Page 58 - 100 Hours to Destiny

turret area and dozed. It must have been an hour, when suddenly the vehicle
began to move under the weight of a Marine climbing aboard. Abruptly I
awoke to find the familiar silhouette against the starlit sky; It was, of course,
Gunny Dell. “Witch, you alive up here? I need to get in my hatch, move
aside.”
“Roger Gunns, come on in…I’m up.” As I stood up I made way for the
Gunny’s approach. I chose at that moment to head down off to the ground
and stretch my legs and make a nature call; Also, to give Gunny Dell just a
moment to himself as he had been with the command all day.
Down on the ground, the sound of radio communication between
Delta Company was ever-present. The Company was in the middle of a full
radio check of all stations… Captain Pollard himself was orchestrating this in
sequential order, making sure he personally had communication with each of
his battle elements. Over and over it went, on and on throughout the
company. “Delta One, Delta One this is Delta 6…radio check.”
“Delta 6 this is Delta One, Lima Charlie, over.”
“Delta 6, copy.” And on and on, throughout each and every station
the checks went on till finally, it was complete.
Capt Pollard finished it all up with “all Delta elements, this is Delta 6,
I have you loud and clear.”
Many of the Marines came back over the net “Oorah! Get some Sir!
Delta all the way! Rock and Roll Marines! Victory or death! Let’s do this!… it
went on and on, and I am sure Rock had a big grin on his face in the turret of
American Hero.
I leaned back against the Log, my Hogg, and looked up at the sky as I
listened to all of my fellow Marines, my brothers, my friends, sounding so
confident and self-assured. It just truly made me bristle with pride.