The Chinese soldiers were cornered, but fought back bravely. They were well-armed and had several different types of weapons, but were not prepared for this sudden attack. Hand grenades flew from both sides and ground missiles flew out from the line of trucks they had set up as protection. Several of the charging men from the runway went down as they ran for the mounds of snow, with the stationery vehicles only a hundred yards away.
For several minutes, the firing was intense from both sides, with over 400 carbines firing at each other and several hand grenades and rockets going in both directions. Suddenly, three small mortars could be heard from behind the snow mounds as mortar bombs flew into the air and started to blow the cars to pieces. Nine rounds went in, as well as dozens of hand grenades and several shoulder rockets began to blow the rest of the vehicles, and the opposition’s cover, to pieces.
Then silence began to envelop the area as the American troops were told to hold their fire by their commanders. A white piece of material became viewable waving above the middle truck that was about to burst into flames. Slowly, several men climbed out of the vehicles, moved forward, and dropped their weapons. The major headed off the roof, told Captain Wong to get all the engineers together, unconscious or not, and frisk them for weapons or phones while he went outside.
The air was full of smoke as he left the terminal. Using his radio, he told his men to stand down, stay on the mounds, and keep the surrendering soldiers covered. The third C-130 came in landing well down the runway and stayed at a safe distance ready to be called forward.
Dozens of American troops were moving into the attack area, with several of them ready to fire at the growing crowd of injured and bloody men, who 15 minutes earlier had stood in formation not knowing that their lives were held in the balance for the battle.
A truck’s gas tank suddenly exploded, spewing bodies in all directions, and flames engulfed the two trucks either side. Orders were given by Major Patterson, and several of his men ran for the bulldozers to make sure that the trucks were separated and pushed further away from the terminals.
After a couple of minutes, Captain Wong shouted to the Chinese soldiers to go back and pull any wounded out of the mess of vehicles, and several men went back and began shouting for survivors. Another five bodies were pulled out and Major Patterson counted only 37 Chinese soldiers alive and or wounded out of the 200, which had arrived. A U.S. Air Force Senior First Sergeant who had been co coordinating the attack from the C-130s radioed Major Patterson and asked for orders.
“Tell your men to keep the captives under guard, pull them to one side, check them for weapons, be careful, and can I assume that the C-130 has medics?”
“Roger that,” was the reply.
“Get the medics in here. I want an injury count in ten minutes once we have the area safe and the men checked for weapons. Our injured go into the aircraft first, followed by theirs. I want a report from the Expressway and behind the terminals. Did we lose any?”
“Negative on the Expressway,” was the reply over the radio. “We were charged by about 20 Charlies, but none made it. We are clearing the area and coming towards you. Over.”
“I want 202 bodies or injured men in Charlie camouflage. I counted them before the fight and we are not leaving here until we have 202 accounted for,” ordered Patterson.
“We had several try and make it around the building, but they are dead and we are checking every hole anybody can climb into for any Charlie. Over,” added another soldier.
They started with their own wounded, and there were three dead Americans and 29 wounded—several seriously. The C-130 had over 20 medical personnel ready, and the wounded were quickly transferred to the aircraft. The second C-130 was empty and ready to take on more wounded. There were only three lucky Chinese soldiers who did not have a wound of any sort, and they were frisked and put to work carrying their own wounded into the aircraft as the first 130 made its way down the taxiway.
“Get all the wounded and dead back to McGuire,” Major Patterson ordered the flight personnel. He could not speak over the radio to McGuire from the ground, since the base was too far away, but the aircraft’s radio operators could from the air.
“C-130s—return ASAP for the engineers and the pallets of electronics we have here. It’s going to take at least ten flights in and out to carry the pallets, and we need this airport on lockdown by sunset. Also, ask the base commander at McGuire and Andrews to wake up all their engineering personnel. We need all the help we can to audit the inventory when the equipment arrives at McGuire. My troops will keep the airport under control until every Charlie is accounted for.”
The task was gruesome. A group of medics, under the control of two doctors, tried to piece bits of body to other bits of body. Many of the bodies were whole—the ones who had died from gunfire—but the unfortunates who had a mortar or shoulder rocket land close, or even hit by them, were nothing more than a pair of smoking boots.
Empty boots were placed in a line, some with parts in them and some without, and counted.
A complete search of the surrounding area was underway. A couple of hiding Chinese soldiers had been found, ferreted out, and marched over to help carry the wounded.
Twenty minutes later, the second C-130 took off with the first 30 wounded Chinese lying on stretchers. The third C-130 took off half an hour later with 90 dead bodies.
The first C-130 was already coming in to land several minutes after the third one had departed, and several more medical personnel exited with stretchers to carry the rest of the dead. This time, a forklift came out with a pallet of body bags, and the soldiers began to place a dead body, sometimes in several pieces, into each bag.
Within two hours of the beginning of the attack, 202 pairs of boots on and not on bodies were counted. The piles of non-recognizable parts were placed in body bags and placed in the next C-130.
The airport was safe, the battle was over, and all that remained was for the engineers and pallets to be flown out.
Major Patterson called General Allen. It had been three hours since his last call. He described the success of the mission to the General and reported he thought that there was a smaller pallet of around 120 boxes of satellite phones.
“Get a cell phone into the hands of as many Air Force base commanders in the country as you can, Patterson. This is your next mission. Use all available flying aircraft, from jets to helicopters for the next 48 hours only. You must have as many bases covered as possible by midnight on January 7th. Spread the aircraft usage around the country wisely. Double the air crews on all aircraft, which can get into the southern areas like Texas. Remember, Elmendorf in Alaska and Edwards in California already have phone contact. Start at McGuire, Andrews, and Bolling Air Force bases, work outwards, giving only one phone to base commanders. I want a unit each at Seymour Johnson and Pope ASAP. Give one to the commanders at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune. I need one ASAP to Vice Admiral Rogers at the naval base in Norfolk. Get one to the president in North Carolina. I have two spare units and I will leave one in Japan and one at Osan in Korea.
“Patterson, I want to know exactly how many satellite phones we have within four hours. Get the information from the Chinese engineers. Then get a company of men to guard the Chinese engineers while we pair each one up with one of our own engineers. Treat them like gold-dust, get them everything they need, and then fly or drive them where they were meant to go and allow them to do the jobs they were flown in for. Try and borrow a couple of them to start repairing some of our fighters at Andrews and see if we can get a few of our aircraft operational again.”