The major nodded, and then moved down to another unit that was also forming up to let them know what their part in the operation would be. If their attack was successful, then the entire NATO force trapped in Kiev might be able to break out.
An hour later, SFC Childers led his platoon down the stairs in the back room of that mafia-run bar to the basement. When they reached the basement, a crusty older man (probably the owner) was there to greet them.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” he said in thickly-accented English, a smile broadly gleaming on his face. As he flashed his teeth, the group saw that one of his front incisors had been boldly covered in gold. The man’s arms were covered in tattoos from his wrist to the elbow, where his sleeves had been rolled up. It was obvious without asking that he was a member of the Ukrainian mafia. Under any other circumstances, meeting this man would have been extremely dangerous, but since he hated the Russian military as much or more than they did, today he was a friend.
Without being told, he guided them down the dark, damp passageway, and began to lead them through it. After what felt like an hour (but was probably no more than ten or fifteen minutes), they made it to the end of the tunnel, which began to lead up to another door.
The old man told them, “The exit leads to the basement of another mafia-run bar. Hopefully, it will be empty.”
Childers calmly directed the man, “Please step aside, Sir. We will need to clear the room.”
He passed the word to the soldiers behind him to turn their flashlights off and get their night vision goggles on. They would start to use light discipline now that they were going to enter an unknown building. Childers reached down and grabbed the six-inch knife he carried on the side of his right leg, near his pistol holster. He slowly opened the door and began to look inside the room. As he panned from left to right, he saw that the room was indeed empty. He let out a short sigh of relief.
“We’re clear,” he announced, and then he signaled with his hands to let the others still in the tunnel know it was safe to start entering the room.
As the soldiers began to empty out of the tunnel, he used hand signals to direct several of them to follow him up the stairs to clear the ground floor and see where they were at.
When they got to the ground floor, the men systematically cleared the various rooms in the bar, cautiously making sure there were no signs of Russian soldiers. All they found were piles of broken and empty beer and vodka bottles.
“The Russians have definitely been here,” said Childers, “but it looks like they have cleaned the place out of whatever it was that they were looking for.”
While one of his soldiers went downstairs to let the others know it was safe to come up, Luke carefully peered outside one of the windows near the entrance. About two blocks away, near the entrance of the intersection, he spotted what appeared to be a Russian tank. He wasn’t sure what type of tank, but he could clearly make out the turret and the barrel. Looking above the tank, in the windows of the buildings adjacent to the intersection, Childers saw that several balconies had been piled high with sandbags and then topped with heavy machine guns. Those spots would make fairly effective makeshift machine gun bunkers; they had excellent fields of fire, protecting each other and the tank below them.
“Those guns will need to be taken out before we attack that tank,” Childers realized.
“Sergeant, what do you have for me?” asked Lieutenant Taylor as he approached Luke.
Childers signaled for them to walk away from the window before he spoke. “Down the block at the corner, there is a tank. There may be another armored vehicle, but I can’t fully see it from this vantage point. What I could definitely make out though are the machine gun bunkers on the balconies of the apartments that overlook that intersection. We are going to need to take out those gun emplacements before we disable that tank.”
As they were talking, the ground floor of the bar was starting to fill up with soldiers coming up from the tunnel in the basement. Major Graham was among the soldiers exiting the basement; he immediately walked over to Lt. Taylor and SFC Childers, who brought him up to speed on what they saw outside the building and down the street.
“I assume you have a plan to deal with those machine gun positions,” Major Graham asserted, looking pointedly at Childers.
Sergeant Childers shot him a devilish grin. “When does a Ranger not have a plan?” he snickered, causing the others to let out a soft laugh. The comment cut through the palpable tension in the air, at least a little bit.
After a brief pause, Major Graham replied, “All right, Childers… so, what is it?”
“I’m going to take Sgt. Crockett, Specialist Duncan, and Specialist Cross with me to disable those guns.” He pulled out a map, and began pointing to where they were. “We’ll use the alleyway behind us to sneak up to this building here, right at the corner. The backs of these buildings all have water drainpipes that come down from the roof above. We are going to scale up the side of one of these buildings here, and gain entry over here.”
“Once inside, we’ll make our way to the first machine gun position. We’ll take them out silently, and then move into position to hit the others. I want two of the guys coming with me to have M203s. When the time comes, they will fire them directly across the intersection into the other gun positions and take them out. The third guy needs to be carrying one of the AT4s. He’ll be able to lean over the edge of the balcony and hit that tank from the top, where the armor is weakest. We won’t have much time, but we shouldn’t need it if we hit all these positions at once,” Sergeant Childers finished explaining.
Several of the soldiers around him nodded their heads in approval. They knew if anyone could pull this off, it would be Sergeant Childers. The guy had more combat experience than anyone in their regiment.
Thinking about the plan for a second, Graham smiled and nodded in approval. “It’s bold; I’ll give you that. I think it just might work. Get your crew ready and stand by. We need to figure out what we are going to do about these other two blocks before you guys head out. We need to try and sync this attack as much as possible. Once the shooting starts, all hell is going to break loose and we need to make sure we hit these guys hard right off the bat,” the Major said, giving Childers the green light.
“That Sergeant is crazy,” thought Major Graham. “However, if he can pull this off, I’m putting him in for one heck of a medal.” He didn’t linger long, but instead rushed off to get the other attacks organized.
Thirty minutes later, the ground floor of the bar was really becoming packed. A lot of soldiers had filtered through the tunnel and many more were still waiting below ground.
“Luke, you want me to come with you on this mission?” asked Lt. Taylor, using Childers’ first name for the first time in a few weeks.
Luke looked up at the young lieutenant; he could see genuine concern on his face about this mission.
“The fact that he is offering to come with me on this dangerous mission tells me that he has grown up a lot as an infantry officer; he is willing to put himself in harm’s way so one of his soldiers won’t have to,” Childers’ thought. “He’s also got a baby and a wife to go home to…”
“No, Sir. I think it would be best for you to stay here with the rest of the platoon. Once you hear the fireworks, get to the corner and secure it quickly. We’ll do what we can to cover you from above in the gun position,” he told his platoon leader, entrusting him with just as important of a task as the one he was about to head out on.