Page 25 - 100 Hours to Destiny

your vehicles will disintegrate into ashes. Make sure you avoid these
Marines. Now the combat engineers of 3rd tanks, Col Alfonso “Buster” Diggs’
Unit, are going to shoot line charges across these mine belts. We’re not sure
just how deep the mines are laid, and we will be firing the line charges at
maximum distance. Once the line charges are detonated, you will rush
through these minefields. Now Marines, do not get out of your lanes, one
mistake here and it’s over for you and your crew. Stay focused…There are
two of these to get through!”
The Captain nodded his head to instruct the Marines to flip the chart
to the next page, and Delta Company Marines gasped. “What the fuck is
that?” Marines began to ask, “What the hell?!!!”
The Captain began to explain, “Alright Marines we’re dealing with
some prehistoric bastards here, what you’re looking at is more or less a mote
concept/a ring of fire. Their goal here is to trap you in this river and flood it
with oil and catch it and you on fire while you are trapped inside this hell.
Whatever you do, if you find yourself in there, get out…Whatever it takes!”
“Flip the page Marines. OK, if you make it through these obstacles,
the Iraqis have hundreds of heavy artillery pieces zeroed in just on the other
side of the oil fire river for when you come out, provided you make it out.
Airpower will be doing their best to eliminate the enemy, but keep in mind
many of these pieces are hidden underground and will be brought out once
the Iraqis see you coming. Air may not see them until it’s too late. So, button
up and stay down in your vehicles.”
“Flip to the last page. And here we have what we call the last stand
of the Iraqi military. If you make it that far, here you’re going to come point
blank with fanatical suicide troops who are going to have a lot of tanks, anti-
armor guns, and hand-held RPGs. That’s where it’s going to get upfront close
and ugly. More or less this could go hand-to-hand, just don’t get surrounded
and lured into a trap, where the enemy is able to get on top of your vehicles
and into your troop hatches.”
With the wave of a hand, the Captain motioned to flip the charts
down, ordered his Corporal and the staff, “Load this equipment back up on
the chopper and I’ll talk to these Marines. Tell the flight crew to prepare to
move out.”
The Captain turned to Delta Company and said, “Marines, you joined
up for just this sort of mission, that’s why you are here, your Country is
counting on you. I’m going to tell you that we have done the calculations and
you can expect to lose 80% of Delta Company in these obstacles. The Iraqi
Army has set this up for you to fail. THEY are there, and THEY want to stay
there, or they would have left already. Believe me, I have seen what our air
power is doing to them, but the Iraqi’s are not giving up. There are