This short story is about an infantry officer who has to lead soldiers into harm’s way, accomplish a specific mission, and bring his soldiers back to safety.
“Ok guys, gather around me”
“Take out pen and paper”
“Orders just came down; tonight, we are going to ambush an enemy platoon.”
“Who is raising his hand in the back?” “Yes..McCormick, what’s your question?”
“Sir, you know me. I would never question orders but we have never engaged another platoon, have always been taught never to do that; and Murphy’s law dictates that if we want to have a 50 percent chance of defeating the enemy, we have to outnumber them nine to one.”
“I understand, but this is how the cookie crumbles.”
“Listen, I was taught the same thing and I was a bit surprised when I was briefed on the mission, but I wasn’t worried. How many missions have we conducted until now?”
“Over forty sir.”
“And can someone tell me why they have been so successful and smooth?”
“Go ahead Collins..”
“Good planning sir.”
“Exactly! Have you guys heard that saying “the more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war?”
“Who believes that? All of you..good. Me too, but what I believe in even more is that the more you use your brain, the less you sweat. So far, we have used ours better than the fucking enemy, while always keeping in mind that one day we will run into an enemy who will be a little smarter than we are, and having a contingency plan just for those mother fuckers.”
“Remember never to get complacent, that no matter how good you are, there is always someone better, and when we find them (maybe tonight) we won’t fight fair. I’m not saying we are going to something immoral or unethical, but we will gain every possible advantage over them; including calling for air support or QRF (quick reaction force), having a back-up plan to the back-up plan, and above all having the mental ability to adapt, improvise, and overcome.”
“Look! I’m not telling you I would tell command that we are not doing this if I was concerned we couldn’t pull it off, because I wouldn’t. I would still take guys into harm’s way because my top priority is to support my commander’s intent. But what I am telling you is that I am confident we can do this because you have proven to be competent, professional and above all, you guys keep learning and becoming increasingly more skilled. Look at tonight’s mission as an opportunity to grow and hone your skills. Skills that you will pass on to other units when your tour is over and pass down to future soldiers.”
“Ok, prepare to copy.”
“We are going to engage and destroy an enemy platoon at this location on the map, they will travel on this road from east to west at 0500. That means we will be in place no later than 0300, meaning we will leave at 1100 today. The good thing is that we are expecting foggy conditions, and we will have plenty of cover to conceal our position to the left of the road.”
“Second squad will be at the 9 o’clock position, firs squad at the 12 o’clock position with me, third squad at the 3 o’clock, and forth squad at the 6 o’clock.”
“This will be the kill zone, between points A and B. We will place claymore mines at points A and B and “I” will detonate them ones the enemy enters the kill zone. That will be the signal to engage them with small arms fire.”
“Second, first and third squads will open up with everything we’ve got, once the enemy starts to regroup and return fire, I will detonate a third claymore which will be located at the center of their convoy.”
“Once first squad is ready to move in on the enemy, second and third squad will lift and shift their fire to avoid friendly fire. We will have McCormick with his sniper rifle on this little hill to cover our movement taking head shots, and we won’t stop until we have either killed everyone, or until the few survivors completely surrender to us and drop their weapons.”
“Then first squad will set up at the 12 o’clock position past the enemy convoy on the right side of the road, we will spread out to the left and right until we link up with third and second squad setting up a 360 perimeter around the kill zone.”
“Remember surprise, speed and violence, and if we lose one of those three elements, we will make up for it by increasing the other two.”
“We cannot lose momentum. We have to overwhelm them with fire power and destroy them before they realize what’s going on.”
“Very quickly, alpha team from forth squad will search the enemy for any information that might help us, documents, letter, maps, etc. If there are any EPOW’s (enemy prisoners of war), we will collect them here, 30 meters at the 4 o’clock position where we will search them for intel, weapons and explosives, segregate them, silence them, and safe-guard them.”
“If we have any enemy who are wounded, we will provide the same with the medical treatment we would to one of our own. Is everyone clear on this?”
“Yes sir.”
“And if any of them need to be medically evacuated, we will search them a second time to make absolutely sure they don’t have any explosives or weapons because they will ride in one of our helicopters into one of our bases and we have to keep our buddies safe..Hooah?”
“HOOAH!”
“If we take any casualties, we will collect them at this point, here; which is 30 meters at the 10 o’clock position, next to this little creek, where our medics will treat them. If we need a medical evacuation, we will set up a landing zone for the helicopter here, 50 meters at the 8 o’clock position.”
“Once we have searched the enemy for information and collected their weapons, bravo team from third squad will send their demolition team to blow them up before we leave.”
“Once we are ready to leave, I will send a SITREP (situation report) to higher and update them on the mission status, any casualties, injuries, and how we are doing on ammo. We will not have artillery support for this mission but we will have air support in the form of a drone that will serve more as a lookout to make sure “we” don’t get ambushed.”
“Ok, back brief. Molina, where is McCormick going to be?”
“On the little hill sir”
“Brown, what time are we leaving?”
“No later than 1100 today sir”
“Good. Does anyone have any questions or concerns?”
“No sir!”
“Alright, that’s all I have; After I dismiss you, squad leaders make sure PCC’s and PCI’s (pre- combat checks, pre-combat inspections) are conducted. Dismissed!”
“Hey sir, can I talk to you alone for a sec?”
“Sure, what’s up Sergeant Toki?”
“Sir I know you are trying to motivate the guys but I’ve never heard an infantry lieutenant talk as much as you do. You need to cut that shit out…you just need to tell us what need to get done, and I’ll make it happen.”
“Roger sergeant.”
Lesson learned…I’m glad I have him as my platoon sergeant
(22 hours later)
Wow, I always get so anxious before a firefight…but as bad as this is, it’s nothing compared to the moment before I showed my dad my report card…ha ha..life is funny…
Ok, here they are..
Lord, I have done everything I could to make sure I bring these guys back safely but there are things that are beyond my control; please take over when we reach that point.
You know these guys, they may not be perfect but they have good hearts. I’ve seen them literally turn themselves into human shields to protect others. Thank you…and thank you for all the other times you helped me bring them back…you’re pretty cool.
100 meters…50 meters…NOW!
