War Cry

12

Murdock checked the tanks again through his binoculars. They were over half a mile away heading in his general direction, but he had no thoughts that the tanks would charge through the woods when there was plenty of open ground around.

Unless they knew a general and his staff were hiding in this spot.

If the tanks came close enough, the soldiers might send a detail to the woods to gather firewood to heat up their tea.

The Korean scout and interpreter checked the tanks through Lam's glasses.

"Reserve tanks," the Korean said. "Not first-line outfit. Coming up to replace tanks lost so far in battle. Men behind would be replacement for infantry as well, not fighting unit. Many of these reserves are not well trained."

"Hell, at nine-to-one odds you don't have to be well trained," Lam said. "Cap, we just dig into our hide-holes and wait and hope?"

"Unless you have some outstanding suggestions," Murdock said. "I better go check out my own hole. Come on, ROK friend, you need a hiding place too."

Fifteen minutes later the tanks had rolled even with the SEALs but a good half mile to the right. One squad of soldiers broke off from the main body and double-timed directly for the copse where the SEALs had hunkered down. The weather had turned cold again, but at least there was no snow. Only a few patches of white showed along the back sides of ridges. Inside the woods, the ground had not even frozen.

Murdock had put his hide-hole near the edge of the woods where he could see out north and west. He watched the North Korean soldiers jogging toward them. Eight men. He used the Motorola.

"We have eight visitors coming. Absolute silence. They may penetrate only the edge of the woods for fuel. If you get stepped on, don't yell about it. If we take out one, we'll have to waste all of them, and that would mean a larger force coming to investigate. We hide today and live to fight another way. Jaybird, crawl in and caution the Army to be absolutely quiet. Stay there. Now, no transmissions."

The first NK soldier edged into the woods, his automatic rifle up and his body alert. He looked over the immediate area, and waved the rest of the squad forward.

The soldiers quickly began to pick up sticks and break them into fire lengths, tying them into bundles. Within five minutes they had seven bundles and worked on finishing the last one. One of the North Koreans swore as he stumbled and fell flat in the woods near a large pine tree.

He got up slowly and shouted something to the others. They laughed. The bundles finished, the eight men tramped out of the woods. As they left, two of the eight stepped directly on Murdock's back where he lay near the trail they had chosen. He bit his lip and weathered the last step, then gave a small sigh.

When the NKs were fifty yards away, Murdock used the mike. "Gone for now. Anybody get stepped on?"

Three men reported being tramped over, and Bradford said somebody fell down on him. "I almost shit right there," Bradford yelped. Major Dan Streib crawled out of (he thicket and walked over to Murdock.

"Heard you had some tanks out here," Major Streib said.

"And a squad of NK infantry who gathered some firewood right on top of us and left without seeing us," Murdock said.

A burst of raucous laughter came from the thistle patch.

"Wanted to talk to you, Commander," the major said. He motioned away from the men, and they walked toward the opening to the hideout.

"The general is so relieved that you're here that he's toasting the men with a few drinks."

Murdock glared at Streib. "You mean we brought you food and booze in those packs?"

"General's orders, Commander. I'd wager that you don't outshout your admiral when he gives you an order."

"Not usually, but when that admiral might endanger the lives of my men, I most certainly would. Which is exactly what I'm doing right now. You can come in and be my witness, or sit out here."

"I wouldn't do this, Commander."

"Either I go in there, collect all the damn booze you've got, and chew tail, or my men and I will conveniently lo se you and your party tonight before we get to the MLR. Your pick. Which is it going to be?"

"Go talk to my boss. I'm right behind you, Commander. I wouldn't miss this."

Murdock led the way with his MP-5 submachine gun strapped over his back. They crawled on hands and knees into the tunnel of weeds and briars, then twenty feet through the thicket to the opening.

Murdock came to his knees once inside the hollowed-out place. The five men sprawled on the ground. Each one had a whiskey bottle. Murdock swung the MP-5 around so it pointed generally at the men.

"General, I came out here to save your ass and that of these other men. If that outburst of laughter from you drunks had come five minutes earlier, two or three of my men, and probably some of yours, would be dead by now. Do you realize what a delicate situation we're in here?" "Now just a minute, son," the general began.

"No, General. Major Streib will pick up all of the bottles of whiskey, and then I'll inspect the backpacks of food to be sure there isn't any more. If that doesn't meet with your approval, it's too fucking bad. This is my mission, and I'm in command here. I don't care if you have three or four stars on your shoulders."'

"Now look, Navy. You can't come in here blubbering about what we're doing. You have no authority… "

Murdock lifted the MP-5 and put a three-round burst through the overhead of brambles. The silenced rounds caught everyone's attention.

"Hold on, son," the general tried again.

"No, General. You hold your mouth. You have one option. After dark, you and your jolly boys here can have your booze back, only then my men and I will conveniently misplace you somewhere between here and the MLR. You'll stumble around and get caught by the North Koreans and probably get your balls cut off. It's up to you.

"Right now, I'm taking the booze. Anyone with any objections can take it up with Mr. Heckler and Mr. Koch here in my hands. Objections? Anyone have anything to say?"

Murdock looked around. The general had stopped glaring at him. One bird colonel turned away from Murdock's stare. The rest of them shook their heads.

"Major Streib will bring out the SATCOM as well. I don't want a lot of transmissions coming out of this spot. The NKs just might have some triangulation equipment and pay us a deadly visit.

"Gentlemen, my platoon and I kill men for a living. We're good at it. That's why we're here. A little cooperation, and then you can tell all the war stories you want to. But right now, and for the hours until we get back on the other side of the South Korean/American MLR, I'm the man in charge."

Murdock turned his back and knelt down to crawl out. He heard a side arm slide slam a round into a chamber. He rolled on his back and put six rounds through the roof of vines.

Then the black muzzle of the submachine gun lowered and centered on the man who held a .45 in his hand. "Drop it. Am I going to have to take your weapons away the way I would from a raw recruit? General, control your men."

Before Murdock turned, the general swung his fist and smashed it into the chin of the colonel who had dropped the weapon.

"Better," Murdock said. Then he crawled out holding four of the bottles of whiskey. The major came behind him with two more bottles and the SATCOM.

Outside the tunnel, the major pointed away from the hideout and from Murdock's men. They moved twenty yards, then emptied the booze on the ground and buried the bottles under some leaves and limbs.

"Wow! I've never seen anyone, not even General Reynolds, chew out General Rudolph the way you did. He looked like a buck-ass private. Here's the SATCOM. You mean it about leaving us out here somewhere?"

"If he or any of you causes one of my men to get wounded or killed, I'll dump all of you and have an ironclad alibi by the time I get back to friendly territory. Fucking ass right."

"Okay, okay. I better get back. I'm stuck with these guys. I'd almost stake my life on the fact that there will be no more noise out of the general's compound. Give me a call when you're ready to move out."

"That's a roger, Major Streib. Who was the asshole who pulled the .45? I could have killed him and walked away clean."

"Asshole is right. Colonel Asshole is good enough name for him right now. I'd bet he has dirty shorts and no chance to change them. Serves him right."

Murdock worked up a grin. "Army, you might be OK. Keep your charges under wraps for the rest of the day. We'll pull out of here as soon as it gets dark."

In the meantime, most of the SEALs had drifted off to sleep. Some went to their camouflaged positions; some sprawled under trees. Ed DeWitt had set up a four-man lookout force on two-hour shifts.

Lam and Murdock traded off manning an additional north-looking position. By 1500 there had been no action. No more Korean tanks showed, no more troops. Even the general and his group had been quiet. Murdock guessed they were sleeping. Some of them had tanked down a lot of whiskey.

Murdock had his men eat their last MREs at four o'clock, and by five-thirty they were saddled up and ready to ramble.

Major Streib came out of the enclosure and said that the general and his men were ready to move.

"Can they walk three miles?" Murdock asked.

The major laughed. "These six officers never take the required PT that the rest of the troops have every morning. I don't know if they can walk even two miles. We'll see. You'll have to impress them with the idea that if they can't walk out, they get captured. As simple as that. I think they'll be able to make it with that kind of psychological help."

Murdock chuckled. He was starting to like this Army major.

They left when it was fully dark. Murdock put Alpha Squad out first, then the Army men in the middle. Ed DeWitt brought up the rear with his Bravo Squad, and they all headed out.

The first half mile went easily. Then Lam came back and they stopped.

"Got something strange up front. Cap. Wasn't here when we came through. Our Korean scout says it's the minimal kind of a battalion rear-aid station that the NKs use. Six or eight twenty-man tents, fires, vehicles. Maybe fifty to a hundred men meandering around like they're waiting for chow."

"Let's hope it's not preparations for a big attack by the NKs in this sector," Murdock said. He called up the major, who went ahead with him.

"You're infantry, right, Major Streib?"

"Had a battalion for a time."

"Take a look out front."

The major eased back from the OP and shook his head. "Yeah, something is coming. Tonight, maybe at dawn, maybe in a day or two. They're laying in supplies and medical people. That sounds like a push right up front here." Murdock brought up Holt with the SATCOM, and had him try for the American lieutenant who had led them through the South Korean lines. The lieutenant came on the air after the first try.

"We're a least a mile and a half from the MLR with the package, but we find a problem." Murdock described what he saw ahead.

"Damn, must be true. Some of our intel has reported a buildup in this sector. Did you see any tanks?"

Murdock told him.

"Any big concentrations of men, like four or five thousand?

"No, two hundred maybe."

"Is Major Dan Streib there?"

Murdock gave the major the handset.

"Yeah, Streib here. Who is this?"

"Lieutenant Harley Lewiston. I was in your battalion. What's your eval on the situation?"

"Just the start of a buildup, but I'd say not for an attack today or tomorrow. Maybe three days to bring in more troops, more tanks. The aid station is a precaution the NKs don't usually take."

"Our estimates too. Go around these guys, get back on your course, and contact us when you're a half mile off."

Murdock heard the radio and nodded.

"OK, Lam, head to the left a half mile, maybe more, as we go around these NK fuckers down below. Let's move it, we don't have all night."

They swung to the left and hiked through the Korean countryside. Ahead they saw some lights, but they were far to the side. Murdock sent Jaybird back to see how the general and his men were doing.

Jaybird came back chuckling.

"The old general is walking, but he glared at me like he's really pissed. He thinks they should have sent in a helo for him, I'm damn sure of that. He's keeping up. One of the bird colonels is lagging back a little. DeWitt is prodding him."

Murdock thanked him and used his mike. "DeWitt, send Major Streib up here. I think I can use him." "Roger that, Skipper," DeWitt said.

A few minutes later Major Streib came up. "Thanks for rescuing me from the brass back there. They are mad as hell about this hike."

"Do them good," Murdock said. "You have a side arm?"

"A .45 auto."

"Keep it loaded, you might need it."

The men were single file now, and moving at a quick pace. Murdock saw that they had just topped a small rise when Lam came back and held up his hand.

"Cap, remember those three tanks we saw? They're right ahead about a quarter of a klick. Looks like they're at a picnic. Lights all over the place."

Major Streib listened.

"The troops with them still there?" Murdock asked.

"Not that I could see. Just the tank crews. No security, no other vehicles. Looks like they knocked off from the war early and are having a late chow."

"Gonna take them out?" Major Streib asked Murdock.

"Tempting, but our mission isn't to kill tanks. We've got a package to deliver across the MLR."

"Three naked tanks," Streib said. "Sounds too good to be true, a gift from the war gods dropped right in your lap."

"How far are they from that medical unit?" Murdock asked.

"A klick, maybe a little more," Lam said.

"We better cut to the left again. Put us five hundred yards to the left of them. They just might have out some security we don't know about."

They hiked again. When they were a quarter of a mile away from the tank ers. Lam swung them due south. Half of the line of men had passed the tanks when DeWitt saw movement to his right. He used his Motorola.

"Hit the deck. NKs to the right."

Just as he said it an automatic rifle opened up. The general had not gone down when the rest did. Now he flopped quickly and put his arms over his head.

"How many?" Murdock asked on the man-to-man radio. "Can"! Veil. Cap," DeWitt said. "We'll go get them. Bravo, let's go. Silenced rounds only for now."

They moved cautiously in a long line toward the shooters. The NKs fired once more, but DeWitt realized they were firing due south, not at the SEALs.

They found the NKs quickly, less than thirty yards through the light growth of brush and grass. The NKs had a hole dug and were aiming their AK-47's to the south. They fired again. DeWitt spotted them first, two men in a foxhole. He lifted his silenced MP-5 and put two three-round bursts from the submachine gun into the hole. One man whimpered and fell forward. The second man turned and started to fire back, but two more SEALs targeted him and put him dead in his hole before he could fire again.

DeWitt and Adams charged into the hole. DeWitt found what he didn't want to. He hit his mike.

'"Cap, they've got a wire in here and a phone. They're gonna be missed soon. Should we finish the job?"

Murdock looked at the major. "Four men to a tank?"

The major nodded. "Usually four. No infantry with them?"

"Not that we saw. DeWitt, you have TNAZ?"

"Roger that, Mr. Murdock."

"Go get them."

DeWitt grinned and waved his men forward. "Silenced weapons only unless we get in a jam. Two men for each tank. First we reduce anyone outside the rigs, silently." They moved up cautiously. DeWitt sent Douglas and Mahanani to the left for the farthest tank. One of them had TNAZ.

Fernandez and Quinley took the center tank. DeWitt and Franklin and Adams aimed for the far right. Each team had TNAZ and grenades and knew what to do. They worked up slowly, crawling the last thirty yards to get a good field of fire. Three men sat around an open fire. DeWitt saw a soldier working on the treads of one tank.

When DeWitt had his men in position, he used the mike.

"Silenced only. Let's do it." He fired a three-round burst at the men around the fire. One went down. The other two tried to crawl away. They died in the dirt. The man at the tank treads took two slugs from one of the Colts and went down clawing at his weapon. Two more rounds stopped him. Nothing moved around the tanks.

"TNAZ on the tank tread, four-minute timer, then two grenades down any open turret," DeWitt said in his radio. "All of you, go."

Adams ran forward, his Colt at the ready. Nobody tried to stop him. He put the TNAZ on the front roller where it left the tracks, pushed in the timer, then vaulted on the tank to where the turret was open. Adams pulled both pins on grenades and dropped them into the tank top, then jumped off the tank and ran flat out for the place he had left near DeWitt.

The two grenades went off 4.2 seconds after Adams dropped them inside the tank. Smoke drifted up from the turret.

Twenty seconds later the grenades in a second tank went off; then the men of the Bravo Squad were all back together and running hard for the rest of the platoon.

The first TNAZ bomb went off before they made it. The heavy tank lifted up, its tread shattered and the roller blown completely off its axle.

The two other explosions shattered the cold Korean night sky a moment later.

"Let's move, double time," Murdock said. DeWitt got back with the unit, prodded the general and his colonels to move it, and jogged away from the site.

"We nailed the three tanks," DeWitt said on his radio. "Four NKs outside the tanks now in touch with their ancestors."

"Let's hope it doesn't attract too much attention," Murdock said.

Lam led them on down the rise, past a farmhouse and three rise paddies now frozen solid. Ahead Lam saw a small stream, which they crossed getting wet only to their knees.

"I'm not getting my feet wet," the general snorted.

DeWitt was right behind him. "Sir, you either get wet, talk your men into carrying you across, or sit out the rest of this little war in a POW camp, because I'm sure as hell not going to pack you over the stream." The general glared at DeWitt in the gloom, and stepped gingerly into the water.

A half mile from the tanks, Murdock slowed them to a walk. Lam had found a trail heading south that they took now. It wandered between rice paddies and past two small buildings that had been blown apart.

Murdock went up and walked with Lam.

"We should be within half a klick of the damn MLR," Murdock said.

"Yeah, but maybe two klicks to one side from where we came through. That's two to the west of our spot."

"Where's our Korean guy?" Murdock said into his mike. "Whoever knows, send him up front. Gonna have some work for him to do."

Another two hundred yards ahead, they came to a road. Lam lay near it for five minutes. Two trucks with splashy yellow lights rumbled past.

"We get the men lined up along the side of the road, then go across all at once," Lam said.

Murdock gave the orders on the mike, and soon the SEALs and their package were spread along the road at five-yard intervals.

Another truck rolled past. In the rear they could see several NK soldiers.

When it was past. Lam looked both ways, "Now, move," he said into his mike. The man ran from their sparse cover near the road, across it, and to the far side and into a small patch of woods and brush. Even the Army brass made it with no problem.

Lam stared ahead from his position a hundred yards ahead of the men. He didn't like it. They had hit a section of the North Korean MLR that also held a rear camp of some kind. He spotted more than a dozen trucks, some emergency lights rigged on poles, and a dozen or so twenty-man tents.

"Hit the deck," Murdock said on the Motorola as he slid into the dirt and weeds beside Lam.

"This is another fine kettle of fish you've got me into, Ollie," Murdock said.

Lam shook his head. "The only luck we've had on this mission has been bad luck. What the hell we gonna do now?"