January Dawn

by Cody Lennon

  Our fatigues were tattered and faded. Most decide to cut away their sleeves or completely shed their shirt and opt for just the undershirt as a way to beat the incessant heat, but I just rolled up my sleeves, because sometimes it got cool at night.

  As a soldier in combat you quickly learn what is essential for survival and what is not. What is not, is immediately discarded and what is, is highly coveted and sought after. After a battle our dead are usually stripped of their belongings. We never take anything personal. That would be disrespectful and immoral. No, if you’re smart you take his canteen and any extra ammo you can hold. Carrying more ammo and water was never a bad idea.

  As I cleaned up Carrigan’s wound, the rest of the boys collapsed where they stood. Hayes opened up an MRE and squeezed a pouch of grape jelly down his throat. Beauregard crawled up in a ball at the base of a tree and drifted off to sleep.

  We all were just as tired as he was. I think I could speak for everyone when I say that we felt worse than we looked.

  “Mail call,” someone yelled. It was Ian McCormick, Echo Company’s First Sergeant. He had a huge sack full of mail. This was the first time we had gotten mail delivered in over a week.

  “Hutchens.” That was Danny from First Platoon. He was a good man, and a longtime veteran that we all looked to for guidance.

  “Carrigan.”

  “Here,” she said, raising her hand on her uninjured side.

  Hayes, Alex and Shannon got mail also. Beauregard and Junior were disappointed when McCormick kept on walking and didn’t call their names. I never got any mail and I didn’t expect to, but I could see how much it meant to everyone else. It was their last true tether to the civilized world. Hearing news from their family back home was like some special elixir that brought them back to life and put the color back in their cheeks.

  “What you got there, Shannon, my man?” Junior asked.

  “This one is from my pops. It says: Hey Derek, I hope all is good over there. Everything is fine back here at home. The Army is imposing a curfew on us now…and a blackout. We have to be home by sunset and no light can show after dark. We hung up sheets over all the windows. We barely have enough to sleep on now! The Military Police showed up at the door last night. They fined us $200 for a ‘light infraction’. Can you believe that? There was a little bit of light showing out of the kitchen window when your momma was cooking dinner. I guess I have to pay it. What choice do I have, right? Your mother is doing alright, but still worried sick about you. She works late most nights at the hospital and then comes home crying. She sees what war can do to the human body and she’s scared for you. I keep telling her that a bright young man like you knows how to stay safe. Your sister says hello. She had her last day of First Grade today. She drew you a picture, so check the envelope. Write back when you can. Keep your head down and stay safe son. Love, Dad.”

  Shannon folded up his letter and checked the envelope for the picture. He unfolded it and stared at it with quivering lips. Tears streamed down his grime caked cheeks.

  “Let’s see it, Shannon,” Carrigan said. He held it out for us to see. It was a house colored in crayon with a family of four stick figures standing outside under a big yellow sun. In bold, scratchy letters it said: I love you. “It’s beautiful.”

  We all knew the homesickness that Shannon was going through. Everyone got it from time to time, especially on those starless nights when you found yourself huddled in your foxhole, dreaming away boredom.

  I dreamed of Tess. If I thought real hard, I could feel her, and hear her soft whisper telling me to come home to her. If only I could get the chance to see her again.

  “Wait, your name is Derek?” Beauregard asked, waking up from his slumber.

  Shannon sniggered in-between his sobs and smiled, “Yeah Beau, my name is Derek.”

  I placed a gauze pad over Carrigan’s wound and taped the edges.

  “Thanks, Colt.”

  Hayes sat with sunken shoulders. He balled his letter up and threw it to the ground.

  “Hayes?” I asked.

  “My Uncle’s dead,” he said.

  “I’m sorry, buddy.”

  “I’m not. I’m proud of all that he’s done. He died for the country he loved. We could all be so lucky. My mother sent me this,” he said, holding up a Bronze Star medal.

  I don’t know if it was the sheer weight of the fact that Hayes lost his uncle or that we came to appreciate that all of the stories he had told about him were true, but we all brooded in silence in respect for a fallen comrade.

  Hayes didn’t seem too upset. He was really never good at sharing his emotions. Besides, war had hardened him. As it did us all. It sounds awful to say, but if it didn’t affect us directly, we tended not to care.

  As an infantryman your world is what’s around you. It’s the holes you sleep in, the trees you take cover behind and the men around you, friend and foe alike. What happens three hundred miles away has no more importance than what happens ten miles down the road.

  It was nice to hear news from home and other fronts, but no words could help save us from the horrors we had to face every day. We had to do that ourselves.

  “Hey, Colton, come here for a second,” Alex said. He was looking at the letter in his hands.

  “What’s up?” I said, walking over.

  “There’s something in this letter for you.”

  “For me?”

  As I leaned in close to look at the letter, Alex grabbed me by my vest and kissed me on the cheek. He made sure to include an obnoxious suction noise.

  “Ah, what the hell?” I said, wiping my face.

  “That’s from my sister,” he said. Tess would send me well wishes through Alex’s letters, but never a kiss. At least she’s still thinking about me.

  “Whoa, hold up now. Your sister? Colton, say it aint so,” Hayes said, his normal personality snapping back into place.

  “What?”

  “You hooked up with Alex’s sister?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But you did, didn’t you? Admit it.”

  I could feel my face burning red with embarrassment. Everyone’s eyes were on me expecting an answer. I didn’t know if Alex knew or not. I didn’t want him mad at me.

  Hayes bounced up and down like a rabbit, a big white smile spread across his face. “Ooo wee, Colton, my man!” He said, slapping my butt. “Now, tell me something. She must be one fine piece of ass if you’re going to pass up that hunky man right there,” he said, indicating Alex.

  “I’ll bury you here in these woods if you talk about my sister like that again, Hayes,” Alex said.

  “Now hold up. Don’t get your panties in a wad. We all know about this special bond you and Colton have,” he said with air quotations. “And let’s face it, we’ve all seen you in the showers Alex. You’ve got the endowment of a Neanderthal. So, logically, I’m just curious as to why he’d give up such a handsome and gifted individual such as yourself for a young, tight...”

  “That’s it.” Alex charged Hayes. It was like watching some comical cat and mouse game as Hayes evaded capture by using trees and people as shields to keep Alex at bay.

  “Calm yourself, tiger. Why are you chasing me? Colton’s the one who slept with your sister,” Hayes said in-between fits of laughter.

  Now you’ve done it Hayes, you’re going to get me beat.

  Alex stopped his pursuit of Hayes and turned in my direction.

  “He is right,” he said, before going low to grapple my legs. I attempted to counter his move by wrapping my arms around his waist, but we both ended up on the ground in a tussle. I struggled to get the upper hand. I was too busy laughing.

  “Stand at attention!” Someone barked.

  With the order, Second Squad snapped to attention with arms flat to our sides. What was this? We hadn’t exactly followed proper military etiquette very much those past few weeks. Such things seemed so trivial in a combat zone.

  “Don’t you know you’r
e supposed to salute a superior officer?” Teague asked. What was he doing here? He’s supposed to be in Montgomery.

  He stood with his helmet underneath his arm, a shiny Lieutenants bar glistening on his lapel. Oddly, his uniform was not the traditional gray of a combat soldier. He wore a blue digital camo with coal black boots and vest. One thing was still the same; however, he still had his trademark arrogant smirk.

  “Sir, we don’t salute in the field. Enemy snipers are everywhere,” I said.

  He approached me and said, “We have the whole damn Ninth Infantry rolling down this road and you think a sniper is going to risk his life to plug one officer. When a superior officer is present, you salute him.”

  I was reluctant at first, but I saluted. His narcissism was pungent.

  “It appears to me that this unit is lacking in proper Army decorum,” he said, weaving through our ranks. “Improper usage of the combat uniform.” He was indicating Carrigan, who shed her shirt awhile back and settled for her tank top undershirt under her Kevlar vest.

  He inspected Junior’s rifle. “You have an ungodly amount of rust and dirt in the barrel of your weapon, Private Gammon.” Teague was loving this.

  “Instead of taking care of your equipment and keeping yourselves in top of the line order, I find you all lazing around reading love letters and playing a friendly game of grab ass,” he continued.

  “Sir, the Captain gave us permission to rest,” Alex said.

  “Is that so? Well, I’m giving you a new order Sergeant Redman. I want you to drop and give me fifty, all of you. Today’s the day we start molding you into professional soldiers and not a motley bunch of inbred state militiamen.”

  Unbelievable. I got into push up position and cranked out as many push-ups as I could muster in my exhausted state.

  Not only was Teague an asshole, he was an officer. We could do nothing but obey his commands, or we could find ourselves facing a court martial for disobeying an order. I wouldn’t hold that past him either.

  How did he get promoted so high in five weeks?

  “What in tarnation is going on over here?” asked Captain Elroy.

  “Captain, what kind of unit are you running here?” Teague asked.

  “Watch your tongue, Lieutenant. Squad, on your feet.” We got up.

  “Belay that order. Finish that fifty,” Teague ordered. We stayed standing. What is going on?

  “In what world do you think you’re living in, Lieutenant? This is my unit. You have no authority here,” Elroy said.

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Police up your unit, Captain, or else,” Teague said, shuffling away.

  “Sir, what was that all about?” Alex asked once Teague was out of earshot.

  How can Teague get away with talking back to the Captain like that? Something wasn’t right.

  “I don’t know Sergeant, but it’s nothing good.”

  Chapter 17

  May 21

  It had been drizzling all day. The swelling clouds rolled overhead and dusted us with a continuous mist.

  Despite the unfortunate weather, we made it to our jump off point on time. Our reconnaissance teams went out early in the morning and came back to report positive findings. Positive findings of what, I don’t know, but we were about to find out. Something big was coming.

  Captain Elroy summoned the entire company for a briefing. We huddled around him and made ourselves comfortable down on one knee.

  “You all know me. I’m not one to dance around the truth, so I’m going to tell you everything straight up. Savannah has been surrounded. Our forces could not stop the southern invasion.” The company erupted in agitated murmuring. “The city has been officially declared under siege. That does not sit well with General Gammon, who has stayed behind in the city to organize its defense. As we speak, the last elements of the Sixteenth Armored and 102nd Infantry Division are pulling back across the river and joining in the defense of the city.

  “Forward elements of the advancing Yankee Army have already been spotted on the northern banks of the Savannah River. To the east there is nothing but ocean and the Yankee Navy. To the south and to the west the Yankees have begun to dig in. They hope to contain the remaining remnants of our army within the city with as little of their forces as they can spare. They hope to bypass the city with the main bulk of their forces and move inland. That’s where we come in. The General wants us to break the siege. Lieutenant Teague will brief you on the details of our operation. Lieutenant.”

  Elroy ceded the stage to Teague, who relished in his newfound power. After some investigating and a couple calls to his upper-echelon contacts, Elroy discovered that Teague was planted in our unit as an attaché from the Confederate Legion.

  I remembered Alex’s father telling us about the Confederate Legion, the ambiguous sub branch of the Department of Defense. They had complete authority to carry out special missions within the country’s borders, whether they be legal, or clandestine. If the rumors were true, this elite unit only recruited the worst of the worst into its ranks, nitpicking the finest units of the army for the most ruthless, cutthroat, and die hard radicals they could find. Teague fit right in.

  Apparently, these paramilitary nut jobs had been showing up in units across the nation. The government was stationing them in units deemed impaired with a deficiency of quality leadership or the lack of clear set effort and motivation.

  Legionnaires were meant to bolster the fighting spirit of their men at arms. By increasing morale and stamping out defeatism in the ranks of its beleaguered armies, the government hoped to prolong the war. All they ended up accomplishing was exemplifying the President’s distrust in his own armed forces

  Teague’s eyes scanned the crowd as he spoke. “The Ninth is the nearest available unit outside of the city capable of assisting our besieged comrades. Command has drawn up a two-pronged rescue plan called Operation Arrow Head. The goal of this operation is to open up a salient in the enemy’s lines and allow our encircled forces within the city an avenue of escape. If all goes according to plan, we can get our men out of the city and be able to regroup further inland, giving us the opportunity to launch a massive counterattack against the enemy.” Teague’s optimism was hardly infectious.

  “Twenty miles separate us from our objective. It’s a long road and we have to cross a river to get there, but we can do it. Operation Arrow Head sets off tonight at 2300 hours. At precisely 2245, we will carry our rubberized inflatable boats to the riverbank. That gives us ample time to make sure everyone is in place before we launch.

  “Under the cover of darkness, we will paddle across the river and take the opposite bank. We will have to attack in waves, because we only have enough boats to carry two companies across at a time. Our primary objective is to take the I95 bridge intact. Advanced reconnaissance has revealed only a token force of Yankees in the area, so this should be a cake walk. Once we push across here, the entire Ninth Infantry will push southeast and fight our way into the city as heroes.”

  Echo Company did not take kindly to Teague since his arrival. Our distrust of him had turned into open resentment. His orders were often ignored and he himself was treated like he was invisible. Only when Captain Elroy would repeat the same order would the men spring into action. This only served to anger Teague even more and he’d always erupt in a fits of fury.

  Teague did have the political authority as a Legionnaire to overthrow Elroy’s leadership, but the one thing he didn’t have was the trust of the men. Without it, he didn’t stand a chance of gaining control of the company. He tried nonetheless and was in a constant tug-a-war match with Elroy for Echo.

  A hand rose from the ranks.

  “Yes, Corporal Hutchens?” Teague asked.

  “Define token force,” Danny Hutchens said. I couldn’t help but notice he did not say “sir.”

  “No more than a company sized element. We should sweep them up with no issues. Our biggest problem is th
e worsening weather. There’s a storm approaching from the northwest that will hit us early this evening. The rain and the darkness will inevitably cause a few hang-ups, but we should achieve complete surprise. If everything goes smoothly, which there is no reason it shouldn’t, we could be well on our way to Savannah by early morning. Once we play our hand, we have to move with haste. The enemy will do everything in their power to stop us. Go in fast and go in hard. Lives depend on it.”

  Lives depend on it? What a nut.

  “Echo Company dismissed,” Teague said, straightening his back and snapping his heels.

  Nobody moved. The expression of frustration on Teague’s face was priceless. Elroy stepped out from behind the pine tree he was leaning against.

  “Alright boys,” he said simply.

  Echo Company stood as one and faded away. We couldn’t stay huddled together for too long. Any longer and we would have been gambling with death. If the Yankees got wind of our meeting, a concentrated artillery strike could knock half the company out of commission.

  “Can you believe that joker? Six weeks out of Basic he gets a Lieutenant’s bar pinned on his collar and he thinks he’s the next Stonewall Jackson,” Hayes said.

  “Remember guys, it should be a cake walk,” Shannon mocked. “Can you believe he said that? What a slimeball. That man would call an alligator a lizard.”

  “Did you hear Hutchens ask him to define token force? He didn’t even respect Teague’s rank. That took guts,” Carrigan said.

  “You know, I’m always fumbling with my grenades. It’d be unfortunate if one should end up in Teague’s vicinity,” Junior said.

  “It’ll be dark. Nobody’d know,” Beauregard said.

  “Knock it off. Nobody’s fumbling with their grenades tonight. It is bad enough we have to fight the Yankees, but now we’re fighting amongst ourselves?” Alex said stiffly. “I don’t like him anymore than you do. You know that. I’m just not going to stoop to that level. Let fate run its course and maybe we’ll be rid of him sooner than you think. For right now, let’s worry about this operation.”