Page 97 - 100 Hours to Destiny

Mark 19 and a 50cal Ma Deuce heavy machine gun. These Marines were
taking the enemy combatants into custody and corralled them off into the
distance, away from the burning tanks. That was the last I saw of the
decimated group.
I turned to Gunny and said, “Wow, what a show Gunny! That was
brutal!”
“Agreed. That was fine shooting from our boys. They never even got
a shot off at us.”
“I think we killed a lot of them. I watched through the binoculars.
There’s a lot of dead men out there, not to mention those poor troops that
were inside of those tanks when they were hit. They didn’t have a chance.”
“Well, I know that we’re going to stay right here for the night, so far.
One of us is always going to have to be on-watch and up. We can’t allow
someone to come sneaking up and getting the drop on us. Better yet, why
don’t we team up with another vehicle full of scouts and pull watch
together?”
“Sgt Yancey of Homer Section is just off to our nine o’clock. Let’s talk
to them about sharing watch, to make sure someone is roving all the time.”
“Roger that. Let’s make radio contact and have them drive over here
to us. I’m going to leave it up to you Witcher to create a watch until sunrise.”
Gunny made the call over the net for Echo 5 Yancey to bring his
vehicle abreast and team up for watch. As Sgt Yancey approached in the
darkness, I prepared to exit my vehicle to link up with his scout team and
crewmen to create a rotating watch. Adding more manpower for protection
as we were definitely in enemy territory. Leaping from the vehicle I had my
M16A2 with me. I looked north at the ominous sight of eight burning tank
hulks and swallowed hard. For a moment I relived watching the tanks being
hit, the explosions and dying enemy troops, and then as quickly I blocked it
out of my mind.
I made my way to the back of Sgt Yancey’s LAV-25 and announced
myself. “Hey Marines, it’s Witcher.” It was dark, and I didn’t want to be
mistaken for an enemy troop, so I sounded off. The troop hatches burst open
and out came the scouts.
“Witcher, did you see that fireworks show? Man, we kicked their ass,
didn’t we?”
“Yeah. That was unexpected. I guess we’d better be ready for
anything. Right Devil dogs?”
“Oorah,” said one of the scouts.
“The Seven says for us to set up a roving watch around the LOG and
Homer in a team effort. Let’s get it worked out. Who’s first?”