The Everyday Gunner Part-1

"Team 1 ETA to LZ-1 is 60 sec", said the captain of an Mi-17. The Mi-17 was flying in formation with an Apache Longbow that was protecting the troop chopper from Ground as well as aerial Ambush. the light in the Mi-17 turned to red and the team was giving their weapons a final check. A team of 5 men was being dropped off for the purpose to Liberate POW's from a millitant Holding. The assault team was lead by Sgt Vasquez. Rest of the team memers included Zoom, smoke, black Heart and stacker. Stacker frantically asked Sgt Vasquez,”Hey Cap! Dont you think that the millitants will know that we are coming for’em miles before we even reach the

LZ”. Since Stacker was on his first mission, sgt vasquez said,”Son Never be afraid for whats to come next”. sgt radioed his team,”Lock n Load Men, weve got a mission on our hands, lets not screw this up for anyone!”. Saying this hew threw the cigar he was smoking out the Gun Door. “Check NVG’s, double check your Mags and remember No matter what we leave no man behind! HOORAAH!” team-1 was dropped 1 mile away from Team-2s LZ. Team-1 comprised of a sniper ‘Smoke’ and a spotter ‘Zoom’ who were experts in their fields. Both of them had excellent scores in the Sniper school. Smoke and Zoom did not know eachother before the military academy, but they became best friends ever since. Both of them were veterans from the Operation Iraqi Freedom. Blackheart was a specialist in CQB, and has proved himself manytimes during several Black Ops! Acoording to the plan Team-1 had to provide sniper support for team-2 while they were in the millitant camp.

“Team-1 ETA to LZ-2 is 20 sec”! Stacker was on his first ever mission in the battle field and sice he was the only son of his parents, he was pampered from his childhood. He rethinks his decision over and over again because he had a gut feeling that this was not a good idea. But he made his decision Final and prepared himself for what was going to come next. Sgt Vasquez was born and bred as a patriot from day1. When children of his age had posters of batman and spiderman in their rooms, he had the posters of many famous Millitary generals at that time. A fanatic one might call him, but he always said,”It takes an act of Valor to go and do something beyond your Fellings!”. Capt Yelled,”The ropes are deployed, get ready and buckle-up, remember we stay as a team!” the three member team rappelled down.

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The Everyday Gunner Part-1

The captain radioed Stacker and Blackheart, ”Stay tight, the package appears to be in building-3. Stacker cover the right flank. 5 seconds later Stacker said, “Sarge movement Left 9’0 clock”. Sarge replied “Hold your positions, just looks like its regular foot patrol. Blackheart take him out”. Blackheart mêlée the target in next 7 seconds. Sarge ordered Stacker to take position behind a barrier; he also ordered blackheart to take cover behind a check post. “Stacker, Blackheart Reconnaissance 10 seconds” said Sgt Vasquez. After 10 seconds he said, “Report Reconnaissance”. Stacker told sarge that not much movement was being observed. Blackheart reported that one person on the roof whereas 3 on the outside perimeter are being seen. Sgt radioed the sniper team to take out the militants on the roof and the outside perimeter. In the next 30 seconds 4 silent poofs were heard and then finally Stackhouse and blackheart gave the “all clear” signal. Sarge balckheart and stacker took positions against building-3. They slammed the door open. They reported, “Command the package is intact, i repeat the package is intact”. On hearing this the command expressed joy and told them to evacuate the area as soon as possible.

The Mi-17 was still in the air when they radioed, “Ehh Team-1 looks like we’ve got a problem! Tallies are advancing on your position fast. Vehicles with heavy machine guns are also been seeing approaching you”. On hearing this Sgt ordered his men  to clear the building with the prisoners. “Give me a total head count” he said. “4 males and one female Sir!” replied Stacker. “Heli-1, please proceed to extraction point bravo, i repeat please proceed to extraction point bravo”said sgt vasquez.  “Roger Team-1! Heli-1 moving to extraction point Bravo”. Sgt Vasquez radioed, “All teams, Plan B, i repeat Plan-B, Rendezvous at Exfill Point Bravo”. Suddenly a distressed voice replied, “Sarge you have to go without us, we are surrounded by Tallies. I dont think we can make it in time.....”. A string of emotions were rallying through Vasquez’s mind, he knew that he had lost many good men in situations like these, but this time he was determined not to let history repeat itself. He radioed,”Hang on son, im coming to get you!”.

He ordered Stacker and  Blackheart to take the POW’s back to the LZ and wait for them there. He was rallying towards team-2s location, just as he was in visible range to them, a charade of bullets pierced the pitch black night into bright LED’s. He somehow held himself together and reached team-2. “Sarge! God knows we are glad to see you, we thought we are never are gonna get out of this place alive but you proved us wrong”. Sarge Replied, “well we are not out of here yet, Smoke take the left flank. Zoom through some smoke grenades 2’0 clock, this should keep them occupied for sometime”. Saying this Team-1 executed his commands. “Listen up the Helis 1 klik South to our position. Zoom Radio the chopper and them to hold their position”. “Heli-1, this is team-2, please hold your position, i repeat please hold your position, our ETA is 6min”. Suddenly after a couple of minutes the heard a whirl sound approaching them. Sarge understood what is it, he said, “Hold tight boys we are going Home”. A feeling of joy ran over his face as he said so. Team-1 threw the rope to the ground and team-2 one by one were pulled up towards the Mi-17. At last Sgt Vasquez was the one to be lifted, on reaching the flight deck he pulled Stackhouse from his collar towards him and yelled, “Boy you did a good job back there, i am so glad to see you guys”. Everyone was greeting each other in the Heli as if they thought that they were never going to see each other again.

When they returned to the base Every one was happy for  moment, then a moment of silence prevailed all of them. Sgt Vasquez said, “Gentlemen it was good doing business with you, hope everyone had a joy-ride and i hope that Stacker has gotten over his pre-mission Jitters” A huge burst of laughter prevailed the Barrack that they were in.  

Tough Decisions!

Well these were some Tough Decisions that are regularly made by people who are always hanging in life and death situations!

     

Surviving War a Blessing or a Curse

13:00 hrs local time. A heavily protected military convoy could be seen exiting a millitary establishment in Jalalabad(Afghanistan). The convoy was headed by 2 Hummvees in the local camaflauge scheme. They were followed by 1 BMP-1, 2 Logistic Supply Flatbeds and one Hummvee at the end. The convoy commander was a Seargent called "Chesty". He was a veteran of the Gulf Conflict, divorced and lived with his childhood friend back in Illinois. Quiet experienced one might say. The soldier driving the Lead Hummvee was known as "Finch". Finch was a newbie to the war scenario and chose to join the military because he did not have enough college funds to let him make is way through college. so he got dropped out and decided to just make the best whats left off. The third crew-member in the hummvee was "Spider",  also a newbie but was deployed in the initial conflict of Afghanistan. He was a gunner and had one of the best shooting scores in the academy.  It started out as a normal routine patrol but the events that preceded further changed everything that was going to come ahead...

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Surviving War a Blessing or a Curse

What was there Ahead?

The mirages could be seen quiet a lot in that blistering day. Chesty turned on some music to lighten up the mood of the crew. It was pretty broken radio set but it sure did its job. Suddenly enough Command ordered the crew to maintain extreme caution and return to base immediately as the satellite imagery has shown recent militant movement in the area. the movement seems like the area has been rigged by IED's. Chesty on hearing this told Finch to slowly put the hmmvv to a standstill. in the next 10 seconds the convoy came to a frozen standstill  the sergeant yelled into the radio,"Everyone remain in formation, Gunners take position and keep a lookout for any unfamiliar movement  reports of hostiles in this area have been confirmed. Do not move until i direct you to do so". 5 minutes into this situation and the sand was now starting to get into the vehicles. the trail hmmvv reported,"Sarge there seems to be some kind of movement back here, approximately 250 meters 6'0 clock. GET REAADY....... ". These were the last words anyone heard from the trail hmmvv gunner. Spider told Chesty that there are militants all over the area and are coming from every direction. He told Chesty to radio the Convoy to clear the area and Ex-fil back to the Base ASAP. Chesty just bared the loss of one of his Team-member and flash backs of the Gulf War became very clear again. he thought that everything was getting gloomy around him and simply most of the stuff was in-audible to him. He radioed all the vehicles,"RTB ASAP! Remain extremely alert and do not, I repeat do not fire on unarmed civilians under any circumstances". In a midst the convoy took a full 180 and headed back to base. all vehicles were speeding swiftly when Spider saw the body of the trail hmmvv Gunner just dangling from the turret. A huge bang sounded and reluctantly one of the two flat-beds was seen rising up in flames. the convoy could certainly not stop now because it was a confirmed IED hit. 3 minutes into the situation, the team suffered another loss as a second hmmvv was targeted by an RPG fired from a Hilltop.  Another BMP-1 was disabled because the IED blew-off too close to it, resonantly the tracks of BMP-1 got of the wheels. 8 soldiers came out to defend the BMP-1, but the militants had already gained an upper hand on the terrain so before the soldiers could take up defensive positions, they were taken captive forcibly by the Militants. Spider saw all of this horror with his eyes, and just could not believe that he was seeing these many catastrophic events in a row. He started praying and hoping that God will spare him this time also as he has done in the past. He stood firmly out the turret with the heavy machine gun at his disposal. Well now after seeing so much horror of blasts and loss of his friends, he was now ready to shoot anything that was going to come between him and the Base. Sarge was yelling,"Spider take up defensive positions, shoot the militants that come in the way, just don't let anything take us down...". Spider was in a flashback of the lessons and the statements taught to him in the military academy, he could only think of the instructions that his instructor was giving him when he was being trained for the different scenarios. "Leave no man behind" were the words striking his eardrum again and again, but he left many men behind due to the situation that was prevailing at the time.

After RTB!!

On reaching safely back to the base he was in a state of shock and could not believe that what had happened in the previous 1 hour, how many friends he had lost? How many wife's are never going to see their Husbands again? How many men are never going to see their children play in the parks again? Who thought that he was buying his son the last ice-cream cone? These were the questions that were being pondered in Spiders mind, there was nothing he could do. He had a crystal clear view of the Battlefield and had seen all of its horrors. It was not the first time something like this has happened, it is all in a days job for The Everyday Gunner!

Stay tuned for Part-2