Chapter 34

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

I couldn't believe my phone call with Masha - she sounded terrible and cried the whole time. It was so bad I actually considered going to Colonel Maggie and telling her the truth about the MRI and my back. However, I also realized that my medical retirement pay would never cover our expenses: Yeah, I was up fuck creek without a fucking paddle.

When I got back to the room, Banzai took one look at me and asked...

Jack looked like hell when he got back to the room, but I could tell it wasn't from his back. This meant it had to be caused by his phone call with Masha.

I asked, "Jack, what the hell is wrong?"

Jack asked the Corporal, "How about you give us a couple minutes?"

The Corporal replied, "Sure, but don't take too long because Colonel Maggie will have my ass if I don't get you to the C&C soon."

The Corporal left the room, Jack shook his head and said, "Banzai, something's wrong with Masha - all she did was cry on the phone. Shit, if I could afford it I would head back to the States right now."

I counseled, "Jack, what the hell did you expect? You took her away from her home country and left her in America where she has no friends or support system at all. Shit! I bet she sits in the house alone each night and is lonely as hell."

I knew Jack really loved her when he wrung his hands in despair and asked, "Damn it Banzai! What should I do? I'm over here and she's back in America. Plus, we're going on a LRP and I don't know when I can call her again."

I smiled at Jack and suggested, "Jack, I can tell you really love her so why don't we bring some paper and pens and you can write her a letter each day. We can give them to other Marines to bring back to camp and mail for you."

Jack smiled and said, "Thanks Banzai, that's a great idea. Now I just need to find some paper."

I let him know I had it taken care of, "Jack, I already put some in your pack along with about ten pens."

Jack grinned at me and said, "You sly devil dog, you had this planned all along. But why ten fucking pens?"

I laughed and answered, "Because I know you're going to lose most of them."

Jack glared at me and protested, "Well, I haven't lost the key for the room yet."

I countered, "Are you sure? If so, then show it to me."

Jack reached into his pocket and swore, "Son of a bitch! Where did I leave that damn key?"

I laughed, held up the padlock and said, "You left it in the lock when you unlocked the door."

Jack offered an excuse, "Well, I was distracted..."

I interrupted his bullshit, " ... Yeah right! Don't worry about it, we need to give this key to the Corporal anyway."

Jack thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think that he would make sure my letters got mailed to Masha?"

I teased, "I don't know what he'll do after all the shit you gave him, he might just throw them in the trash."

The Corporal came back into the room and I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing when Jack apologized again, "Hey listen, I really am sorry about being such a pain in the ass earlier."

The Corporal replied, "Don't worry about it, now we need to get you two to the C&C before Colonel Maggie has my ass."

Jack grabbed his pack and rifle, I grabbed my Eberlestock pack which contained my new rifle in the scabbard and Jack asked, "Hey Corporal, if I write some letters to my wife back home, and we send them back with other Marines, do you think you could put them in the mail?"

The Corporal said, "Sure, no problem at all."

I handed the Corporal Jack's key and said, "This is a key for our room. You're welcome to stay here or wherever you want. Just make sure it's locked when you leave."

He smiled at me and answered, "Gee thanks. I liked staying in the room, but it was a pain in the ass to get someone else to watch your ammo while I took showers or ate. Now I won't have to worry about it."

We followed the Corporal out the door, he put the padlock on the hasp and made sure it was locked then we walked toward the C&C.

We entered the C&C and it was a fucking beehive of activity. The Corporal lead us to the briefing room which was full of Marine and Seal snipers.

Colonel Maggie walked up and said, "Perfect timing, we are just going over the missions for today. Grab a seat and we'll get going."

Jack and I grabbed a seat, Jack leaned over and whispered, "Damn, this is one hard assed looking group of men."

We recognized a few of them and exchanged head nods and waves.

The Naval Commander in charge of the Seal teams went first. I was shocked when he reached the ROEs¹ as the Seals had to write a shooter's statement for every kill they made in Ramadi. He went on to explain that the report would be separate from after-action reports and was related only to the shots they took and kills they recorded.

¹ ROE – Rules Of Engagement – What you are allowed and not allowed to do to kill the enemy.

The Commander continued with the bullshit when he ordered that the information had to be very specific and had to record the day, the time, details about the person, what he was doing, the rounds they used, how many shots they took, how far away the target was, and who witnessed the shot. All that had to go into the report, along with any other special circumstances.

Jack leaned over and whispered, "What a fucking load of bullshit!"

The Commander told each Seal where they were to deploy. He finished and left the briefing room. The Seals began to move out as Colonel Maggie took the stage.

All that were left in the room were Marines so she looked at us and said, "Unlike the Commander, I know and trust my sniper teams so we will dispense with the bullshit of logging each shot that you take."

You could almost feel us (along with the rest of the teams) sigh in relief. Hell, being a sniper was hard enough but having the brass on your ass to document each shot you took was too much.

Colonel Maggie then said, "I will meet with each of you in private to give you your deployment instructions."

She called the teams up one by one, gave them their assignments and they left. Finally she called Jack and me.

We walked up to her while a squad of Marines followed us. She smiled and said, "We have a special mission for the two of you. You and this squad of Marines are going to infiltrate and clear the building across from Ramadi General Hospital. Naturally, their hold on this building is critical to controlling the hospital. The insurgents are also currently using the hospital to treat their troops and attack our troops whenever we get close to it. Not only that, if any Iraqi policemen are taken to the hospital, they are later found beheaded. The hospital is a high value target and the personnel would be difficult to replace so we can't just blow the fuck out of it. We need you, Jack and this squad to do a surgical removal of the insurgents while causing as little damage to the hospital as possible. I'm sure you have questions so please voice them"

Jack remarked, "I guess the towelheads don't follow the Geneva Convention, so does this mean we're limited by it?"

Colonel Maggie replied, "That's a good question and you two need to follow the Geneva Convention as much as possible."

I had studied maps of the city, knew the approximate location of the hospital so I asked, "The hospital is a good distance from here, so are you going to send us there in Humvees, because that sounds like suicide to me?"

Colonel Maggie smiled and answered, "Hell no you're not take Humvees to the hospital because you're right, they would blow your asses up before you even got there. You're going to take a SURC² on the Euphrates River: You will disembark at the closest point to the hospital, which is about three blocks away from the building you're supposed to infiltrate and occupy."

² SURC Small Unit Riverine Craft is rigid-hull, armed and armored patrol boat used by the U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy to maintain control of rivers and inland waterways. They are similar in size and purpose to the much older Patrol Boat, River vessels used during the Vietnam War.

The Butterbar³ asked, "Sir, could you clarify the command structure on this mission and also is there an exit plan?"

³ Butterbar – Second Lieutenant

Colonel Maggie looked at the Lieutenant and answered, "Son, because we lost Captain M, you're the officer on this mission so you will command it. That being said, Sgt. Reynolds and Sgt. Blaine have extensive experience so it would be wise to listen closely to anything they suggest. As far as an exit plan goes, unless you can secure the building and the hospital, we can't send in choppers for extraction because the insurgents would blow them out of the sky."

I smiled at Colonel Maggie, looked at the Butterbar and stated, "Don't worry about it, we will secure the objective."

Colonel Maggie closed with, "Good hunting to all of you and make sure you stay in radio contact with us. Now Lieutenant, you know where we keep the SURCs so get your team there ASAP."

We followed the Butterbar out of the briefing room and toward the river...

Flashback – Masha – a terrible night and child care

It was morning and I was hurting. I couldn't sleep last night because I was too busy crying and berating myself for my foolish display of emotion when my Jack called. I had totally wasted the whole call and even forgot to tell him how much I loved him. Soon Louise will bring Linda to the house and I wasn't ready for them today. My only hope was knowing Linda's sleep schedule since I could take a nap this morning while she took her nap. I drank another cup of coffee, grimaced at the terrible taste because I preferred tea, and forced myself to swallow it.

I heard a car pull into the driveway, looked out the window and knew Louise had arrived. I made sure my hair was in place, walked to the door, opened it and waved at Louise. She took Linda out of the back seat, walked to the house while Linda began to coo when she saw me. Linda's desire to be with me banished all the tiredness from my body.

Louise arrived on the porch, took one look at me and asked, "Masha you look terrible today, what happened?"

I looked at my watch and said, "Louise, we don't have time for me to tell you before work, I will tell you tonight over dinner."

Louise said, "Thanks that reminds me, we're having pizza for dinner tonight and I'm buying. And you're right I've got to get going."

Louise left and Linda didn't even complain this time. I was thankful that she offered to buy pizza tonight. I wasn't happy with her choice of foods, but it would be nice to not cook. That way I could take another nap with Linda this afternoon.

Flashback – Jennifer and Glen – an introduction to a different culture

The alarm scared me this morning when it awakened me since I had a restless night trying to figure out why mother's phone was at the airport. I probably should have woke up Daddy and told him what I found, but I figured he needed a good night's sleep more than I did.

I took care of my morning bathroom business, and even took a shower hoping it would wake me up - it helped a little. What I needed was a big cup of coffee. I threw on a pair of normal BDU pants with a pink camo camisole and headed down to the kitchen. Daddy was sitting at the table with a huge plate of food in front of him. I complained, "Daddy, you know that's too much food for you."