Page 124 - 100 Hours to Destiny

A SURPRISE BENEATH THE SMOKE

Rock gave the order to move out. I had my comm helmet on and
heard that directive from Delta 6, but I never moved until Gunny told me to
move. After about 5 seconds of waiting, I turned and looked back at Gunny,
he was just starring forward into the north as if thinking of another
battlefield somewhere else in another time once visited. Gunny had the
1000-yard stare going.
“You ready, Gunny?”
Gunny looked down at me with distant eyes, “Rollout.” And with that
said we joined the motion of progress with the rest of Delta Company.
Smoke…that damn oil fire smoke…. Filthy contamination continued
and felt like micronic rain pellets. It was worse than ever. We just kept
going… here and there patches of clarity with no smoke whatsoever, the
wind would change, and it would return. Day became night, the sound of a
TOW missile firing in the distance, 7.62mm machine guns firing over there, a
25mm chain gun unleashing a three-round burst off to my left… It was eerie.
Not being able to see was a true curse, yet the forward momentum never
waned.

On the LAV-L, Gunny had an NBC detector/sniffer. On several occasions, this one being the
most severe, Gunny sounded the alarm, “Gas! Gas! Gas!” We all quickly went to MOP4 in the
vehicles…this didn’t stop Delta, we just bared our teeth and kept going.

It was becoming late in the afternoon. 1600 hours, a few more hours
we would find ourselves truly in the dark. But Rock and Delta 5 were not