Chapter 20

Flashback – Ben and Jack – The trip to hell ... Ramadi

We arrived at the motor pool, loaded the Humvee with our gear, the Captain handed me a set of hearing protectors and ordered, "Sgt. Blaine, you're our gunner."

The driver walked up, saluted the Captain, saw my hearing protectors and asked, "So, you're the gunner? How many times have you done this before?"

I began to answer when the Captain interrupted, "Sgt. Blaine saved our asses in an ambulance convoy in Baghdad - he's a hell of a gunner."

I answered, "The one time in Baghdad."

I could tell by the expression on his face he wasn't happy about it but he didn't say anything other than, "Well, climb in because it's going to be a hell of a ride. The last trip we lost two trucks and one Humvee."

The Captain took the passenger seat, Jack and I piled into the back and we moved into the middle of the convoy.

Jack leaned over and a bit too loudly stated, "He sure didn't seem to like the fact that you are going to be the gunner."

The driver heard him and answered, "That's right! We might have stood a chance with someone that knew what the hell they were doing on the Ma Deuce, but with a rookie gunner our ass is grass."

The Captain finally did something good and chewed his ass, "Corporal! You can shut the hell up and keep your worthless opinions to yourself. Sgt. Blaine is more than qualified to man Ma Deuce."

I jumped into the fray with both feet, "I'll tell you what Corporal, if you don't like the way I handle the gun, then switch places with me."

Just as I figured, the Corporal didn't say a word because being a gunner was tantamount to participating in suicide.

I smacked Jack on the knee and said, "Take care of yourself." Then I leaned over and whispered, "And don't fuck up your back too much."

I climbed up into the turret on top of the Humvee and prepared Ma Deuce.

Things were going smoothly. I was just thinking of dropping back inside as we approached Abu Ghraib and then all hell broke loose!!!

The pills I got from Banzai really kicked my ass and I was damn near asleep when Banzai started firing Ma Deuce.

The driver shockingly demanded, "Hell how did he see the fucking towelheads before I did?"

I yelled over the sound of the fifty, "Hell, he practically has eyes in the back of his head. Give them hell Banzai!"

The driver stutters, "Wa ... Wa ... Wait! Are you telling me my gunner is Banzai Ben, even though I'm Army I've heard of his exploits."

The Captain laughed and tried to steal some of the glory for himself, "That's right and if you notice Sgt. Blaine and I were the first ones to see the tangos and his firing alerted the rest of the convoy."

The Captain was right about one thing, the convoy was fully awake and every vehicle that had a gun was kicking ass and taking names. But most of them didn't know what the fuck they were doing so they were holding down the triggers and spitting a solid stream of bullets every fucking where – what we called 'pray and spray' in the Marines (if you prayed hard enough and held down the trigger, you just might accidentally hit something with the spray of bullets). In contrast, Banzai would fire a quick burst of three to five rounds, hit his target and then take aim at the next target.

An RPG was headed toward the Humvee but amazingly the driver spun the wheel, the Humvee leapt to the left and the RPG passed harmlessly on the right hand side. It left the normal tell-tale smoke trail right back to the bastard who fired it and even with the juking of the Humvee, Banzai didn't miss. Ma Deuce cut the fucker in two.

Then it happened! There was a huge fucking explosion and one of the trucks in the convoy in front of us was destroyed. The driver yelled, "Shit that was an IED, I thought they had cleared this road."

With a truck down, the fucking towelheads began to run toward us like ants going after ice cream. Banzai dropped his head inside and ordered, "Get us close to the damaged truck so we can see if anyone is still alive."

The driver balked, began to complain and the Captain said, "Corporal, you received a direct order, now do it."

He floored the Humvee, we shot ahead, and put ourselves between the disabled truck and the advancing towelheads. Banzai was ripping them a new asshole with the fifty. I looked over and saw a driver as he tried to get out of the truck. I grabbed my rifle, and yelled, "I'm going after the driver, keep me covered."

I popped open the back door as the Captain popped open his door and ordered the driver, "Keep the Humvee moving but your ass is mine if you leave us here."

We both bailed out and ran toward the partially destroyed truck while Banzai laid down hellacious cover fire...

Damn the shit really hit the fan! We were surrounded on all sides by a huge number of the fucking towelheads. I saw them sneaking into position and opened up on them before anyone else saw them which caused all hell to break loose - it reminded me of the time I shot a hornet's nest with my shotgun when I was a kid. We were doing great until a fucking roadside bomb took out the semi vehicle two ahead of us. Between the semi on its side and the huge fucking blast crater in the road, they had stopped the convoy. We were sitting ducks!

Jack and Captain M bailed out to rescue the driver of the truck, our driver began to move but the stupid fucker was taking us away from the attacking towelheads. I banged like hell on the roof of the Humvee, stuck my head inside and ordered, "Where the hell are you going? I order you to attack the fuckers with this Humvee."

He spun the wheel in response and we headed right toward the approaching group of the towelheads while I began to rip them up with Ma Deuce. I saw a couple of the fuckers with RPGs and made sure to waste their asses. I stuck my head back inside and ordered, "Do some big fucking circles around the destroyed truck with the Humvee."

He began his turn and we no sooner got on the other side of the destroyed truck when I saw there were just as many towelhead here as on the other side. I stuck my head back inside and ordered, "Floor this fucker."

He did and the Humvee jumped over the bumps and dead towelheads which made aiming Ma Deuce hell. I laughed like crazy because this reminded me of that old TV show Rat Patrol. We held the fuckers at bay and finally a second Humvee showed up. They stopped, picked up the driver of the truck that Jack and Captain M freed so I banged on the roof, stuck my head inside and ordered, "Let's go pickup Jack and the Captain."

He headed back toward the destroyed truck and then they came out of the sky like avenging angels: Yes, the choppers finally arrived...

Flashback – Captain M – The trip to hell ... Ramadi

Son of a bitch! Things went well until we almost reached Abu Ghraib then hell came calling our names! Sgt. Blaine saw the fuckers before I did and started ripping them a new asshole, which alerted the other vehicles and they all started firing – albeit ineffectively. Then it went from hell to something worse than hell when a semi was blown to shit in front of us effectively stopping the convoy. We were the closest Humvee, the driver was still alive so Sgt. Reynolds and I bailed out to try to save his ass. While we worked like hell to get him out of the destroyed semi, Sgt. Blaine kicked ass with the Humvee and kept the fuckers from getting too close to us. Oh they still got a few hits on our body armor, but shit that's what we're wearing it for.

We finally got the driver and the terp¹ free then the Humvee came back for us and I couldn't wait to get back inside. I jumped into the passenger seat and watched as some gunships finally showed up and took out the rest of the towelheads. The gunships even put a hellfire into the semi to destroy what was left of it and its cargo.

¹ terp – slang for interpreter.

The convoy worked its way around the semi and the crater and we were rolling again.

The driver remarked, "Sir, I was shocked you got out of the Humvee to help that semi driver."

I glared at him and set him straight, "Corporal, I might be a Captain, but I am first a Marine and we never leave anyone behind." Then I asked, "So, is the rest of the trip going to be like this?"

The Corporal answered, "Probably so Sir! Once we're hit it usually continues all the way to Ramadi. However, with the gunships flying cover they might think twice about it."

I hoped what the Corporal said wasn't bullshit and the presence of the gunships would curtail any further towelhead activity...

Flashback – Jack and Ben – The trip to hell ... Ramadi

With all the adrenaline coursing through my system when Captain fucking M and I were outside the Humvee helping the driver and the terp, my back felt pretty damn good. But now that I was back in the Humvee again the adrenaline was gone and it felt worse than ever.

I popped open my foot locker, found some of the meds for which Banzai had traded the Pappy Van Winkle, took one of them and put the small bottle in one of my pockets. I hated like hell to take this shit, but I knew if I didn't control the pain I couldn't do shit.

Banzai banged on the roof, stuck his head inside and ordered...

Things had calmed down some and I knew it was time to follow the old rule, 'reload when you have a chance, not when you have to.'

I banged on the roof of the Humvee, stuck my head inside and yelled, "Hey Jack grab a new box of ammo, I want to reload."

Then I saw the pain on Jack's face and wished like hell I had not said anything. I made a decision: I dropped inside the Humvee, scooted to the back, grabbed two cans of ammo myself and thought I was home free until the Captain bitched, "Sgt. Blaine why aren't you on the gun?"