Once the howitzers showed up, they would gobble up nearly all of the cleared flatland in the area. His Marines needed to make sure they had a couple of working LZs set up to allow for more reinforcements to arrive and ammunition to continue to be flown in.
Twenty minutes later, McKnight heard the unmistakable noise of the LCACs racing in the water as they headed toward the beach. Captain McKnight hoped they would see the series of infrared lights his Marines had set up, directing the LCACs where to land. In minutes, the first monstrous hovercraft appeared out of the darkness and drove right up on the beach, continuing until it lurched forward in a stop at the signal of a Marine with a pair of handheld infrared signaling lights. Once the hovercraft came to a stop, the front ramp dropped. The first set of heavy trucks roared to life, rolling down the ramp while towing one of the M777 155mm lightweight howitzers behind it.
One by one, the other seven LCACs rolled in and started the process of getting the guns and their crews ashore. As the hovercraft were emptied, they started their engines back up and proceeded to head back to sea, where the sailors offshore would be anxiously waiting to send their next load in. While the artillery crews went to work on identifying where they wanted each gun to be placed, the roar of gunfire and explosions happening across the bay grew steadily in intensity. Captain McKnight observed more explosions blasting around the port area. Meanwhile, the Navy’s patrol boats and littoral combat ships continued to move up and down the coast provide direct fire support wherever needed.
Twenty minutes after the first set of howitzers were ashore, the first of the sixteen guns started to deliver their first fire mission for the ground forces already heavily engaged across the bay. Minutes after the first howitzer started to fire, three more artillery cannons added their weight as well.
The Marines of 1/10 FA were inundated with fire mission requests. In short order, they had all sixteen guns delivering a sustained one to two rounds a minute for the Marines battling it out on the mainland.
As the Osprey circled the area below, Lieutenant Colonel Long spotted the two platoons Captain McKnight had placed as a blocking force to protect the newly established firebase. Despite the short timeframe, they looked well organized in their new positions.
Long turned to look out the other side. His other company had reached the port, and he could see that they were already pushing the perimeter out beyond it. Already, a group of Navy Seabees was hard at work getting the port’s heavy equipment ready to start offloading the first Ro-Ro ship, which was already headed their way.
“You ready to head down, Sir, or do you want us to make another pass?” asked the pilot.
“I’ve seen what I needed to see. You can set us down now. Thanks again for letting me get a bird’s-eye view of my guys,” he answered.
The Osprey headed back down to the LZ McKnight’s Marines had cleared out nearly an hour earlier.
Once on the ground, Lieutenant Colonel Long headed for the tent his headquarters staff had set up. When he walked in, he saw they had the maps up on the tent wall and the radios going. One of his staffers was plotting the location of the various companies and platoons in the city, as well as the enemy units they had either spotted or the UAVs had found. From the looks of things, there were several large PLA formations heading toward them now. Two were headed toward the docks, and the other was headed toward the lone platoon two kilometers away from their current position.
It was clear that platoon was going to need help soon. Turning to his S3, he asked, “When is Romeo Company going to arrive?”
“They’re getting ready to leave the Portland now,” he replied.
“I want them redirected to this point here,” Long ordered. “We have a much larger force heading toward us and not enough Marines to defend this position. I also want a battery of those guns to shift fire and start hitting this location.”
His S3 walked over to look at the map. Once he saw the number of enemy soldiers heading toward them he nodded. “You’re right, Sir. That looks to be close to two battalions’ worth of infantry headed their way.”
Boom, boom. BAM!
Explosions vibrated the ground beneath them. Several pieces of shrapnel ripped right through one section of the tent, tearing into one of the map boards and hitting a Marine in the arm as he was updating it.
One of the sergeants in the tent began to administer first aid to the wounded Marine. “Corpsman!” he yelled.
Lieutenant Colonel Long raced outside the tent to see what had happened. He immediately spotted two of the artillery guns a couple hundred meters away, turned over on their sides. One of the trucks sitting between the two guns was also on fire, burning in bright orange flames.
His eyes swept toward the bay. One of the Navy’s Cyclone patrol boats was on fire. It looked like the captain was trying to steer the endangered ship toward their patch of shore, away from the port.
Someone shouted, “Incoming fighters!” and pointed in the direction of the city across the bay.
The dark silhouettes of fast-moving objects appeared to be headed right for them. A couple of Marines who had been in the tree line ran out into the open field nearby, each raising a long tube to their shoulders. Seconds later, they each fired a Stinger missile at the incoming war planes.
One of the fighters fired a pair of missiles at the Ro-Ro ship tied up to the pier, while a second fighter shot off two more missiles at one of the littoral combat ships in the harbor. Two more planes continued their flight directly toward Long’s firebase.
The littoral combat ship engaged the fighters with their RIM 116 rolling airframe missiles and CWIS system, splashing two of the five enemy planes. One of the Stingers hit the third fighter, which ripped apart and spiraled toward the ground with a trail of smoke behind it. The remaining two fighters continued to head for the artillery base Long’s men had established.
Seconds later, the planes buzzed over their positions and four objects fell from their wings, tumbling end over end until they slammed into the ground.
Boom, boom, boom, BOOM!
The blast wave and concussion from the explosions hit Long across his entire body, blowing him completely off his feet and sending him tumbling backwards. The blast wave threw him and his soldiers around like the ragdolls of an angry toddler.
A series of secondary explosions rocked the base — some of the artillery propellant had caught fire and exploded. Colonel Long was vaguely aware of his surroundings, but the world was still a bit dim after being tossed about like that. As Long’s hearing started to return and his brain slowly turned itself back on, the first thing he heard was the cries for help. Sitting up, he did a quick check of his arms and legs, making sure everything worked.
He looked nearby and saw the tent his headquarters staff had set up was largely gone, torn apart. Marines lay in heaps all around it. Down toward the artillery gun positions, he saw nearly half of the artillery guns had been knocked over or were destroyed. Small fires spread all over the base, along with the remains of the dead.
Long gingerly got up. He looked down and saw his rifle was still attached to his IBA via his single-point sling. Hearing cries from the wounded near his headquarters tent, he made his way over to the remnant to check on his staff. As he approached them, he heard one of the Marines crying, begging for help.
When he found the source of the desperate pleas, he saw Private First Class Luke Grabowski leaned up against several of the destroyed radios. He was using his one good arm and hand to desperately hold his intestines in and keep them from spilling out of a large gash in stomach, just below his body armor. His left arm appeared to be shattered and unusable.