by W. R. Benton
“Base, understand you want me to turn command over to Colonel Rivers, code name Bird. Will do, as soon as he arrives. Roger, I realize that was planned when the Chinese chopper went down. When I come, I will bring Sergeant Wan Tu with me. I think it's time he returns home, over.”
“Roger, Cobra One, the Chinese have asked about him. Be advised the Russians have or will soon be getting thermal systems in their choppers, armor, and perhaps even binoculars for officers and squad leaders. We discovered that in an intercepted message we got from them to all units.”
“Copy on the thermal and it's a pain in the ass, over.”
“Additionally, they suspect you are at the at the old saw mill, but will not attack until all their systems are updated with thermal. That means a night attack to us. You can expect your package in the form of a bird to arrive this week, over.”
“Understand my bird will arrive this week and we are in danger of a night attack. We will relocate once the bird is in his cage, over and out.”
“Roger that, and Base out.”
I handed the handset back to my radioman and yelled, “Andy!”
“Yes, sir?”
“Get everything and everyone ready to move one day this week. The new man, Colonel John Rivers, will be parachuted into our area in a day or two. Once he is on hand we are to relocate, and I'll then turn command over to him. They'll send a Chinese C-130 or chopper in to pick me up. Sergeant Tu will be going back to Base with me.”
“I've known Rivers a long time, since he was Sergeant Rivers and worked for me. Now, he ain't worked for me in twenty years, back when he was on active duty, and I was an E-6. He's a good man who I've kept in touch with over the years, and you'll be leaving us in good hands. Any word on your next assignment, sir?”
“They mentioned the South East or North East. I imagine they'll use me to get them organized and then pull me out and have a new person come in. More or less what I have done here.”
“I see a sparkling star over you.” Top said, and then laughed.
“I'm afraid being a General in a partisan unit is not something that is all that rewarding; well, not like peace time anyway.”
“Perhaps not, sir, but it would still be a great honor and you deserve it too.”
“Enough loose talk. Get this place ready to move.” I ordered with a grin. I liked Andy, because he had great attitude about life and that was hard to maintain in a partisan unit. I was thinking more about seeing Cynthia and loving her again.
“Yes, sir.” Andy said with a big smile.
Swearing revenge, the new base commander in Seattle was briefed on what intelligence had learned about the partisan attack that seriously crippled the base. Colonel Yuliy Bykov, fresh from Moscow, sat stone-faced at the head of an oak table as charts and slides explained the details. He saw no way it could have been prevented, except for a dog team that sniffed out explosives, and he only had one of them. He wrote on the pad in front of him, 'Get six dog teams for explosives detection.' He had four dog teams for hunting men, three more for illegal drugs, but only one for explosives.
“Sir, Intelligence thinks we can expect more attacks like the one that killed Colonel Yakovich in the future, unless we increase our searches before civilians are allowed on base and get more dogs capable of detecting explosives.”
“Do those dogs even work?” A Major from personnel asked.
“Three days ago a man was entering the base when the one dog we have went crazy trying to get at the man. He carried nothing in his hands, his clothing and shoes were clean, and it appeared the dog had made a mistake. The man was taken into custody and checked out further. It was in the hospital that we discovered gun powder residue under his finger nails. So, to answer your question, yes, they work.”
“Where is this man now?” asked Commander Bykov.
“He is in a gulag, sir.” the chief of security police said.
“I also understand that gun powder is visible under ultraviolet lights:” the Commander said and then added, “If that is so, have them installed at the main gate for all civilians to use before they are granted access to the base. I suspect with the dogs, lights, and the T-90 tank that will be positioned at the main gate at some point today, we will have less problems with terrorist attacks.”
“Maybe, sir. This base has miles and miles of fence line, so if they want in badly enough they will find a way. It takes guts, you know, to set explosives up in the middle of your enemies.”
“Cowards, is what they are! By God, call them what they are!” Colonel Yuliy yelled as he slammed the flat of his right hand on the table hard. Then after a minute or two he sobered and asked, “And, what of the cowardly woman who placed the bicycle there to kill our brave comrades?”
The Chief of Security Police said, “She would not talk at first, but she did not deal well with pain. After the interrogator broke her left arm in three places, and poked out her left eye, she told us all. She was still living with her parents, who she got to see hanged before she admitted working for the resistance. Nothing worked on her except pain. She is scheduled to be executed for murder this Friday morning at dawn.”
“Good, have it done at morning roll call so the assembled men can see how we treat murderers.”
“Yes, sir, I will see to it.”
The intelligence chief said, “We were told the man behind blowing up some temporary fuel bladders, which killed a large number of our troops a few months back on another FOB, and the man who planned our attack was the same man, John Williamson. In both cases, we found the Ace of Spades card scattered around.”
“Aces, huh?” the Colonel said. “I fought those bastards on my first and second tours here as a Captain and then as a Major. They are ruthless. Are they still killing ten of our men for every one of theirs we execute?”
“We no longer execute prisoners except for murder, rape or terrorism against our troops.”
“Good, I never thought that would work as Moscow thought it would. Hell, how can you scare a country into liking you? I do not care if they like me, as long as they obey the laws.”
“This execution Friday will be the first one in over two years.” the Chief of Security Police said.
The Colonel nodded and then asked, “Weather, any idea when we will have a week of dry weather?”
“Later this week will start about eight days of dry weather, sir.”
“Ops, I was told by your Major that all the thermal detection systems will be installed tomorrow, is that correct?”
“I was told that by the Chief of Maintenance, sir.”
Looking at his Chief of Maintenance, the man said, “We are testing the last installations today, sir, and they should be installed and ready to use tomorrow.”
“Good, because in the morning, we are going to hit the Base Camp of the partisans, at the saw mill, and I want every man we can afford from here to be involved in the fight and I mean, admin, cooks, bakers, and even vehicle mechanics. We will keep about 20% of all manpower here and I want the rest in the field.”
Base Ops smiled and said, “The aircraft will be ready, sir.”
“Uh, what about us, sir?” An unknown Lieutenant asked.
“If you have enlisted in the field, then your Commander should be in the field. Now, notice I said Commander and not his representative, Lieutenant. When you return to your office, be sure to tell your boss what I said. He had better be there and not some man he sent in his place.”
“For how long, sir?”
“Hard to say, but I would bring enough food for between ten days to two weeks.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Uh, this meeting is adjourned, but Master Sergeant Kovarov, I need you to remain behind for a few minutes. The rest of you need to return to your units.”
After everyone was gone, the Lieutenant Colonel said, “Roberta, I will need your help with this assignment and the backing of the enlisted men. I intend to let the army, navy and air forces do a lot of the work we used to do by hand. Ho
wever, I need you to keep me up to date on the morale and mood of my people at all times.”
“Yes, sir, that is part of my job.”
“I also want you in the field often and along with some of the patrols, so we keep them honest. On my first tour here, some men would pretend to go out, but they would only go outside the base and then radio in later that they were miles away. I want them eager to go into the field, which means I want to win more fights than I lose. I know you have been in the army longer than I have been alive, so help me fight a good war and warn me before I do something stupid. Deal?”
“Deal, sir.”
“Dismissed, but my door is always open to you, always.”
The next morning was a real goat roping as well over a thousand Russian troops were airlifted to near the saw mill. The helicopters from all three states were used to begin the largest Russian operation of the war. Of course, all of that, along with our resistance and ground fire, brought about some confusion. My troops would fire on the Russians and then move in close to them to avoid any return fire by choppers. We partisans had no air power, so we used a lot of mines and booby traps to slow them down, and when that failed, we fired shoulder launched missiles. I had no serious desire to stop them, why should I? Besides, I couldn't with the number of people I had on hand, but I could slow them almost to a stop.
As the resistance, we could have run and waited for them to leave, but I wanted this attack to cost them in material and lives. In war, taking an objective doesn't always mean you are the winner and in many wars the loser wasn't obvious at first glance. I wanted every inch of ground they took to cost them in blood. My replacement, Colonel John Rivers, was there and I explained all of this to him as we battled the Russians.
I fired a shoulder launched missile that struck a Russian Black Shark in the engine. The pilot was attempting to auto-rotate to the ground but as visible as he was, he was a bullet magnet. His engine mounting was covered in flames and smoke, a dark gray, was spewing out behind him from his engine exhaust. One gunner was hanging from the door, dead as hell, only retained by a thin nylon strap connected to the helicopter floor.
Even from a distance, I saw bullet holes walking up the sides of the aircraft and while the pilot was a brave man, his efforts were wasted. He wanted to gain altitude and fly home, but that was not to be. On this day, God had decided this man would crash land his helicopter. He made a rather rough landing in an open field about 100 meters from me. I was in a wood line. Instead of a landing it was more of a semi-controlled crash. He landed hard and the windshield flew apart as my machine guns concentrated their efforts on his aircraft. I watched as the big guns struck him and his co-pilot, killing both instantly. I sent a squad of men to try and steal any parts or all of the thermal cameras from the aircraft. Maybe by having a system, we could come up with a way to protect our folks from it's detection.
I took Rivers and we moved close to the saw mill.
“The structure will blow in a minute. My troops have a good 500 pounds of explosives under the place and it will be command detonated.” I said. Russians were all around the building.
Zing, zing, two bullets sounded as they struck rocks beside us and then flew off into space.
A minute later, there was a loud explosion and the building went up in flames, killing all the Russians inside and wounding a good handful on the outside. Now my snipers began their bloody work. They'd severely wound a person and then pick off those trying to save them from death. Often they'd get a good half dozen before the first one shot would bleed to death.
I watched one brave squad charge the woods only to encounter mines, and walls of flames went up when each one was triggered. Those not killed by mines were shot to death.
Colonel Rivers blew a whistle three times and we began to withdraw. I was struck once, hard in the left side, just as the Colonel took a bullet to his head. I was spun around, fell, and crawled to him. I found him alive, just grazed by the slug. Very few partisans passed us and in the noise of battle, my cries of help were not heard. Then it grew quiet, except for the occasional pop of a pistol or loud bang from a rifle.
I pulled us both under some brush and then bandaged our wounds. I was starting to hurt, but couldn't take any morphine or I'd go to sleep. I did take two codeine tablets, but they didn't help me much. I knew I had to wait and we'd escape and evade back to our unit, maybe. A great deal depended on the extent of Rivers' injury and if he ever woke up. I decided, come dark, I was leaving and I'd try to take him with me, but he had to be conscious before I could do that. There was no way I could carry him for miles as I attempted to avoid the enemy.
I heard Russian voices, and while I only speak a word or two, I knew by the tone they were angry about their losses, which had been high. I heard the loud pop of a pistol at times and said a silent prayer for my troops as the injured were being executed. I knew they were like me, in that the fatally injured were being put out of their misery and the other wounded would be taken prisoner. It reminded me of Mississippi, where I had no cages for prisoners, and I had to kill or permanently disable any Russian troops found alive. I'd usually shoot them in the knee and move on.
They were gathering weapons, counting the dead and injured and looking for intelligence. I'd left some Ace of Spades laying around the blown up building, so they knew who had attacked. While we'd hurt them today, we didn't cripple them. Injured troops and media troops were flying in and out the rest of the afternoon.
Colonel Bykov and Master Sergeant Kovarov were in the command helicopter overhead when my troops were pulled out of the battle. The Russians had quickly moved forward, only to encounter mines, snipers and booby traps. After it had grown quiet, the chopper landed and the two men exited the aircraft. It then flew off to fly 360 degree circles until the Colonel was done looking the battlefield over. He would then call the helicopter and it would return for him.
The Colonel immediately had photos taken with him beside the dead partisans and picking up their weapons. His was all publicity images, but the old Master Sergeant walked around looking at his dead troops who just 24 hours earlier may have laughed or had breakfast with him. He shook his head at the cost in supplies, gear, and Russian lives. He then moved to the First Aid Station and held the hands of some of his seriously wounded. He prayed with or for the fatally wounded. He was used to seeing this and had seen the same thing in a dozen other countries and ten years later, Russia was no longer interested in the places all the blood had been spilled and pain suffered for. Why pay the high price if they were not going to stay?
He approached the Colonel and said, “Sir, I think it would be good for you to be seen with our dead and wounded. The folks back home need to see and know you care about your men and women.”
“Excellent idea, Sergeant.” he said, and then moved to the First Aid Station, with the Master Sergeant with him. A handful of photographers and TV news reporters followed them around like dogs, now that the shooting had stopped.
As they walked, the Sergeant said, “I will have all the squad leaders fill out paperwork and submit it to us for medals and awards. It is amazing how just a piece of tin and cloth can mean so much to some folks back home. I suggest we be generous with the medals, too, sir. Especially for our dead.”
“Yes, of course. Uh, radioman, have the helicopter come back for us.” the Colonel said, and the Master Sergeant knew the scent of the dead and dying disagreed with him.
As they climbed on the helicopter, the Sergeant looked over the battlefield and said a silent prayer for those who died on both sides to be able to find peace through death. He then shook his head at the cost.
Chapter 21
Rivers and I spent the entire day in the brush trying to prevent discovery. Rivers was still sleeping and I found that was best, because I couldn't leave until after dark anyway, just to be safe. At one point, late afternoon, I saw a trooper approaching and he must have seen something in our brush. I knew if he pulled the brush apart I had to kill him, so I
pulled my sheath knife and made ready. He was humming when he neared, but stopped not two feet from me.
Suddenly, he pulled the brush apart and in an instant I buried the 10 inch blade in his belly and took a wild swipe at his throat. I felt warm blood run down my arm and then felt it splash on my face as it spurted from his severed neck as he choked. He fell and his eyes met mine as he jerked and twitched as he bled dry. He seemed to be asking me why, but we both knew the why of his death, because he was in my country uninvited. I would continue to kill them until the last Russian left.
When he stopped moving, I grabbed him and pulled him into the bushes with us. An hour after dusk Rivers woke and we began to walk north toward our base camp. I suggested to him he move it once more, just to be safe. If my luck held, I'd be back at our base camp in Texas a week from now, only first I had to get home and I had to see if John's head would keep him from serving as Commander. Head wounds were tricky.
I heard the Russian radio before I saw a soul. I motioned for Rivers to stop, which he did. He froze in place. I had no idea what was being said, but it'd kept us from walking in the middle of their camp. It was early morning, still dark, so we backed up and went around them. The whole time I expected to hear them open up on us, but our NVGs were life savers as well. We stayed in the darkest shadows, moved little unless walking, and never spoke unless necessary. In two days, I only said one word I could remember, “mines.”
When we sat, we blended into the background and rarely moved. We rolled across roads or one would sweep our tracks as another allowed dirt to fall from our hands, dusting out our tracks. There is no way to completely hide tracks, but we tried our best. We avoided roads and trails, but we did encounter some that had to be crossed. There is no way to move cross country and not find a trail or roadway. We stepped on large rocks to avoid boot prints and made sure we didn't scuff the rock or leave mud on them.