Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [171]
By the third day, the operational tempo picks up. The Gs are short on weapons, so First Lieutenant Kwele, Sergeant Dunn, and Specialist Costa are sent to make a weapons buy on the black market. The auxiliary who is to take them to the rendezvous with the arms dealer manages to drive off (on instructions from Sergeant Blackman) without Patrick Kwele, leaving Dunn and Costa to negotiate the buy.
“That taught me a lesson,” Costa said of the evolution. “I was the junior guy and thought I’d just be along for security. Then the lieutenant gets left and suddenly I have to inspect, test, and make the buy. From now on, I’m going to pay better attention to the mission brief. You never know when you’ll have to step up and take charge.”
The first major target is a railroad bridge. This is one of the preplanned targets that 915 worked on before they inserted into Pineland. They knew they would have to blow the bridge, but didn’t know exactly when. Their forward operating base commander radios them with instructions to take out the bridge close to midnight the following night. Sergeant Dan Barstow is to be in charge of this operation. He elects to send in Specialist David Altman and PFC Tim Baker, along with two Gs, the night before for the mission reconnaissance. For this mission, Baker is to be in charge and Altman the recon-team communicator.
“David and I work well together,” Baker tells me. “We were in the same boot camp company and the same jump-school stick. With the exception of Phase III, we’ve been together since we joined the Army. We’re battle buddies, and we’ll handle this recon.”
They are to put “eyes-on” the target for twenty-four hours, then bring Barstow and his men in, link up with them, and do the job. The bridge is eight klicks (eight thousand meters—about five miles) from the G base. Barstow wants commo with his recon element, but there is some question of using an MBITR radio since it is at the limit of the small radio’s range. Altman is made to take along the more powerful, and bigger, PRC-137 to talk to the PRC-119 serving as the G-base radio.
“I didn’t spend all that time in Phase III learning about radios,” Altman says with some irritation, “not to make that commo shot with an MBITR. I know I can do it.”
The recon team goes in and finds a good perch above the railroad trestle. They observe the guard force, which turns out to be a maritime unit that has regular foot patrols on the bridge and a Boston whaler that patrols the river. Altman, who brought along both radios, finds a shallow rise above their position and rigs a ladder-line, J-pole antenna to the small, handheld MBITR. “I had great commo with the G base, and I was transmitting with only a tenth of a watt of power.” He passes along the recon team’s observations. Armed with this new intelligence, Daniel Barstow, Sergeant Brian Short, and the four Gs who will be with them plan their mission throughout the day. That evening, under Dan Barstow’s direction, the team delivers a briefback to Colonel Chissom. Chissom is happy to see his Gs delivering portions of the mission brief. Shortly before midnight, PFC Baker and his recon element link up with Barstow and the assault team. Together, they attack and eliminate the enemy force guarding the bridge. There are five of them sitting around a fire by the river, and the attackers are able to get quite close before they open fire in a one-sided assault. With the guard force neutralized, they place their charges on the rails, pull their time fuses, and move off for their extraction point. After they’ve cleared off the target, I remain with the OCE who will retrieve the dummy