This was one of the rare and more gratifying moments he had experienced as a commander, to let one of his soldiers know that he was being publicly recognized for a heroic act and being given a battlefield promotion. They needed more leaders and heroes like him, especially since the Army was about to triple in size. The Sergeant Major was also smiling as he reached out and took JD’s hand and shook it hard.
“I couldn’t be prouder of one of my NCOs… you earned this Dukes,” said the CSM. “Now, we only have a day before your unit needs to move forward to the front, so I need you to figure out who else is going to get those Silver Stars. I also need a list of those who were injured since the start of the conflict, along with the details of when, where, and how those injuries occurred so we can go ahead and get those Purple Hearts taken care of.”
“Uh, Ok-I mean, yes Sir,” JD replied.
“You’re going to be an Officer now. You need to make sure that you are properly recognizing your soldiers in addition to taking care of their needs,” the CSM explained, wanting to make sure JD knew his responsibilities were going to change now that he was going to transition from being an NCO to an officer.
As the impromptu meeting ended, JD walked back to his tank, a bit surprised and still in shock at what he had been told. He couldn’t be more happy and excited, yet he also felt a bit ashamed that he had survived and would be awarded these prestigious medals, when so many others had died saving his own life and those of his men. “How many aircraft were shot down providing air support for my men? How many infantrymen died defending my tank from enemy missile teams?” he thought.
His gunner, Sergeant Jay Smokes (a.k.a. “Smokey”) saw him approach. “How’d the meeting go? Anything we need to know about?” he asked.
JD snorted. “Yeah, a few things Smokey,” he replied as he reached up and grabbed something to help him climb back on his tank. He saw the other two guys from his crew look up at him, waiting for him to finish his explanation.
“First, I’m being promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and officially taking over as the Alpha Troop Commander,” he said nonchalantly.
Several men nearby let out a hoot and a couple shouted, “Congrats!”
Ignoring the fanfare, Dukes went on. “Second, they said everyone in the troop is being awarded a Bronze Star, and I have to pick eight individuals to receive a Silver Star. I also need to get a tally on who all was injured since the start of the war and collect all the details so that I can get that information over to the CSM for their Purple Hearts. Apparently, before we kick off this next assault, they want to get decorations in order,” he finished as the guys started to smile.
“The Army and its paperwork does not care about when an attack was going to start. It wants its t’s crossed and its i’s dotted,” thought JD, laughing to himself.
Dukes cleared his throat as he got back to business. “I need to go talk with the other tank commanders and have them start working on the CSM’s request. In the meantime, we need to get the tanks ready. It looks like this new offensive is going to start soon, so be ready to move,” he announced.
The soldiers around him started back to work, and he stepped down from the tank to go find another tank commander. As he watched his guys scurrying around, he thought about the change in responsibilities. “They are going to have to handle a lot more of the tank duties; I’ve got ten tanks and crews that I’m now officially in charge of,” he realized.
After a series of “hurry up and wait” announcements, two days had passed. Then, all of a sudden, the offensive finally started.
JD’s tank began to slowly move through a farm field towards a tree line, where his troop would form up with another tank battalion. They were going to act as a mobile reserve for the coming attack. Once the Germans and British units broke through the Russian lines, the Americans would rush a full battalion of tanks and mechanized infantry through the breach, followed quickly by the French division that had just arrived in country. The overall objective of the offensive was to break through the Russian lines and push them back to the Dnieper River.
As their tank came to a halt at the edge of a cornfield, they could hear the hum of aircraft flying low overhead towards the Russian lines. The Air Force was working the Russian lines over before the main attack started. JD and Smokey were sitting in the turret, getting their crew served weapons loaded and ready. The order to move forward would probably come shortly after the main attack started, and they wanted to be ready.
Looking off in the distance, they could see several large explosions as the attacking aircraft delivered a series of bombs. Then, a tremendous amount of tracer fire leaped up from the ground, heading in the direction of the attacking aircraft. Judging by the clatter of the machine guns and the volume of tracer fire being thrown at the fighters, the Russians must have had some anti-aircraft vehicles equipped with 25mm or 30mm chain guns. It sounded like hundreds of sheets of fabric were being ripped apart, over and over.
As they watched the tracer fire, they saw nearly a dozen missiles streak from the frontlines for the aircraft as well. An A-10 took a direct hit from a missile, and one of its engines exploded in a spectacular fashion. The aircraft began to leave a trail of black smoke as it turned towards friendly lines, somehow still able to stay aloft. A pair of F-16s did not appear to be so lucky; both aircraft were hit by one of the dozens of SAMs being fired at them, and burst into enormous fireballs that rained debris and aviation fuel across the ground below.
“It looks like the Air Force is laying it on thick,” Smokey said with a whistle. “They are hammering the Russians.” As he finished speaking, he secured the ammunition box next to his weapon, pulling the charging handle back as he made sure he had a belt properly fed into the machine gun.
“Yeah, they are, but they also look like they are taking some losses. You see that A-10 limping away,” replied JD as he surveyed the sky. Additional air battles continued well above them. In the distance, they could also hear helicopters bringing their own fire and brimstone on the Russians.
The radio came alive with chatter as the ground battle started. The crew listened in for nearly an hour, wondering if they would receive the call to exploit a breakthrough, but it never came. Then, out of nowhere, they heard the unmistakable sound of incoming rockets shrieking through the sky towards them. Without needing to be told, the tanks around them began to button up their turrets. No one wanted to be caught outside their tank during an artillery barrage.
Explosions rocked the area around their tanks. Pieces of shrapnel could be heard hitting their armor as the ground shook from each explosion. Suddenly, the radio sputtered to life and JD’s battalion commander gave them their final instructions. “Alpha Troop, move your tanks to grids 975 457 and support the German assault. The Russians are moving additional units forward, so be on the lookout for a possible flanking attack.”
“Finally, we are being moved forward to attack,” JD thought to himself as they moved forward, out of the artillery barrage.
Lieutenant Dukes passed the orders down to the rest of his new command as he ordered his own tank forward. He could see by the looks of the faces around him that the men around him felt the same way he did-it was time to get some payback.
As his tank moved across the original frontline, he could see dozens of destroyed German Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Leopard Tanks, intermixed with Russian T-80 and T-90 tanks and dozens of armored troop carriers. The field they were traveling through had become a burning cemetery of armored vehicles and charred bodies.