The Return of the Marines Trilogy

by Jonathan P. Brazee

  They turned and took the road into the town, which was already almost deserted. Of the Marines, only Gunny Dailey was in sight, along with a small Filipino working party, filling up some plastic bottles with water. A few other Filipinos were taking the filled bottles, then milling around.

  As the trucks stopped and Pete jumped out, the gunny called out, “Sir, the skipper wants you out of here ASAP. Have everyone take some water, then you’re supposed to go.”

  Gunny Sloan didn’t wait for orders, but started directing their passengers to get the water. It took only a few minutes before everyone had at least one bottle of water and were looking at Pete for directions. Some had small backpacks on, others carried plastic shopping bags stuffed with what Pete hoped was food and not personal belongings. One older man had a roller bag. How he expected to take that into the jungle, well, Pete didn’t have a clue.

  He looked back over his shoulder. The Chinese ship was just clearing the tree line and coming into view. It was still a long ways out, but Pete knew they had to hurry.

  “OK folks,” he called out.

  A few people looked to him, but others still milled about.

  “Can I have your attention, please?” he called out again.

  “Listen up!” bellowed Gunny Dailey.

  All eyes, turned towards him, voices stilled.

  “Thank you, gunny. OK, we don’t really know what’s going to happen, or if there’s any danger. But better safe than sorry, so Captain Niimoto and Mayor Lopez have decided that we all need to fade into the jungle. I guess you’ve already got someone to lead the way?” he asked.

  A middle-aged man stepped forward, touching his forefinger to the brim of the floppy hat he wore.

  “In that case, lead on. Let’s keep it tight, no straggling,” he told them.

  The guide and two others lead the group off. Cpl Schmidt and LCpl Viejes followed, weapons at the ready. As Pete fell in behind them, Analiza rushed up to join him. She gave a tentative smile as Pete looked back. He simply nodded. It wouldn’t be any less dangerous up there with him than anywhere else. Pete hoped it wouldn’t be dangerous at all, in fact.

  The guide led them into the trees, entering the jungle on a small, barely noticed path. Pete took a glance behind him before he was swallowed up by the foliage. He had seven Marines and about 45 Filipinos with him. He hoped this was merely a precaution, that it was unnecessary.

  They had gone into the jungle by about 100 meters when a soft, but distinct report sounded off in the distance. Only moments later, an explosion sounded behind them, coming from right about where the town would be.

  Everyone stopped and turned around to look even if they were unable to see anything through the trees. The Second Battle for Pagasa Island had begun.

  Chapter 32

  Pagasa Island

  Sgt Jay McNamara had watched his platoon commander and SSgt Tolbert’s team lead the Filipinos into the woods. That left only his team and the mortar section still in the town. It was like the rest of the people, Marines and Filipinos alike, had simply disappeared.

  The fishing boat evacuating some of the Filipinos had been visible, only a short way off the east side of the island and steaming north, and he could make out a scattering of small fishing boats fleeing. He knew the reasoning behind that, but it still had made him feel a bit abandoned.

  When the ship had fired, it was almost anti-climatic. This was not the huge broadsides from battleships he had seen on The History Channel. There had been a flash, then a sharp retort. Moments later, he had actually heard the incoming round whistle through the air before it impacted on the city government building.

  The explosion, while significant, was also less than he had expected. A hole had been blown out of one section of the second-story wall, but the building remained pretty much intact.

  “That all they got?” LCpl Brugal asked.

  “That’s about it as far as guns. The biggest thing they have is a 3 incher,” Cpl Holleran answered matter-of-factly.

  Jay stopped to stare at his corporal.

  How had he known that? he wondered.

  If comm had been up, a quick search would have given him the same information, but somehow Holleran had that information at his beck and call.

  “Well, shit, that ain’t much,” Brugal muttered.

  “It bigger than anything we’ve got here, and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of it. Besides, it’ll be the soldiers inside that ship, their helos and landing craft, not to mention their tanks, that’ll be their main weapons,” Holleran told him.

  Another round was fired, this time evidently missing the building as an explosion was heard beyond the town and from the jungle to the north.

  “Uh, how many landing craft do they have, Holleran?” Jay asked, eyes snapped onto the distant ship.

  “I think four of the LCACs. Maybe more of some smaller boats.”

  “I think I see all four of them, then,” he told him, watching four separate hovercraft disgorge from the back of the ship.

  “I think their LCACs are smaller than ours, so each one might carry 25 or 30 troops, less if they are carrying any armor. Can you see if there are tanks on them?”

  “No, not yet. LCpl Maus, report this to Capt Niimoto. Let him know what’s coming, if he can’t see for himself,” Jay ordered.

  He could hear Maus in the background, reporting the LCACs, but his attention was focused on the landing craft as they wheeled around for a moment before oriented towards the shore. It was only then that he could see that two of the landing craft had tanks on board.

  “Maus, let them know that there are two tanks inbound, on the first and the third LCAC, the first being the one on the eastern end of their line.”

  He could see a couple more conventional boats take to the water, but they would be some time to make it ashore. He barely registered another round whistling by the control tower to impact once again on the city office building.

  The LCACs were picking up speed, heading towards the shore. It looked like they were going to hit the low seawall that made up the southern edge of the island. It made sense, given the dense jungle and rocks that protected the rest of the island, but that also meant that if the air cushion landing craft could clear the seawall, they would have to cross the runway out in the open. If they didn’t have the clearance to make it over the seawall and up on land, they would have to debark their pax right there, and the Chinese soldiers would have to rush over close to 175 meters of open ground to close with the Marines in the tree line.

  The 60mm mortars below him and up against the tree line were zeroed in on the seawall, so Jay asked Holleran to shout down to them to get ready. He would have the corporal adjust fire as he could, but hitting a moving target when the rounds were in the air for 45 seconds was a difficult proposition. They had a wire running down to the mortar section, but using that could block someone else who needed it, and it was just as easy, if not easier, to simply shout out the adjustments.

  As the LCACs were about halfway to the shore, three large helos lifted off the flight deck of the ship. The Chinese ship was not like the Makin Island with a large flight deck. It was more like an older American LPD, but with a smaller flight deck and from the way the ship had been angled towards the shore, Jay hadn’t seen the three helos. There was no mistaking them now, though. They looked something like the Marines’ Sea Stallions, so they probably had a good-sized troop-carrying capacity.

  “Maus,” he shouted out, “Let them know we’ve got three large helos inbound!”

  He tried to remember just what weapons the rifle company had that could bring down a helo. He knew they didn’t have any anti-aircraft missiles. The one anti-aircraft team with the MEU had gone to Taiping Island. A SMAW II Serpent could bring one down, and the Weapons Platoon Assault Section had three Serpent teams. Hitting a fast-moving helo with one would be difficult, though.

  They didn’t have any Javelins, the longer-range anti-armor missile, due to a manufacturer backlog,
but the lighter Predator SRAW, which Jay had seen with least one team of gunners, would take down a tank, much less a helo.

  Two helos pulled off to the west, making a long loop away from the southern side of the island. One helo came right towards the beach, following the LCACs in trace.

  Something caught the corner of Jay’s eyes to the right, not through his bino’s lenses, and for a moment, he thought the Chinese had gotten a helo in without anyone noticing it. He pulled back the binos to see the Osprey taking off down from the boat basin. It looked good to see it, but the Chinese must have seen it too while it was moving into position. The next round from the ship’s gun almost immediately impacted down in that direction, so that answered that question.

  The Osprey quickly moved from helo to plane configuration, turned away from the line of incoming LCACs, the started to loop back, getting itself in line for a run. All of the LCACs immediately opened up with some sort of machine gun fire, but the Osprey was moving quickly into the attack. Its minigun opened up, firing on each of the Chinese landing craft which had been conveniently in a line.

  Jay could see the rounds impacting on the LCAC’s, now about 700 to 800 meters offshore, and sending up geysers of water in between each vessel. The second LCAC from the east suddenly swerved, whether because of damage or to try and avoid the Osprey’s withering fire, Jay wasn’t sure, and it almost collided with the first LCAC in line.

  The Osprey reached the end of the line and started banking hard. It was still airborne despite all the rounds thrown its way. It looked like it was going to come back for another run.

  The Chinese helo, though, jumped forward like a hornet, flashes from a large gun spitting fire out its side. In a moment, Jay could hear the reports. It had to be at least a 20mm cannon. One round could bring down the Marine plane.

  The Osprey reversed the bank, pulling it away from the line of tracer fire reaching out to it. The pilot came back towards the beach, then kept banking until he had his plane facing back out. He went back into the attack, the LCACs starting to commence firing again as he got close.

  Jay couldn’t believe it. He had heard of troops in the trenches of WWI stopping to watch the dogfights, but a dogfight between an Osprey and a Chinese transport helo? It was pretty surreal.

  There was a boom coming from the runway. Two Marines had run out and had launched a Predator SRAW out towards the LCACs. The missile quickly closed the distance and impacted on one of the LCACs. Jay expected to see a huge explosion, but the LCAC kept advancing.

  The Chinese helo, though, evidently only had one cannon, and it was window-mounted. It had gotten itself out of position to use it and had slowed down to pivot, to get its gun facing the Osprey that was zooming in, its own minigun ablaze.

  That was its fatal error. The Osprey’s minigun was not designed for air-to-air fighting, but by slowing down, the Chinese helo made it an easy target for the Marine plane, and the minigun found its mark. The helo exploded into flames and plunged into the water 300 meters below.

  Cheers erupted in the control tower as they high-fived each other. Jay couldn’t believe what he had just seen. That captain had just managed to do something amazing.

  The Osprey pulled back and started to bank again. But that exposed its belly to the Chinese ship, maybe 2 klicks further out. It was only then that Jay noticed the flashes that indicated the ship was firing with some sort of heavy automatic weapon. When the Osprey suddenly lurched, he knew the Chinese gunners on the ship had hit their mark as well.

  The big bird faltered in the air, then began to lose altitude quickly. Jay could just make out the propellers starting to rotate into helo-mode. Maybe the pilot was trying to get the plane to auto-rotate. There wasn’t any time, though. With a splash, the Osprey hit the water hard, parts breaking off and flying back up through the air.

  His team fell silent. From the heights of joy, they had plummeted into the depths. No one said a word.

  Jay looked back out to take in the whole scene. One LCAC, the first one, was on fire and evidently sinking. But the other three were continuing on, one slower than the other two, but still advancing. Explosions were sounding in the trees below as the ship’s 3 incher opened up, but it would not be having any effect on the Marines in the tree line. The ship was overshooting them.

  Off to the west, in the distance, the other two helos were mere specks. Jay wasn’t sure what they were up to.

  “OK, that’s that. Let’s get back to work, guys,” he said. “Cpl Holleran, tell the mortars to prepare for targets 15 and 17. We’ll give the order to fire. If the LCACs shift and land to the side of where they are lining up now, they have to be ready to shift, too.”

  The Marines below him were holding their fire. Seeing that the Predator SRAW had little effect on the LCAC, he doubted they would waste any more of the precious missiles. They would probably wait until they had a more appropriate target.

  He looked around. The control tower was a little crowded, and there was no reason to put everyone in such a vulnerable position.

  “Wellington, Brugal, and Cpl Destafney, I want you to climb on down. Cpl Destafney, if anything happens here, I want you to get to where you can observe the best you can and keep reporting.”

  He needed Cpl Holleran, but he was tempted to send LCpl Maus down as well. However, he knew he might need a runner, so he kept him. With the others climbing down the ladder, that left the three of them in the tower. That was enough to do the job.

  “OK, Mark, fire off the mortars.”

  Cpl Holleran yelled down to the mortar section where Marines were at the ready. They released the rounds, then quickly picked up the next round and sent them after the first. Six rounds were now in the air.

  One of the approaching LCACs actually picked up speed as it tried to flow over the seawall. It didn’t make it. With a crash, it shuddered to a stop. Jay hadn’t been sure if the wall was high enough to form a barrier, but evidently it was beyond the smaller Chinese LCACs’ capabilities. Another LCAC slowed down to a stop, then let its ramp down. Jay was blocked from seeing how well the ramp reached onto the land, but a puff of black smoke from the tank onboard indicated it was good enough. He could just see the top of the tank begin to move when the mortar rounds hit.

  Four rounds hit on the runway. As the runway was seven or eight feet above the low tide, they had no effect on the Chinese. Another round probably hit the water as Jay never saw an impact. The sixth round, though, somehow hit inside the LCAC that had tried to breach the seawall.

  A 60mm mortar round is not the most devastating round in the world, but in the confines of a cargo bay, the effect was magnified. Jay could imagine the carnage inside.

  Cpl Holleran was already giving corrections to the mortar section when the damaged LCAC pulled back, then slowly turned around. It didn’t look like any troops had gotten off. A mortar would have a hard time putting an LCAC out of commission, but it could certainly take out its passengers.

  Two landing craft, though, had been able to debark their passengers, and there was a tank on shore. Firing began to come from the Marines, forcing the Chinese to hug the small area between the seawall and the edge of the runway, but some of them began to fire back.

  “Mark, let’s get some rounds on deck. Maus, let Kilo know that there are approximately 50 Chinese ashore and one tank. I think they’ve got two heavy machine guns as well.”

  The familiar incoming whistle and explosion made him jump. Why had they shifted their fire? he wondered.

  The increasing louder whup-whup-whup of an incoming helo answered that question. Spinning around, he could see one of the Chinese helos bearing down on them from the north. Another one was further to the north, looking like it was doing the Chinese version of a fast-rope insertion, but the one bearing down on him took his undivided attention.

  “Incoming!” he shouted down to the mortar team and the lone machine gun team with them.

  “Incoming” might be more appropriate for incoming rounds, not helos, but
it got the point across.

  The machine gunner spun around and started firing, but only got off a burst of maybe six or seven rounds when his weapon jammed. Jay stepped out the back hatch and onto the railing, firing his M4. He could see the rounds impacting on the canopy of the helo, now only 40 meters away and a bit higher, but they were having no effect. His small caliber rounds could not penetrate the glass.

  The pilot pointed straight at him, and Jay could clearly see him turn his head and say something to the co-pilot. He knew if that bird had a belly-mounted gun, he would have been toast.

  He quit firing, pulling down Maus’ weapon as well. No use wasting ammo. They were going to need all their rounds when the helo disgorged 25 or 30 angry Chinese soldiers.

  He looked back to see if the machine gun team had cleared their weapon. They were fervently working on it, it seemed, but Jay didn’t have much hope that they could get it working in time.

  One Marine, though, was running up to the helo, not away from it. He carried a mortar tube and baseplate, holding it in front of him like some sort of personal weapon. The mortar could be fired in the handheld mode, but what he expected to do with it, Jay wasn’t sure. The mortar was not made to be a direct fire weapon. If he managed to fire it directly at ground troops and not hit the ground first, Jay wasn’t even sure the round would arm.

  As he got closer, Jay recognized the Marine, LCpl Francisco Diaz. He and Diaz had spoken a few times on the ship. Diaz wanted to go recon, and Jay had given him what he needed to do to prepare himself.

  LCpl Diaz stopped about 30 meters to the west of the control tower. He calmly knelt, using his hands to hold the mortar in place. His hand reached down to the trigger, and all became clear. The M224 mortar was usually fired by dropping a round down the chamber. The firing pin would set off the propellant, and the round would take off. However, the mortar also had a trigger. A round could be placed in the tube, and when the trigger was pulled, the round would then launch.