Weekly Expression #3 ~TJ

I tried to wrap my head around the order we were given so many years ago. Well, it was actually a week ago but every day since then has felt like a year. I had kissed my wife goodbye so many times when I ship out for my semi-annual deployment, but she knew I was never assigned to actual combat. Now we're being deployed to Yemen invasion where maybe a third of us will return at best. I wished so dearly to write my dear Mary to tell her that this time it's different, that this time I may not return, but this was strictly classified, and no communication with home is permitted.
My watch said 05:00 hours. I still had ten minutes until we were supposed to be up and at 'em, but me being a night owl and not a morning person at all, I figured I'd better initiate my rise from my cot.
"Wake up, Willy!" I jumped to my feet alert for danger, but it was only my buddy AJ alerting me to the fact I fell back asleep with my head in my hands. This was no time for drowsiness. I was barely dressed and geared before our commanding officer walked in.
"Listen up, ladies! We got ourselves a warlord who thinks he's the mightiest doggone sonofagun to walk this doggone beach! [For sake of this journal, I edited some of my sergeant's more colorful choices of words] Wherefore, we're going to stuff him like grandmother's turkey on thanksgiving day and serve it to the doggone wildebeests! Am I right, ladies?"
We chanted together like a chorus of bleeding ears, "Sir, yes sir!"
"Uh-huh, dang right I am! Now listen up! Ferry rides will go as follows," He referred to a chart issued to him from command, stating who will ride on which choppers, "Privates Archer, Kimball, Wilson, Johnson, you get the first of the fight, clear strategic landing fields for Chinooks and Blackhawks. You're riding in Little Bird HH-74. Understood?"
Once again we chanted, "Sir, yes sir!"
I tuned out everyone else's assignments, it was too many to keep track of and for once our sergeant was kind enough to list my unit first. Four minutes later we were lifting off of our aircraft carrier, armed and ready for battle. Archer carried a .308 FAL with a large ACOG sight, it was only semi-automatic but it fired true and he rarely ever had to fire twice. Kimball carried an M60 with enough ammo to blow Texas sky-high on his back, his job was to eliminate large amounts of enemy troops or suppress them long enough for Archer to get a clean shot. AJ and I had tactical M16s with simple Red Dot sights, our job was to catch any stragglers from Kim's fire or guys running too fast for Archie.
Our mission was to capture or kill Al-Fudahli, leader of the extremist forces rising up in Yemen. I overheard some senior commanders mentioning that they used foreign phony aid from Russian "medical centers" to smuggle in enough arms and ammo to occupy Paris! Half of the city we were inserting to was considered rebel, if they carried a firearm, they were considered hostile.
It seemed like no time passed at all from when we took off to the city peeking it's towers over the horizon, like saber swords, willing to sever any infidels willing to trespass. ...like us. We landed about 20 minutes before sunup, but unfortunately our choppers are loud enough to wake every hostile soul in the city. The chopper set us down two blocks from a park that would be ideal for a chopper landing pad. But to our dismay, the surrounding buildings had an awful lot of windows, and the entire park was vulnerable to sniper and RPG fire, should the extremists posses such arms.
My team ran the length of one block before gunfire ran throughout the streets. It was distant enough to tell it was coming from a different street. But not for long. Three hostiles ran in front of us about 200 feet away and hid behind various debris in the street. I noticed they had AK-47s and AK-74s, I always dreaded the AK-47s, they fire a 7.62mm bullet which is larger than your average pencil, and if you're hit with one, you're not doing very well. Our advantage was that these were untrained rebels and AKs can't hit much at long distances.
Apparently the Russians were improving their rifling techniques because I could swear I heard a round graze my ear twice. We eliminated the enemies and proceeded to the park, but we were too late. The rebels had already fortified buildings with heavy automatic weapons and anti-armor. They spotted us instantly, and opened fire with at least three fortified positions.
We were exposed, I hid under a slide at a playground while Kim ran behind a wooden fence behind the playground, I couldn't find AJ and Archie was hit trying to snipe the gunners from behind a tree.
I called in immediate gunship support. Our AC-130 gunship was not in position but a Blackhawk with M-134 miniguns was in the area. I reported that incendiary rounds were preferable.
It seemed like forever until it showed up, but once it did, I'm sure the buildings the rebels were hiding in had lost an entire floor to it's structure. I radioed the Chinooks that it was safe for landing and deployment, but they didn't respond. I called again and Command answered saying that they were evacuating the city because a nuclear bomb was discovered. I inquired desperately when they were evacuating our position. But Command answered that they already had, and no time to go back for stragglers. We were on our own, at the mercy of our enemy.
I couldn't find my team anywhere, and here I was alone, deep in enemy territory, with little hope of ever seeing my precious Mary again.