Victory Point - Ed Darack [44]
The patrol pushed past a steep, triangular incline of shattered rock that doglegged in front of the opening of a shadowed valley. “Korangal,” Posselt announced, motioning with a nod. Lieutenant Kinser stopped in his tracks, firmly gripping his M16A4 at his side, and stared into the throat of what he had come to know as one of the most deadly corners of the War on Terror.
“Korangal.” The lieutenant nodded and shot a quick glance to Diss, who was equally taken by the ominous sight. “Hope to spend some time up there,” Kinser remarked with an almost lustful grin. The patrol broke off the Pech three klicks farther east of the Korangal’s opening, at the village of Matin, where the group entered the Shuryek Valley. The terrain now steeper and the trails narrower, Kinser bounded up the west side of the valley, his swelling enthusiasm for the terrain far overwhelming any burning in his leg muscles. Diss, as he would do throughout the entire deployment, kept up with him.
“Glad I was born and raised at seven thousand feet in Colorado, sir. Not sure I could keep up if I was born in Florida or something.” Crack! “Wha? . . .”
“Contact!” Posselt bellowed. Crack!
“Single shots. Sniper fire,” Kinser calmly surmised as he raised his M16 from behind the cover of a large boulder and scanned the vaulting terrain with his ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, a sight that projects a bright view of the subject with clear ranging tick marks projected in red, mounted to most of the battalion’s M16s). “Ever been shot at before, Diss?” he asked. Diss shook his head. “Me neither. Not sure I like it too much, but I’m really gonna love shootin’ back as soon as we find these fuckers.”
“There it is, that small house up there!” Posselt yelled.
“Got it.” Kinser located the house, built of and surrounded by stones, naturally camouflaging it. “Can’t see anyone up there, though.”
“ASF caught a glimpse. They’re hiding in there,” Posselt stated. “We’ll direct-lay some 60s.”
“That’ll let ’em know we got their position,” Kinser said, beginning to laugh.
The first 60 mm mortar, fired by direct laying, where the mortarmen hand-elevates the tube (with the bottom of the launcher placed on the ground with no base plate), landed just short of the building. Whump! The explosion echoed throughout the valley. The second shot hit dead-on.
“Hey, Diss. We’re officially in the war now. Congratulations,” the lieutenant proudly announced as he stood atop the rock Diss crouched behind, scanning the area.
“Thanks, SIR!”
The patrol closed on the house and discovered two men, huddling inside—and one Chinese rip-off version of a Soviet Dragunov 7.62 mm sniper rifle. Just hours after moving into their new home, twenty-four-year-old Second Lieutenant Patrick Edward Kinser of Jonesville, Virginia, and nineteen-year-old Lance Corporal Corey Diss of Center, Colorado, became the first Marines of ⅔ deployed as a battalion to directly engage an enemy in over thirty-five years.
“I think I’m gonna like it here in the Hindu Kush,” Kinser said with a big grin.
“I’m just gonna make sure to keep the radios working, sir,” Diss replied.
As Scott Westerfield delved into the work of unmasking Shah and other targets on his list in early June, Tom Wood set about developing a plan to eliminate those targets. He contacted Erik Kristensen, and the two worked up a model based on Stars to restabilize and bolster security in the Korangal Valley area that used NAVSOF for the first two phases of the mission. But while the SEALs of Team 10 and their associated SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team (SDVT—SEALs who would tactically support Team 10) were eager to join with ⅔ for the mission, the new CJSOTF-A commander put a halt to the notion. No longer would the Marines be able to assume de facto tactical