Nightmares

by Stephen Brandon

  With a smile the sarge knelt and drew a rough map of the area. It showed us attacking at a 45 degree angle against both ends of the enemy line about a quarter of the way in from both. Then he said, “We will move into position and each of you will take a single target from the ends toward the center. When everyone is in position we'll all fire at the same time. After that first volley pick your targets until none of them are left. Then I'll make contact with the soldiers inside the motor pool. Move out.” It took us almost an hour to get into position.

  We were stretched out and sighted in when the sarge fired from the far right end of our line. Almost instantly everyone else fired. Half the enemy line was down before they realized we were behind them. Then they broke and ran, although that didn't help them. We didn't find any live ones as we advanced to take up their position. Then the sarge yelled across the road, “We're US Army, send out someone to verify us so we can come in.”

  A couple of dozen soldiers stood up behind vehicles and started cheering. One yelled, come on in, the gate is just pushed shut.

  Looking at me the sarge said, “Take five guys and verify they're our guys and then find out what happened.”

  I pointed at 5 guys and started forward. Suddenly two of the guys stopped and the shrimp and my company clerk Kathy took their places. We approached the gate and two guys jumped up and dragged it open. As soon as we were through they pushed it closed. One of them said the sarge is in the conex, but he's shot up. I looked at the corporal and said, “Lets see some ID and then lead the way.”

  He pulled out his dog tags and showed them to me. When I said, military ID card he turned and called one of the other soldiers over. Show them your military ID he ordered. The specialist pulled out his ID and showed it to me and I showed mine to them. Then I said, “Can't be to careful, they've already tried to infiltrate us once. Can you vouch for everyone here.”

  I could see the realization hit him. He turned and said, “Take six guys and disarm the two newbies at the front gate and march them back here. Anyone not from the company disarm and bring back to the conex. Tell Jones to take a few guys and sweep the motor pool and round up anyone not from our company. Now SP5, if you'll follow me I'll lead you to the sarge.”

  Over my shoulder I said, “One of you guys get back to the sarge and inform him of the situation here and prepare for a firefight to get out of here. Also scouts out a few hundred yards including the ridge.”

  As we entered the conex I heard, “Kenric what are you doing here. I saw you get in a truck for Belton.” Turning I saw my First Sergeant. He was covered with blood from the waist down.

  I replied, “We were ambushed this side and had to return. 32 survivors out of the four trucks. We now number 30.

  After spitting blood on the floor he said, “Corporal, Kenric will be ranking man here shortly. Bust open the deployment conex and load as many MRE and all the water those mules can carry. Don't forget a few cans of fuel. Take our guys out of here. Kenric, I suggest you head up east range road and pick the best range you find to defend. Get the corporal to get a few radios out of the deployment conex and then burn everything on the way out. Don't waste time or wait for me to die, I'm entrusting these soldier to your hands.” Then he started coughing up more blood.

  The medic looked at me and said, “Nothing more I can do for him. What do you want me to do.”

  “Grab all the medical supplies you can carry and load them on the mules. We leave in fifteen minutes. Inform the corporal send the supplies out as they are loaded.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The motor pool

  When I got back outside to the sarge he took one look at me and started laughing.

  When I asked why, he replied, “I haven't seen a mule since a few years after Vietnam. The first one I saw was loaded with ammo at NTC. I was told those little four wheeled platforms were used at forward post to move supplies to heavy to carry. In case these guys don't know, they can ride using the controls on the front or dismount them and crawl alongside and use the mule and cargo for cover from small arms fire. After we get up the road, we'll find out if these guys know how to use them and teach everyone else. By the way, one of the guys from the motor pool mentioned that your First Sergeant gave you some instructions before he died.”

  “Yup, he said move up east range road and find a range that we could defend and stay at until everything shakes out. There were forty three soldiers to begin with in the motor pool. Five of those were infiltrators and dealt with by the corporal's men. We also now have three more women. Two were personnel clerks and the other was a nurse. I think it best to divide everyone into three platoons and move out within the hour.”

  The first night I put my original personnel out on perimeter to guard and had all the motor pool soldiers gather in. I put the corporal in charge of one platoon and my SP5 mechanic in charge of the third. The third platoon consisted of all the mechanic's and women. Then I informed them all of the disciplinary action that I'd had to enforce on our way back from Belton. I also added the warning that until we had a secure location and somewhere to secure prisoners we would be taking no prisoners.

  The sarge then stood up and confirmed my statements and stated that he would pull the trigger on anyone that didn't obey. He also offered to let anyone that wanted to leave have a days rations and five magazines of ammo. They could leave in the morning and would not be allowed to return.

  The next morning no one wanted to leave. It took us two days to reach the bridge. The stream was low so I had the corporal divide his platoon in half. I told him to take half east and cross then come back to the ridge overlooking the road and set up a fighting position. He picked another corporal and I told him to take the rest of the platoon west and do the same. We'd wait until they were in position and then we'd cross the bridge with the supplies and rest of the personnel. If they found anyone out there, disarm them first and then verify that they were soldiers. Also keep them under guard until we can verify that they are soldiers and tell them the rules. Also if they were fired upon they should try one time to make contact with the persons firing on them. If they aren't friendly, kill them and confiscate their weapons and ammo along with any ID's, maps, or other paperwork they have on them. Our radio operators back here will be one of the clerks. If you run into any problems you can't handle with your squad, call back and we'll send reinforcements. OK corporal's, if you ain't got any questions, brief your squads and move out after you've fed your men.

  Six hours later we crossed the bridge divided up in groups of four. Most of the groups had a mule and they continued up the road until reaching the top of the ridge and moved off to the right side and set up a perimeter. That evening we made a cold camp. We had the high ground and good visibility. We also had four prisoners. Three were soldiers and one was a civilian.

  She was the only one armed and it was a small pistol with only three rounds left. She claimed that she was going to meet her husband to go camping when attacked on the highway. After turning down a side road she ended up crashing her car into a fence. She claimed she grabbed the camping gear they'd packed and ran for five days. She was terrified because she'd seen several people dead and she thought there was someone following her until she ran into the soldiers.

  The three soldiers stated that they were on their way back to main post when they were ambushed. They crashed after being shot at, escaped, and ran. They claimed that no one followed them and last night they'd heard someone crying. They found her in a dry creek bed hung up in some brush unable to get free.

  After asking her if they'd acted in any manner that was inappropriate she answered that they'd been polite except that they'd taken all the food she had left and eaten it.

  I laughed and then informed all four of them the situation that we'd found in Belton, our trip back to Ft. Hood, and gave them the option of following our rules or taking off on their own.
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br />   They all said they wanted to stay. I put them under guard and told them I wanted their final decision in the morning.

  In the morning I pointed out the directions they could go to get to main post, off post toward Temple, and finally north toward Gatesville. None wanted to leave so I told the corporal to get them gear and arm them. I took the civilian woman back to sarge's platoon. The SP5 mechanic in charge assigned her to one of the clerks and assigned her duties.

  Two days later we found a range that we considered defensible with an intact tower off the road. We found three burned cars in the employee parking lot and when we found the bodies we buried them. I picked the mover bunker furthest from the road and had it set up as our headquarters. Our makeshift commo section managed to rewire some things so we had field phone contact between all the bunkers and the tower. Even with the backhoe we located it took over a week to set everything up to our satisfaction. We had the tower just inside our perimeter, and three trench systems with foxhole outpost.

  Then we started sending out patrols to scrounge equipment and supplies from the ranges further north. We only found one more soldier and he was wounded. When the first patrol got to north FH they found plenty of bodies and one intact mess hall. They hot-wired two pickups and brought back all the rations they could carry.

  The sarge wanted to organize an expedition to the north FH motor pool and attempt to get some fighting vehicles plus a few trucks.

  My only objection was that we'd need to take most of our personnel just to do a proper job and have a group for security. I then asked him where we could get ammunition for the fighting vehicles. Also what would we do if we found a lot of dependents and civilians?

  He commented if we had the vehicles, then we could make a raid on the ammunition dump on main post. Dependents and civilians we'd deal with if we find them alive.

  ~ ~ ~

  First Blood

  Three days later we had our plan for raiding the North Fort Hood motor pools. That's when the commo section sent a runner to get me and the sergeant. The runner told us that they had contact with another unit over the radio, but told them they would not give any information until our NCOIC was present.

  When we arrived I picked up the headset and told the operator on the other end to get me their NCOIC. Someone claiming to be a 2LT came on, and demanded I identify myself. I told him that I was SP5 Kenric and I wanted to speak to his NCOIC or he could hang ten. After screaming over the radio he wanted me to authenticate Alpha Romeo. I then informed him that our radios were from a load-out conex and we didn't have any authentication books, so unless he wanted to put his NCOIC on he could get off our net. After another minute of yelling a calm voice came over the radio claiming to be Master Sergeant Wilcox.

  I replied that I was SP5 Kenric and acting NCOIC of a mixed troop of soldiers retrieved from several locations. We were at present in a defensible location without external logistics or other support. We had two evacuation routes mapped and booby-trapped.

  After a long pause he replied, your unit is in almost as good a position as we are. We have three tanks, and two deuces. Low on tank ammo, but good on small arms. Our next move is to gather more ammo and a fuel truck. Any ideas. By the way we are located in the impact zone on FH.

  I told him to wait one. Turning to the commo man I told him to pull a PRC-77 with a foil antenna and tune it to our present frequency. I took it outside and set it on top of the bunker and called MSG Wilcox.

  He came back with, “What the hell happened to your radio, you were 5 by 5.

  I told him that I had a radio problem, and would sent a couple of my scouts out to find him and his unit. After they verified that he and his unit were actually who they said they were, we'd resume contact. Then I told him my scout would be at his location within the week and he'd know how to authenticate us.

  Turning to my sergeant I informed him that they were probably within 20 miles and we should continue with our plan on NFH, except we'd move all personnel except a detachment to maintain security here on this range. That evening we explained to all except the guards, and then I designated a detachment to remain behind. The corporal, sergeant, and I chose a rendezvous range further up the road and he pulled his 15 men and explained what their new mission was. I then had the other corporal show them the escape route and how to arm the booby-traps.

  Before dawn the next morning we moved out on the west side of the road. We all knew that it was a three day walk to NFH and then we had to infiltrate to the motor pools.

  Several of the guys the first night were joking about the bitch squad when one of the women stuck the muzzle of her M-16 in his crotch and told him she could arrange for him to qualify for the bitch squad. That stopped all the lewd comments and jokes. The sarge came and told me and I replied that I knew all about it, and then asked him how many shadows he had. Looking around he just said, “Hell, we might as well get a gallon of coffee, two cups won't do.”

  Five days later we had scouted and selected eight vehicles, plus two fuel trucks. One platoon had secured a dining facility, after eliminating the three guards quietly and replacing them with three of his troops. The early morning cooks were eliminated when they entered to fix breakfast for the terrorist. Two hours later eighteen terrorist entered and lined up for chow. One machine gun got them all.

  The small arms basic load was secured in a warehouse only three hundred yards from the motor pool, and it was ours as we moved into the motor pool at dawn. The guards were no problem and we had the trucks fueled, and the fuel trucks topping off as the APC's we picked moved to the warehouse to load their ammo. I didn't want to waste the extra ammo by blowing it in place so I grabbed a 5 ton and drove over to the warehouse and told the crews to fill it to the top, then set the warehouse on fire. By then the first of the other trucks were at the dining facility and supply warehouse loading. Two trucks of ammo, three APC's, two fuel trucks, and four trucks full of food hit the cattle guard to east range road two hours later. Our convoy rolled down toward the rendezvous range at thirty miles per hour.

  I was getting load reports from each of the trucks and was surprised when one claimed to have liberated two cases of grenades and a pallet of claymores.

  My scouts had done their job to the T, and we spotted two M-60s just short of the rendezvous range. They were dug in, one of each side of the road. As we pulled into the range parking lot a 2LT came running out and demanded the NCOIC report to him immediately. The sergeant stepped out of the truck he was riding on and saluted the lieutenant. Then he told the lieutenant to shut up and get under cover because when he returned the salute he identified himself as an officer and officers were the first target that any sniper would aim for. He followed as the lieutenant ran screaming back toward a tank.

  I signaled for my commo guy to call our range and verify their status. He got an all clear and I then sent one fuel truck, two trucks of food, one truck of ammo, and two APC's on down the road to them.

  The first thing I heard when I walked up to my sergeant was MSG Wilcox congratulating him on putting the fear of God in that butter bar asshole, that got some of his men killed.

  When he heard my voice as I reported the trucks en-route to base he turned on me with a smile and informed me that my mother ran out from under the porch and bit officers.

  It was hard not to smile as I told him that his mother needed rabies shots.

  As he was telling us that his men would pull security he suddenly stopped and asked why he had two rifles pointed at him, and why we were surrounded by half a squad of women.

  I then told him what happened on our retreat from Belton, and the field punishment I enforced.

  He glanced back at the shrimp and said, I heartily agree with the punishment and that rule will be announced and enforced here by me and my NCOs. Lets go get some coffee. As he called in half of his NCOs to introduce them to us his lieutenant came out of his
tank, and started toward our tent.

  I heard one of the women loudly announce officer in the area, rifle salute. Needless to say all we heard outside the tent was someone scrambling to get out of the area. One of Wilcox's NCOs then said, “So that's how you control your officers in a combat zone.”

  I simply answered him by saying, “If I had an officer, he'd do the strategic planning and leave the day to day operations and planning to his NCOs, like any good officer would. Officers tell their NCOs what they want done, and then get the hell out of the way.”

  One young buck sergeant then commented, “Everyone knows that a sergeant outranks a SP5, however I think your experience outranks this sergeant, Right Top!”

  Then MSG Wilcox told them that I had a mixed sex unit and they'd better pass the word quick that rape was a capitol punishment crime, because we have no way to keep prisoners. Also my unit did not take prisoners.

  One of his corporals then commented that he wished that the prisoner the LT insisted they take alive would escape. The only problem was that guy was so lazy, he wouldn't even roll over without an kick. I had my guard detail back off the other night and left him alone and untied for three hours, all he did was sit under a bush and whimper like a bitch.