Victory Point - Ed Darack [139]
“Sir,” Jimmy interjected, grabbing Grissom’s attention. “They are now saying that they see the explosions from the Americans—and that they are nowhere near where they are sitting!”
“Hit the northern targets, Dorf.” Grissom passed to Middendorf what amounted to the enemy’s own fire adjustments—on themselves. The gun team realigned their tubes and within seconds had rounds directly on target; Middendorf then ordered a fire for effect, catapulting rock, earth, and Shah’s men skyward.
“What are they sayin’ now, Jimmy?” Grissom asked with a sarcastic smile.
“Nothing—nothing at all, actually.” Jimmy gave the captain a stunned look. After a few minutes, the terp finally had some news: “Sir, others are saying that you just killed all of them and destroyed their mortars. They’re very mad at you and the Marines for this.” Grissom laughed. “Now they really, really want to kill you all for this.”
The captain just shook his head. With yet more of Shah’s remnants obliterated, Middendorf had his team pack up the gun tubes and then the grunts pushed south, linking up with First Platoon and the Afghan soldiers at Hill 2510. Grissom now faced a tough decision: push south by heading into the depths of the valley—their route up the Chowkay—or take the more tactical, but more difficult-to-traverse route on the high ground of the western wall of the valley. Weighing expediency and ease of terrain against the remaining enemy’s determination, Grissom had only one choice—run the high ground, despite it challenges. After a brief rest on the southern shoulder of Hill 2510, Fox-3, Fox-1, the mortar team, and the Afghan soldiers began the trek southward.
“You’ve been using ICOM scanners! Monitoring enemy transmissions! That’s SIGINT! You’re not authorized to do SIGINT work! We have specially trained teams for that. You need to have those scanners turned off—turned off right now!” came the voice from one of CJTF- 76’s senior intel officers at Bagram, roaring at Rob Scott for ⅔’s use of ICOMs in adjusting fires on the morning of the seventeenth. “You’ll be interfering with sensitive SIGINT work we already have under way!”
“Those ICOM scanners have saved countless lives at this point—just in Whalers alone,” the XO responded.
“Turn those ICOMs off. Turn them off now!” the irate officer blared—as Jimmy continued to feed translated intercepted ICOM traffic to Grissom.
“Commander Grissom! More ICOM traffic.” Jimmy grabbed the captain’s attention once again that morning. “They’re hurting bad, and still want to kill you—but they can’t find you!” The ICOM use confirmed that taking the high ground had kept the Marines and Afghan soldiers out of the gunsights of the last of Shah’s men. Jimmy’s information also indicated to the captain that they might not have been detected because Shah—if he were even still alive—simply had so few remaining troops under him.
Back at JAF: “I’m not turning those ICOMs off. I’d be crazy to do that. They’re saving lives as we speak! I don’t care how it’s seen by higher command—anyone—if we have something that’s keeping our Marines functioning—keeping them safe and alive—they’re gonna keep using it. Period.” The line went dead. Rob Scott never heard another word from the intel officer.
As it had during their march up, the Chowkay’s terrain proved to be a near killer—even more so on the Marines’ egress, as they’d chosen a route that traversed ground that was severely lacking in trails and brought them along the edges of dangerously steep, often vertical rock faces. At times, their movement bordered on rock climbing. Sensing the hesitation of the Marines, Crisp continued to prove himself a moving orator in the heights, ensuring that the line of grunts progressed southward at an even