Within a minute, the gunfire died down and eventually stopped altogether. At that point, Staff Sergeant Jenkins came on the radio. “Sir, it appears a small team of enemy soldiers hit one of our trip flares as they moved parallel to our lines. Corporal Dungy triggered his Claymore as soon as he saw the enemy soldiers, then one of the other privates manning the M204G raked the area with gunfire.”
“Did they return fire? Did we take any casualties?” Captain Long inquired.
“Negative, Sir. The enemy never had a chance,” Staff Sergeant Jenkins answered. “I have no idea how many enemy soldiers are still out there, though, or how many we killed. It’s still too dark for us to see much, and our night vision can’t see through the thick vegetation. If you can send a runner over with the thermals, I might be able to get you a better answer.”
The scopes were in high demand, and unfortunately, three of the five scopes assigned to their battalion had been destroyed in the first day of fighting. A fourth was destroyed when the lieutenant operating it had been blown up during an enemy artillery barrage.
“Copy that, Staff Sergeant. I’m sending Lance Corporal Able to you with the scope. I want a SITREP ASAP. We’ll stand by to launch some illumination rounds once you’ve had a chance to use the scope.”
Five long minutes went by before he received an urgent call from Staff Sergeant Jenkins. “Sir, we’ve got trouble,” he said. “I believe that group of enemy soldiers we just smoked was the point element for a much larger enemy force. I can’t get you a head count, but there have to be more than fifty soldiers fanning out into an assault line maybe two or three hundred meters to our front.”
“Copy that,” Long answered. “Start waking everyone up and tell them to get ready. I’m going to work on getting us some illumination rounds. I need you to relay to Corporal Perez some coordinates for the artillery, so we can get this information back to regiment.”
Corporal Perez pulled out a pen and notebook from his pocket and took down the coordinates from Staff Sergeant Jenkins.
“Ripper One-One, Pit Bull Six. How copy?” said his RTO.
“Pit Bull Six, Ripper One-One. Good copy. What do you have for us?” asked the artilleryman.
“Fire mission. Troops in contact,” explained the RTO. “Need one round illumination, grid TW 3456 4765, five-hundred-meter airburst. Break. One round HE, grid TW 3456 4765. Break. One round HE, grid TW 3469 4521. How copy?”
“Good copy on all. Stand by,” relayed the artillery battery.
After a moment of silence, a crackle went over the radio. “Shots out,” announced the artilleryman.
A couple of minutes went by, and then they heard the loud whistle of the rounds flying fast overhead until they slammed into their plotted positions. Looking beyond the perimeter, Captain Long saw the two bright explosions from the HE rounds impact and then the sudden blaring brightness of the illumination round, igniting a thousand feet above the location of the enemy soldiers. In another twenty minutes, they wouldn’t have needed the illumination round at all.
What Long saw next was horrifying. The entire ground suddenly appeared to move as enemy troops advanced. Hundreds of little lights flickered, and then thousands of bullets zoomed through the air, hitting everything around Captain Long’s perimeter. The barrage of enemy fire directed at their positions was relentless as many bullets found their marks. Wounded Marines called out for corpsmen.
The roar of hundreds of voices screaming at the tops of their lungs thundered as the Chinese charged forward. This roar was soon intermixed with thunderous booms as his Marines detonated their Claymore mines. His Marines steadily returned fire, tearing into the ranks of the attackers as they pressed their own attack forward, desperately trying to close the distance between themselves and the Marines.
Long was still holding the radio receiver connecting him to the division artillery, so he depressed the talk button and shouted to be heard over the cacophony of gunfire and screaming going on all around him. “Ripper One-One! Good hit! Repeat fire mission. Fire for effect. Five rounds HE. We’re about to be overrun. Keep ‘em coming!”
Corporal Perez interrupted him as soon as he finished talking to the artillery battery, shoving another handset at him. “It’s Captain Flowers from Charlie Company!” he shouted.
“This is Long!” he yelled.
Captain Long heard rifle fire and explosions in the background of the radio as Captain Flowers tried to relay what was happening on his end. “We’re getting hit hard on the right flank. I estimate at least a battalion’s worth of enemy soldiers. We need artillery support — can you get us some?”
“Flowers, I’ve got a fire mission coming in right now across our entire perimeter,” Captain Long answered. “Have one of your guys start to relay any additional coordinates you have to Corporal Perez. Hold the line no matter what, Captain Flowers. Help is on the way!”
Seeing a swarm of enemy soldiers nearly upon his perimeter, Captain Long raised his rifle and fired at a group of PLA soldiers who were charging right for one of his machine gunners. The first two guys he fired at went down quickly. Captain Long had shifted fire to a third guy, but he was stopped in his tracks when an RPG flew over the heads of the Marines he was trying to protect and slammed into a tree several meters to his right.
He winced in pain as he felt something hit his right arm and shoulder. Long steadied himself and again aimed at the PLA soldiers, who were now fighting hand-to-hand with his Marines on the perimeter. The machine gunner he’d been trying to protect was now lying on the ground on his back with a PLA soldier straddling him. The Chinese soldier was trying to press his knife into the young man’s chest. Long aimed at the pair as they struggled for survival, depressing the trigger once. He watched his bullet hit the Chinese soldier squarely in the head. The man went limp on the young Marine, who proceeded to throw him to the side as he once again scrambled to get behind his M240G. In mere seconds, he was continuing to lay down suppressive fire.
Captain Long turned to look for his first sergeant and saw the man slumped against a rock, half of his face missing from the RPG’s shrapnel. Corporal Perez was on the radio, calling for more artillery fire.
Snap, crack, boom!
Bullets continued to hit the tree he had been using for cover while others zipped past his head and to either side of the tree. A hand grenade went off near the machine gunner he had just saved a moment ago, killing the young Marine.
Captain Long’s heart sank. He had to get that machine gun operational again. It was the only thing keeping the enemy at bay.
“Perez! Follow me!” he shouted to his RTO. He leapt up, his rifle pressed to his shoulder as he charged the enemy, systematically killing as many of them as he could with each shot fired.
It took Long a minute to rush the twenty meters to the fallen Marine’s position. As he neared the machine gun, he dropped his empty magazine and slapped a fresh one in its place. Jumping into the hastily built foxhole, he grabbed the M240G and placed it snug against his shoulder. Then he proceeded to let loose a long string of rounds into a mob of charging enemy soldiers, while bullets zipped past his head and kicked up dirt all around him.
Corporal Perez jumped into the position next to him, reaching over to one of the fallen Marines and grabbing several of the one-hundred-round belts of ammo off him. Then he linked one of the new belts with the one Captain Long was chewing through. Searching around the position for more ammo, Perez found three more in the ruck of the assistant machine gunner, who was lying dead next to him. He also took a couple of the hand grenades from his dead comrade and began throwing them at the charging enemy.