Chapter 15

We lay hidden in the woodline, our ambush well set up, Claymore mines forward of our positions, our crew served weapons, M60 machine guns, at each end of the line ambush, waiting for the enemy to walk into our trap. No one dared break the silence, no movement allowed, we ignored the bites of ants and mosquitoes as eyes peered out from behind camouflage. Overhead we could hear the birds and small animals begin to move about again, they'd run off as we set up our trap, but now had returned. Slowly turning my head to the right, I tried to see the next man over from me, but the darkness of the woods and the effectiveness of his efforts kept him from my view.

Suddenly, with a flutter of wings, the birds above us departed, and the stark silence was unnerving. Then faintly in the distance, I could hear a slight rustling, as if something large was moving towards us. I strained my eyes to see, nothing. Then, to the left of my field of fire, a slight movement, as I watched, the form took shape. I could make out the details of a man, moving slowly in a crouch, using the terrain for cover. Well, you failed Buster, I thought to myself. As I continued to watch, another man emerged from the shadows, angling to the right of the point man, and motioning behind him, signaling no doubt the platoon or squad to follow. A steady stream of figures emerged, each fanning out to the right or left as they came into the open area to our front. I waited, and as I waited, I silently slid the selector switch on my M16 from safe to full auto yet kept my finger from the trigger. I wanted no premature fire to alert them before they entered the kill zone. I knew the signal, as did everyone of us. We'd been drilled and threatened enough by SSG Winston that we could have been asleep and still told you what the signal was.

"Don't nobody, and I fucking mean Nobody pop a cap before that damn first Claymore goes off"

"When it does, keep your heads screwed on, them with claymores pop em, then shoot, them with the 60's sweep the field. The rest of you bastards remember your kill zone."

Silently we waited, watching as they crept closer and closer. My mouth was getting dry, and I though surely they could hear every beat of my heart. We'd been warned too about being captured, and what we could expect from the enemy if we were stupid enough to fall into their hands. None of us had any desire to be captured, from what we'd been told, these people were extremely rough on prisoners, and we'd no desire to find out first hand.

"Light them bastards up, and when I give the second signal, everybody start their retreat, we gonna lead em right into second platoon."

This too was part of his plan, normally ambushes were not stacked like this, too easy for you to get lit up by your own people, who would be excited and trigger happy when the rounds started popping. We would be running back, right into the muzzles of their weapons, and who was to say they would recognize us at that moment. Still, if it worked like we'd rehearsed, which rarely happens, we'd be assured of almost completely destroying the enemy.

They had spread out over the entire opening now, and their leader emerged from the shadows, the soldier beside him giving him away with the radio strapped to his back. He'd made great efforts to conceal it, but his proximity to the leader, as well the cord that stretched from his back to the leaders hand, was a total giveaway. Any moment now, I cringed slightly in anticipation of the signal which had to come soon. Their point man was almost on top of me. I could almost feel his eyes burning into me as he stealthily moved up. He was close enough for me to hear his breathing, I could see the grenades pinned to his combat gear, small details of his uniform, so different from my own, caught my attention. His black eyes scanned alertly, he was softly swearing in a whisper, but the words in Spanish were alien to me.

WA-BOOM, the report of the mine echoed through the woods, startling everyone, including we defenders, and in its aftermath, came the sound of automatic weapons fire, the sharp crack of M16's and the louder chatter of the M60 machine guns, interspersed with the boom of the other mines. I opened up on the point man, who had turned his back towards me briefly in surprise at the explosion. He fell to the ground, and around me, the attackers began to raggedly return fire. Their leader had fallen to the ground and drug down the radio man with him. I could hear him screaming orders to his men, but his words were lost in the noise of the ambush.

WHOOSH, the sound of the signal flare burst over all other noise, and we began to fall back towards the second platoon. Firing in short burst as we retreated, I could see the attackers gathering themselves for an assault. Something flew through the air towards me, and I swerved behind a tree as I recognized it, a smoke grenade. Realizing what it was, I resumed my way towards the next ambush, screaming the password.

"CAVALRY HO, CAVALRY HO"

Behind me I could hear curses in high pitched Spanish, "HIJO DE PUTA, TU MARICON PENDEJOS" those I understood.

Mixed with the curses I could hear automatic weapons fire. If I had needed a reason to run faster, they were supplying it. I crashed through the woods, to my left and right, other soldiers were doing the same. Suddenly before me I saw the muzzle of a rifle, and I yelled out the password again and leaped over a man prone on the ground, by the shape of his helmet, I realized this was the second ambush line, and thankfully, they had the discipline to hold their fire until given their signal. Running as fast as I could I keep on towards our rally point.

Even as I ran, I heard the boom of mines and the familiar sound of M60 machine guns opening up, the second ambush had been sprung. More curses, both English and Spanish could be heard echoing through the woods, I reached the rally point, and checked in with SSG Winston, his eyes danced as he counted his troops and assigned them their fighting positions.

"Good shit men, good shit, we ate them bastards up." "Duke, where the fuck is Whitney? He was to the left of you."

"Don't know Sarge, I heard him shooting, but didn't see him when we got the signal to retreat. I hope he didn't get caught."

SSG Winston looked around the circle of men, each one facing outwards with their weapons up and ready. I could see him counting as his eyes went from man to man, each of us identified by our names written on our helmet bands. Following his gaze, I could see that we were missing two people, Whitney and Cocca, the usual fuck-ups.

"Cocca's missing too sarge." I told Winston, "Guess his dumbass got lost as well."

A smile crossed his face, and shaking his head he said, "serve that dumb fuck right, hope they got him." We settled into our positions within the circle, and waited. The sounds of gunfire died off slowly, then silence reigned briefly before a whistle blew.