Chapter 62

Flashback – Ben and George (the Butterbar) – Out of the frying pan...

The AC-130 really worked the fucking insurgents over and had chased them back into their rat holes. Now I was making sure they didn’t show up and try to take out the medivac chopper when it arrived for the Captain. I should have known better because things were too calm. The medivac chopper started down toward the LZ then all hell again broke loose. There was a massive amount of small arms fire and RPGs directed at the medivac chopper.

I began to return fire as George ran over and sputtered, “What ... What ... What the hell is going on?”

I kept taking out the fucking insurgents and replied, “The fuckers were waiting for something like this. It looks like we’ve got a new battle on our hands. Sir, we could use some more men here but you might also check the other sides of the building again.”

George called for half the squad, they came over and we finally started to chase the insurgents back. George left to check the other sides of the building, then I heard George command, “One fourth of the squad stay on the north most side of the building, the other three fourths deploy to the other three sides.”

Yeah, once again it was like I figured - the rat bastard insurgents were mounting a full scale attack from all sides again. Just when I didn’t think it could get worse, one of the fuckers got lucky and blew the tail rotor off the medivac chopper.

I yelled, “George, the chopper’s going down.”

I looked at the partial squad working with me and ordered, “Come with me, we need to save the chopper crew.”

I ran past George and suggested, “Sir! We’re going to need some serious help here. Get on the horn and see what’s available.”

We dashed down the stairs, out the front door of the building and zig-zagged toward the downed chopper. The fucking insurgents weren’t wasting time because they were also running toward the chopper. Thank God the chopper was closer to the building than to the fucking insurgents. I leveled my M4 and began to spray and pray that I could keep the fuckers from reaching it first. The other four Marines followed suit and it worked.

We reached the chopper first and I ordered, “Keep the fuckers off me while I check on the crew.”

The chopper was a fucking mess! It hit so hard the landing skids had folded, the rotor blades had disintegrated on impact and tore the hell out of everything. Shit, one of them was even embedded in the side of the hospital. Fuel was leaking from the ruptured tanks and I was sure it was going to ignite at any time. I got to the side door, pulled on it and thank God it still worked (otherwise, I would have been fucked)! But I sure as hell didn’t like what I saw inside the chopper: It looked like someone had attacked the crew with a fucking meat cleaver. I had almost assumed it was a total loss when I heard a voice croak, “Help me. Please help me.”

I yelled, “Where are you?”

The voice responded, “I think I’m underneath the gurney.”

I crawled into the chopper, taking care not to slip in all the blood and shit (literally) covering everything. I worked my way over to the gurney, unstrapped it from the floor and carefully moved it. The voice swore, “Son of a bitch! That hurts!”

I couldn’t believe it: Somehow the flight nurse had survived, but she was definitely fucked up! Part of the landing skid had penetrated the cabin and was sticking through her upper leg. I realized that I couldn’t take her out of the chopper without pulling her leg off the landing skid. But if I did that she would probably bleed to death.

She bravely smiled and asked, “Well Corpsman, how bad is it?’

I corrected her, “Ms., I’m not a corpsman however I’m the closest thing to one there is for now. Let me examine you, then we will know more.”

I carefully took off her shoe and sock on the injured leg, felt for the pedal pulse and found it (even though of course it was diminished). I checked the capillary refill in her toes and found it was also diminished. I finished my quick exam, looked at her and she said, “I can tell by your face, it’s not good news.”

I reply, “Your pedal pulse and capillary refill are diminished which probably indicates... ”

She interrupted, “ ... Yeah, it indicates that this fucking piece of metal through my leg has compromised the vascular system of my leg. That also means that you can’t just pull me off this fucking piece of metal... ”

It was my turn to interrupt, “ ... Because if I do you will likely bleed to death.”

I admired her when she forced a smile and said, “Well unless we have a torch to cut the metal, I guess I’m fucked.”

I began to quickly think, then I smiled at her and said, “Ms., I don’t have a torch, but I do have the next best thing.” I pulled my sniper rifle out of my scabbard in my pack and continued, “I’m pretty damn sure I can shoot the landing skid in two which will let us get you the hell out of this chopper before it catches fire.”

She blinked at me and expressed her doubt, “I highly doubt that you could shoot through the landing skid and even if you did, the shock from the bullet would be terrible.”

I laughed at her and said, “I guess you don’t know me, otherwise you wouldn’t be doubting me. Since we haven’t been formally introduced, I’m Sgt. Ben Blaine and I will get one of the squad in here to hold the skid while I blow it in two.”

She said, “Hell I’ve heard of you and you just might be able to shoot the landing skid in two. If you can do that, then I will name my firstborn after you.”

I was amazed when George appeared in the doorway and asked, “Banzai, is there anything we can do to help you?”

I said, “What’s the situation with the insurgents?”

George laughed and replied, “Hell, you didn’t hear? The AC-130 came back and cleared them out. Plus they will stay on station until we take care of the chopper.”

I told George, “We can’t move this flight nurse... ” I paused, looked at her and asked, “ ... What’s your name?”

She said, “I thought you would never ask, Cynthia is my name but you can call me Cindy.”

I continued explaining to George, “We can’t move Cindy without cutting the landing skid that’s sticking through her leg because she will bleed to death. So I’m going to shoot through the landing skid beneath her leg while we have a couple of Marines hold each end of it to minimize the shock to Cindy’s leg.”

George volunteered, “Banzai, I will take the lower part, he ordered, “Someone get over here and hold the upper part of this landing skid.”

I was shocked when four guys volunteered, George pointed to the closest one and ordered, “Do exactly what Sgt. Blaine orders.”

I place George’s hand on the skid right below her leg, put the other Marine’s hand on the upper part of the skid and said, “It’s going to be loud as hell in here, but you need to keep the skid as stable as possible.”

They both affirmed they understood, I backed up a little, dropped down to the ground, put down the bipod on my rifle, took careful aim and squeezed the trigger.

The .338 Lapua round blasted the hell out of the landing skid! Hell, it was like a hot knife going through butter. The blow was too much for Cindy because she screamed and passed out. I ran over, wrapped some gauze around the skid through Cindy’s leg to make sure it wasn’t going to move then ordered, “Let’s get her ass out of here.”

We hauled her out just as another medivac chopper landed. The doctor and flight nurse rushed over. I said, “Cindy is ready for transport.”

The doctor asked, “How in the hell did you cut through the metal?”

I held up my rifle and said, “I shot through it with this.”

George reminded, “Don’t forget, we have the Captain to transport too. Can you take both of them in one trip?”

The flight nurse said, “No problem, let’s get going.”

Cindy woke up as they were loading her onto the chopper and she gave me a big thumbs up. The Captain, well I gave him enough drugs so that he wasn’t waking up anytime soon.

The chopper left and George congratulated me, “Quick thinking Banzai, how did you know you could shoot the landing skid in two.”

I laughed and answered, “Hell that was nothing! I used to shoot metal fence posts all the time. My greatest concern was accidentally shooting you in the hand.”

George gave me a dirty look and complained, “Thanks a hell of a lot for telling me.”

I laughed and teased, “No problem Sir, what should we do about the chopper.”

George smiled at me and said, “Banzai, take some Marines, get the rest of the dead crew out of the chopper and then light it up with a WP grenade.”

I gathered a couple other Marines, climbed into the chopper and hit paydirt!

Flashback – Jack – in the hospital

Hell you sure couldn’t get any kind of rest in here! It was busier than a mall on black Friday! They kept hauling people in from surgery and the ones who had recovered were quickly carried out to someplace unknown. Finally a nurse came over and announced, “Sgt. Reynolds, it’s time to move you to the ward. We need your space for the flight nurse just saved by your sniper.”

I was surprised and asked, “What the hell did Banzai do this time?”

She smiled at me and replied, “Sgt. Blaine saved Cindy, our head flight nurse, from a medivac chopper that was shot down. He used his quick thinking to shoot through the landing skid that pinned Cindy into the chopper.”

I bragged, “Yeah that’s my boy - I taught him everything he knows.”

My nurse laughed while she moved me out into the hallway and accused me of less than innocent intentions, “Sgt. Reynolds, are you trying to capitalize on what we’re going to do for Sgt. Blaine?”

I didn’t understand so I asked for some clarification, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The nurse shocked me when she said, “Let me just say that Sgt. Blaine isn’t going to have any shortages of ‘dates’ when he gets back to the base. He took care of Cindy and we aim to take ‘good care’ of him. Now if you would like some of the action, I’m sure that we can... ”

I now totally understood from the emphasis she placed on the words that she meant sex. I interrupted her, “ ... Excuse me, but I’m a happily married man.”

She laughed and offered, “Don’t you know that what happens in Iraq, stays in Iraq?”