There was just one more SA-22 left in the vicinity of the airbase as the last two Viper pilots zoomed in to go after it. They both released a series of snake eye 500 lbs. bombs as they banked hard to the north, lighting up their afterburners and putting as much space as possible between themselves and the bombs they had just released.
The four bombs landed near the SA-22 and several other ZBD infantry fighting vehicles, tearing them apart, killing the crews and the nearby soldiers instantly. As the remaining American aircraft headed out to sea and the relative safety it provided, the carnage they left below was impressive. While they had lost one F-16 in the short engagement, they had also eliminated the remaining SAM and anti-aircraft vehicles near the DPRK airbase. Meanwhile, additional tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other self-propelled artillery guns continued to arrive with little to no air defense systems left to protect them. It would not be long until additional SAMs were brought in; however, until that happened, Chucky signaled for Jordy to try and call in as much air support as possible on the enemy vehicles marshaling at the base below.
As Jordy was on the radio setting up the airstrikes, a company-size element of Chinese infantry continued to steadily move up the ridge, towards the spot where their team had dug in. CW4 Lee was left with two hard decisions: one, they could give up the tactical advantage they held right now of controlling the top of the hill and being entrenched, or, they could leave the safety of the high ground and try to evade down the backside of the slope. If they chose the second option, they would have to try to set up a new landing zone and hope for the best.
“The problem with escaping is we have these two downed pilots with us,” Chucky thought. “Neither of them have the equipment or training in how to evade to the level that my team can. This will only slow my team down, and in all likelihood, it will give our position away.”
In that moment, he made his decision; they would stand and fight while they waited for their extraction to get close enough for them to bug out.
“Henhouse, this is Watchmen Five. We have good battle damage assessment from the vipers. There is only one SA-22 left at the airbase. However, we are also seeing additional armor, self-propelled artillery, and additional infantry fighting vehicles arriving at the base-looks to be about battalion in size, though that number continues to increase each hour. Requesting immediate extraction at landing zone Papa. How copy, over?” Lee spoke into the mic softly but succinctly.
It took a few minutes before they heard a response, “Watchmen Five, this is Henhouse. That is a good copy. We are dispatching the extraction now. Expect two CH-53K Sea Stallions and four Cobra gunships, courteous of the Marines. ETA ninety minutes.”
“Good copy, we’ll standby. Out.” replied Lee as he then turned to his team’s private net. “Heads up guys. We have an extraction inbound, ETA 90 minutes at LZ Papa.”
Maverick looked down at the enemy troops moving towards them and made the quick calculation in his head that they would arrive before their extraction. Keying his mic, “Chief, those PLA soldiers below us our probably less than fifteen mikes away from making contact. What’s the plan?” he asked, hoping they would make it until their extraction.
Lee sat there next to the log he was using for cover. He craned his neck and looked around the hilltop. About one hundred yards further down the hill, on the opposite side of the Chinese soldiers, the ground leveled out and there were only a few small trees.
“What if we cut those smaller trees down and move the LZ closer to us? he thought. “This way, we don’t give the enemy a chance to take the hilltop just as our rescue helicopters start to arrive.”
Keying his mic, “Chunk, I want you to take your explosives and head down the slope behind us. Roughly a hundred yards away is a plateau with a few smaller trees on it. I want you to rig those trees to be blown down with your C4. We need to create a new LZ closer to us, so we can defend the hilltop for the extraction. How copy?”
Chunk turned to look back to the area Chucky had just mentioned, and sure enough there was a small plateau just large enough for a CH-53K helicopter, pending they removed a few of those trifling trees.
“Yeah, that can work,” he thought as he smiled.
“No problem Chief, I’m on it,” Chunk replied, and then he began to scurry away to get their new LZ ready.
“Henhouse, this is Watchmen Five. We have enemy troops converging on our position. Estimate contact within ten minutes. We are changing the landing zone to grid November Kilo 7657 8684. It’s a small plateau near our existing position. Please advise that this will be a hot extraction. How copy?” he asked.
They acknowledged the change in plans, and informed him that the gunships would lead the way into the area to pick them up.
Lee then turned to Jordy, his Air Force tactical air combat controller and said, “Jordy, see what kind of air support you can raise to hit the base below and provide us with some air support, OK?”
Jordy just nodded his head and smiled, he was already working the air support angle before CW4 Lee had even asked.
The enemy soldiers had now advanced to within 300 yards of their current position. When they had set up their position a couple of days ago, they had placed a series of roughly twelve claymore mines in front of them. Eight of them were roughly 50 yards away, while the remaining four were less than 20 meters away. Lee, however, did not want to let the enemy get that close to them. He hoped to save the claymores for when the helicopters arrived, and they needed to bugout.
When the soldiers got within 250 yards, Chucky keyed his throat mic, “Everyone mark your targets and be ready. When you hear me fire the first shot, open up, and let’s cut these guys down. Our choppers are now 45 minutes away. We need to make sure these guys are not able to interfere with our extraction.”
Everyone was tense. Up to this point, they had not engaged any enemy soldiers since their infiltration. They had managed to stay below the radar, hidden, while they called in relentless airstrikes. But in a few seconds, everyone in the valley below and at the enemy airbase was about to know they were there. Lee looked down his rifle sights and spotted who he believed to be the Chinese officer in charge of the group. He was holding a pistol and yelling, pointing in the different directions where he wanted groups of soldiers to move to. As he aimed at the officer, his right thumb moved ever so slightly to the selector switch and turned it from safe to single shot. He then began to slowly apply pressure to the trigger with his right index finger, until he felt the firing pin slam against the primer igniting the cartridge and sending the 5.56mm projectile 2,841 feet per second down the length of the barrel to impact in the center mass of the Chinese officer he had just been aiming at. The officer immediately clutched at his chest and then collapsed to the ground.
This all happened in less than a second, and it took a moment for the sound of the round being fired to reach the rest of the Chinese soldiers before they reacted. Within that fraction of a second, the eleven other members of ODA 1110 opened fire with their own weapons. The downed pilots also joined in the chorus with the additional rifles the Special Forces guys had given them. As the fourteen Americans began to pour accurate and heavy fire down on the Chinese soldiers, nearly forty of them were killed outright before they even knew what was happening.