Warlord by Ilario Pantano

Author:Ilario Pantano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books

M: Yes, sir.

GITTINS: And when Lieutenant Pantano got down to that vehicle, you arrived and you made a determination that those guys were probably not threats; correct?

M: Yes, sir.

GITTINS: The five painters or whatever—however many there were.

M: Yes, sir. You could tell their demeanor.

GITTINS: They seemed like innocent Iraqis; correct?

M: Yes, sir.

GITTINS: And just to be clear, when you recommended to Lieutenant Pantano that these innocent Iraqis be released, you had them walk away; correct?

M: Yes, sir.

GITTINS: They didn’t drive away in that vehicle, did they?

M: No, sir.

GITTINS: You personally observed them walk away from the area; correct?

M: Yes, sir. I escorted them probably fifty meters north.

GITTINS: You escorted them?

M: Yes, sir.

Fallujah, Iraq

25 April 2004

Although the roof of the Fridge was naked, it did give me a good view of the city. Murphy’s law of combat: if you can see them, they can see you. The sniper’s precision fire intensified, striking the rooftop around me, but I wasn’t alone in this predicament. I had left orders that I was to go up by myself to check out the vantage point, but two of my men had followed. Against my orders, but to protect me. Corporal Stringham was firing his M-16/M-203, trying to suppress the enemy sniper.

Meanwhile a round glanced off the Kevlar helmet of PFC Smith. He looked a little shaken, but kept firing north.

“How many 203 smoke rounds you got left?” I asked Stringham.

He patted the multipouch grenade vest. “Only one, sir.”

“Put it into the field between the sniper and us.” The smoke popped, a thin yellow wisp.

I radioed for the other teams to pick up the volume of fire, and Smith was dashing down the stairs. Stringham kept firing north. I lobbed a red smoke grenade, which we usually saved for emergency “cease-fire” signals. By now, my men knew to keep on firing until the enemy was dead. So the red cloud became a surreal presence as we scrambled off the rooftop. Sniper and AK rounds followed us down the stairs, impacting above and beside us. Close.

Dashing and crawling, we made it back to the squad at the road berm and continued the patrol south. A cigar was going to taste good tonight.

But before I thought too far ahead, I conferred with Buster and we made sure to mark all the confirmed enemy fire positions on our maps. I was especially eager to get that sniper who’d nearly clipped my men and me. As soon as 1 RCT gave the go-ahead, I wanted to be back up here, watching some two-thousand-pound bombs hitting.

Burn, bitches.

No worse enemy.

Camp Lejeune

27 April 2005

Gittins’s cross-examination of the intelligence sergeant ground relentlessly ahead.

GITTINS: When Lieutenant Pantano was dealing with the second vehicle, did he seem to be—have the same demeanor he had before he dealt with the first two Iraqis?

M: Yes, sir.

GITTINS: There had been no change in his demeanor?

M: No, sir.

GITTINS: When Lieutenant Pantano—I’m sorry. After the rounds had been fired from the—in a very rapid way, you heard the lieutenant on the radio saying it was friendly fire; correct?

M: Yes, sir.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.