Fire Base Illingworth by Philip Keith

Author:Philip Keith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2017-12-12T05:00:00+00:00

0314, Charlie Company, Bunker 3

SP4 Rick Hokenson was about ready to snap. When the shelling had begun he, like everyone else out on the berm, had gone diving for shelter. He had been assigned to Charlie Company’s bunker 2; in fact, that’s where he’d been sleeping of late, head toward the enemy. As the mortars and rockets rained down in a seemingly never-ending succession, another grunt had jumped into his normal spot, feet toward the enemy. Rather than stand out in the open in a shower of hot steel and debate the issue, Hokenson flung himself into bunker 3. Moments later, a mortar round dropped in front of bunker 2, practically on top of the sandbagged culvert. The man in Hokenson’s place had both legs riddled with shrapnel. Had Hokenson been in his place, his head would have shredded into hamburger instead of the other American’s extremities. It was another sign from that mocking little imp bouncing around in Hokenson’s brain.

“It was the worst pounding I ever experienced,” Hokenson said later. “They kept hammering us mercilessly, and as the incoming grew louder and more intense, our outgoing started to slacken as more and more of the guns and mortars were being hit. That’s when I knew we were in real trouble.”

Hokenson and his culvert mates were three bunkers away from the 8-inch guns. The big howitzers were totally defenseless and seemed to be getting the lion’s share of the incoming. Hokenson had a good buddy over there, a pal who had just come back that day from R&R in Hong Kong. The two of them had been sharing some C-rats a few hours ago, and Hokenson’s friend had been bragging about his leave and some beautiful new suits he had ordered from Ricky’s Special Hong Kong Tailors. As the blasts around the howitzers grew in fury, Hokenson wondered if his friend would survive the shelling—and if he didn’t, where would Ricky mail the finished suits?

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