Into The Trees

Danger Close

The well slept resistance fighters gathered around the ruins of the NVA base and listened to Bert give his instructions. "Gentlemen, you are to be split into teams for this operation. Ernie, Scooter, Samusé, Joe and I shall lead the 1st team, the officers shall join us as will the first and second platoons of Dog company. Steven and Ross are the newly appointed USMC officers, you can organise the troops into the 4th team. Mic you can do the same for the 3rd team. Alastor and Ryce, organise the civilian resistance, you are the 2nd team." It took an hour's work, but it was worth it. The teams were ready and the operation was about to start. The 2nd team had headed off along a dirt road that the NVA was using, the 4th team was rafting down a southward river in a nearby field, the 3rd team marched either side of the river bank and the 1st team went through the dense jungle. "Uh, Bert?" asked Scooter. "Aren't the Vietcong operating in the jungle?"

"Yes, that's why we're taking this route; so that we can eliminate possible threats to the other teams." They kept marching, with some officer's eyes nervously darting around the canopy, every time they saw an odd shadow. "I'm not taking orders from you! I'm a senior officer, not some cadet!" yelled one of the officers. His words were slurred and he was holding a metal flask. He ran out in front of the 1st team and dashed through the bushes. He tripped and the ground flipped up in front of him. A sickening scream erupted from the hole. Scooter and Bert ran towards the hole and peered in; the officer had a bamboo spike piercing through his back and out the side of his stomach. Scooter racked the slide on his PM Makarov and pointed it up at the trees. He motioned for silence and the rest of the team pointed their guns at the trees. Without warning a rain of bullets hailed down on them. They shot back, and bodies collapsed onto the ground left and right. Several of the soldiers from the 1st team had been shot, the militias in the trees they had fought were Vietcong, armed with old Kalashnikovs. Samusé went over to the drunken officer and lifted him out of the hole. The officer had fainted from blood loss. Samusé soaked a dressing in alcohol and pressed it against the wound, then wrapped the wound with a bandage. Two of the other officers carried him in silence.

Meanwhile, teams, 4 and 3 had made it down to a Vietcong Forward Operating Base or FOB. Steve and Ross had planned an assault from the shade of the jungle surrounding the FOB. "Team 4, you shall take cover at the trees to the East of the camp. Team 3 you will attack from the front. When team 3 starts the assault, team 4 will start firing. Is that clear?" Ross announced. The troops nodded and loaded their guns before rushing to their positions. "You ready lads?" Asked Ross in his deep Irish accent. His men nodded and some replied with muffled verbal replies. Ross heard the sound of loud gunshots from below them. "Fire!" Yelled Ross who had begun unloading his M16 clip in bursts. As the 3rd team attacked, the Vietcong ran into the river and tried to escape by submerging themselves and swimming away. The 4th team threw grenades into the river while the 3rd captured their trucks. The slightly red-tinted water splashed everywhere, the river bank crumbled and the 4th team's rafts were turned into splinters. "Well folks," announced Steve, "We shall follow the 2nd team down the dirt road on these trucks." The soldiers jumped onto the backs of the trucks with every fifth soldier going in the front. They held their guns tightly, watching carefully for a counter-assault.

Ross sat in the back of a converted US Army logistics truck that was covered with the paint and blood of the NVA and Vietcong. He noticed a very faint glint of sunlight that caught his eye. He looked intently at the cliff edge that it came from. A flash of light appeared for a split second. The head of the soldier sitting next to Ross had a gaping hole in it. Ross heard the delayed and distant gunshot and yelled "SNIPER!" He was the first out of the truck and had started firing at the cliff edge in an attempt to suppress the sniper. He heard the sound of gunshots increase and realized that they were being shot at from all sides. "GET US ARTILLERY!" Yelled Ross who was reloading his rifle. "DANGER CLOSE!"

"G13 this is Easy Company, Fire mission grid 2512 325." Said the radioman into his receiver. "64° 100 meters danger close." He took a deep breath. "Fire for effect three meters." He nodded to Ross. "Get Down!" The first shell landed next to a group of Vietcong soldiers severely injuring them. The tires of the trucks burst, with the bullets that were striking every possible surface. The last thing Ross saw before getting knocked unconscious was a tower of orange flames and dirt.

"Sir, Teams two and three have gone radio silent!" Said Isabelle who was one of the radio women for Dog Company. "Their last radio transmission was a danger close artillery strike." "So they're probably out of action." Said Bert as he chambered a bullet in his M16. Team one had come under heavy enemy fire except they had the high ground. "Last Mag!" Yelled Bert as he leaned around a tree and fired at the wave of Vietcong that charged towards them.

Joe started firing his M60 at the large group of Vietcong. He had got the M60 from one of his friends in the Marine corps who had been heavily injured during the raid. Mic's role had been temporarily changed to a combat engineer dispute the fact that he wasn't qualified.

Scooter was lying down on the hill with a spotter. It didn't matter who Scooter hit as long as he hit them. The only exception was when someone had a grenade. "We got a man with a machine gun to the right of that fallen log." Said the spotter. Scooter pivoted his gun until it was facing the man and pulled the trigger. To Scooter's surprise, the Vietcong were climbing up the steep cliff towards them. "Look Out! They're climbing up the hill!" Yelled Scooter. Scooter grabbed his rifle and pushed the spotter down the hill. He signalled to someone on the ground that they were being flanked.

Isabelle tapped Bert on the shoulder and said: "We're being flanked." Bert nodded and ordered a squad to divert their fire towards the hill. Scooter followed the spotter down the hill and began running to Bert. The Vietcong started to appear over the hill and began firing down onto team 1.

Bert peeked around the corner and saw the Spotter get shot in the chest. Bert left his position and ran towards the spotter. He grabbed his collar and began dragging him to cover. "Medic!" Yelled Bert who had placed the wounded man against a fallen log. Samusé was the first to respond to Bert's call for aid. "Who's hit?" He asked. Bert pointed to the man who was applying pressure to the wound with a field dressing he had been given by Bert. Samuséslid to where the man sat. "What's your name?" Said Samuséwho was trying to grab medical supplies from his medic bag. "Kevin." Said the man. "Well Kevin, You'll be fine." Said Samusé who had begun to remove the bullet with tweezers.

"Sir, we're surrounded on all sides. We need air support" Yelled Isabelle. "Call in Broken Arrow," said Bert. Isabelle nodded and began to speak into the handset of her radio. Broken Arrow was a code that signalled every aircraft in the area that had ammunition to perform bombing runs on the area.

The sound of the jets that flew over the battlefield was deafening. Bert watched in fear at the explosions that shook the earth around his team.