Outside the Wire by Jim Ross

Author:Jim Ross [Ross, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2013-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Alpha's tracks fronted the riverbank, with the bridge to our immediate left. At midnight I climbed topside and snuggled in behind the .50 for watch. An occasional firefly blinked in the still, sultry air, and after awhile a rising moon, glinting pale yellow off the dingy water, made the boxy APCs appear in stronger silhouette. Unlike Cu Chi and the Filhol, there were no sounds of war bleeding through. It was as quiet as you might expect in such a primitive place, and except for wandering fireflies and the whine of mosquitoes, even the night creatures were laying low. The bridge was continuously watched by sentries from the HQ camp, who blooped M79 grenade rounds into the near thickets on the opposite bank every so often. The flash and karump of their detonations split the stillness and resonated eerily along the river's curves.

I stared at the tangled branches dragging the current, thinking we were about to be fed a pill more bitter than your average Joes are used to swallowing. I was no longer a rookie. I considered myself combat-worthy. But this was an unchartered and unpredictable mission, and I was tensed up like an over-torqued mainspring. Such jitters would have to be snuffed if I expected to navigate Dracula's mansion without having my jugular drained. That much was certain, so I concentrated on beefing up my resolve. It worked, but took a lot of concentration, and by the time I woke Ranger for watch I had a headache mean enough to kill a small dog.

At dawn, diesel exhaust hung in the wet air as we revved up and rambled across the floating bridge into Cambodia. Our point of entry was just below the chin of what the maps called the Dog's Face. Sister companies and the other units headed west and north. We shadowed the river southward to rummage around an area tagged NVA Base Area 354, whatever that meant.

The triple canopy blocked enough light to keep the foliage thinned out down low, and our pace was quick. The jungle floor was flat, damp, smelly. At the first curve along the river we found a cluster of crude hootches and lean-tos that appeared to be a rest station of sorts for the NVA. A quick search turned up nothing, so we torched it and moved on. Pretty soon the radio got busy with reports that Charlie and Bravo Companies had already clashed with small pockets of NVA. Charlie killed three, then gave chase and drove two tracks over land mines, triggering the ambush they had just been conned into. We could hear machine-gun fire far off, and chatter on the box made it sound like they'd launched the next global war.

We held up briefly, waiting to see if they needed help, but things died down quicker than expected, so we kept moving. At some point we turned west, and as the day wore on it began to look like we were trolling in the wrong place when 2nd Platoon's lead tracks took small arms and automatic weapons fire from a feisty but small element of NVA.

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