Everything was quiet and it was getting dark so they hunkered down to watch the trail. Barnes gave the signal for the squad to fall back and they rendezvoused five hundred meters back. They looked back and forth and gave the clear signal to Barnes. He gave a waving hand signal for the squad to spread out in a horizontal line, parallel with the path.Ĭhadwick and his partner moved forward to the path and stopped. Barnes patted him on the shoulder and turned. The ground was trampled flat and almost clear. Barnes moved forward to see what was going on and crouched next to the point man, a private named Chadwick.Ĭhadwick pointed forward and Barnes saw it. The squad all dispersed slightly and crouched in the thick foliage. The point man put up his hand in a stop signal and the motion was passed back. They trudged in a single file line spread about twenty feet between each man. It took them two days of hiking through the mountains before they spotted something. So the platoon equipped and set out to hump the area and return with any findings and eliminate any enemies encountered. Forces had been getting hit to the south and it was thought that there might be some enemy supply lines through the area. It was a run over the mountains to patrol a trouble spot close to the Cambodian border. It was close to a week before they got their first assignment. “Which is why they call it the Iron Triangle.” “I hear some of the worst fighting takes place in this area.” They entered the quarters and Barnes showed Ideh to his bunk. I didn’t think it got much worse but they don’t call this the Iron Triangle for nothing.” “I’ve heard some horror stories about some of the shit that goes on out here and was hoping that I wouldn’t get stuck with a bunch of fuck ups.” They’ve got warriors instincts and that’s what we need out here.” “I hear they crawled themselves out of some VC tunnels without their commanders and fought their way back here with stolen weapons.” I’ve met our boys and they seem like good enough kids.” “I hear you just got transferred here.” Ideh asked as they walked toward the officer’s quarters. Barnes was slightly taken aback by his total lack of an accent. Barnes waited for him to leave the landing zone before approaching him. The one that stood out to Barnes was a smaller sized man of Indian decent. The chopper touched down and a handful of men stepped off. It was a sticky summer day in 1968 and the dust that blew from the Hewey’s blades stuck to Barnes’ skin and found it’s way into the most uncomfortable areas of his clothing. On the day he was supposed to arrive Barnes was on the heli-pad waiting for the approaching transport that would deposit his new second in command. The only other member of his platoon that wasn’t present was a 1st Lieutenant new to arrive. It surprised him that he thought of them as young when he was only twenty-two. They seemed like a capable group of young soldiers. He had orders to take command of a platoon doing movements into Laos who had lost their commanders in a botched raid on a tunnel complex.Īfter reporting to his Captain, a gruff man named Whitehill, he had introduced himself to his platoon. The fallout of it had caused him to get transferred to the mountains in the heart of the Iron Triangle at a place called Firebase Wolf. His platoon had been eliminated in a battle in the delta that he barely managed to escape from with his life. He had always looked at the Marines as a career and had managed to ascend to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Force Recon. Cities Of The Androscoggin: Out Of The Shadowsīarnes had been in country for one year now, a full tour of duty.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |