Page 37 - 100 Hours to Destiny

return to this position and reform the Company Coil after the mission. I
anticipate 3.5 hours of operation to complete. There’s one thing we cannot
allow, and that is for the sun to start coming up on the FARP site. So, you are
going to be the muleskinner, Witcher. Do not let this thing drag on, keep ‘em
flowing through there, keep ‘em flowing. This mission tonight is clandestine,
or at least as close as we can get to that. We don’t want any enemy eyes on
the extra vehicle count or extra munitions. That is why everyone, Delta, and
fuel and resupply personnel will come like a ghost in the night and disappear
to the winds before daybreak.”
2330 hours… My watch, glowing a red dim light, very quietly began
its alarm sound which woke me from a very deep dream state. I had been
dreaming of back home in the little town of Bastrop, Texas, running down a
little creek (Piney Creek) with my favorite dog during my high school days. I
was in my canoe with this little Heinz 57 that we named Captain Gobby
because she always took her place in front of the canoe. In my dream, I was
happy, propelling down the forest laden waterway, enjoying all the sounds
and sights of nature. Gobby, my dog, looked back at me as the alarm for the
FARP sounded waking me from this amazing dream. Sleep was a coveted
event, and it was refreshing to have fallen into such a deep REM state, you
know, the kind that really rejuvenates. I was already dressed completely and
had been sleeping with my boots fully laced up and my flak jacket on. As I
woke and grabbed for my red-lensed flashlight and clicked it on, I realized
the Company Gunny was already in his Commander’s hatch, writing down
more information on his tablet. He had slipped into the vehicle quietly and
never interrupted my sleep. “I hear you there Witcher. You ready to roll?”
“Ready to roll Gunny but I need to take a wiz. I’ll be back in a flash.” I
burst open the back hatches on the logistics vehicle, it felt good to have this
massive vehicle all to the Gunny and myself with all the open space inside….
which is like a giant armored truck, with steel teeth because Gunny was
outfitted with a 7.62mm machine gun right above my hatch. As I made my
nature call, I looked up at the sky and truly observed the night sky like no
other time in my life. There were no city lights, nothing to interfere with the
amazing brilliance of the stars. We were truly in the middle of nowhere, and
the night sky reverberated that in its amazing million stars. But I had a
mission, I was the Gunny’s right-hand man and it was time to move. So, I
carefully closed, on the behalf of sound discipline, the left-hand logistics door
quietly, I locked it closed, broke around to the right and moved with
quickness to the 3-rung ladder into my spot, the Gunny’s driver. Dropping
down into the driver’s hatch, I immediately felt for the pneumatic air switch
for the seat which would depress 16 inches and allow me to fall into a down
driver’s position. Here we would find the AN/VVS-2 night vision device, also