Rules Of Engagement

Deterrence requires clear and evident capability and resolve to fight at any level of conflict and, if necessary, to increase deterrent force capabilities and posture deliberately so that any potential aggressor will assess its own risks as unacceptable. US policy, should deterrence fail, provides flexibility to respond to crises with options that:

• Are proportional to the provocation.

• Are designed to limit the scope and intensity of the conflict.

• Will discourage escalation.

• Will achieve political and military objectives.

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Marching Band

"Ready?" I asked. I placed the IVF on Aaina's chest and gently placed her hands over it.

"Hold on, sweetheart," I said. "This is gonna hurt." I couldn't see her eyes and didn't want to ever again.

"A lot," said Red with a grin, and I met his gaze.

I depressed my PTT. "Theo, we're oscar mike," I said. Red and I each grabbed two corners of the blanket. I would lead the way, and he would trail. On the three count, we hoisted her into the air. Aaina moaned and squealed with every move and jostle of the blanket as we positioned ourselves inside the door.

"Solid copy." Theo readied for the run. "Clear!"

With that command, we sprinted from the hut as I shouted.

"Bounding!"

I heard the gunfire increase. I didn't hear or see impacts from any rounds, but it was still nerve-wracking. We ran toward a four-foot wall stretching about twelve feet above the corral.

I heard her crying behind me. The pain must have been unbearable. There was no way to be gentle. And I didn't want to listen to her. We had to get her to Doc. I had to drown it out somehow.

"Jesus Christ," I said. "Red, you run like old people bang, you fat body piece of shit." I couldn't see him, but I knew he'd smile and most definitely respond.

"Screw you, Kelly," he said. His breathing became heavier. "At least I don't suck balls, you tree-hugging hippie faggot." He laughed out loud, both of us panting from the running carry.

I saw Theo crouching by the side of the clay brick wall. He scanned with his rifle with one hand and waved us in with the other. We rushed past him and into cover.

"Put her down," snapped Doc. He and Theo helped us place her on the ground. Doc immediately took her vitals, hanging her fluid bag on a stick protruding from the wall. Theo looked at her and began praying out loud. After a soft Amen, he turned to Red and me.

"Where's Chief?" he asked.

Neither of us answered. Chief had no comms. He was blind, and we couldn't see him. But, with T-Man on his left and right, he needed to get off the roof. The run was at least seventy meters to the corral.

We were waiting for a sign, a figure running at us in the night. There was a letup of gunfire, but it didn't stop. I was getting nervous. Theo, Red, and I exchanged glances.

Chief.

"Christ," said Theo. "You've got to get him. We can't leave him behind."

"Aye, aye, Staff Sergeant," I said. Red and I readied for the run. The Elder and the friendlies from Kilo One prepared to fire over the wall. Theo motioned downward with his hand, then waved his finger at them. "No, no, no—Christ, they're going to get you guys whacked." He took a quick peek over the wall and asked, "You boys ready?"

"Hell yeah, Staff Sergeant," said Red. He moved from his knees to a squatting position.

"Good," Theo said. I touched Red's left shoulder, getting tight on his back. "Don't get freaking blown up," said Theo. "Stay frosty, boys."

I took two deep breaths, looked at Red, and yelled.

"Bounding!"

We glided out of cover. We staggered slightly, Red inside at two o'clock. All the fighting was in the stony reeds, the Elders' hut, and the poppy house. As we approached the cane, we stopped. I took up position on the left with a clear line of sight into the reeds. Red stayed right, facing the rear of the hut and the poppy house.

That's when it started. Four explosions within milliseconds of each other. Huge plumes of fire, dust, and shrapnel.

"Fucking mortars," I said. I tilted my head away from the blast.

"Jesus Christ!" yelled Red. I pushed on my PTT.

"Theo, I'm taking indirect mortar fire, location unknown. How copy?"

"Solid copy, we see it. Keep your head down and stay frosty."

As the mortar fire increased, the gunfire decreased. The impact blasts were washing out the view of my NVGs, the green images flashing white. I pushed it off my eye, my frustration growing at how this unfolded.

"Red, we need to find Chief most ricky-tic and get out of here. Let's push up this wall. Take cover at the hook and get eyes on the Elder's hut. I'm gonna move up into the reeds, see if he's there."

"Roger that, Kelly," Red said.

I moved to our nine o'clock until I was fifteen meters from Red. Then, counting down from three with my fingers, I bladed my hand and chopped it forward.

Sporadic mortar fire still came down on the village. Red and I would maintain dispersion and visual contact as we moved closer to the hut from either side.

I had movement. Three T-Man from the reeds. I dropped prone, propped my elbows, and got a good line of sight.

"Red," I whispered into the comms. "I have contact. Three T-Man heading my way, thirty meters, eleven o'clock."

"I got 'em," he replied.

I was hoping they would stop and turn. They kept coming. I didn't want to engage or cause a firefight. Chief could get caught in the crossfire. This was not good.

Stop coming, stop coming, stop coming—shit. I have to engage. They're too close.

I took a deep breath, looked through my optic, and fired.

I heard Red's SAW, three rhythmic bursts. Tracer rounds and muzzle flashes flew by them. Two fell, and the third ran back through the reeds before Red shot him.

Our ambush opened a flurry of AK fire from the crater and the berm. Seven T-Man sprinted across the open field from both locations. The T-Man from the berm headed into the village towards the front of the Elder's house. They went into the reeds, where I was lying.

You've got to be freaking kidding me.

They slowed and crouched, looking for me. In doing so, they did what they sent Red and me. They found Chief.

From inside the Elder's hut, Chief gunned them down one shot at a time. I fired five or six intermittent bursts with no cadence, no need to pause, just firing on sight.

"You need to exfil. Now!" I yelled. The rifle fire from Chief stopped. I waited impatiently until I heard Red yell out.

"I've got eyes on Chief! Ready to cover!" he said.

Amidst the gunfire and mortar impacts, I heard a faint voice.

"Bounding." I opened fire on the reeds, emptying and then reloading. It was Chief. I watched him running toward Red.

"Kelly," said Chief. "Bounding!" He sprinted to the barn, where he took up a firing position.

"Set!" He said.

Red sprinted from the top of the cane. He was quick to reach Chief when he shouted that he, too, was set.

From my stomach, I jumped up and sprinted to the barn. I leaped over a stone wall, landing flat on the body of the T-Man I had killed with my knife. Immediately, I pushed off, jumping to my feet, but not before I saw his face.

His eyes were still open, as was his mouth. I saw the damage I had done with my knife. His neck ripped open from beneath his ear to his Adam's Apple. He had bled out. His face was ingrained in my mind, and I couldn't look away.

"Kelly, shit!"

Red shouted, stomped the body with his heel, and pushed the head with his toe. It snapped me out of my trance, and I peeked over the wall as Chief pointed to the Elder's house.

"Oh, shit—they're gonna go inside," I said. The wounded we had to leave in the hut were unprotected. T-Man would murder all of them. "How many, Chief?"

"Six, seven wounded? Three critical, shit—I don't know, dude. It's a freaking mess."

The T-Man moved quickly, flying through the door. We fired multiple bursts but couldn't keep them from the hut. The inside was lit by flashes of light. We heard screaming, AK fire, and voices screaming Allah's name.

We waited.

"God damn it," said Red. So we fixed our sights on the hut.

"We're gonna light 'em the hell up," I said. "Maybe we'll leave one alive, waterboard him until his freaking ears bleed."

We were patient, with a mindset for vengeance. We were just thirty meters from the hut. It didn't take long for them to come out.

"Got 'em," said Red.

Their inexperience was their undoing. They exited one at a time, single file and tight. We let loose a blistering volley neutralizing seven. But that wasn't good enough. We fired at their bodies, seeing them jolt, bleed, and twitch. We fired until we saw their heads blow apart, knowing they would never again take a breath.

We remained on our knees, spotting their corpses over the wall. I admired what we had done and had no regret or remorse.

"Here is justice—here is punishment—here in me," I said.

"Punisher," said Chief.

The Taliban fled, but only for the time being. They were massing for another assault, and this time, they would surely overwhelm us with sheer numbers. Stray mortar rounds impacted the village with a few rifle shots and bursts. By launching stray mortar rounds, they had some fight left.

The air was still. Smoke rose from the village, the embers within the impact craters giving off a glow. There were bodies everywhere, and it was difficult to tell friend from foe. Gunfire and shrapnel ravaged the poppy house and Elder's hut. The reeds that once stood tall were trampled and showed where bodies lie dead and bleeding. Yet, you could smell the cordite smoke even in the night's stillness. It was acrid and a little sweet.

Aina, whose rescue started this, was steadily wheezing. I watched Doc take the coat off of a friendly that had just died and lay it over her. That's when I noticed three bodies missing their garments.

"This freaking cold could easily give her pneumonia," he said. "She's already got fluid in her lungs. We need to get her to shock trauma asap."

"Do your best, Doc," said Theo. "Stay frosty."

Viking and Kilo Three had held fast. Chief replaced Viking, securing the position behind the blind house and stonewall. Red took Kilo One and the Elder to the barn.

I popped open my tobacco tin, but Viking took it out of my hand. He took some for himself and motioned for me to open my mouth. He placed more than a pinch between my cheek and gum, then helped me secure the front of the corral.

"So listen, Kelly... I was thinking," said Viking. We both kept eyes on the village. "When I have a kid, I want him to be in the marching band."

"What?" I asked. "Dude, you're a full-blown, cold-hearted, stone-cold killer. Your kid's gonna be a white trash trailer-park buck nut like you. So why on earth would you subject him to that ridicule and teasing?"

"Think about it, dude. He can still be a Marine but never get shot at. I mean. I know the Marine band guys are POGs but just think about it for a second. Can you have a college football game or a parade without a marching band? Hell, Kelly. Can you really have the Marine Corps birthday?" He pointed at me, waiting.

"Without a marching band," I said. I couldn't help but smile and laugh out loud. "So what's he going to play? The tuba?" I glanced at Viking and saw him bare his teeth with a huge smile.

"Hell no, dude," he said. "He's gonna play something that builds up his lips, you know, for all that Mary Jane Rotten Crotch he's going down on."

"Oh—my—God." I just shook my head as he rambled about The President's Own, The Marine Band, parades, and women.

Theo called me off the wall, taking me into his confidence. We moved away from the others, not five yards from the wall. I stooped down as he opened the map on his leg, his flashlight in his mouth. Taking it into his left hand, he held the map tight against his thigh with his right.

"I have no choice," said Theo. He looked at the bodies lying on the hay and dust. "We can't move anyone, especially the girl. That's what got us here in the first place," he said. He pointed to the ridgeline on the map.

I emptied my mouth of all tobacco and rinsed with a swig from my Camelbak.

"Fire mission?" I asked.

"It's our only hope," he said. "They're most likely massing on the ridge—using the crater and the berm to screen their movement."

"Jesus, Theo, that's danger-freaking close," I said." So that ridgeline is only what? Three hundred meters from us? We'll get blown to shit, dude."

Shaking his head, he smiled.

"That's why we're gonna call for an airstrike." He called for Viking while I found myself deep in thought and concern.

Jesus Christ, when will it end?