Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [157]
“This is something you’ll have to deal with,” the cadre sergeant at the venue tells 915. “You may cite mutual respect for your customs or ask them to honor your religious belief, but you’re going to have to resolve it on terms acceptable to them. That means you may have to drink some god-awful brew when you’d really rather not.”
The second dilemma arises in a discussion with a G chief who’s baiting caches with food and killing unarmed enemy soldiers when they come for the food. Captain Santos tries to dissuade the guerrillas from this, saying this isn’t honorable and will cost them face with the local population. He also gently threatens the withdrawal of his support if they continue to shoot unarmed combatants. The third dilemma comes to them in the form of an armed intruder who approaches the group and tries to disrupt the meeting. There’s a question of whether to talk to challenge the intruder or just shoot him.
“Two lessons here, guys,” the cadre sergeant at this station tells them. “The first is that you can never forget that you’re American fighting men, and you’ll be bound by certain standards and your ROEs. You may not always be able to enforce those on the people you work with, but, consistent with your mission, you have to try. The second is that security is a twenty-four-hour a day job. When you’re out there on the tip of the spear, things can change in a heartbeat. You may have to quickly reorientate yourself and take action. It’s on you, and you can never let your guard down. If the team leader and the team sergeant are locked up in negotiations, the rest of you have to set security and watch their backs.”
Day three of the mission-readiness exercise is a tactical Olympics of a sort. Nine-one-five is matched against student ODA 912. The two teams begin with a five-mile, four-point land-navigation course over which they have to move in tactical order. The final point brings them to a sparsely wooded training area on the western edge of the Camp Mackall Army Airfield. There the student ODAs prepare for the head-to-head competition, but first they change into dry clothes. The nav course took them through some streams and draws. Nine-one-five was penalized for not finding one of its nav points, so it starts the remaining events with a time penalty.
The competition takes the two teams several hundred meters up the wooded area and back. It’s a race against each other and the clock. Along the way are stations where the men must perform individually and as a team. The starting positions are about fifty meters apart, so each team can see how the other is faring in the competition. Sergeant Blackman walks with 912 and Sergeant First Class Bill Viafore, 912’s cadre sergeant, walks with 915. Both cadre sergeants want their own team to win, but they’re more concerned that the teams perform to standard and display the proper skills. This is their final tactical tune-up before Robin Sage.
The route laid out by the cadre teams for the student ODAs challenges them on a range of tactical disciplines. Initially, each man in turn must fire a magazine of blank ammo through their M4 rifles. Each magazine has a bad round, which means the shooter has to fire, clear the jammed weapon, and continue to fire. Another event has them set up and fire a short belt of ammo through the M240. Again, there’s a bad round. Clearing a jammed round from a 240 often requires muscling the big gun, sometimes with a boot. Time is added for procedural mistakes. At another station, the team has to rig two demolition charges with dual-initiated, nonelectric firing assemblies. Both charges are to be timed with a two-minute delay. Time is added for nonoptimum charge placement and for fuse burn times inside or outside the two-minute window. In the weapons drills, the 18 Bravo weapons sergeants