Chapter 82

Flashback – Ben – On the SURV

The radio squawked and Sam ordered, “Kill your speed – there is some sort of big barrel looking thing coming down the river toward you. I’m going to blast the hell out of it.”

The pilot not only killed the speed, he spun the SURV around so we were headed back in the opposite direction. Sam fired at the barrel and there was a huge motherfucking explosion that showered us with nasty assed river water. The pilot yelled, “Now that’s a new trick - a river IED.” He spun the SURV around so we were headed the right direction and Sam calls again, “I’m not sure but I think that was some sort of ANFO¹ bomb, you guys are lucky.”

¹ ANFO – Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil

I grabbed the mike and replied, “Yeah, we are damn lucky you’re covering our trip.”

Sam replied, “Hey my FLIR² is lit up like a Christmas tree at your landing site showing multiple towelheads, you might want to change landing areas.

² FLIR – Forward Looking Infrared – A thermal camera which shows heat signatures.

The pilot grabbed the mike and asked, “How about this beach?”

Sam came back, “It’s about as clean as anything.”

The pilot ordered, “Sgt. Blaine, gear up. I want you off of here as soon as we reach the beach.”

Another Marine manned the M249 while I began to put on my packs and NV goggles. We hit the beach, I jumped up and ran off the SURV as Sam lit up some towelheads that were close to me. The SURV was gone almost instantaneously. Well it looked like other than Sam, I was on my own.

I ran and juked like my ass was on the line, because it actually was. Sam followed me and cleaned up most of the bastards. He missed a couple but I took them down with my M4 and kept running. Thank God I remembered where the hospital was! I reached a location close to the hospital, began to pie the corner while Sam’s Super Cobra was raising hell. I slipped around the corner, saw a shitload of towelheads and ducked back behind the corner. When Sam stopped firing, I pied the corner again and the towelheads were gone.

I beat feet toward the hospital and yelled, “Friendly in coming.”

Sam was really putting his chopper through a workout as he started to fire in some other areas. I reached the door to the hospital without getting shot by a Marine, the doors flew open, and I dove inside as some rounds peppered the building.

George picked me up and said, “Welcome back.”

I replied, “Thanks for not shooting me.”

He laughed, “Colonel Maggie made sure we knew you were coming platoon Sgt.”

I asked, “So what’s the sitrep?”

George replied, “The towelheads must really want this hospital since they keep throwing waves of people at us and we keep kicking their asses back.”

I asked for clarification, “People meaning not just men?”

George grimaced and said, “That’s right. We’ve had women and children suicide bombers. The first one practically caught us with our pants down. Then George added, “We’ve had a hell of a time with a motherfucker sniper - whenever we get someone on the roof, he takes them down. You think you can do anything?”

I swore, “I can’t believe they are using women and children. You bet I can do something about this sniper.”

George cautions, “He’s damn good so be careful.”

I dropped the UOP and suggested, “Give this to one of the Marines to keep and tell them to keep their mitts out of it or I will kick their ass.”

George motioned to a Corporal and said, “You heard the Sgt. you’d better treat this like your girlfriend.”

George and I began to haul ass toward the roof. I got to the floor below where the hatch was blown off and Jack was wounded. I stopped, found a stick, placed my helmet on the stick and made sure to note the helmet’s direction on the stick. I slowly raised it up. It barely cleared the edge of the access point when a shot rang out and bounced my helmet off the stick! I caught the helmet and noticed what looked to be a nice 30 caliber hole in the helmet.

I asked, “Has the sniper been taking out Marines in the windows?”

George replied, “No, he only goes after the ones on the roof.”

I smiled at George and said, “That’s what I hoped you would say. I showed George the hole in my helmet and said, “The hole in my helmet shows me the sniper is on the eastern side of the building, most likely in the highest building in the area.”

George confirmed, “There is one tall building on that side of the hospital.”

I suggested, “Look, I can play games with this fucker for days or we can call in a strike on the building. It’s your choice.”

George laughed and said, “That’s an easy decision. We’re going to have the artillery level that building. They’ve been itching for targets.”

I requested, “Hold off the artillery for a few minutes, I want to get eyes on the building first.”

George questioned, “Why is that?”

I reply, “Because the fucking sniper might take off when he hears the artillery fire, I know I sure as hell would.”

I found a good room on the eastern side of the building and crawled into it so I didn’t expose myself. I pulled out my sniper rifle, mounted a thermal scope in front of my regular scope and began to scan the roof of the tall building. With the thermal scope, I was able to follow the sniper’s footsteps to his hidey-hole. The fucker had removed an air vent cover and was inside the vent: Hell I could even see his hands where he touched the air vent and of course I could see his thermal image in my scope. I pulled out a laser rangefinder, ranged the air vent, checked for wind (which was almost none existent), made the scope adjustments and took the shot! The thermal scope showed me the red mist as my bullet ripped the sniper to hell.

I stood up, walked out of the room and reported to George, “One less sniper to worry about.”

George asked, “Well, should we still level the building?”

I replied, “Most certainly, not just that building but any other building that is close to the height of our building.”

George and I moved into what looked to be his office, he pulled out a map and used a red LED light to scan the map. He pointed and said, “These building are the tallest in the area.”

I suggested, “Let’s give the Marines in artillery some work to do, take them all down at once.”

George made a list of the coordinates of the buildings and asked, “Banzai, check this for me.”

I checked the coordinates - they were all spot on and suggested, “Have them put some flares up first, then drop in a round on each building. Give them the azimuth changes based on where they hit and then fire for effect.”

George offered, “Banzai, would you like the honors?”

I replied, “No Sir! Once we begin the fire mission, my guess is the towelheads will be swarming from the buildings like cockroaches, I’m taking part of the squad with me and we’re going to send them to hell.”

I looked around and ordered, “You five are with me on the roof.”

One of them balked, “I ain’t going on the roof it’s a fucking deathtrap.”

George started to dress him down but I looked at George and said, “Sir, please this is my job.”

I walked over to the Corporal and ordered, “Corporal, your Sgt. is commanding you to stand up.”

The Corporal stood up and did something he shouldn’t have - he mouthed off, “Yes Sir Sgt., whatcha going to do to me?”

I grinned at him and answered, “I’m new here so let me introduce myself. Most Marines call me Banzai Ben. And do you see my left foot?”

He looked down at my left foot, nodded yes and I continued, “I’m going to put my left foot against the right side of your face and you won’t be able to do anything about it.”

He dropped back into a defensive position and began to argue. I did a spinning kick, my left foot connected with the right side of his face and he went out like a light while blood spurted out of his nose. I looked at the Corporal with the UOP and ordered, “Take care of his nose but don’t fuck up the pack doing it.”

He saluted like crazy and said, “Yes Sgt.”

I looked at the other Marines and lectured, “I’m your new platoon Sgt. You may call me Sgt. or Banzai, it’s up to you. However, you will never call me Sir! That title is reserved for our Lieutenant. Know that I will never put you in harm’s way or ask you to do anything I won’t do myself. If you have a problem with me or my command, then come and see me. If we can’t rectify it, then we take it to the Lieutenant.”

That fired them up, they all jumped up and wanted to head to the roof so I ordered, “I only want the five best shots with me, the rest of you can continue to protect the building.”

A chorus of yes Sgt. was heard as the five supposed best shots followed me to the roof.

I walked right up on the roof and the others hesitated some until they saw that I didn’t get shot. They got on the roof and I ordered, “Things are probably going to get hot and heavy here very soon. The Lieutenant is calling in a fire mission to destroy all the tall buildings in this area. When it starts I expect the fucking towelheads will be running out of the buildings like swarming cockroaches. Since you five are the best shooters, we’re going to kill as many of them as we can.”

The artillery launched the flares which made the area look like daylight. I took the additional thermal scope off my sniper rifle, packed it away and waited.

Flashback – Jack – Office work

Colonel Maggie was on the phone, hung up and said, “Damn Jack, that’s one hell of Marine you trained in Sgt. Blaine.”

I was a little worried when I asked, “What did he do now?”

Colonel Maggie laughed, “First he made it safely back to the hospital which was a huge task in itself. Then he kicked the ass of a Corporal who mouthed off to him, killed a sniper that had been controlling the roof of the hospital and now he has the Lieutenant calling in a fire mission on all the high buildings around the hospital. Yes, you did a damn good job training him.”

I looked sad and Colonel Maggie asked, “Sgt. Reynolds, what’s wrong.”

I replied, “Sorry Sir, I just miss the action.”

She tried to cheer me up by saying, “Don’t worry, you will have some action tonight when you get your new aide. I expect his life to become the hell he’s given this camp with his sorry excuse for cooking.”

I half-heartedly answered, “Yes Sir! I will make sure his life is hell.” And I thought: I’m going to make his life as miserable as my life is since the only thing worse than office work was what Colonel Maggie threatened me with earlier, latrine duty.

Damn Banzai is once again getting all the fun and I’m stuck here with these damn folders. That gave me an idea for tomorrow...

Flashback – Masha – later that evening

Louise and I were in bed and she informed me, “Michael agreed to help move my things in here this weekend. Can you watch Linda while I move?”

I smiled and agreed, “Certainly, that’s no problem at all.”

Louise asked, “How do you plan on stopping Tina from only eating fruit.”

I replied, “The only way I know how is by not giving her any fruit. She will eventually get hungry enough to eat good food. However, it’s not going to be stress-free and certainly not easy to view.”