Chapter 40

Flashback – Jack and Ben – The trip to hell ... on the way to the hospital – under fire

The fucking towelhe ... I mean insurgents kept boiling out of the hospital like ants swarming out of a disturbed anthill. We were smoking them, but they didn't seem to fucking care. Banzai shouted, "Jack, the fucking insurgents are hopped up on some sort of drug!"

I yelled back, "Probably heroin or speed. There's no way we can hold all of these drug fueled fuckers off for ten minutes, we need to do a tactical retreat."

I looked at the Butterbar and ordered, "You and the squad take off while Banzai and I keep the fucking insurgents busy."

He argued, "Sgt. Reynolds, there is no way we're leaving you and Sgt. Blaine here alone. This isn't a suicide mission and I'm sure as hell not going to lose the two of you on my first command."

His next order surprised the hell out of me...

The Butterbar sure as hell earned my respect when he fired up the squad by repeating the quote made famous by GySgt. Dan Daly¹, "Come on you sons of a bitches! Do you want to live forever?"

¹ GySgt. Dan Daly – November 11, 1873 – April 27, 1937 one of nineteen men (including seven Marines) to have received the Medal of Honor twice. He uttered these famous words in the battle of Bellaeu Woods during WWI right before charging the Germans.

We were taking hellacious fire but returned even more. The dead fucking insurgents began to pile up like dead ants at the entrance to an anthill when attacked with a magnifying glass. This was a good thing because it slowed down the ones coming through the door. I had switched to my M4 but quickly picked up my sniper rifle and worked on taking out two at a time with one shot. I was surprised as hell when I shot one of them and the whole fucking area exploded taking down ten of the fuckers - shit the fucking insurgent was wearing a suicide vest!

Jack yelled, "Don't let them get close! Some are wearing suicide vests!"

Another two of the fuckers exploded and they were close enough to us by now that the ground shook around our feet. I fired and took out three with one shot and Jack praised my good fortune, "Hell of a shot Banzai!"

We finally heard the choppers and the Butterbar ordered, "Quick get the VS² panels out so they know we are friendlies."

² VS panels – bright orange cloth panels displayed by troops to indicate they are friendly forces.

Some of the squad draped the wall with the VS panels while the choppers came in and opened up on the fucking insurgents. It was glorious! The helicopter gunships kept the insurgents busy while a couple of Blackhawks took up positions close to the ground behind us and reinforcements roped down to the ground and even offloaded crates of ammo.

The helicopter gunships found another three of the fuckers who wore suicide vests during their attacks. I was concerned when the helicopter gunships left because there were still more of the fuckers.

A Captain from the reinforcements dropped next to me behind the wall and ordered, "Everyone keep your heads down."

I understood why the helicopter gunships left when the area the insurgents held in front of us was raked by a hailstorm of bullets. The Captain smiled at me and said, "Gotta love those AC-130s³ - they make our jobs easy!"

³ Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed ground-attack aircraft variant of the C-130 Hercules transport plane. The basic airframe is manufactured by Lockheed, while Boeing is responsible for the conversion into a gunship and for aircraft support. The AC-130A Gunship II superseded the AC-47 Gunship I during the Vietnam War.

The AC-130 made a couple more passes, then the Captain ordered, "Okay, let's go take this fucking hospital."

I began to get up but the Captain touched my shoulder and ordered, "Not you Sgt. Blaine - you and Sgt. Reynolds stay here and provide over watch."

I pointed at the only other tall building that was standing and suggested, "Sir, we could provide better over watch if we were on top of that building."

The Captain countered, "There is no way Sgt. Blaine that I'm letting you enter a building because more aftershocks are expected. You stay here, with Sgt. Reynolds and two Marines to cover your sixes. Make sure none of the fuckers shoot at us from the windows."

I motioned to Jack, he came over beside me, set up his spotting scope and began to scan the hospital. The Captain, our squad and the reinforcements, sprinted toward the hospital.

Jack yelled, "Banzai, fucker on the roof!"

I swung up my rifle, scoped him, Jack ranged me but instead of fucking with the scope turrets I did a holdover and fired.

Jack narrated, "Hell of a shot, you blew half the fuckers face away."

I swore, "Shit I was aiming at his chest!" I pulled my sniper rifle down, looked at it and realized I hadn't returned the elevation turret to zero, I just got lucky as hell to hit the fucker. I zeroed the elevation and waited.

We didn't wait long until there was a shot that hit the wall in front of us. Jack swore, "Where the hell did that come from?"

We were answered when the two Marines behind us alerted, "Fucking towelheads on our six."

I looked at Jack and said, "I'll cover the hospital, you help the Marines on our six."

Jack spun around and swore, "Shit, we never did dig those foxholes!"

He crawled behind some debris and I did likewise as I couldn't believe what happened next. Those motherfuckers! I began to kill them with the most extreme prejudice!!!

Flashback – Masha – Another lonely night

I continued to dwell on the possibility of taking care of more children until boredom overtook me.

With Louise, Linda and Ms. Ray gone, the house felt interminably empty! I looked at a map I had found at the market of things to do downtown and decided I would go watch a movie tonight. I didn't even care what it was, I just wanted to be out of the house.

I slightly adjusted my makeup, made sure my clothes were still presentable, remembered Ben's admonition and added one extra item to my purse (which I hoped I would not have to use). I walked out the door, made sure it was locked and mentally prayed, "God, please keep me and our house safe tonight."

Then I walked toward the bus stop which Ben noted on his map, easily found the bus stop, entered the bus, paid my fair (which seemed extremely high compared to Russia), took one look at the 'people' on the bus and realized Ben's admonition should have been more emphatic.

I do not recall seeing such a wretched group of people ever in Russia. Thank God I found an empty seat, pulled a plastic bag out of my purse and placed in on the seat so I would not contaminate my clothing. I sat at the very edge of my seat and hoped no one would want to acquire the seat adjacent to me.

Old skills came to the fore and my senses were alert to every sound and movement - this was not going to be a pleasant trip...

Flashback – Glen and Jennifer – a big mess

I parked my car as close as I could to Evelyn's car, walked over and noted that as I had trained her, Jennifer had locked all the doors. I waved at her, she leaned over and unlocked the driver's door. I climbed in and Jennifer said, "Daddy, while you were gone I searched everywhere but couldn't find the parking ticket." I started Evelyn's car and headed toward the exit, then I answered, "Jennifer, thanks for doing that but I'm sure your mother did that on purpose just to aggravate me."