Captain Long was now less than forty meters from the first bunker. He took a knee behind a large tree trunk as he aimed his rifle at the enemy. A round cracked right past his head, causing him to instinctively flinch and duck behind the tree for cover. He looked back and saw Corporal Perez, his RTO, wince in pain and grit his teeth as he momentarily dropped his rifle. He’d been shot in his left arm. One of the Air Force TACPs that was running next to him stopped, grabbed Perez and his rifle and pulled both of them behind a large rock as a string of bullets kicked up a bunch of dirt around them.
Long popped out from behind the tree trunk, aimed his rifle at the gun slit that was shooting at them and squeezed the trigger. His rifle barked several times as he fought to keep his rounds in a tight shot group, right where he knew the enemy machine gunner to be.
Out of his peripheral vision, Captain Long spotted a small cluster of Marines who had managed to crawl up to the bunker. He smiled. They’d somehow gotten themselves to the base of the fortified position without being seen and were readying to take it out. One of the Marines pulled the pin on a grenade, then held it for a second before he shoved it into the gun slit. A second later, Captain Long heard a loud explosion, and then the enemy position fell silent.
Further down the fortified position, the other machine guns and field cannon continued to fire on them. Hundreds of bullets were still ripping the trees around them apart, some of the bullets finding their marks and hitting his Marines. Even above the roar of gunfire, Captain Long could still hear the wounded call out, “Corpsman!”
Near him, Long spotted one of the Navy corpsmen assigned to them jump up and run under heavy enemy fire to give aid to the wounded Marines. Captain Long admired the man for courageously risking his own personal safety to help save others.
The group of Marines who had made it to the edge of the fortified bunkers steadily made their way down the structure, tossing grenades into the gun slits and firing ports as they went along. They had nearly made it to the end when an enemy soldier inside must have discovered what was happening and dropped a couple of their own hand grenades outside the bunker. Before the Marines could respond, the two grenades exploded, killing or injuring all four Marines who had been systematically silencing the enemy positions.
Several additional Marines charged forward to take their place and provide medical help to their brethren. Unfortunately, they were quickly cut down by an enemy machine-gun crew who had anticipated this action. One of the groups of Marines eventually did make it up to the bunker and finished the job the first group had started. In all, it had taken them maybe fifteen minutes to silence the enemy bunker once they’d charged it, but it had cost Captain Long’s company the lives of six Marines, and another dozen had been injured.
The same scene played itself out at the other three fortified positions, with the Marines eventually capturing the enemy positions. Now that they had a better picture of what was waiting for them at the next line of enemy defenses, Captain Long insisted on the Air Force plastering the Chinese positions with their heavier ordnance. They’d hang back a kilometer or so away and allow the fast movers to hit them with the heavier 2,000-pound bombs. If things went according to plan, the enemy positions would be largely destroyed by the time his battalion was ready to assault the next position.
As the day wore on, the sound of explosions and machine-gun fire continued to fill the entire reservoir area as the rest of the Marine division pushed its way through the enemy lines. The fighting was fierce and often devolved into hand-to-hand fighting. In the distance, Captain Long observed as dozens of surface-to-air missiles that had been hidden in the jungle rocketed out of their covered positions to reach out and hit the Allied planes as they swooped in to provide desperately needed close air support. Long had no idea what kind of losses the Navy and Air Force were taking, but he was glad to see them continuing to support them despite the grave risks to themselves and their aircraft.
While Long’s battalion waited for the Air Force to get around to hammering their targets, he fell more fully into the role of battalion commander. His time and energy began to be consumed with making sure the various companies had enough ammunition, the wounded Marines were getting brought out of the jungle and back to the medics at the basecamp, and overall coordination of his battalion’s operations in relationship to the other battalions in their regiment. As the day turned to evening, Long had all but turned over operational control of his own company to his executive officer.
The battalion sergeant major came by and made Captain Long painfully aware that he needed to do what he could to visit the other company positions and check on them. There was also a regimental briefing at 2100 hours that he’d need to head back for. This was the part of being an officer Long hated. When he’d been an NCO, his only job was to make sure his squad and then platoon were taken care of. Now he was responsible for the lives of nearly seven hundred Marines; it was an enormous responsibility.
Thankfully, that evening at the regimental briefing, Captain Long learned that the executive officer from their sister battalion was being moved over to take command of the battalion from him. Long instantly liked the guy — Major Brian Noble was a hard-chargin’ Marines’ Marine. He’d started the war as a first lieutenant and moved through the ranks quickly, like a lot of Marines had given the significant casualty numbers.
Like Captain Long, Major Noble had a chest full of medals. He’d been wounded once and had received the Silver Star along with two Bronze Stars. Long had him beat with two Purple Hearts and the Navy Cross, but both of them were the type of leaders who liked to lead from the front, in the thick of the action with their men.
That evening, when Long and Noble got back to the basecamp, Major Noble pulled Captain Long aside. “Hey, I want to make sure that you’ll be my second-in-command in case something happens,” he asked.
“It would be a privilege, Sir,” Captain Long replied.
“OK, when we return to the front tomorrow, I will embed with Alpha Company, and I want you to resume command of Echo,” Major Noble directed.
“Sounds like a plan, Sir,” Long answered.
Captain Long had only managed to get maybe two or three hours of fitful sleep. The previous day had been brutal. Their battalion had encountered a much larger force than they had originally thought would be there. They’d taken a number of casualties, forcing the regiment to shift another battalion over to assist them in breaking through the enemy lines.
Since he couldn’t sleep, Captain Long silently crept around with his first sergeant, checking on each of his platoons before the morning light signaled the beginning of the new day. It was 0600 hours as the predawn light slowly crept over the mountains that encircled the valley and reservoir. In another thirty minutes or so, it would be light.
When he’d finished checking on his platoons, Captain Long took the opportunity to grab an MRE from his ruck, reminding himself that he needed to eat if he was to keep up his strength and energy. Looking at the mystery surprise, he saw he had pulled Menu 1: spaghetti with meat sauce.
“Hmm… at least it comes with the cheese spread,” he thought. He opened the bag and began to assemble his morning meal. He hadn’t had time to eat most of the day before and was paying for it with a lack of energy now. The body can fight through a lack of sleep, but only if it is properly fueled.
Three bites into his meal, the morning silence was shattered by a large BOOM and the sudden chattering of one of their heavy machine guns. A number of other rifles were firing near the perimeter. Captain Long stuffed his spoon back in the food pouch and turned to his radioman, who seldom ever left his side. “Corporal Perez, get me a SITREP from Staff Sergeant Jenkins!” he ordered.