by James Rosone
*******
An hour later, SFC Childers led his platoon down the stairs in the back room of that mafia-run bar to the basement. When they reached the basement, a crusty older man (probably the owner) was there to greet them.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” he said in thickly-accented English, a smile broadly gleaming on his face. As he flashed his teeth, the group saw that one of his front incisors had been boldly covered in gold. The man’s arms were covered in tattoos from his wrist to the elbow, where his sleeves had been rolled up. It was obvious without asking that he was a member of the Ukrainian mafia. Under any other circumstances, meeting this man would have been extremely dangerous, but since he hated the Russian military as much or more than they did, today he was a friend.
Without being told, he guided them down the dark, damp passageway, and began to lead them through it. After what felt like an hour (but was probably no more than ten or fifteen minutes), they made it to the end of the tunnel, which began to lead up to another door.
The old man told them, “The exit leads to the basement of another mafia-run bar. Hopefully, it will be empty.”
Childers calmly directed the man, “Please step aside, Sir. We will need to clear the room.”
He passed the word to the soldiers behind him to turn their flashlights off and get their night vision goggles on. They would start to use light discipline now that they were going to enter an unknown building. Childers reached down and grabbed the six-inch knife he carried on the side of his right leg, near his pistol holster. He slowly opened the door and began to look inside the room. As he panned from left to right, he saw that the room was indeed empty. He let out a short sigh of relief.
“We’re clear,” he announced, and then he signaled with his hands to let the others still in the tunnel know it was safe to start entering the room.
As the soldiers began to empty out of the tunnel, he used hand signals to direct several of them to follow him up the stairs to clear the ground floor and see where they were at.
When they got to the ground floor, the men systematically cleared the various rooms in the bar, cautiously making sure there were no signs of Russian soldiers. All they found were piles of broken and empty beer and vodka bottles.
“The Russians have definitely been here,” said Childers, “but it looks like they have cleaned the place out of whatever it was that they were looking for.”
While one of his soldiers went downstairs to let the others know it was safe to come up, Luke carefully peered outside one of the windows near the entrance. About two blocks away, near the entrance of the intersection, he spotted what appeared to be a Russian tank. He wasn’t sure what type of tank, but he could clearly make out the turret and the barrel. Looking above the tank, in the windows of the buildings adjacent to the intersection, Childers saw that several balconies had been piled high with sandbags and then topped with heavy machine guns. Those spots would make fairly effective makeshift machine gun bunkers; they had excellent fields of fire, protecting each other and the tank below them.
“Those guns will need to be taken out before we attack that tank,” Childers realized.
“Sergeant, what do you have for me?” asked Lieutenant Taylor as he approached Luke.
Childers signaled for them to walk away from the window before he spoke. “Down the block at the corner, there is a tank. There may be another armored vehicle, but I can’t fully see it from this vantage point. What I could definitely make out though are the machine gun bunkers on the balconies of the apartments that overlook that intersection. We are going to need to take out those gun emplacements before we disable that tank.”
As they were talking, the ground floor of the bar was starting to fill up with soldiers coming up from the tunnel in the basement. Major Graham was among the soldiers exiting the basement; he immediately walked over to Lt. Taylor and SFC Childers, who brought him up to speed on what they saw outside the building and down the street.
“I assume you have a plan to deal with those machine gun positions,” Major Graham asserted, looking pointedly at Childers.
Sergeant Childers shot him a devilish grin. “When does a Ranger not have a plan?” he snickered, causing the others to let out a soft laugh. The comment cut through the palpable tension in the air, at least a little bit.
After a brief pause, Major Graham replied, “All right, Childers…so, what is it?”
“I’m going to take Sgt. Crockett, Specialist Duncan, and Specialist Cross with me to disable those guns.” He pulled out a map, and began pointing to where they were. “We’ll use the alleyway behind us to sneak up to this building here, right at the corner. The backs of these buildings all have water drainpipes that come down from the roof above. We are going to scale up the side of one of these buildings here, and gain entry over here.”
“Once inside, we’ll make our way to the first machine gun position. We’ll take them out silently, and then move into position to hit the others. I want two of the guys coming with me to have M203s. When the time comes, they will fire them directly across the intersection into the other gun positions and take them out. The third guy needs to be carrying one of the AT4s. He’ll be able to lean over the edge of the balcony and hit that tank from the top, where the armor is weakest. We won’t have much time, but we shouldn’t need it if we hit all these positions at once,” Sergeant Childers finished explaining.
Several of the soldiers around him nodded their heads in approval. They knew if anyone could pull this off, it would be Sergeant Childers. The guy had more combat experience than anyone in their regiment.
Thinking about the plan for a second, Graham smiled and nodded in approval. “It’s bold; I’ll give you that. I think it just might work. Get your crew ready and stand by. We need to figure out what we are going to do about these other two blocks before you guys head out. We need to try and sync this attack as much as possible. Once the shooting starts, all hell is going to break loose and we need to make sure we hit these guys hard right off the bat,” the Major said, giving Childers the green light.
“That Sergeant is crazy,” thought Major Graham. “However, if he can pull this off, I’m putting him in for one heck of a medal.” He didn’t linger long, but instead rushed off to get the other attacks organized.
*******
Thirty minutes later, the ground floor of the bar was really becoming packed. A lot of soldiers had filtered through the tunnel and many more were still waiting below ground.
“Luke, you want me to come with you on this mission?” asked Lt. Taylor, using Childers’ first name for the first time in a few weeks.
Luke looked up at the young lieutenant; he could see genuine concern on his face about this mission.
“The fact that he is offering to come with me on this dangerous mission tells me that he has grown up a lot as an infantry officer; he is willing to put himself in harm’s way so one of his soldiers won’t have to,” Childers’ thought. “He’s also got a baby and a wife to go home to…”
“No, Sir. I think it would be best for you to stay here with the rest of the platoon. Once you hear the fireworks, get to the corner and secure it quickly. We’ll do what we can to cover you from above in the gun position,” he told his platoon leader, entrusting him with just as important of a task as the one he was about to head out on.
Luke turned to look at the three other soldiers that would be proceeding on the mission with him--a sergeant he barely knew from a different platoon and two specialists that he trusted completely. The sergeant would be carrying the AT4 with him while the two specialists had swapped out their M4s with two other soldiers, so that their M4s would be equipped with M203 grenade launchers underneath the barrel. They had each pocketed three additional grenade rounds in their cargo pants, in case they needed more than the one shot.
“OK, let’s head out. It’s time,” he announced to his little three-man team. They quickly followed him into the alleyway behind the bar. Several other small attack teams also fi
ltered out into the alleyway, heading to their own objectives. So far, no Russian soldiers had patrolled the streets nearby or managed to spot them. Major Graham had placed a couple of sentries near the exits of the alleyways, equipped with silencers for their M4s. Those were few and far between, but if they needed to use them, they would.
“I wish we had extra silencers. I sure could use them on this little mission,” Childers thought to himself as he approached the guards. Luke shrugged and continued to lead his small team to the end of the alleyway, next to the sentry that was keeping watch.
“Spotted anything recently?” he inquired.
“Nothing, Sergeant. Everything looks clear. I’ve been watching this spot for nearly thirty minutes. I haven’t seen anyone moving around, and I haven’t spotted anything suspicious in any of the windows or down either end of the street,” the soldier replied. This was definitely good news.
As they prepared to cross the street to hustle into the next alleyway, a soft mist started to fall. Then, the sky broke open and the air was filled with the percussion of many large raindrops falling.
“I’ve never been so happy to see rain in my life,” thought Sergeant Childers. “This will help to cover any noise we may make while we move into position.”
Luke looked back at his team and signaled for them to follow him across the street. One by one, they quickly made their way to the darkened alley. Once there, they moved slowly and cautiously along the back edge of the buildings, until they were at the other end of the alleyway near the next street. It only took them a few minutes to reach the targeted building.
Childers looked up and saw what he was looking for--the pipe that allowed the water from the roof to drain down to the alleyway below. He grabbed the pipe and gave it a slight wobble, then a harder shake. He smiled, adequately satisfied that the structure was firmly attached to the wall of the building.
He let his rifle hang by its sling, and pushed it behind his body so it wouldn’t brush against the wall of the building. Then he grabbed the metal pipe, and positioned one of his legs against the indent in the wall. Slowly, he began to scale the wall. As he reached the top of the patio that opened into the alleyway, he slowly began to lift his head above it to see if anyone was visible. When he didn’t see anyone, he turned to check the window of the room behind the patio. As Childers confirmed that the coast was clear, he hoisted himself the rest of the way up, slowly crawling over the patio wall until his feet were once again on solid ground.
Luke unhooked the rope he had brought with him, tied it off and let it drop to the others below. They used the rope and the metal pipe to climb up to the patio to join him. As Specialist Cross made it over the patio wall, he quietly told him, “I’m going to go into the building and start to clear the first room. I want you to wait for me to come back and let you know it’s safe to go inside.”
The young soldier just nodded and went back to helping his comrades get onto the patio.
Luke reached down and grabbed his knife with his right hand. He left his M4 slung behind him as he slowly opened the patio door. “Thank God, it’s unlocked,” he thought as the handle turned and he entered the building.
With his night vision goggles still on, he could clearly see that he was in the kitchen. He slowly moved to a hallway and peered into it. He saw there where two rooms down one end of the hallway, along with a bathroom. Down the other end, it looked like the door opened into a living room, which would probably lead him to the front balcony where the gun position was.
Childers turned back to the patio and gestured for the other soldiers to enter the kitchen with him, slowly and quietly. They did as instructed and waited. He signaled for Sergeant Crockett and one of the specialists to head down one direction of the hallway and see if it was clear. If they found any Russian soldiers in the rooms, they were to do their best to kill them silently, with their knives. He and Specialist Duncan would move towards the living room.
Luke slowly moved down the hallway until he reached the entrance to the living room. As soon as he could see inside the door, he stopped dead in his tracks. Nearly two feet away was a recliner chair with a Russian soldier sleeping in it. He signaled for Specialist Duncan to stay put for the moment.
Sergeant Childers slowly and quietly tiptoed towards the slumbering enemy combatant. He moved his left hand to cover the soldier’s mouth while he moved his knife into position. In one swift motion, his hand grabbed the Russian soldier’s mouth as he pushed his blade right through the side of the soldier’s neck, directly into his throat. Blood instantly gushed through Luke’s fingers. The well-muscled man tried to fight briefly, making a gurgling sound when he tried to scream, until Luke twisted the knife in the soldier’s neck, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly.
Childers withdrew his knife and began to move away from the now lifeless soldier. Just as he was about to stand back up and begin to move deeper into the living room, a Russian soldier walked into the room from where the balcony must have been. As he spotted his friend, covered in blood and an American soldier half-crouched, half standing, with a large knife in his hand, the Russian managed to shout one word before SFC Childers’ knife flew across the room and hit him in the upper chest, just below his throat. The soldier instantly collapsed backwards to the floor from the shock of impact.
Luke sprang to his feet and rushed over to the Russian before he could get up. He jerked his knife out of the man’s chest with one hand while placing his other over the enemy soldier’s mouth before he could say another word. He quickly stabbed the fighter several more times with his knife, until he could feel the life drain from him.
Specialist Duncan became concerned when he heard the second man yell, and rushed into the room just as Childers was finishing off the second soldier. He was momentarily stunned as he realized that Luke had just killed the two Russians in front of him with his knife.
Just as Duncan began to move towards Luke (who was now on his knees), another Russian soldier walked into the room to find out what was going on, and immediately spotted Specialist Duncan. The Russian moved faster than Childers could, and he fired a quick burst from his AK-74, right into Duncan’s chest, who fell backwards and slumped to the floor, dead before he knew what had happened him.
This third Russian soldier had not initially seen Luke, until he lunged at him, plunging his knife deep into the man’s sternum. Luke pushed the man to the wall and stabbed him three more times in quick succession.
Sergeant Crockett and Specialist Cross came running into the room when they heard the gunfire. “Toss me Duncan’s rifle!” Childers yelled to them as he looked into the room that led to the patio. Luke turned back just in time to catch Duncan’s M4 with the grenade launcher, and ran into the next room, yelling at Crockett and Cross to follow and take out the machine gun positions on the opposite sides of the street corner.
Luke covered the short distance through the room to the balcony, just as another Russian was about to enter. He fired several quick shots into the man’s chest, then pushed him through the entrance and right over the balcony. As Luke entered the balcony, he saw several shocked Russian soldiers across the street on the other balconies, which were also manning a machine gun position. He took quick aim with the M203 and fired the high explosive fragmentation grenade right into the first gun position, not more than 100 feet away.
As the blast exploded, Specialist Cross made it onto the balcony with Childers and fired his M203 at another machine gun position, killing the soldiers who had been manning that stronghold as well.
Just as the soldiers in the third balcony began to turn their heavy machine on Sergeant Childers, Luke grabbed the machine gun that had been sitting on the sandbag position in front of him and fired a quick burst from the gun into them, killing the two Russian soldiers instantly. He then took aim at the walls and room behind them and fired a long string of bullets into the area, ensuring he had killed anyone else who might be available to take over firing that machine gun.
Luke turned the machine gun on the Russian and riddled him with bullets. “Grab the AT4 and take that tank out!” yelled Luke to Specialist Cross.
The young soldier ran to Crockett’s now lifeless body and grabbed the AT4 from him. He aimed at the tank below and squeezed the trigger. The rocket leapt from the launcher and hit the top of the turret less than forty feet below, blowing a small hole through it into the compartment below. In less than a second, the tank rounds inside the turret began to cook off, causing a much larger explosion. A piece of shrapnel flew back and hit Cross in his left shoulder, knocking him to the ground.
While the chaos was unfolding around them, the rest of Childers’ platoon was now moving down the street heading towards them, engaging Russian soldiers along the way as they saw them. Then, several Russians began to pour out of one of the buildings not far from his platoon. Within moments, they had managed to pin down Lt. Taylor and his men. Luke turned the heavy machine gun and began to open fire on the backs of the Russian soldiers below, killing many of them outright.
Luke looked back to the road in front of them when Cross pointed to more enemy soldiers. He quickly turned the machine gun loose on them as well, cutting many of them down before they realized that one of their gun positions had been compromised.
“Cross, get me more ammo,” ordered Childers with a sense of urgency. “We need to keep providing covering fire for the rest of the platoon.”
As Specialist Cross was grabbing an ammo can near the edge of the balcony, a hand grenade flew towards them. Without thinking, Sergeant Childers grabbed his M4 that was still slung behind him and swung it towards the grenade like a baseball bat. He hit the grenade, sending it flying away from the balcony; in seconds, it exploded over the center of the street crossing. A piece of hot shrapnel hit Luke on the side of his cheek and his left arm, knocking him to the ground briefly.