Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [173]
Santos goes on to tell them what they can and cannot do—basically, that they cannot shoot to kill if an enemy poses no threat, and that they cannot shoot an enemy soldier who surrenders. There are challenges from the ranks of Pineland freedom fighters. Specifically, they point out that prisoners have to be fed and wounded prisoners have to be cared for. As guerrillas, they have limited stocks of food and medicine. Don’t those serving the current regime deserve to die? And how are they to be given their bonuses if they have no ears for proof? Santos smoothly handles these objections, saying that the whole world will soon know of the conduct of the Pineland freedom fighters and judge them accordingly. Captain Childers and I watch this presentation from behind the group.
“He handled that pretty well,” Childers says. “We like for these future team leaders to be put on the spot and have to articulate the Rules of Land Warfare and rules of engagement. Captain Santos did a good job.”
At least a few hours each day are taken with MOS training. The Bravos take their G trainees through individual movement and move on to coordinated squad tactics. The Charlies teach nonelectric fire assemblies and charge placement. The guerrillas who are out on the security positions now make all the radio checks back to the base-station radio. And Doc Kohl now has five Gs that he’s teaching about trauma care. They work on the basics of combat medicine, and he has them giving IVs to each other. At first, he was not permitted to set up a central dispensary, but now he’s allowed to do this in the supply tent.
The daily G-base life has finally fallen into a pattern. There are teams out at night, sometimes day and night, and during the day there’s training, camp chores, and security duty. Meals are MREs, although the Gs have smuggled in a supply of treats they share with the Americans on occasion. Among the most odorous duty is the filling in of the latrine, and extending the trench for the next day’s business. Upstream from the latrine, literally, is a meandering stream that the Americans and the Gs use for water. The water is packed up the hill to the camp in buckets, and poured into the community water drum. Doc Kohl keeps close watch on the filling and the purification of the water. The treatment tablets don’t make it taste or smell all that great, but it’s potable and safe.
That afternoon, the aerial-resupply recovery team briefs Colonel Chissom on their mission. They’re in radio contact with Specialist Justin Keller and his recon element at the drop zone. Keller reports in every three hours, and it is all quiet on the resupply DZ—a cow pasture made available by yet another patriotic North Carolinian. Sergeant Brian Short will lead the recovery element, with Andrew Kohl and three Gs on his team. Based on information provided by Justin Keller and his maps, he has a sand-table, on-the-ground, in-the-dirt mock-up of the drop zone. Sergeant Short briefs the situation and makes assignments for the signaling of the aircraft and humping the equipment off the drop zone and to the auxiliary pickup. ODA 915’s intel sergeant is an excellent planner and briefer. He quickly covers their recovery plan, including the most probable courses of action and the most dangerous courses of action. The Gs, who are becoming familiar faces, as are their noms de guerre—Gator, Red Dog, and Pigpen—brief the command and signal, weather, and coordinating instructions.
When they are finished, Chissom looks to Captain Santos. “This looks like a good resupply operation, and we really are getting low in chow and ammo, but I have a question. How come your guys always lead and my freedom fighters always follow? Do you Americans always have to be in charge?”
Santos pauses,