Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [142]
Sergeant Macomber was in the brush directly to his left, and Lowe instructed him to use his machine gun and grenade launchers to suppress the enemy fire from the bunker on that side of the pagoda.
This they did.
Lieutenant Mize was farther back down the trail with one squad. Lowe told him to hold his position on the left side while he told Lieutenant Weed, in the wooded yard around a hootch on the right, to fan his platoon out to secure that flank, and to be prepared to either reinforce the lead elements or to cover their withdrawal on his command.
All the while, the NVA were dropping mortar rounds right down their throats from so close that they could hear the dull, hollow thump of each round coming out of the tube as the gunner reached for the next one.
They could hear NVA shouting their own commands.
Having discarded his unreliable CAR 15 for the wounded Tiger Scout's M16, Lowe marked enemy positions across the road with the magazines he had filled with tracer ammunition the day before. He shouted at Macomber's M60 man to shift his fire onto those bunkers, “Move that machine gun, soldier, and stay low when you move! Over there in that depression! Keep a strong base of fire on that hedge and keep your fire lower!”
Red and green tracers crisscrossed on the trail.
Captain Lowe told Bayer, Mickels, and Moran to stay put, then darted across the road and rolled to cover on just the other side of the hump where Alvarez was pinned down with his squad. On their own volition, Walker and Wood had already worked their way to a hootch on that side of the road, and Lowe called them up to where he was crouching. They pointed out the enemy positions they had spotted. Macomber also made a mad dash across the road to join them. They were hunkered close together behind tree stumps, sweat dripping from their faces. Their fatigues were ripped from pushing through the hedgerows along the road. Their elbows and knees were rubbed raw. Lowe pointed to specific spots in the trees ahead to their front, “Bunkers are here, here, here, and here.” He indicated a specific bunker and pointed to Walker and Wood, “You and you crawl over there, take it from the side with a grenade.” Lowe switched his glance to Macomber, “You and I will cover. You take that bunker. I'll take this one. Watch my tracers.” Walker pulled a grenade from his web gear. “Move out!”
Lowe and Macomber opened fire, and Wood dashed out with Walker. Macomber kept firing on the farthest bunker, while Lowe swung his M16 on the one to the right, the one Walker and Wood were moving on, squeezing single shots into the firing aperture.
Walker ran right at it.
He tossed a grenade inside, then threw himself on top of the bunker. There was a bunker beside the one just silenced, and Lowe and Wood zeroed in on the aperture of that one as Walker jerked the pin from a second grenade. There was another muffled explosion and another bunker fell silent. A bunker beyond the first two suddenly opened fire and, from a mound behind that one, also previously unnoticed, a 12.7mm machine gun began firing over Alvarez's pinned-down squad. It prevented their retreat, with the crossfire diminished thanks to Walker's grenades.
Enraged, Walker charged on.
Wood scrambled after him to cover him with Lowe screaming urgently after Wood, “You ugly bastard, keep your head down! I don't want to see it again! Don't try to be Audie Murphy, damnit, just do what I tell you!”
Wood wasn't listening. He worked his M16 mechanically, oblivious to the staccato din around him: seat the magazine, snap back the bolt, empty the magazine in two or three bursts where the bushes are moving. Reload. Walker put down his rifle as Wood fired cover, and ran straight at