguistic/Commo/Wpns

Team Leader 2 WO3 Eagle Running Horse call sign <chief> 41 years. Skills Wpns/Hvy Wpns/Arty Supt

Sr NCO CSM Samuel Brown call sign<Top> 33 years old enlisted on his 18^th birthday and has completed just about every combat related training in the army. He has the 3 Purple Hearts. Skills Intel/IT/Computer/Wpns/1CBTJump

MSG Wilber Jones call sign<willy> 27 years. Skills Wpns/Medic/Jumpmaster

MSG Dave DeMonate call sign<double D> 27 years. Skills Electronic/linguistic/Drone

MSG Karl King call sign<king> 29 years. Skills Linguistic/QtrMstr/Intel

[Me] MSG Gage Peterson call sign<DOC> 26 years. Skills Sr Medic/Commo/Pathfinder/Driver

SFC Bobby Zimmerman call sign<z man> 24 years. Skills Sniper/Arty Supt/Wpns

SFC Hank Olsen call sign<O Ho> 25 years. Skills It/Computer/gunsmith/Electronic

SFC Ryan Charles call sign<chuckie> 25 years. Skills Commo/Mechanic/gunsmith

SFC Dean Lyle call sign<LD> 23 years. Skills Sapper/HvyWpns/Sniper

SFC Andy Smith call sign<smiddy> 25 years. Skills Arty Supt/Sniper/Commo

SFC Mike Bohemian call sign<Bo Man> 26 years. Skills Mechanic /Drone/Electronic

SFC Zeb Montoya call sign <monte> 22 years. Skills QtrMstr/Commo/Medic

SFC Larry Garza-Morales call sign <G M> 23 years. Skills Hvy Wpns/Sapper/Sniper

It seems the leader our government put in charge of the Panama Canal decided he didn’t need to listen to what our government wanted him to do. Then he made the mistake of threatening said government. That is why we were making our way through the jungle toward where the idiot was supposed to be located.

As always intel was wrong and we ended up in a compound that had over 50 well-armed and pissed off bad guys. We had to kill all of them before we could leave or they would have just followed us calling for more backup and probably cutting off our route. I was one of three from our group not getting another Purple Heart, luckily all the wounds were minor, either a grazing wound or a through and through all in arms and legs, well <double d> had his commos shot off his head, actually the round hit his earmuff for his radio and left a 3” long gash starting just above his left ear going toward the back of his head. It spun him like a top and dropped him to the ground making all of us think he had bought it until he came up cussing up a storm.