The lead Marines worked ahead slowly, made contact with DeWitt, and then the rest of the SEALs were together. They formed one squad and worked ahead with the leathernecks.
They soon passed the shot-up jeep and six bodies. The scouts went slower then, moving from cover to cover. By the time they were inland a half mile, they found the house and small farm. Just over the low hill, the scouts reported that there was enemy activity.
“Looks like a company digging in, about six hundred yards ahead, Captain. Maybe eighty men.”
“Any vehicles?”
“None. Two bicycles for messengers.”
Murdock stood near Captain Browser and heard the radio report. The Marine looked at Murdock. “You have a .50- caliber sniper with you?”
“Affirmative.”
“Here’s what we’re going to do.”
Fifteen minutes later, the Marines were in position. Bradford lay in a brushy spot where he could see the Bahrainian rebels. He had been checking out the company for five minutes through his scope and at last had found the only officer with the group. He stayed in back of a large tree most of the time but came out now and then, evidently to issue orders.
Captain Browser bellied down beside Bradford. “Any time you’re ready, Bradford. You get in your shots and then it’s our turn.”
Bradford sighted in on the tree the Bahrainian officer used and waited. A full minute later, the officer stepped out from the tree and Bradford fired. He rammed the bolt back and forward and fired again.
The enemy officer was down. At once the Marines opened fire on the company from two sides, putting them in a crossfire. The rebels weathered the attack for three minutes, then began pulling back, running from the sparse cover into the deeper woods. The Marines ceased fire, formed up, and moved forward again.
The Marine scouts reported that the enemy had not regrouped. They were running and disorganized, charging back through a small village and onto a paved road. The scouts saw no other military units.
Murdock walked beside Captain Browser.
“Our mission is to move up this road and capture the airport at Manama. That’s the capital city. The airport is on this side. The other unit will come in from the other direction and take down the government buildings, including the army headquarters. We expected more opposition than this. I wonder where in hell are those ten thousand troops?”
“Let’s hope we don’t find them,” Murdock said.
Captain Browser grinned. “For SEALs, you guys make damn good infantry.”
“More than half of our work is done on land,” Murdock said. “We get frequent chances to develop our ground combat skills.”
“We’ll have to talk about that sometime.”
The captain’s radio spoke.
“Cap’n Browser, we’ve got a pocket up here with three machine guns and about twenty troops.”
“Hold it there. We’ll come up and take a look,” Browser said. The captain motioned to Murdock to follow him, and they hurried past the stopped troops to the front elements and then on fifty yards to the scout. They peered past some brush and saw the sun glint off metal two-thirds of the way up a small hill.
The scout motioned. “High ground and the MGs. We call in an air strike?”
“Can’t. The least damage to the place the better. Range?”
“A hundred and fifty.”
“Good range for some forty mikes,” Murdock said.
Captain Browser groaned. “Yeah, but our guys haven’t fired their forty mikes for six months.”
“We’ve got some guys who can lay an egg in a basket,” Murdock said. Shall I call them up?”
The captain hesitated. “Aw, hell. My job is to get past them fast and into that airport. Yeah, bring up your shooters.”
Murdock made a Motorola check and Jaybird, Lampedusa, and Franklin soon appeared right behind them. Murdock moved them ten yards apart and explained the mission.
“Alternate HE and WP. Free beer for a week for whoever drops the first egg in that machine gun hole.”
The SEALs judged the distance and began dropping in the 40mm grenades. The second WP hit near enough to spray the machine guns with flaming phosphorus. Three rounds later, Jaybird dropped an HE into the bunker.
Captain Browser grinned and motioned his men forward. There was no fire from the bunker.
Jaybird laughed as he walked along beside Murdock. “Damn but I’m getting thirsty already. I’d guess we have to wait for Coronado before I get my beer.”
“Good guess, Jaybird.”
Captain Browser came up beside Murdock. “Tell your men nice shooting back there. Glad you’re along. My best map shows a hike of about fifteen miles to our target, the airport. Not sure if that’s right. It also shows two small towns between the beach and our taxi strip. My orders were a little vague on the subject, but as I understand them, you and your men were to go with us.”
“Those were my orders, Captain,” Murdock said.
“Good. We might have some more special need for your men’s talents. We’ve been sitting on that ship too long. Our skills get a little rusty.”
They kept moving. They met little resistance. One quick firefight in front of them produced six bodies and one prisoner. It was over before the SEALs got there.
The country became more built up. Now there was a paved road and an occasional small car or truck. The civilians seemed to melt out of the way as they passed.
“Captain, we may have another problem. Could you take a look?” It was the Marine’s radio. The captain motioned to Murdock, and the two hurried three hundred yards to where the Marine scout lay in a small ditch. Down a slight rise, the buildings were closer together and houses extended back a hundred yards each way from the road.
In the middle of the road, five hundred yards out, sat an armored half-track. It showed a mounted weapon that the captain said was a .50-caliber MG, after checking it with his binoculars.
The scout pointed to the sides and down one connecting street. It looked like more than a hundred riflemen behind good cover.
“Yes, a small problem.”
“The fifty could take down that rig,” Murdock said. “We use it mostly for destroying hardware, vehicles, radar installations, and a chopper now and then. Want some help on it?”
“Take out the truck, we still have those eighty men down there.”
“Do the truck, then more of the forty-mikes. Your men must have thirty or forty under-barrel launchers. We have five. Throw in a couple of hundred rounds before they can scatter, and all you have to do is clean up.”
Captain Browser stared at the scene ahead as he thought about it. At last he nodded. “Okay, we move all the launchers up to within two hundred yards. We launch, and at the same time, your man blows that fifty and the truck into scrap metal. Let’s do it.”
When the riflemen and Murdock’s five SEALs were on line and ready to fire, Captain Browser gave Bradford a nod. The first fifty round caught the truck’s windshield and blew it out. Before any reaction came, Bradford’s second round drilled through the engine. The third hit the fuel tank, and the truck blew up in a huge gasoline fireball, spraying flaming gasoline and truck parts for fifty yards.
With the first .50-caliber round, the forty-mike rounds sailed into the air. About half were short, but enough hit inside the range of the infantry to kill and wound many. The rounds continued to rain down now with more on target. Some shooters lifted their range to catch those who ran to the rear to avoid the death from the sky.
The Marines had been using their M-16s as rifles, too, and blasted anything that moved below. Four minutes after the first round, Captain Browser called for cease-fire.
Ten or fifteen Bahrainian soldiers came out from solid cover and ran to the rear. Let them go, Murdock decided.
The 350 men moved out again with the SEALs. So far, Adams and Holt had been the only casualties.