| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 27, continued |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 11:18:14 03/24/10 Wed
In reply to:
TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 25d, part two - continued" on 16:25:09 01/08/09 Thu
…For Meritorious Service, Chapter 27 - continued
A/N 1: Thanks to my trio of editors [Mary Ann, Janlaw and Karen] for their usual fine job. Kudos also to AeroGirl, Mkim, Soleil, TZ, Janlaw for providing their help and technical expertise. Also thanks to Lisa Griffon [Yahoo Shipper Group] for her continuing support.
A/N2: Notice there isn't an 'b' after 27? That's because this is the last chapter. And, rather than confusing people with more parts - I'm just going to say 'continued' until I get all of this posted. Enjoy.
From Yesterday:
“What the hell?!” Jay said at the sound of 12.7mm rounds bouncing off the LAV’s armor plate. All three men flinched as the rounds continued to hit the truck.
“We’ve got a Polish BRDM firing at us!” Pogue barked.
“You!” Jay said to Strong. “Get that jam cleared!!” Then he turned to John. “And you! Get us out of here!”
*~*
As Lesinski’s gunner continued firing at the LAV-25, it began backing away from them, but as the armored truck did so, it began firing at the BRDM. Now 7.62mm rounds began pinging off the Polish armored car.
“Coaxial!” Lesinki ordered. “We’ve got to keep the pressure on him!!”
“Let’s go! Let’s go!! Get us outta here John!!” Jay Raden’s strident voice matched his anxiety about this whole situation. It was all coming apart, and Darcy was going to blame him for it.
36th MEU Headquarters & HQ Company
“There, there it is again!” Bud Roberts said, pointing at the drone’s monitor. The grainy image showed the infrared shadows of what was definitely a LAV and it was firing on three Hum-vees.
Faith looked at Baxter. “Colonel! Corporal Raden is firing at Lt. Thomason and his team!!”
“Sergeant, get a squad over there now!” Baxter snapped to Dewert.
As Sergeant Dewert got on his radio to call for his assistance, Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Tony DiNozzo walked up to the carrier’s rear.
Before the Senior NCIS Agent could say anything, Faith pointed outside. “Gibbs! One of Fuller’s LAVs is firing on a CAAT team that just went down that trail! It has to be one of Darcy’s moles!!”
Both men turned and broke into a run back to Sergeant Damato’s idling AMTRAC.
“What’s up?” Canella asked as the two ran up the lowered ramp.
Gibbs didn’t mince words. “One of Darcy’s moles is making a break for it! Get this thing moving!!”
“Damato! Get that ramp up and hit the gas!” barked Sergeant Canella.
GATORFORCE ONE
FEBA
AMTRAC A020 shuddered to a stop. As its ramp began lowering, 1st Lieutenant Jim Hawkins, Acting Commanding Officer of Alpha Company, adjusted the strap on his helmet and motioned to his squad.
“Let’s go Marines!!”
As Hawkins’ squad hurried to the tree line, he noted the other squads of his company were mimicking his actions, taking over the positions of Staff Sergeant Fuller’s LAVs and Ra’id (Captain) Muhaim’s reconnaissance unit.
As the recon soldiers and their vehicles withdrew into the tree line, Alpha Company’s personnel carriers moved into the tree line, with engineer specialist vehicles designed to breach defensive lines taking the lead.
Gunnery Sergeant LeBlanc waited until the engineering vehicles were lined up even with his. With a single hand signal, the M-728 and other engineering vehicles surged forward.
Behind them, Lieutenants Jim Hawkins, Phil Rowe, Mike Cole, and Kirby Price lead the Marine company assault with Gunnery Sergeant Albert Sanchez and the other company Sergeants along with the rest of the unit following close behind.
The bunkers and trench line on the far side of the field became alive with the rattle of automatic and machine gun fire as well as a few rifles, which were no doubt, snipers trying to hit targets of opportunity.
Combat Engineer Lieutenant Ansel Paige hunkered down in the armored hatch of his Engineering AMTRAC as bullets began, once again, to sing through the air. “Corporal! Get us as close to the enemy line as you can!!”
“I’m gonna need more cover fire Lieutenant!” his driver shouted above the din of bullets bouncing off the armored hide of the AMTRAC.
Ansel nodded. “Coming up!” He quickly switched his intercom. “Gutierrez!! You and your men are up!!”
Ramon Gutierrez had been itching to get back into the fight since Dodge was killed and his squad sidelined by the JAGMAN investigation. “Aye, aye, Lieutenant!” He turned to his eleven man engineering squad. “You heard the man! Time to de-bus! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!!”
*~*
To the south of ONE, Major Lyle Kelly and his Marines of Bravo Company, 3-2 Marines, began to simultaneously move into the tree line, lead by their own Marine engineering vehicles.
Gunnery Sergeant Dyess, aboard the M1 mine plow known as Warthog four, began to move forward across the waving sorghum field with Bravo Company’s engineering vehicles. The Abrams mine plow had only gone a few feet when it was hit hard by enemy cannon fire from a 100mm anti-tank gun.
Major Kelly, GATORFORCE TWO CO, didn’t wait for the smoke to clear from around Warthog four. “Bravo 201! Find that damned gun and knock it out!” He ordered.
The call sign ‘Bravo 201’ belonged to his assistant commander, 1st Lieutenant John Packer.
“Aye Sir!” Packer replied and then switched to the Company network on his radio.
“ Bravo 201 to Bulldog two! Enemy anti-tank gun 1,500 meters to your right! Fire at will!!”
“Engaging now 201!” came back Corporal Pell’s terse reply in Bulldog two.
Hank Borden, commander of Slugger Four, peered into the smoke surrounding Gunny Dyess’s tank. He was relieved when he saw the Gunny waving his hand. “Warthog four, are you good to go?” He asked.
“We’re okay Lieutenant, but we almost had our bell rung by that insurgent gun….”
“Don’t worry about him, Warthog, Slugger two and I will take him out!”
“Roger Slugger Four; we’ll be back in the game in a moment….” CO Borden could see that Gunny Dyess’s driver was having trouble with their starter.
Hank switched his radio to Bravo’s Company’s net. “Slugger four to Bravo 201! Slugger two and I will assist Bulldog two!”
“Glad to have you back him up Slugger four!” replied Packer.
The sound of a screaming helo engine made Lieutenant Packer look up just in time to see the Polish Hind which had been wheeling around at the tree line now charging toward the insurgent trench line followed by a Marine AV-8B Harrier.
“Bravo 201 this Javelin Oh One! Polish Hind and I will kick open the door for your Marines!”
“Roger wilco, Javelin Oh One;” replied Packer, “We’ll keep the bandits off your backs!”
“Much obliged Bravo!”
*~*
Kasim Hadhazy watched as another of his bunkers crumpled under the combined assault from the Marine tanks and aircraft. The Polish Hind delivered the death blow by sending two rockets straight into the anti-tank gun’s stored ammunition.
With an ear-splitting flash and roar, the bunker blew apart. Hadhazy was growing worried. Hamid had told him the Americans were good but he had no idea they would decimate his troops so badly. Why was Allah allowing this to happen?
Then he remembered Samir al-Sahood final words to them before they left their camp. (Allah challenges us, so that we may do greater things…)
Kasim nodded. It was time to do one of those greater things. They had held back long enough. “Murtallah,” he called out
The young Somali came to his side. “Yes Kasim?”
“Pull out the plans given to us by Dahab. It is time to strike at the heart of the Americans!”
“B-but Dahab said there would be a signal first, Kasim.” Murtallah said, trying to reason with the more seasoned Jihadist.
Both turned to see another OT-64 personnel carrier belch flames and roll to a stop.
Kasim grabbed the man’s shoulders. “Our window of opportunity closes a little more with each loss we suffer, Murtallah. Samir and Hamid would understand.”
The younger man nodded and handed Kasim the pouch containing Dahab’s documents.
Opening the pouch, Kasim rifled through it until he found the sheet of paper he was looking for. Taking a pencil from the pouch, he scanned the document and then scribbled down a number. Then he handed the marked document back to Murtallah.
“Give this to Abdul. He is monitoring the American transmissions. When he finds this frequency, the equipment he has will pin-point the American Commander’s position based on this document. Go now!”
The younger man wanted to argue against this rash action. But he knew the veteran soldier would not be swayed. He nodded his acceptance. “At once, Kasim” and ran to find Abdul and his radio direction finding equipment.
*~*
Colonel Briggs’ HMMWV had pulled up next to Sergeant Dewert’s AMTRAC.
“Baxter! Status report!” he barked as he climbed out of the Hum-vee.
The commander of GATORFORCE ELEMENT saluted the MEU commander. “GATORFORCES ONE and TWO are making good progress against the insurgent positions on the far side of this field--”
Briggs dismissed his ‘sunshine’ with an irritated wave of the hand. “Can’t we just go around this?” ‘This’ being the current fire fight going on in front of them.
Andrew Baxter decided that sugar coating the situation would not help. “We’ve been trying, Colonel, but the terrain on our south side is impassable for our vehicles--”
“What about the north side?” he retorted angrily, interrupting again.
“We don’t know sir, Lieutenant Thomason and his men ran into an insurgent ambush--”
It was a half lie. Baxter knew the north side was occupied by insurgent forces and they were being lead by Corporal Raden. But how was he going to tell Briggs that? Plus how was he going to explain the ‘blue on blue’ firefight?
“Colonel, I don’t want to hear excuses from you! I want results! Got that?!”
“Aye sir!” Baxter said automatically.
Bud Roberts and Faith Coleman stood by silently, observing this clash.
“What the hell are you JAGs looking at? Do something useful with yourselves, like draw up some wills or something. Where is Captain Johnson, Baxter? I don’t remember these two--”
Andrew Baxter wasn’t sure he had heard Ashton Briggs correctly. He was about to say something to that effect when Sergeant Jenkins spoke up.
“Um, Colonel, this is Lieutenant Roberts and Commander Coleman…the, uh, JAGMAN case… Lieutenant Dodge?”
Briggs whirled on Jenkins and stopped in mid snarl. It was something in Jenkins’ expression that made Ashton Briggs compose himself. Briggs didn’t seem to notice that Baxter, Coleman, Roberts and Dewert wore the same expressions of worry and concern.
“Commander, Lieutenant, I apologize; but if you’ll excuse me, I have a battle to fight. I’m not going to be the last Marine in Operation Iraqi Freedom who reaches Baghdad!”
He stormed out of the carrier, leaving confused looks in his wake. Sergeant Jenkins looked at Colonel Baxter for a moment with an expression indicating he was out of his depth before turning and following Briggs.
“Colonel? Did he say what I think he said?” Bud asked cautiously after the two men left.
“He did,” Lieutenant,” Baxter said grimly. “He thinks it’s March 2003.”
“Colonel Baxter,” Faith said firmly but cautiously, “Sir, you have to do something about this; he’s putting you and your men in serious danger--”
“I know, Commander; I know!” The intensity of his last words silenced Faith.
“Sorry,” he said quietly, looking away from the JAG Corps officers and Sergeant Dewert. “Give me a moment….”
“Yes sir,” Faith replied. Her OCD did not prevent her from understanding that this was an incredibly difficult and unusual situation.
Sergeant Dewert started to say something to Bud, but his voice was drowned out by the loud zipping sound that signaled in an incoming mortar round. They all instinctively looked up.
Before anyone else could say anything, it impacted, causing the AMTRAC to rock violently.
Dewert, Bud and Faith had to pick themselves off the floor of the carrier. As they started checking each other, Colonel Baxter was already headed down the ramp and outside.
They too, suddenly became aware of the inhuman wailing, along with moaning, groaning and cries for ‘Corpsman’.
Faith went down the ramp first followed by Bud and Sergeant Dewert.
*~*
Luisa Baranova and her BRDM’s scout team sprinted over to Sergeant Casano’s silent HMMWV.
“Pulkownik Baranova!”
Luisa couldn’t help but smile at the chivalry that tinged the Staff Sergeant’s radio call. Misplaced and distracting on the battlefield, but chivalry nonetheless. She’d have to talk to Kapitan Chidorz about when such reactions were appropriate.
“We’re all quite all right, Sierzant. The ambushers appear to have left.” She lowered her radio and looked around. All three HMMWVs were silent. She hoped that they hadn’t arrived too late. She motioned to the team commander who’d gone a short ways down the trail, probably looking for that crazy Marine’s armored truck.
‘Kapral!” She motioned for him to come to her.
He hurriedly jogged back. “No sign of the bandit Marine, Pulkownik,” He reported.
She nodded. “Take one of your scouts and check on the other two Hum-vees and then report back to me.”
“Yes ma’am,” he swiftly replied. Motioning to one of two specialist who were standing with Baranova, they hurried over to Lieutenant Thomason’s smoking HMMWV.
She turned to the other Starszy szeregowiec (Specialist 4th class). “Here, help me with this door…” They both grabbed the damaged armor reinforced door and began tugging on it.
With a tortured squeal, they managed to pull it open.
Luisa peered into the smoky interior of the vehicle. She could see a Marine Sergeant sprawled next to his driver, who didn’t appear to be too badly wounded. Both must’ve have been knocked unconscious from the wreck.
Luisa leaned over and gently shook the NCO. “Sergeant? Are you all right?”
Louis Casano’s eyes opened and took a moment to focus on the Polish officer. Looking into her curious eyes, he nodded slowly. “…other than being bounced around like a tennis ball when we went off the trail…um, yes ma’am, uh, Colonel, ma’am.” He shook his head and immediately regretted it, gritting his teeth.
“How’s my crew?” he asked groggily.
The scout who had been checking the HMMWV’s gunner, now began checking Casano’s driver. After a moment he looked at both the Colonel and the Sergeant.
“They are both wounded, Pulkownik, but not seriously as far as I can tell.” He reported.
Casano’s driver began coughing and immediately winced “Damn, that hurts!”
“Quit your whining, Corporal, the Colonel’s man says you’re not badly hurt,”
“Then I guess some of your lucky mojo is rubbing off on me, Sergeant,” he replied before wincing again, “But I think I might have busted something in the rib area.”
Luisa was about to relax when her Corporal and his scout came running up to the HMMWV.
“Pulkownik! The Marine Lieutenant is seriously wounded! His men need more medical care then we can provide!”
She jerked her head at her Specialist. “Get over there and do what you can!”
He nodded and quickly headed for the Lieutenant’s Hum-vee.
Luisa handed the Kapral her radio. “Raise Sierzant Lesinki and tell him to contact Colonel Baxter immediately!”
“At once Pulkownik,” the Corporal replied.
“Tell him the situation, and then tell the Sierzant to get our medical unit over here now!”
*~*
For a moment, all Faith could see was blinding smoke.
It was much like the scene at the DFAC when the insurgents sent that Katushya rocket into it.
Slowly, shapes began to coalesce in the smoke. It was obvious one HMMWV was on its side. A second was on fire.
“Colonel!!” she yelled.
Her voice was lost in the cacophony of noise that threatened to deafen her. She could see Bud moving toward the burning Hum-vee; she followed him. Bud pulled the door open and immediately staggered backwards as if hit by an unseen blow. Faith had to look away quickly to keep from throwing up. The driver’s face was a mess, she was certain he was missing an eye.
Fighting her heaving stomach, she reached into the cab of the truck. As she pulled on the moaning driver, she noticed Bud’s hands were helping her.
“Let’s move him over there!” Faith yelled as loud as she could. Bud nodded his agreement. They both gently carried the badly wounded man away from the burning wreck.
A Corpsman joined them and the three carried the Marine to the waiting HMMWV ambulance, where he was handed over to three other Corpsmen who immediately began working on him.
*~*
Without saying anything to Faith, Bud walked as fast as his leg would allow back over to the HMMWV that sat on its side like a broken toy. He could see Sergeant Dewert scrambling up the side of the wreck as it wobbled precariously.
“Sergeant! Be careful!” Bud yelled.
Bud Roberts was close enough that the Sergeant heard his shouted warning and nodded his acknowledgement. Then he began fighting with the torn fabric door of the Hum-vee.
As he wrestled with the door, the truck rocked slowly back and forth. With a yank that threatened to overturn the HMMWV he wrenched open the door and peered down into the crew cab.
Bud in the meantime had braced himself against the side of the truck, hoping he was giving it some stability.
“Lieutenant!”
“Yes Sergeant?”
“I can’t get into the cab. You’re smaller than me, do you think you could give it a try?”
“Sure, uh, wait a minute.” Bud Roberts hurried grabbed at his artificial leg and swiftly undoing the straps, pulled it off and shoved it under the wobbling truck.
It worked. The truck’s wobbling ceased. “Okay, come on down and I’ll trade places with you!”
The Dewert quickly joined him. “Thanks sir, whatever you – oh God! Your foot, your leg!” Dewert cried, looking panic stricken at the young JAG Corps officer.
“It’s all right, Sergeant!” reassuring the shocked NCO. Obviously Dewert had never realized that Bud Roberts had an artificial leg. “Just give me a boost up there and hope my leg keeps this thing steady!”
Bud’s take-charge attitude caused the Sergeant’s training to override his emotions.
“Aye sir!” He said grabbing the JAG Corps junior officer and lifting him. “Up you go!”
Bud lowered himself carefully into the tilted interior of the truck and immediately heard weak coughing below him.
“Are you okay?” Bud called down.
“I don’t…know…” came back the weak voice from inside the cab of the truck, “Can’t…get unhooked….”
“Hang in there; I’m almost to you….”
No response.
Bud could see the Marine was still strapped into their seat, but couldn’t tell whether it was a male or female who was buckled into the driver’s seat.
“How bad are you hurt?” Bud said as he reached the Marine. He could now see it was a young female. She was barely breathing. Bud had force his mind not to think of all the blood that was leaking out of her. He pressed his hand deep into one of the wounds. He would have used the clotting powder that had been issued to him when they arrived in Iraq, but there were so many wounds…and they all looked critical. Rather they trying to decide which wound was the worst and sprinkle powder on it, he elected to close off a spurting wound with his bare hands.
“You’re going to be all right,” he said with a calm that surprised even him. “Just lie still.”
“You’re a good liar, sir.” The pale female Marine gave him a weak smile.
Bud didn’t know what to say to that. He gave her a smile back. “Just hang in there, Marine….”
“Aye, aye, sir,” she replied, a strength coming into her voice that wasn’t there before.
South of Mirbullah, Holding Area Montana
Eagle squadron, VF-218, wheeled around again. Harm hated this waiting, but that was part of it. Long periods of waiting, practically loitering; followed by short intensive bursts of combat.
Harm looked over to his left and saw the Patrick Henry’s Marine F-18D squadron, better known as Hunter squadron, lining up to begin their refueling from the airborne tanker.
“Eagle 41 to Eagle 21; it’s getting crowded up here, Hammer. How much longer are we going to flying circles up here? Over.”
“You’re not living up to your nickname, Eagle 41.” Harm replied with a twinkle in his eye. He looked back at Pete who was also smiling. Eagle 41’s nickname was ‘Mr. Cool’. “We’ll get into the action soon enough.”
The pilot’s response sounded a little embarrassed. “Roger that, Hammer; Eagle 41, out.”
*~*
Bud heard an audible snap and immediately thought that his artificial leg which had been jammed under the truck, had collapsed.
Suddenly the sideways vehicle began to rock. Bud grabbed the female Marine, if they were going to roll over; then he was going to do his best to protect her.
That was when the roof of the HMMWV came loose and pulled away from the body of the truck. About half dozen Marines held onto the damaged roof assembly, carrying it away, so that Bud could see smoky daylight.
Faith Coleman’s face appeared in the smoke as several other hands reached in from seemingly every direction, trying to get a hold on Lieutenant and the badly wounded Marine.
“Easy Lieutenant,” called out a rough voice through the smoke, “We’ve got her!”
But Bud could see they didn’t know she still had her seatbelt on. “I’m undoing…her belt; she’s still strapped in!” he replied. He did his best to ignore her injuries and undo the belt.
Bud felt hands holding him steady while the others carefully lifted the badly wounded Marine out of the mangled driver’s seat. The young JAG Corps officer could not bring his eyes to the Marine’s body as they lifted her away from him.
“Can you stand, Lieutenant?” It was Sergeant Dewert.
Bud nodded and managed to stand erect, holding on the overturned HMMWV’s roll bar for balance. Faith handed him his bent artificial leg.
“Thank you,” was all he could manage to say to her before he started strapping it back on. She nodded silently.
In the meantime the group of Marines had managed to carry Briggs’ driver to another HMMWV ambulance that had just arrived. The three Corpsmen who had arrived with the truck motioned for the Marines to put her on nearby map table rather than putting her in the HMMWV’s cargo/patient area.
Ashton Briggs seemed to have been struck dumb. All the MEU Commander could do was stare at the chaos going on around him.
Faith didn’t know what to make of his fugue. She looked around and saw Andrew Baxter, directing some other Marines to put out the burning Hum-vee so it wouldn’t become a target for more insurgent fire.
“Oh God! It hurts!” The wounded Marine screamed.
“Give her more morphine!” snapped one of the corpsman to the other two. “I’ve got her bleeding stopped!”
The younger of the three jabbed another syringe into the woman’s fragile looking body.
Bud walked over to where they were working. “Is there anything I can do?” Bud asked quietly.
The Corpsmen watched as the woman’s bloody hand reached for Bud. “Stay with me, please….” she pleaded.
The Corpsmen exchanged looks with the JAG Corps officer and shrugged. He had his answer.
Bud moved in, squatted down and took her hand. “I’m right here, Corporal, I’m not going anywhere.”
“It’s Danielle, sir, everybody calls me Dani.” she managed to get out. “What’s your first name?”
“It’s uh, Bud, Dani; just call me Bud.” Bud was flustered, but he knew that based on the amount of blood she’d lost, the request wasn’t one he should deny her.
“Bud, what a cute name…”
If this had taken place in another time, another situation, Bud Roberts would have beaten a hasty retreat from this woman who obviously liked him. But Bud reminded himself also that she probably knew she was dying and she didn’t want to die alone. Instead he held her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She did the same in return.
“Bud, tell my parents…”
While Briggs’ driver and Bud talked to each other, the Corpsmen continued to work furiously.
Faith stood in the background, watching all of this. A part of her was detached; somehow she had forgotten all about the dirt and germs around her – maybe it was her training. But the fact she was beginning to be creeped out by the dirtiness and the mess meant it had only been a temporary reprieve from her need for order and cleanliness.
As she stood there, a Navy Captain, close to her age moved up beside her. “Is she the one who was trapped in the overturned Hum-vee? He whispered in her ear.
She turned her face to meet his. “Yes, she is, Captain, why?” she replied.
“She’s not going to make it, Commander.” He said simply as if talking about the weather. “She’s lost too much blood and her injuries are too severe--”
“Now you listen to me, Captain,” There was an unexplained anger that was boiling up inside her. She didn’t know why she felt this way, maybe it her defense of the defenseless. “As long as she is alive, she has a fighting chance. Your job, whether you like it or not, is to try and save her. Now, either you get over there and do your job or I’ll see you court-martialed for dereliction of duty! Are we clear, Captain?”
“But Commander--”
“I said, are *we clear*, Captain?” Faith’s voice could have flash frozen water at this moment. Her facial expression had hardened considerably in last few moments. She was daring him to say something stupid. At this moment, almost anything coming out of his mouth would have been stupid.
“I…Aye, aye, ma’am.” Except that. He quickly moved over to the three Corpsmen and began giving them orders to try and save the Corporal’s life.
“Bud, I don’t think I’m going to make it…” the young Corporal said. Bud noticed for the first time that her hair was the same color as Harriet’s. The Captain and Corpsmen continued to work furiously around her. Her nearly empty IV bag was swiftly replaced by another one.
“You *are* going to make it, Dani; that’s an order,” Bud said sternly to her.
“I’ll try sir.” she said through teary eyes.
---TBC later this week...
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