Logan was watching him, too. “I’m not sure I believe what I just saw.”
At the top of the hill, Rock looked westward down the sloping hill at the pieces of aircraft around him. What was left of the fuselage impacted less then twenty yards from where he stood. Fire, debris, and smoke surrounded him. He couldn’t move. His legs shook, and the adrenaline flowed, but the real hero seemed unconcerned. He easily and smoothly walked down the hill toward his beloved Marie. He didn’t even seem to notice the plane that exploded behind him.
Nancy could hold herself back no longer. She ran up the hill, threw her arms around Rock, and kissed him. “You were so brave!”
Rock was still shaken and had not yet returned to his cold hard self. “Just part of the job, ma’am.” He gave her the slightest hint of a smile.
Taylor was still kneeling behind the far truck when he heard the shouting and cheering from the passengers and soldiers. He had greatly underestimated the resourcefulness of this man. Then he realized that his pants were wet.
Taylor quickly composed himself and went over to Rob. Once there, he waited impatiently for Rob and Marie to separate from their embrace. Finally, he had to interrupt. “Sir, it is a certainty that our location was radioed in before those planes began their attack.”
Rob nodded. “Prepare to leave immediately, Captain.”
Taylor turned to leave, then stopped and turned back to face Rob. “Sir, I just want to congratulate you on those shots. They were... very good.”
“Thank you, Captain. I guess I was pretty lucky.”
Taylor knew it was more than luck. Now he knew what he had only suspected before: he was in the company of a truly extraordinary man.
Meymhadid Chasm
Diyala Territory, Iraq
The convoy left the cove and headed north. Rock commanded the hummer that roamed ahead, scouting the area. He stopped his hummer at the mouth of a very deep chasm extending from east to west. Caused from erosion, probably the result of flash flooding, the chasm was about a hundred feet deep and fifty feet across. They could not cross without a bridge.
Rock studied the map. “This must be what this gray area. It goes all the way across the map. The only way north is to cross it somehow.” He looked up to study the rocky barrier. “There’s gotta be a bridge somewhere, even if it’s not marked on the map.” He folded the map and motioned to his men. “Let’s head back and see what the colonel has in mind.”
He turned east and followed the chasm back to the convoy, searching for a way to cross it. The map he carried indicated a gap in a huge ditch about a hundred fifty miles to the east. But since it was near a very populated area, it would probably not be a good idea to go around it in that direction. Each minute they drove, they got closer and closer to the convoy.
Rock turned to the sergeant sitting next to him. “Did you hear something?”
“What do you mean?”
“A pop... or explosion?”
“No, nothing.”
“Well, I’m sure I heard something.” He stopped the truck and turned off the engine. Rock stood beside his hummer near the edge of the ravine and looked through his binoculars in the convoy’s direction. “I see lots of smoke coming from the rock.”
Another Marine standing on the opposite side of the hummer was studying something else further ahead of them in the chasm. “Rock, look over there.”
Rock focused his binoculars in the same direction. “It looks like part of a bridge.”
“Yeah, it comes out but just doesn’t look like it’s finished.”
Rock turned his glasses back in the direction of the rocks and noticed something new. “I see the convoy coming out of the rock, and they’re headed this way. I think we’d better get moving and find out what’s going on.”
The convoy had stumbled onto a small dirt trail that was taking them directly toward the chasm in the direction of the bridge Rock had been studying. Behind them, a powerful Armor company was in pursuit. They had to find a way to lose that Armor company, or they would be easily destroyed.
Rock arrived at the bridge slightly ahead of the convoy and stepped out of the hummer to examine it. It was a large metal structure completely covered in rust. It appeared to be very old, bolted to a large cement foundation on the other side of the chasm and extending out over the chasm about one third of the way. On the side where Rock stood, a large cement ramp that sloped upward extending about two feet over the edge.
Rock studied the structure carefully. Though he had never seen any bridge quite like it, he knew how it worked. The convoy had arrived, and several figures were approaching him: Rob, Taylor, and Logan.
Logan spoke first. “What we have here is an extension bridge.”
“Very good. That was my guess, also.” Rock was impressed.
“How does it work?” asked Rob.
Logan paced back and forth in front of the bridge. “I’ve never seen one of these, but I’ve read about them. They were originally used in known flash-flood areas so they could be retracted in flood conditions. The designers intended the bridges to be retracted when flooding would damage conventional bridges. However, no one was ever around during flooding, and often, when a flood was over, they forgot to extend them back. Much like what we have here.”
“Well, whatever we’re gonna do, we’d better do it fast.” Rob looked back in the direction from which they had just come. “The road we blocked won’t stay that way forever.” He turned to Taylor. “How long would it take us to let someone over the bridge and climb up the other side?”
“At least an hour...”
As Rob and Taylor continued to discuss the mechanics of the job, Logan’s attention drifted back to the bridge. Something was wrong. Something about the bridge was missing. Then he saw it. Logan interrupted Taylor in mid-sentence. “Time is not the only problem. Look at the bottom of the bridge.” He pointed. “See the metal arms like girders that project down on either side? Those are for the hydraulic cylinders designed to extend and retract the bridge.”
Rob and Taylor looked at the bridge, then back at Logan, puzzled.
“What I’m trying to say is that even if you get someone over to the other side, you’re still faced with the problem of how to extend it. Without the hydraulic cylinders, it’s not going to budge.”
Rob looked at the bridge. “What if we use the winch? We hook a cable onto it and pull it over to us?”
Logan looked frustrated. “Like the Captain said, it would take an hour to get over there. But that’s not the only concern. To have someone take the cable down and then up the other side would take a cable length twice the distance across.”
“I think I see what you’re saying.” Taylor looked over the side of the cliff. “There’s not enough cable in the wench to have someone climb down and take it diagonally across the base of this ravine.”
“You got it.”
Rock waved his hand, motioning silence as he peered through his binoculars into the distance. “I see a jeep and a truck.”
“We have to split up and make a run for it!” Taylor cried.
“What’s with you?” Rob stopped him. “You’re always quick to sacrifice the others to save your lousy hide. We’re not splitting up, and we’re not making a run for it!”
Taylor stood speechless, his mouth open slightly.
Logan stepped forward. “What do you have in mind?”
“Rock!” Rob turned to look in the direction of the coming trucks. “Let all the cable from the winch of this hummer.” Rob pointed to Rock’s hummer parked beside the ramp and walked toward his own hummer.
Logan trotted up alongside Rob as he hurried away. “What are your intentions, Colonel?”
Rob stopped and turned toward Logan, visibly irritated. “Look, I can’t explain now! There isn’t time!” Then he shouted to Rock, “Hurry! I need you here!”
Logan took Rob’s arm and spoke intensely, “Listen, Colonel, I know what you’re thinking, but it won’t work.”
“And just what is that?”
“You’re planning on sacrificing one of the hummers...”
“Go on.”
“You’re planning on taking the cable of the other hummer and somehow using this hummer to jump the canyon so that you can pull the bridge over here.”
Rock walked up in time to hear the last part of Logan’s statement. “You’re going to what?”
“You heard the plan. You’re going to drive me in this hummer as fast as you can toward the ramp. Just before we go over the edge, someone will toss me the cable from the winch of the other hummer, and you’re going to jump out. The hummer flies out over the edge, and I hook the bridge. Then you pull the bridge back with the winch.”
“And just where are you going to be?”
“On the hood.”
“The what?”
“The hood! I’ll be on the hood! Now, we don’t have a lot of time, so let’s move!”
Logan was visibly disturbed and leaned close to Rob. “Think this through, Colonel. Forget about the fact that you’re asking Rock to jump out of a vehicle traveling close to sixty miles per hour and think about yourself. You’re going to grab the bottom side of the bridge traveling at that speed? Have you ever tried to grab ahold of an object moving past you at that speed and hang on to it? About the only thing you’d get is a broken arm! What’s more likely to happen here is that you’re going fly face first, sixty miles per hour, into the side of that cliff on the other side. You’ll be dead, and we’ll be trapped.”
“I’m certainly open to alternatives. It’s not like I’m looking forward to this.”
Logan opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it and shook his head.
“That’s what I thought.” He turned to Rock. “Who’s your best pitcher?”
“I haven’t a clue.”
“Pick somebody.”
Rock hurried away as Rob turned again to look at the chasm he had to cross. Logan was right, it was impossible to grab that bridge at that speed. But Rob knew that he didn’t have to catch it, nor even survive as long as he could hook it with the cable. The cable would stay connected even if he couldn’t hang on, and that was really all that mattered.
He turned back to the hummer to see Taylor and the other Marines positioning the anti-tank and machine gun truck for a last ditch stand in case he wasn’t successful. Their backs were against the wall and any minute the tanks would flow out of the distant rocks and fire at them.
Rob reached into the hummer, pulled out a poncho, and ripped it into strips. “Let’s go!” he heard Rock shout as he stepped up onto the front bumper.
His heart raced, and his mouth became dry as he glanced at the chasm in front of him. “Let’s go before I lose my nerve!” With that, the hummer started backing up to get a running start.
Marie let herself down from the truck to see what new kind of trouble her husband was getting himself into. Nancy, who had quickly become her best friend, was accompanying her. Though they could not see any trouble, they could tell from all the activity that danger was very near. Marines were busy everywhere digging foxholes and arranging trucks.
Rob has to be getting himself into trouble somewhere, she told herself. Within minutes of her search, she found Logan. He came walking straight up to her with the same look on his face that she had now learn to read as a “Rob alarm.”
“No, not again,” she said, shaking her head. “What is he doing now!”
“Let’s go back to the truck. It’ll be safer there.”
“From what?”
“We’ll be under attack soon from an Iraqi Armor company.”
“Where’s Rob?”
“He’s busy.”
“Yes, I know he’s busy. He’s always busy with you guys, but what’s he doing? What kind of trouble is he into now?”
“Marie, just come with me.”
But just then, Marie saw Rob in the distance, standing on the bumper of one of the hummers as it was backing away from their position. “What’s he doing?”
“The only thing that can be done. He’s trying to save us.”
Rob carefully wrapped the strands of canvas around the palms of his hands. The enemy trucks had still not arrived, telling him that their armored vehicles were having trouble getting through the pass. “Just give us a few minutes longer,” he whispered.
Logan was right, as he always seemed to be. Catching the crossbars under the bridge while flying through the air at sixty miles an hour would be like trying to catch a baseball bat that someone was swinging as hard as they could. Even if he could hang on, both arms would probably be jerked out of their sockets in the process. He could only hope that he could hook the bar before he flew into the side of the cliff.
But that wasn’t the only problem. The metal bars under the bridge were at least seventy-five feet from his side of the cliff. At best, the hummer could go up to about sixty miles per hour. Even with the added lift of the ramp, they would fall short of the bridge on the other side. His only hope was to get on the hood of the hummer and jump up just after leaving the ramp. Hopefully the extra push could give him the height he needed.
And then there was the cable. The Marine standing by the ramp would have to have perfect timing when he tosses the cable. Rob would have to catch the cable, and within one second, raise and rotate the hook to catch the crossbar. He knew it was most likely he would never live to know if he was successful.
The hummer stopped, and Rob looked back at Rock. “You make sure to jump before we get to the ramp, Sergeant.”
Rock nodded.
The hummer started moving forward. Rob sat down on the hood with one foot on the bumper and the other up on the hood and tried to hang on. The hummer rushed forward faster and faster. He could feel his heart throbbing as he tried to catch his breath and hang on to the hummer.
The wind blasted his face as the hummer bounced forward. Then, just before the ramp rushed up on him, he caught a glance of Marie off to the side. She was standing with their children, Logan, and Nancy. Their faces looked shocked.
I never said good-bye, he thought. Then he looked forward again, putting his full attention toward what he was about to do. The hummer was leaping up the ramp. He pulled his other foot up onto the hood and started to jump.
Suddenly, the cable hook appeared in front of him. He grabbed it with both hands as the hummer became . He jumped hard upward, aware that his hands, though padded, still stung from catching the hook. In that brief moment, he was aware of the bridge flying toward him at an incredible speed, the hummer falling away below him, and the shouts of the Marines behind him.
Rob twisted the hook of the cable forward and raised it above his head. He was only airborne for a few seconds, but in that brief moment, he was aware of so much. The wind blasting him in the face, making it nearly impossible to see. The people shouting behind him. He seemed to be suspended in mid-air as he noticed the ground so very far below him. His attention refocused as the metal bar nicked the top of the hook and did not catch. The second bar rushed in, barely giving him time to react. He stretched out his arms as far as possible as the hook slapped and caught the bar. His hands tightened around the cable as it shot through, and even with the layers of canvas wrapped tightly around his palms, his hands burned as if on fire.
The hummer, almost ten feet below, flew forward and crashed into the cliff, bursting into flames. He gritted his teeth and groaned loudly from the pain, hanging onto the cable with all his strength.
The cable finally tightened, and he felt the ligaments strain in his arms as he strived to hang on. His feet flew past him and struck the cliff ahead of him. He slowly swung back to the center of the canyon, still hanging on to the cable. He hadn’t counted on this. He was hanging onto the cable with strained arms and burned hands that felt like they were broken, dangling a hundred feet in the air.
Rock was unconscious from his jump out of the hummer, lying beside the ramp. No one seemed to know just what to do. Or maybe they were all sti
ll in shock. Maybe it was because no one actually believed he could do it, much less survive the doing.
Finally, Taylor and Logan reacted almost in harmony. Taylor leaped from the truck, shouting at the Marine closest to the hummer to tighten the winch. Logan ran forward, shouting at the same Marine to back up the hummer. The Marine momentarily froze as he heard the conflicting orders. Then he did as Taylor ordered and went for the winch.
Rob felt the cable tighten in his hands. He looked toward the ramp to see a Marine cranking in the wench. He didn’t have enough strength to shout at him to stop or even shake his head. There wouldn’t be enough horse power in the wench to pull the bridge across. They would have to lock it and use the hummer to pull it.
Ron Schwartz - The Griffins Heart.txt Page 17