Alpha two four has been hit. Over."
"Alpha two six, this is Alpha six. Request you confirm that you are engaging T-72S. The Mexicans don't have T-72S. Over."
Wittworth's last comment struck Kozak, causing her to hold the hand mike out at arm's length and look at it with a strange expression on her face. Sergeant Strange, who had been watching and listening to what she was saying, asked her what was wrong. Kozak let the hand mike fall to her lap and looked at Strange. "The CO says the Mexicans don't have T-72S. He wants us to confirm that we're engaging T-72S."
Leaning over, Strange looked into the arroyo at the burning T-72 less than ten meters from his location, then back to Kozak. "Well, LT, they got 'em now."
Kozak chuckled as she picked up the hand mike. "Alpha six, this is Alpha two six. Affirmative. We are engaging T-72S. Over."
Without a pause, Wittworth shot back, "This is Alpha six. That's not possible. Over."
Before she realized what she was doing, Kozak keyed the hand mike.
"Six, this is two six. Well they got them now. If you wait a minute, I'll let you talk to one of their tank commanders. Over."
Strange, as well as those members of his squad who could hear, began howling over Kozak's statement. As she waited for Wittworth's response, she looked up at Strange and his soldiers. Unable to restrain herself, she also began to laugh. What an idiot, she thought. He's nowhere near the fighting and he's telling me what I see. What an idiot!
The next voice that came over the radio surprised both Wittworth and Kozak. Blue 6, the battalion commander, had been listening on the company radio net.
"Alpha two six, this is Blue six. I've monitored your report and have your Bradleys and the T-72S in sight. You're doin' a great job, two six.
I have some fast movers and snakes coming your way. Do you have smoke to mark your position? Over."
Though she had no idea what snakes were, Kozak asked Strange if he had any colored smoke. Pulling a canister from his web belt, he showed it to Kozak. "Is violet okay, LT?"
Giving Strange the thumbs-up, Kozak informed the battalion commander that she had colored smoke.
"Okay, Alpha two six. The forward air controller is asking to pop that smoke now. The fast movers will be coming in from the southeast.
Over."
Hesitating, Kozak wondered if it was such a good idea to mark her own position. If friendly forces could see the smoke, the enemy forces could also. Still, the battalion commander had told her to pop smoke. Without another thought, Kozak told Strange to pop the smoke and toss it to the rear of their position so they could mark it for an air strike. She waited until the dark violet smoke cloud was well developed before she reported back.
"Roger, Alpha two six. We have your smoke. Fast movers inbound now. When they finish, I want you to collect some prisoners, pronto. We need to find out who's driving those tanks. Over."
"Blue six, this is Alpha two six. Wilco on the prisoners. Will advise you when we have them in hand. Over."
When neither the battalion commander nor Wittworth responded to her last transmission, she figured that they were done with her for now.
Turning to the southeast, Kozak watched, shouting to her squad leaders to spread the word that an air strike was coming in. Bell, who was also watching, saw them first. "There they are, LT."
Following his finger, Kozak finally saw two black dots coming toward them fast. Within seconds, the black dots became black blobs. Then the black blobs appeared to sprout wings. Finally, just before they passed overhead, the two blobs with wings began to take on the distinctive form of F-16s. When they released their loads before they passed her platoon's position, she thought, Christ, they're going to hit us! Controlling her panic, she held her breath as-she watched the bombs fall away from the jets. Only when the cluster bombs, already split open and spewing hundreds of small bomblets, had cleared the platoon and began to impact on the far side of the arroyo, did Kozak begin to breathe again. Though she could not see the impact, a series of secondary explosions told her the F-16s had found the mark. A second pass, and the appearance of a company of Apache attack helicopters, was anticlimactic.
She had pulled it off. Second Platoon, Alpha Company, the "Dust Devils," had pulled it off. Now, all that remained for her to do was to find out how much their small victory had cost them.
From his position, Captain Nino Garza watched the trucks of the 16th Armored Division's main command post move like a great snake crawling along the road leading southeast out of Vallecillo. The information he had been given, six hours before, that the division command post was preparing to move, had been right. Even more gratifying was the fact that his guess as to the road it would use had also been right. If that guess had been wrong, he would have been guilty of unnecessarily exposing the one hundred and fifty members of the Rural Defense Force he now had deployed along that road, waiting to ambush the American command post. Taking one last look, Garza struggled to suppress the giddiness he felt at the prospect of impending battle.
Finally ready, Garza eased himself down off the rock he had been watching the road from and joined his subordinate commanders, who were gathered to receive his final instructions. "Remember, no one is to fire until the mortars fire. I will have them alternate the high-explosive rounds with illumination rounds so that we can keep the column illuminated.
And, remind your men, a green flare means they are to rush the column. I will do that only if conditions are ideal. Do not rush the column on your own, no matter how good conditions appear to be to your front.''
Garza paused, looking at each of his subordinate commanders as they nodded that they understood. Though he was far from being the patronizing type, Garza knew that the men entrusted to his command were simple farmers and shopkeepers. He not only had to keep everything simple, he also had to remember that each of these men had a family that depended upon him. Though the men were patriots, and each and every one was willing to die in the defense of his home and Mexico, as their grandfathers had been, Garza never forgot Colonel Guajardo's admonishment to him and other guerrilla leaders like him: "While we need patriots to fight this war, never forget that only live Mexicans can build our future." So Garza was careful to ensure that, if nothing else, everyone in his command understood the dispersal plan and the signal to initiate it. "Regardless of what happens or what you are doing," he stressed to his subordinates, "when I or my deputy fires a red flare, the company will disperse. Do not wait for me, or anyone else. Take your people back to their rally points, have them clean their weapons before they bury them, and send them home. I will contact you when I can. Is that understood?"
With a final nod, each of Garza's subordinate leaders moved off into the darkness, back to his unit where he would wait with his men for Garza to initiate the ambush.
Stuck in the rear seat of Major Nihart's vehicle, amidst a tumble of personal gear and boxes, Captain Harold Cerro was asleep. To him, convoy and sleep were synonyms. Since his earliest days in the Army, he had found that the slow, serpentine pace of a convoy, coupled with the steady hum of an engine running at the same speed hour after hour after hour, was the best sleep aid ever invented. Cerro could last for ten, fifteen minutes tops, in a convoy before going to sleep. While sleep was always a commodity soldiers sought, it was not acceptable for the senior occupant of an Army vehicle to be seen sleeping while the vehicle was moving.