Toward the end of the day, Alpha and Bravo companies ran into the first of a series of enemy strongpoints. At first, the soldiers only had to deal with a few pop shots, but as both companies pressed forward, they ran into a series of fortified positions, which stopped them in their tracks.
Back at the base camp, Captain Long listened to the radio chatter of the two company commanders as they relayed what they were seeing and called in for artillery support. In minutes, artillery rounds began flying overhead, on their way to hit the Chinese positions. Outside the operations tent, the men in the base camp could hear the distant sounds of explosions and heavy machine-gun fire. The fight was on, and Captain Long knew it was just a matter of time before they too would join in.
As evening turned into night, Alpha and Bravo companies settled in to their positions for the night, facing the enemy. Thus far, the first day of the operation resulted in only eight Marines being injured, no fatalities. The following day would prove to be the real test. With their support base now operational, Captain Long planned on moving his other three companies forward to support Alpha and Bravo in the early hours of the morning. Come sunup, they’d launch their first major offensive.
Captain Long swatted at a mosquito before leading the way with his point man to link up with Alpha. It was still dark. He nearly tripped over some roots that seemed to be doing their best to grab at him, preventing him from moving forward. It was almost as if the undergrowth knew he was walking into danger and Mother Earth was trying to stop him as the roots and vines clung to him with each step.
Captain Long spoke into this radio to one of his fellow company commanders. “Alpha Six, this is Echo Six. Have your rearguard turn their IRs on. We’re nearly to your position.” The last thing Long wanted to have happen was a friendly fire situation, so he was grateful at the moment that they all had infrared goggles.
Seconds later, he and his point man saw the pulsing throb of the infrared light as it flashed every couple of seconds, guiding them toward Alpha Company’s position. A few minutes later, they connected with the other Marines. One of the sergeants led Captain Long to link up with Captain Dave Mitchell, the Alpha Company commander.
Captain Long looked around as he walked, noticing how bright it was starting to get. The sun had just broken past the horizon a few minutes ago, forcing the darkness of the evening to retreat. “Perfect timing,” he thought. “We’ll get in position before the morning sun is fully up.”
Captain Mitchell had just finished eating one of his MREs when Long approached. He smiled as he stood and extended his hand. “It’s good to see you, Tim. I hope the trek over here wasn’t too bad,” he said with a smile.
“It’s good to see you as well, Dave,” Captain Long responded. “You weren’t joking when you said the terrain to get here was tough. I thought those vines and roots were going to pin me down so those mosquitos could eat me alive.”
Captain Mitchell chuckled as he swatted at a mosquito himself. “Yeah, I think those things are the national bird around here or something — they’re as big as a freaking quarter. Let’s go ahead and get your guys filtered into our lines. I want to show you on the map what we’ve run up against.” Mitchell made a motion to his senior NCO, so he would go ahead and get Long’s men moving while they still had the cover of some darkness left.
Pulling out his map, Mitchell showed Long where the enemy positions where in relationship to the intelligence they’d been given. Captain Long pulled out his own map to write down the information as well. “Right here, this spot is one massive machine-gun bunker,” explained Captain Mitchell. “We hit it with a number of 155mm arty rounds, but they couldn’t get through it. No effect. From what we could see, there are at least five heavy machine guns in it and at least two antitank guns or light artillery guns. Roughly three hundred meters to the right of this position, which is over by Bravo Company, is a second fort just like this one. I talked with Captain Floyd, and he said there’s a third fort just like these two, roughly four hundred meters to his right. That fort has an excellent field of fire over most of Route 9 through this point here.”
Long looked at what he’d just been shown and grunted. “This is going to be a lot tougher than we thought,” he realized.
Captain Long asked, “What’s behind these forts? Are there more fortifications we’ll have to fight through once we clear these guys, or is this it?”
Captain Mitchell’s face reddened a bit, and Long immediately surmised that he didn’t know the answer. “I, um, I’m not sure,” he stammered. “I let us get bogged down with these bunkers and didn’t have anyone scout behind them.”
“OK, then that’s the first thing we need to figure out,” said Long patiently. “We’re going to focus on hitting these two forts this morning with an air strike. While that’s happening, I want you to have one of your scout teams find a way behind this fort here,” he explained as he pointed to the first fortification directly across from them. “Then we should have them move at least a kilometer behind the enemy positions before moving north to see what’s behind them. We need to know if this is just the first layer of defense, or if it’s wide-open country behind them.”
“We can try and use some of the scout drones. They may get shot down or tangled up under the tree cover, but it won’t hurt to try,” one of the platoon leaders offered.
Captain Long nodded in agreement. Then he turned to Master Sergeant Hill. “I need to know if we can get some bombs on those forts,” he explained. “Do you think you can try and make that happen?”
The Air Force master sergeant had been listening to the two captains talk and had made some notes of his own. He looked down at the maps and nodded. “Shouldn’t be a problem, but we need to make sure none of our guys move any closer. These bombs are going to be danger close when they land. We’ll see if a 500-pounder does the job. If it doesn’t, we’ll hit it with something larger, but we’ll need to make sure you pull your Marines back a few hundred meters if we’re going to drop a 2,000-pounder.”
“Make it happen, Master Sergeant. Let us know when it’s heading our way,” he ordered.
The next twenty minutes went by quickly as the Marines filtered onto the front lines and prepared themselves for the coming airstrikes. If the Air Force was able to smash the enemy forts, then they’d charge forward and seize the ground.
As jets rushed overhead, most of the Marines looked up at the sky. Captain Long heard a loud noise like a rocket engine.
Swoosh!
Two elongated objects shot up out of the ground toward the jets, filling the area where they had just launched with smoke. The objects rushed into the clouds so fast, they seemed to create a path of lightning as they traveled toward the jets.
Boom!
The jets broke the sound barrier and then sped off. There was a slow-motion second of silence before one of the platoon leaders shouted, “Everyone down! Bombs inbound!”
The Marines instantly buried their heads below any cover they could find and opened their mouths slightly, just as they had been told to do when a bomb was being dropped danger close.
The ground beneath them shook like an earthquake as it bounced the Marines an inch or two off the ground before throwing them back onto the hard surface. Then a massive gust of wind from the overblast rushed over them and the incredible sound of the explosion slapped their bodies. Debris fell down from the sky around them like rain from a storm, covering them in dirt, grass and vegetation.