Page 75 - 100 Hours to Destiny

LEAVING THE FLD

2/24/1991 @ 0530 hours

Rock came over the net jokingly, “Hey Missile Magnet, you are with
me, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Six. Let’s go.”
Marines of Delta Company heard the exchange between the two
Commanders of Delta and whooped up again on the net, in typical fashion.
And as for all historical purposes, Delta Company 3D Light Armored Infantry
was rolling into destiny.
I knew I was breaking the rules, but I needed some motivation;
despite the fact that I had robbed two government packages of the “amazing
coffee” out of some vintage MRE packages and had choked them down in an
icy cold Avian bottle of water and was feeling the caffeine kick in, I needed
some battle rattle music. And I needed it now. Months before Mikey Flores,
the gunner of Red 5 (aka Steel Justice) the LAV-25 that I had been on board
as the driver during the battle of OP4, taught me a unique trick as to wire
into the communications helmet a Walkman headset. So, in the passing of
the night, I’d taken it upon myself to have the gift of music in mine and
Gunny’s travels. I could isolate the music to me only and exclude Gunny, who
had made it apparent that sometimes he chose not to hear. So now I needed
a break from the doldrums of driving. United States Marines thrive on what
is known as battle rattle music; some groups throughout our history, and in
this time era, created music of what we believed was befitting and designed
for the moment of this actual Invasion. A hand-picked tune that I had chosen
for the next five minutes was from Judas Priest, One Shot at Glory, yet so
many more were pre-picked during this need for heavy metal battle cry
music. As I enjoyed my music solo my nerves began to calm as it
progressively set the stage for what I was about to do. It was our first belt of
challenge, we/Delta Marines were about to hit Saddam Hussain’s first death
belt…. the infamous first minefield.
As the music of “One Shot at Glory” faded I chose to stop any further
distraction as I knew we were closing in on what would prove to be the first
life or death situation for Delta Company and of course Delta 6 was seeing it
first. For me, LCpl Monte L Witcher, this was exciting. This is what I signed up
for. Here I was, a US Marine Corps Lance Corporal standing on the edge of
oblivion yet absolutely committed to the fulfillment of our obligation!!!