Page 76 - 100 Hours to Destiny

President Bush had tasked us to persevere and under no circumstances
would the 1st Marine Division fail.
“Delta Company stop in place. I say again, all Delta Elements STOP!
Hold your positions. Idle in place. Delta Company, this is Delta 6, Marines of
Delta Company we are in close proximity of the first minefield. I’m in
communication with Battalion engineers as well as demolition engineers
from the 1st Marine Division. We have been ordered to halt in place and
stand by to penetrate the first minefield. We may have to sit here for a time
so just let me work this out and standby to standby.”
And bam…. Minefield….I said to myself, “Monte Witcher, halt in
place.” And without a doubt, the rest of my Delta Company LAI heard the
same thing. And like a big wave of steel, every driver put his foot on the
brakes and brought Delta Company to a smart halt, as to not move one
meter further.
GySgt Steven Dell, my vehicle Commander seconded the motion,
“Freeze in place, Witcher! Rocks got us shut down. Don’t even move another
inch. Mines!! Stand to! Here we are Witcher, now this is real. Get your head
wrapped around the fact that we are at the first mine belt.”
Not a word was spoken for the next five minutes until the XO, Delta
5 came over the net, “Alright Delta Company go ahead and shut down your
.engines it’s going to be about 15 minutes. Take care of some personal
matters and standby to move at a moment’s notice.” Gunny ordered me to
follow that directive and we shut the logistics vehicle down. All other Delta
assets followed suit.
“Witcher if you need to take care of some personal matters, do it!”
“Aye-aye Gunny, I’m going to jump out of the hatch for just a second
and stretch my legs.”
“Take your personal weapon with you, Witcher, everywhere you go
from here on out you make sure you have your weapon. I don’t want us
getting in a firefight and you not have your M16A2 and be trapped out there
unarmed.”
“Roger that Gunny. Affirmative, I’ll do it every time.”
So, with that said I unstrapped my personal weapon, my beloved
M16A2 service rifle, from the gun carriage, checked for safety and climbed
out my driver’s hatch onto the top then down to the ground. It felt good to
hit the sand for a moment, just to walk around a bit. As I looked around, of
course, I saw both echelons of Delta Company, but what completely
staggered my imagination was the absolute immensity of other war vehicles
stretched as far as the eye could see to my left and to my right. I spun
around behind me only to see an ocean of military vehicles on the move,
coming up behind Delta Company. Tanks, Amtracs, Humvees with Mark19s,