“Take it,” Hunter said pointing and Ho drove the rig deep into the trees until it couldn’t be spotted from the road.
“Boys and girl, it’s time we get down to business,” Hunter said. “I want a perimeter defense around the truck, but stay inside the brush line. Your job Bancroft. I want Foster, Tran and Lawrence on me. You three bring MP-5’s. We’ll do a scouting mission. Let’s move it, now.”
The three SEALs hiked through the woods, shadowing the road as it climbed higher into the hills. Here and there the road had been widened as a gully suddenly gave out and they needed to get over a hill. When they came to the next summit they could smell smoke.
Across the way not more than half a mile, they saw a small tent city that had been set up near what Hunter’s binoculars showed him to be a series of mounds that could only be tailings from the coal mine.
“Gentlemen, we’ve found our mine, and from the looks of those tents forty to fifty North Korean soldier guards.” He passed the glasses around.
“Let’s see how close we can get for a better look.”
A quarter of a mile later their cover petered out and they crouched in the last of it to watch the guards. They had roving patrols around a fenced in compound that enclosed what had to be a tunnel that extended back into a small hill. There was no shaft, no lifting mechanisms. He wondered how they brought the coal to the surface.
“Ten guards walking posts around that fence,” Tran said passing on the glasses. “We can take them out, but what about the guys in the tents? You think about fifty?”
“Looks that way. Six man tents down there. There are at least ten of them and then cook tent, officers’ tents, three or four more.
Suggestions?”
“A night hit,” Foster said. “We put six WP twenty rounds into the tents, and then hit them with about twenty five air bursts.”
“I like it,” Tran said. “We surprise them about midnight, and then we move in right away and clean up, torching every tent that isn’t burning and make sure on all fifty of the fuckers.”
“Lawrence?” Hunter asked.’
“Yes, but make the attack about four A.M. Gives us two hours to clean up in the dark, then with dawn we make another sweep for anyone we missed and we get Beth into the mine before they can send in any reinforcements.”
“Hopefully we will ruin their radios on the first attack so they can’t ask for any help,” Hunter said. “Let’s get out of here. We’ve got some more planning to do. Probably hit them from an arc of about forty yards for our initial attack. Then sweep in on assault fire and finish the job.”
“What about Beth?” Tran asked.
“She and Ho stay on the knoll back a hundred until we secure the place.”
“Ho ain’t gonna like that,” Lawrence said.
“You’re right. He’ll want to get some pay back. So we’ll keep Rattigan with Beth. He’s got the leg wound.”
Back at the truck, Hunter filled in the men on the situation.
“Looks like maybe fifty troops. We’ll hit them hard and cut the odds down to zero. Now. What do we have left in the food box?”
There wasn’t much. “When you finish that off let’s go for an MRE out of the drag bags. Go to it.” The men scrambled for the food box. Hunter called Senior Chief Chapman over.
“How many Bull Pups do we have?”
“Eight, counting yours.”
Make sure that every man has two WP rounds and the rest air bursts. Eight rounds per man on the air bursts should do it. So have each man take ten rounds, six in the magazine and the four in his vest. Put in the two WP rounds first in the magazine. We didn’t bring the machine guns, so we go with the AK-47’s for the rest of the men with their MP-5s on their backs. Should give us a good balance.”
“I’ll see that it’s done. Any sleep period?”
“Twenty hundred until oh two hundred. Then we’ll get primed and hike up to our bombardment point.”
“How’s our girl doing?”
“She’ll make it. That fire fight shook her up and she isn’t quite over it yet. But she’ll do the job she’s been trained to do. No problems there. She’ll stay on the hill while we do our assault and clean up. Rattigan will stay with her. We take no risk with his shot up leg.”
“He’ll be pissed but he’ll do it. We bring her down on a radio call when the area is secure?”
“Right, and not before. No more chances some wounded NK nails her on the way in.”
“Roger that, LT.”
“Find two MRE’s for Beth and me. I’ll introduce her to military field rations.”
Beth liked the MRE’s.
“Look it has a mesquite chicken entrée, crackers and peanut butter and jelly spread, desert, mashed potatoes, pound cake and chocolate chip cookies. Show me how this packet works that heats up my chicken.”
Hunter showed her how, and then heated up his own. He had chicken nuggets with cavetelli. Not quite like Gino’s back in DC but close.
After eating, the men sacked out in the grass. They had a fight coming up and they wanted to be laser sharp. Some of them checked the AK-47 rifles they would be using. Most of them worked well. Two didn’t and they threw them away. They had six good ones and plenty of ammunition. The AK-47 fired the heavier 7.62 x 33mm round with a thirty round magazine. On full auto it would pump out six hundred rounds a minute. The weapon was probably one of the widest used automatic rifles in the world. It was a favorite of insurgents and terrorists. It would be a long gun for the platoon, as contrasted to the H&K MP-5 submachine gun that fired the 9mm Parabellum at a much shorter range. The MP-5 also had a thirty round magazine and fired on full auto at eight hundred rounds a minute.
Hunter checked out one of the Russian Kalashnikov rifles. He remembered the hollow deadly sound they made when fired. This time he was glad he’d be on the shooting end of things.
Beth sat down near where Hunter cleaned his Bull Pup that didn’t need cleaning. She watched him and started to say something then stopped.
“I was about to call that your boy toy, but I bit my lip. These weapons are much more than that. They actually are our only means of staying alive. I just figured that out.” She frowned. “Now that I’ve killed a man,” she paused and shivered. “Now that I know what it feels like to kill someone, I have a great deal more respect for these weapons and the men who use them.”
“Beth, you’re getting downright philosophic, and at such a tender age.”
“Living out here on the edge of life and death, brings out those thoughts. I bet you have a few yourself.”
“When they come during a mission, I try to fend them off to think about later. If later never comes, I’ve saved a lot of time.”
“You’ve been with the President’s Platoon for over a year now, Lieutenant. How many of your men have died and how many were wounded?”
“Classified, Commander.” He shrugged. “We’ve been on eight missions and we’ve lost three men KIA. Wounded? Fifteen to twenty, maybe more. I lose track.”
“Did you know that I had to sign a long release form before they let me come on this mission? A confidentiality agreement the likes of which I have never seen before. I can’t mention the fact that the President’s Platoon even exists, let alone what it does. You’re sailing a ghost ship here, Lieutenant. Only the other spooks know you’re here and what you’re doing.”
“It has to be that way. Actually only four or five people know we exist outside of a few of the CIA spooks at the Farm.”
Tran went up to the lookout point to watch the North Korean army camp. He would report if there were any changes, like any more troops arriving.
Jut before dark they had another MRE. They were the last ones in the drag bags. From here on they would have to live off the land – and out of Korean grocery stores.
At 2000 they sacked out and were roused at 0200 to get their gear together.
Hunter told Rattigan he would be staying with Beth at the ridgeline while they closed in on the camp af
ter the bombardment with the twenties.
“Damnit, you saw me limping, didn’t you boss? I knew better. A wounded lion never shows any weakness. Some goddamned lion I’ve been.”
“You’ll bring Beth down as soon as it’s safe for her,” Hunter said.
He watched them in the pale moonlight. “Now, SEALs, it’s time we move up to our firing point and kick some North Korean ass.”
“Hoo-yah!” the SEALs bellowed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
It took the platoon only a half hour to hike out to their high point where it would attack the camp. Hunter positioned his men a hundred yards from the tents in a forty yard arc, and kept them in the cover of the brush and dozens of good sized pine trees. Then they waited.
“We could push the attack up to oh three hundred,” Bancroft said on the radio.
Hunter, who was with Beth and Rattigan, vetoed the idea. “That would give them another hour of darkness to escape if they luck out and we miss a few. Might work better to push it out to oh five hundred. Give us an hour for the attack and then with daylight we can track anyone who got away and tried to walk into town.”
“I like it,” Senior Chief Chapman said. “That extra hour could make a big difference. Let’s go at oh five hundred instead.”
“Bancroft?”
“Yes, one hour should be plenty for the attack, and the daylight will help with stragglers.”
“Done,” Hunter said. “Take a nap if you can. Tran, I want you to do a recon on them as close as you can get. See how many guards they have and where they are if possible. Don’t get caught.”
“Off and running, Cap. I’ll work all around the camp and see if there’s anything there we don’t know about that we should. Like I don’t remember seeing any trucks or vehicles when we looked at it this afternoon.”
“Good idea. That’s why you get the big bucks. Go.”
Beth had brought a back pack with her in her drag bag, and now put her tool kit into it and adjusted it so it fit tight and secure. She slipped into the shoulder straps and nodded. Yes, it would work well and leave her both hands for her submachine gun. She took off the pack and moved closer to Hunter.
“How do we get down into the mine?”
“No idea. I was hoping it would be a strip mine, just a big gouge out of the land, but no such luck. It’s an underground type. Maybe a shaft, but how do we get down the shaft if there’s no working gear? Could be some rope around. I have no idea how it is set up or how deep it is.”
“Must be pretty deep if they want to shield an accidental nuclear explosion,” Beth said.
“I’d hope so. That was one thing that Dr. Sung didn’t know, or forgot to tell us. We’ll have to play it by ear when we get there.”
“So when do I come down the hill?”
They could see a few lights at the camp below and hear the continuous purr of what must be generators providing power to the camp.
“When? When we get the place cleared and safe. For sure not before daylight. We will absolutely take no chances with you getting involved in a shooting scrape down there.”
“Good, one was enough.” She gave a nervous laugh. “You said something about taking a nap. I couldn’t go to sleep now with a whole bottle of sleeping pills. How do these guys do it? They seem as calm as bunny rabbits waiting for the Easter egg roll. Look at Rattigan. He’s been snoring away for twenty minutes already.”
“They are confident of their ability to do the job ahead. They have all been here before. They relax and get ready to go into action when the time comes. Mostly it’s lots of experience.”
“I feel like Cinderella getting ready to go to the ball. My stomach is doing flip flops and trying for a world record. So far it’s only at sixty five.
“You’ll settle down. You are our Cinderella. You’re the only reason we’re making this little tourist trip into good old North Korea. Without you we’re just so many grunts trying to get from point A to B.”
“What’s a grunt?”
“A foot soldier, a doggie on the line, a pawn in the hands of the generals and admirals. Us guys.”
“Well, if you’re grunts, you’re the best grunts, I’ve ever seen. I like the way you do your work. Now, maybe I can have a nap. At least I’ll close my eyes and my mouth. Oh, if everyone goes to sleep, who wakes up the troops at five?”
“Don’t worry. Four or five of us will be ready.”
Tran came back after his half hour walk in the dark.
“Three six-bys on the other side and two staff cars,” he told Hunter. Looks like they’ve been here for quite a time. Even have a soccer field laid out on the other side. Mess tent, officer quarters and what looks like a shower tent. Only four men on guard posts around the camp, and eight walking posts around the mine. So that’s twelve of them not sleeping.”
“We could take some incoming fire,” Hunter said.
“We better plan on it. Could be twelve rifles down there ready to shoot at us.”
At 0455 Hunter barked into his personal radio mike. “Now hear this. All men man your brooms, clean sweep down fore and aft.”
Beth woke up with a jolt. “What on earth?”
Rattigan mumbled something about the black shoe navy.
“We have five minutes until blastoff. Everyone check your weapon, clean up anything left on the ground and get ready to attack. We now have four minutes. I want a squad check.”
Hunter listened as his seven men checked in on the radio. Then Bancroft made a check with his men. Everyone was awake and ready to rumble.
“Tran tells me they have twelve guards down there. So we could get some return fire. Pick out a good pine tree to fire from. Protect yourself. We’ll try to eliminate those shooters as soon as we can with the air bursts. Some of you hit the mine area. We have two minutes. I want the Bull Pups to fire their two WP rounds, then wait thirty seconds before you fire the air bursts. You men with the AK-47’s open fire as soon as the WPs hit. Any questions?”
“How many twenty rounds, Cap?” Tanner asked.
“How many do you have? Use them up. Then we move down to MP-5 range and do our assault fire and clean up. I’ll count it down to oh five hundred.”
Beth reached out and touched Hunter’s shoulder. “You be careful down there.”
He nodded in the faint moonlight.
“Five, four, three, two, go.”
The booming crack of the twenty millimeter rounds firing blasted into the morning darkness. Almost before the sound died the sound came again. The rounds hit in the tent area below that was outlined by several perimeter lights. The exploding white phosphorous sounds came muted, then the fires began and the screams. The AK-47’s joined in the cacophony of the attack, with six SEALs slamming round after round into the tent area, not looking for targets, just random area fire.
The fires burned fiercely as one tent after another went up. The air bursts began and in the fire light they could see men running around, dropping when the shards of steel tore into them. Round after round exploded over the tents. Two contact rounds hit the trucks and one burst into flames as the fuel tank exploded.
A few rifle rounds slashed through the brush as the soldiers below returned fire. Hunter made sure Beth was behind a big pine, then leaned around one of his own and watched the occasional winking lights below that showed riflemen shooting up the hill.
Hunter wished he had one of the long guns. He saw two men run toward the edge of the firelight to the left. Air bursts exploded over their heads and they crumpled into the dirt.
Two dozen air bursts had stopped most motion below. Only an occasional rifle shot came from the camp and mine area.
“Cease fire,” Hunter barked into his shoulder mike. The men on the hill over the camp stopped shooting.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Hunter said. “Any AK-47 ammo left?”
He heard a chorus of responses in his earpiece.
“Okay, when we’re part way down open up on assault fire single shot. Use the 5.56 on the
Pup. When we get to fifty yards use the MP-5s. Try to keep a straight line so we don’t shoot each other. Twenty yards from the fires, we hit the ground and look for targets. Let’s move.”
Rattigan sat down near a tree closer to Beth and made sure she stayed on the hill.
The SEALs walked down the slope toward the burning tents. They saw little movement. At fifty yards, Hunter fired a three round burst from his Pup and the rest of the platoon joined in with single shot assault fire as they walked closer. There were only two return fire shots that Hunter saw. At twenty yards they went to the ground and increased their fire, watching for targets.
“We hold here until it gets lighter,” Hunter said into the mike. “We have anyone hit?”
“Got a scratch on my side,” Walden said.
“Foster, find him.” Hunter said.
“I’m in the middle of the line,” Walden said. “Just a fucking scratch.”
Foster crawled from his spot near the left end of the line to the center and found Walden. He pulled up the Korean shirt and in the faint moonlight saw the blood smearing Walden’s right side.
“Yeah, just a scratch,” Foster said. “An in and out about an inch worth. Hold still while I stop the bleeding.”
“Bancroft, take Lawrence and Mohammad and check out the mine area. See if you can hear any guards over there.”
“We take them out if we find them?”
“Roger that.”
The three men ran, bent over to the right side of the area where the mine was situated. Hunter listened to his radio but heard nothing. Then two Bull Pup rounds went off and detonated almost at once. A scream shattered the rest of the night. An MP-5 stuttered out two three round bursts.
“Bancroft?”
“Cap, we found four of them huddled together. Damn stupid. All four are now with their ancestors. Want us to stay here and clear this area when you go into the tents?”
North Korean Blowup Page 14