2023-01-29 12:20:41Later that day, around 9.30-ish, the eleven of us gathered in front of the porch. Buck’s leg was fine, it turned out to be just a ricochet. Major Metford then joined us. He briefed us about what we should do with this squad. Or so I thought.
“If we’re talking about Marine doctrine, the squad leader is best not to be part of a team. I mean, good job what you did here, but it’s gonna be better for you if you’re separate from the team. Second in command, however, is more flexible,” he said. I didn’t understand at first, but then, “If you are leading the squad, you don’t want the hassle of leading a team on top of that. Relegate the team to someone else, and you coordinate with that person,” he continued.
“Roger that, Major,” Red said. “That means you lead the team, Ryan,”
“Me? Oh, no, no, no,” Ryan said to Red.
“Oh, yes, and that’s an order,”
“I guess it’s time for you guys to have this,” Major chuckled as he handed out some patches. “Put these on your vests, those are your insignias,” he continued, “give the corporal insignias to the team leaders. The rest are all privates, they don’t need any. We don’t have that many of these patches lying around anyway—we took them from the dead.”
We took a good look at those patches, hardly believing it. As we looked at each other, the Major smiled, “Welcome to Recon.”
We were left speechless with that. He then proceeded to get back to the house, to check on his daughter, I guess.
The situation hadn’t cleared off yet, mind you. There were still gunfire, mortars, jets, and explosions going off. It was just not in our position. Lieutenant and several of his men were doing their job as they had been told, apparently. Rattles of rifle and machine gun fire can be heard from the compound.
“So I’m a Staff Sergeant, now?” Red said, looking at the patch she had been given.
“Yeah you’re the squad leader,” I answered. “Dan, you are the team leader. Take this,”
“Yes, Sergeant!” he replied, with his usual enthusiasm.
I decided to take Red to see Grace while we were on a bit of a lull. We went inside the house and saw some more Marines being treated. There was Honé, too. Poor guy, his legs were blown off, with his torso peppered with fragments. One of them appeared to have pierced the throat. That’s what killed him. But I guess he went unconscious from the shock first, and if that was so, good for him.
There was a TV in the living room, but I figured it wouldn’t work. We saw Ian sitting in the corner, holding his head. He seemed to be tired, although I think that wasn’t the only case. This here was way more than what he was used to back in the academy. Of course, there wasn’t any explosion going off, neither was this much blood. But I was sure he could hang through.
“Hey, Doc. How’s it going, are you okay?” Red said to him, laying her hand on his shoulder.
“Oh, Hi, Sergeant,” he sighed, “I guess I’m okay,” then he chuckled.
“You sure?” I sat beside him. “You don’t look too good yourself,”
“Yea?” He looked at me, “Well, I guess I was just tired. And Grace…”
“It’s okay, Doc, it’s not your fault. You did good,” I patted his shoulder. He deserved that.
“Well, I gotta get to the aid station,” he stood up. “See you around, folks,” —
The stench of gunpowder, oil, and blood definitely hadn’t worn off, especially with several dead bodies and the wounded. It filled the air in the room along with an eerie vibe of battlefield silence. But then it went off again. Gunfire. But it was not here. Several hundred meters from the battered fence of the compound, it was. I think the Lieutenant met resistance and blew them all to hell. It lasted for a couple short minutes, then it stopped. We figured they will be back soon.
I hung around in the living room for a little longer. With shards of wood and glass everywhere, I needed to watch where I step. Red looked at the time on her watch and decided to walk outside. A short while after, I saw a uniformed figure standing in the corridor of the house. The figure walked towards me slowly, making me uncomfortable for a while. But then I remembered—
“Hey, Mike,” Grace greeted me softly. There she was, with her face still bandaged. It looked like her right temple was still bleeding a little.
“Hi,” for fuck’s sake that can’t be all I can get out, “so how do you feel?”
“A bit numb,” she said, feeling her cheeks, “You?”
“Not much. Caught a fragment of a mortar round, near my left rib, but I’m okay,” I said, walking closer towards her.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I am. Ian got it covered,”
“Ian?” She smirked confusedly. “You sure he got you fixed?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I answered, “although I was skeptical at first,”
We laughed it off. Well, I think that makes me feel a little bit better. It was her, after all. But in the end, I assured her that we were okay and headed out to the guys. Just as Grace left to get back inside, someone called me from behind.
“Hey, Mouse,” she said. There’s only one person who got to call me that.
“Yea?”
“Look what I found,” it was two cans of beer, a little dinged up here and there. “Wanna have some?”
“Of course, I do. Thank you,”
I took one of the cans. It was warm.
“Where did you get this?” I asked her.
“Soko handed out a few of these back in our tent,”
Well, we all know warm beer is never good. But that was all we had, so we enjoyed that beer and smoked a little more on the outside edge of the living room.
“You figure we’d survive this?” she asked me.
“With you leading us? Come on. We believe in you, I told you that,”
“Oh, stop it, you,” she looked at me.
“But I saw you there. You led us like a real soldier, even after being knocked down. That is a proof of your capability,”
“It’s not that, though,” she sighed, “I mean, yeah, I do hesitate at times, but that’s not what I’m talking about,”
“I’m listening,”
“Like… I don’t have the slightest idea of how everything will play out, even if this ever ends. I mean how are we going to keep on living after seeing death all around?”
“I don’t know either. I mean I’d rather not think about it too much, personally. All I think about now is getting out of here alive,”
“I guess you’re right,” she agreed.
The Major emerged from his room, now a makeshift Command Center, which had its doors shut. No wonder I couldn’t find him. He seemed a bit calmer than the last time, now that he knew LT took care of those enemy troops. Or so he thought. The firefight stopped right then and there, and we expected the LT to get back to the compound. Three minutes later, two guys came back. There was no sign of the lieutenant. The Major went towards these guys and asked for a report.
“Major, sir,” said one of the Marines, “we were overwhelmed,” the Marine said, “We’ve got Tangos everywhere, we pulled back, and we lost the LT,”
“Larkwell?”
“He told us to fall back, sir. He covered our retreat,” the Marine said.
“For fuck’s sake,” the Major sighs. “I want a search party organized—”
“Hang on, Major,” Wilkins intervened, “We already lost a squad here, sir. We still need men to defend this area,”
The Major was unable to respond for a couple of seconds, seeming to think about what the Sergeant Major said. “Fuck,” The Major exclaimed.
“Damn those pigs,” The Major said, clenching his teeth. “Soko, you take care of the defense here. You’re the platoon leader now,”
Soko was surprised. With a mutter under his breath, he replied, “yes sir,”
The Major then went back inside. Sergeant Major followed him. Soko stayed with us—yes, even though he’s unofficially a lieutenant now, he’s still okay with it. He’s about to be our new platoon commander, and with 2 Marine squad left, they were about to count us in. Hopefully they captured the Lieutenant instead of killing him. He was a good man, to be frank.
We were just standing there, not really back on our position. There were too many holes to fill in after we lost that one squad the Lieutenant brought. We were spread too thin, or at least so I thought. Spreading too thin doesn’t really look like this. It’s like five men covering the 100-yard line. But for me, less than 40 people covering the 300-yard line was quite little.
“Are you really okay?” I asked Red.
“I am, why?”
“Nothing, just making sure,” I paused, “It looks like we’re moving out pretty soon,”
“Where?”
“I don’t know, but this position is already compromised. We might need a new place to hide the Major,” I continued.
“But they didn’t see the Major,”
“Well, my thinking was that we’re now at risk of being overrun. Either that, or he’s just being a bit too cautious,”
It was still right around eleven o’clock. The sun burned everything not under the shades. The foul odor of blood spread everywhere, especially with heat evaporating anything liquid. Gunfire was still heard every now and then on the faraway side of the battlefield. But for us, it was a lull. Could be dangerous, I tell you. Enemies can catch us off guard, attacking while we take breaks. But it didn’t happen.
We then coordinated with the squad, assessing damage and distributing supplies. We had plenty of rounds, most of us armed with rifles had at least 240 rounds of 5.56mm attached to our bodies. The 5th Squad riflemen even had 300 rounds with each of us, except for Red, who downloaded it to 210 for better mobility. MGs have even more rounds. They have 700 for the SAW, 500 for the GPMG, not including their assistant gunner. It’s actually good for bug outs, but we’re not ready for it, I guess.
Buck is fine now. He chatters as usual again after getting treatments for his leg. The ricochet was quite big, probably an AK-47 round. Had it pierced a little deeper, it might’ve hit the artery and drained him out of blood.
“How’s that leg?” I asked
“Stiff, sore, what have you, Mick. But it still works,” he said, quite lightly. The bruise on his head is almost gone, too.
“You sure you can manage?”
-----
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Irregulaire Body Count
Soko then ordered us to clear the field of fire. That means we had to move the dead bodies so the next wave couldn’t use them as covers. He only needed two men from my squad, so I told Kris and Frank to do it. Also, he needed to report how many enemy combatants we had killed, so we had to count the dead. I decided to join in, to help clear ordinances. I picked up weapons and ammunition on those bodies before the others could pick them up. We moved them and collected them by the mortared house. We need to be careful, as they could be tripped or boobied, both the weapons and the bodies. They could have left a grenade under them that explodes when the body is being moved. One of the pairs of Marines who did this with us actually had one of these but put the body back down quick enough to muffle the grenade. Lucky bastards, they are. But then— “What was that?!” Soko shouted towards us. “It’s a—” BUB, BUB, BUB, BUB, BUB “TAKE COVER!!” A string of machine gun fire came in towards us. P
Irregulaire Casualties
The next day. I was walking around the compound with my M16 when another explosion went off near the fence, followed by a bunch of gunfire. It was a little past 3AM. A little more probing, I think. Lucky, I had that gun locked and loaded. Let’s just hope they don’t come as far inside the perimeter now. But he did have his pistol ready. Red and I jumped out and stormed towards my position. We both noticed that the right flank machine gun was not firing.“GET THAT DAMN MACHINE GUN FIRING, MICKEY!” she commanded. I rushed towards the machine gun, then fired away almost immediately. You know, when you fire that thing, you’ll feel an overwhelming force pulling you into shape, protecting you. A steady stream of thumps hurt you a little at first, but it made you feel stronger over time. And with a cartridge that powerful, the weight seemed not to be a problem for a while. I kept pulling the trigger until I ran dry. That gun fires rather slowly, but 200 rounds don’t seem to be that much. I w
Irregulaire Refuge
“FUCKING BASTARDS!!” Red let it rip with her M4, switching it to full-auto mode, expending the rest of her magazine. I got back to the machine gun, handling it even more furiously. But the wave got so close I figured we would’ve needed to call in support—but we were alone. We didn’t have mortars either, and our grenades would’ve been less effective. Not long after that, two rockets flew past us. The Marines still had a few LAWs, it turned out. It was very much like Independence Day celebration, with bursts of explosion from the rockets lighting up the compound and the enemy positions around them. Now where is that can I left in the bushes? “Red! Last can! I need to find some ammo!” “Alright, Mickey, take off!” It was just a few steps towards my left, but it felt like yards. Enemy fire went above my head as I turned back to look at Red and Kris. Red had moved forward, taking cover behind the fence, beside the MG position. She kept firing and firing, magazine after magazine. When she
Irregulaire Last Glance
The rest of the squad were mostly okay. Mark’s ears were still bleeding, and Kris’ upper arm was scratched. But for the most part, they’re okay. We then gathered with the Major who then commanded us to clear the field of fire. The dead bodies of the enemy piled up again, and it needed to be torn down. “Why didn’t you just ride your way out to HQ?” I asked the Major.“I was waiting for you. I need an escort to move out, so I sent for you to stand guard in their place and take care of Grace while we leave,” he said, smoking his pipe. “But we didn’t get to take off because—well, you saw it yourselves. We couldn’t risk getting flanked. Every time I thought it would be clear for me to move out, they make a move on us,” “How about an airlift?” “We couldn’t send out a request,” he shook his head. I remember now that the tower cannot transmit anything. “That radio tower is busted. The last thing I sent for using the radio was you. Besides, it’s too hot of an LZ,” he concluded.A few minutes
Irregulaire Waves
“HERE THEY COME!” somebody shouted. Technicals rolled into the open fields, firing their .50 caliber machine guns towards anything they saw. Tracers and rockets were flying all over the place, tearing the skies with streaks of yellowish light. Explosions went off all over the ground inside the base, some of them hitting the Hesco gabions and the perimeter walls. Every time I tried to get a look on the enemy, their rounds went past so close to my head I had to duck. Red was just waiting there, patient. “Wait until the first line opens fire, then we follow,” she instructed. The hisses of near misses disturbed our ears, tearing through the air. I could hear bullets hitting the other side of where I took cover, and it was way more intense than any of our encounters with the enemy before. I went on and checked my new weapon, whether or not it really was locked and loaded. It’s way too late for that, I know. But I just had to. I pressed the button on the grenade launcher to open the tube,
Irregulaire Confused
Being stationed in the Major’s outpost made us feel the brunt of the enemy forces. We were a little protruding towards the enemy territory, making us more vulnerable. Not to mention, the isolation of the post meant that there was little support. Moving towards the FOB, we felt… more secure. There were a lot more people around, more firepower to back us up.The way I saw it, we were alone being in the Major’s outpost. No other units or even other marines to be around, even when we have this FOB close by. I think this is partly because such big attacks were not expected in that area, being hidden under canopies and among other houses. Plus, as the Major stated, their radio being unserviceable meant that they just couldn’t reach out to this base to support us. Now that we’re in a bigger base, we would be the ones sending support to other Marines as we had enough men. We went ahead and gathered around a few more minutes while the Major walked back inside. Sergeant Major then appeared out
Irregulaire Blurry
Sergeant Major Wilkins came out of nowhere all of a sudden, with a very visible frown on his forehead. He seemed to have argued with someone—most likely the Major. “Ah, there you are. The Major is looking for you guys. He’s just outside the door,” “Yes, Sergeant Major,” we said almost simultaneously. We went outside and saw Major Metford looking uneasy. I guess he was the one Wilkins had argued with afterall. He took out a cigarette and lit it up before he turned towards the door and saw us. “Michael,” he called out to us, “Gather your team and get over here. We have a situation,” he said, taking a drag of his cigarette after. Red went on towards the guys while I stayed with the Major. They joked around and laughed while resupplying themselves with ammunition. Red decided to resupply too while she’s at it. As they walked towards us, I tried to talk to the Major. “What is it, sir? Are we moving out?” “No. Not us. Just you. You’ll be assisting a platoon I’m sending out,” “Were yo
Irregulaire Rescue Mission
Two days later, the Major summoned us again quite late in the evening. Like before, we followed Sergeant Major Wilkins to where the Major was. It was a CP in the middle of the base. They manage every patrol and operation they have in that room. They have everything—maps, radio, sand tables, even coffee. “Alright, so, we have a situation,” the Major started. “There was a group of Marines who radioed in, asking for help. They said they are in bad condition and needed support. These Marines were sent out on a patrol and are on their way back. However, they were caught in a firefight. They say they are with civilians now, which worsens their condition,” “Where are they now, sir?” Red asked. “A residential complex called The Delta Residence, just—" “A mile north of here,” I jumped in. “Oh you know where it is?” The Major seemed surprised. I used to live there when I was in elementary school. “We need you to find the Marines and bring them back to the FOB,” the Major continued. “Any pr
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Thank You Note
Thank you for reading Recon: The Battle for Crawford! This was one of my many war story ideas, however only a few turned into a meaningful fruition, including this one. I usually draw instead of write, and this is my first ever completed writing. Like a lot of stories, it began with a “what if”. It did take inspiration behind an amalgamation of various historical wars involving irregular and paramilitary fighting and invading forces, such as the Vietnam War, Korean War, Russo-Georgian War of 2008, etc. The result was quite fun, with world-building (that had not yet been completed as of this publishing date) that takes ages to write and carefully spun-off historical events. I got to experiment with a lot of ideas for the storyline, and it turned out pretty good. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Cheers!
Glossary
2IC: Second in Command, i.e., assistant leader. AG-(number): Autorifle, Grieland (number of iteration). Locally developed service rifle.AK: Automatic Kalashnikov. Introduced in 1947, its design evolved into a wide variety of firearms. ALICE Gear: All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment. A setup of belts and pouches to carry ammunition and several other things an infantry might need.Bandolier: ammunition pouches sewn into belts or sling. Boobied: slang for booby-trapped Booby Trap: traps set up to maim or kill enemy soldiers. The term came from how it fools the enemy thinking it was safe, hence the term booby (=fool). C2: Command and Control center Cal.: slang/short for Caliber Carbine: short rifles.Company: a unit of soldiers consisting of roughly three to four platoons plus their commander Compound: a military encampment CP: Command Post det-cord: short for Detonation Cord. a type of explosive shaped like a cord to cut through various structuresDMR: Designa
Epilogue
I took Red to the casualty collection point near the temporary aid station. Blood was still dripping down her face. Q followed close behind, with Neil and Vic walking alongside her. That 50-meter trip felt like the longest walk I had ever walked my entire life. The fountain we passed by became crowded with wounded men as a temporary aid station was placed there. Bloomberg was reporting to Soko. Colonel Patterson was seen organizing the men, telling people where to go and stuff. I put Red down near the building on the east side of that fountain. A medic then approached us, asking whether or not he could’ve helped. After putting her down, I reached into one of her pockets to retrieve our gold pouch, figuring I would hold on to it, though I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it. Following her request, I also took Red’s leather-strapped watch off her wrist and pocketed it. I caressed her hair one last time before heading back to the rest of our squad. I’ll see you soon, I whispered.Near the f
The Last Push
“Vic, you got a couple of frags?” I asked, to which he responded by giving me two pineapple grenades. I pulled the pin on the grenades and let the spoon fly off before tossing it consecutively inside the house. I closed the door right after, containing the blast inside the room. Two loud thumps and a few screams later, I kicked the door down. We then opened fire towards the inside of the building, which turned out to be a bakery.“CLEAR!” I shouted after looking left, to which everyone responded by coming inside, with Bloomberg and Vic clearing the other rooms. I instructed Q to stay away from the windows and Neil to guard the entrance to the rear. I then took a good look at the enemies laying around and popped off a few rounds to make sure they’re dead. They were in uniform, and it’s the ANM. “Red,” I called out, “Marren troops,” “No, shit,” she exclaimed. “Where the hell are the rest of the Marines?” Yeah. Where the hell are the Marines? We’re sitting ducks here waiting for them
Surrounded
“GET THE HELL OUT OF THE STREETS! GO!” Soko commanded the rest of his men. “Get away from the windows! Mark!” Red instructed. The explosion then rang all around us, rattling windows and kicking dust. A few rounds landed really close to the building we were in—thankfully, none of those landed on top of us. The shelling lasted for only a couple minutes, but it surely scared the hell out of us. When it fell silent, we poked our heads out and looked out the windows. Most of the platoon seemed to be okay, and we got out to the streets again. Soko then told us to move across the intersection, then take the now empty machine gun nest and settle there.“We’ll stay here for the moment,” he said. Feeling too bunched up, he spread his men to cover more area. “Konan, take 1st squad and cover the intersection to the south. Hal, take the 2nd squad and face east. 3rd squad will cover our rear. They might be coming down on us really soon,” The platoon then took a little break from the fights, howe
Going out
“I thought you said we’re walking,” I said to Soko, who was getting the drivers ready. By 10.05, we were already out front, lining up for the vehicles we were boarding to head closer towards our objective. “I thought so, too,” he answered, “But the Colonel said we could use the vehicles halfway through. Didn’t want to tire this little lady over here,” he added, looking at Q. She grinned. Now, these trucks are big, and it could be a bullet magnet if we drive all the way up to the front. Besides, we’re supposed to be a surprise element. It makes sense if we were to be dropped halfway. “Oh, yeah. Tell your radio guy to leave his pack. I got one with me,” “Alright,” I said, “Neil!” I called him. “This is it, fellas,” Red announced up front, carrying a map of the area we were going to attack. “Everyone, check your equipment. Put your helmets on. Team leaders, gather around,” she waved at us.“Here we are, Red,”“Okay, here’s the deal. I want you guys to split into two sections at our en
The Father
8.00 am. Mufudzi was kneeling head slumped, mourning his deceased friend. Victor and Neil knelt beside him, as they had served together. With Benson gone, we’re down to only 12 men. That effectively makes Harrison’s team the only one with four men—a proper fire team. I mean, a team of three had sufficed so far, but four was the actual infantry standard. About an hour later, Soko gathered his sergeants—including us. Looks like a briefing, as we had just been under attack. I figured it’s about the plan to reconstruct the defense in case another attack comes, but I figured wrong.“Looks like we’re heading out. Not now, though. Word is we’ll take three blocks of housing complex about two kilometers towards the northwest of the Airport. Enemy activity in that area is still perceivably high, so take caution,” Soko briefed us. “Wait, just us?” Red frowned.“No, word is I’m going with you,” Soko explained, “but I’m not sure so don’t tell anyone yet,”“Are we gonna be on foot?” I asked. “I’
Rage
Out of anger, a few of the officers and NCOs took off to catch those three men, carrying only rifles. They had already gone into the tall grass towards the South at this point, and a few gunshots can be heard. An eager officer later, a handful of men had already run outside, carrying their rifles and what little ammunition they could immediately take with them. It soon erupted into a firefight, as they had been walking—or running, rather—straight into an ambush. They soon pull back, with the rest of them standing by near the outer fence providing cover. I turned my attention back to Red and Harrison. Red was kneeling beside the Major, putting her hand on the Major’s wound. Soko was both furious and panicking. “Fuck,” Soko exclaimed. “You guys get back to your men. I’ll handle the Major,” he said to crowding Marines.“What happened? I heard gunfire,” Kris asked while coming over towards us with the rest of the crew as we came near our quarters.“The Major was shot,” Red answered. “Wha
Guests
We then saw rolling dust moving in towards the gate. I hope it’s the rescue team returning, as I had left my rifle inside. As it closed in, the gate swung open and three intact vehicles came in. Well, that was quick. But hey, at least they’ve made it. We stood up and walked towards them, and saw the three survivors of the crash—or so I thought. They were all in uniform, although I don’t necessarily recognize them. They were armed as well, only minus armor vests. Look out, we got some hotshots over here. Soko and the Major welcomed them and had them debriefed. It turned out they were not survivors of the crash—they were Long Range Patrols, one of the branches of Army Special Forces. They might have run into the jeeps on their way back here. One of those spec-ops guys was taller than the others, and had strikingly messy hair—something unusual for soldiers, but I guess it’s fine since they’re SF. “Well shit, this base even has a hooker on board,” one of the three exclaimed, looking up