ACV's 1 Operation Black Gold (59 page)

I dragged myself over to the cameraman and pushed the camera up.  ‘Don’t film this,’ I asked quietly.  ‘These men are sons and fathers; let their families remember them as they were.  They were men of courage, none shirked or ran, neither did any surrender; they died fighting one and all.  Let them be remembered for that not this, give them the dignity in death they deserve.’  The cameraman was white and shaking a cold sweat poured from his forehead, but he nodded his understanding.  ‘If you’re going to be sick, get away from here and do it.’

‘Yes OK.’  He left pulling Tina with him.

I shoved my knife back behind my holster.  ‘Thanks for that man.’  The voice had come from a black man propped against the side, sitting in a pool of his own blood, his shoulder smashed by a bullet.

‘How are you?’

‘The bleedings stopped.’

‘Well that’s something, where do you keep your field dressing?’

‘Smock pocket, bottom left.’  He noticed my pips as I retrieved his field dressing.  ‘Are you an officer?’

‘Some seem to think so, although I’m not overtly keen on the idea myself.’  I turned to the standing men.  ‘OK you lot, start attending the wounded, field dressings smock pocket bottom left, morphine to extremity injuries only.’

I called Buff in and got him Davie and Abie to deal with the wounded outside.  I pulled the rest into deal with the wounded inside. 

I finished dressing the man’s wound.  ‘Would you like some morphine?’

‘No time for that shit.’

‘Fair enough,’ I smiled.

‘I ain’t seen that badge before are you some kind of special unit, sir?’

‘You could say that, we’re ACV’s an armed casualty evacuation unit.’

‘Shit, are you the guys that blew through our lines yesterday and sunk the Rockwell?’

‘Aye- that was us.’

‘Aren’t you medics?’

‘No we’re just ordinary soldiers.  Our job’s to fly in a surgeon and keep him safe from harm.  Obviously we’ve been trained to assist him and act as medics but our primary job as I’ve said is to keep him safe from capture or worse.’

‘Are you all special forces, sir?’

‘Christ no!  Never have been, before we were asked to do this we were just ordinary footsloggers, you know infantrymen, Gordon Highlanders, we still are.’

That seemed to give him some food for thought.  ‘Are there a lot of you ACV guys around?’

‘Fishing for info soldier?’  I grinned at him.’

‘Just a little,’ he grinned back.

‘No were just an experimental unit, or we were.  What you’ve seen is what you get.’  He winced as I tucked his bad arm into his smock.  I checked his pulse to make sure the blood was still flowing freely to his hand.  ‘You’re going to be fine.’

‘Will…. will we be sent home sir?’

‘I’m sure you will find out soon enough, now lie still.’

‘Jim.’

‘Aye Mac.’

‘You’re wanted in Ops.’

‘What for?’

‘Someone called Cavera wants to talk to you on the radio.’

‘Commander Cavera of the Wrangler sir?’  The wounded man asked.

‘Yes, I think I talked to him yesterday.’

‘He’s a good man sir.  I served with him on the Wichita, he’s straight, decent and honest, you can trust him.’

‘Can I now, shall I pass on your regards soldier?’

‘Marine, I’m a marine, please Sunny, just Sunny.’

‘OK Sunny I’ll pass on the message.’

‘What happened to you back there?’  I asked Abie on the way past.

‘Don’t fucking ask,’ he snarled.

I reached the Ops room and Tina fainted.  Others blanched at the sight of me.  The engineer staggered out of the room with his hands over his mouth.

‘What the fuck’s wrong now?’

‘Never mind that now, there’s someone who wants to talk to you.’  Tom waved me over to the radio.

‘Hello USS Wrangler this is CV9 Sunray speaking over.’  There was a moment’s delay, I took the opportunity to look over the rig, and it was devastated.  A gunship had crashed onto the deck.  Debris including a complete tail fin lay scattered around, most of it still smouldering.  The seascape was littered with floating wreckage, life rafts and the flashing lamps of life preservers.

‘Sunray CV9 this is Commander Cavera from the Wrangler again; you offered to let us help with our wounded yesterday.  Is that offer still open, over?’  I turned to Tom.

‘Our boys are swamped, and most of the casualties are American, we could certainly do with a hand.’

Why don’t we let them take the walking wounded and the less seriously wounded while we deal with the more serious cases?’

‘That’s a good idea; they might even want to put on their own surgical teams.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Aye, ask them to send over an engineer to evaluate this rig.  If somebody farts too loudly it’s going to fall into the sea,’ Mr. White butted in wiping spittle from his mouth.

I got back onto the radio and we thrashed out a deal.  We also agreed to let them carry out their dead.

‘Thank you for your help CV9.’

‘No problem Wrangler, by the way I was talking to a friend of yours, goes by the name of Sunny, he sends his regards.’

There was a pause.  ‘He is a good man, how is he?’

‘He took a bullet in the shoulder but he’s going to be fine.’

‘Thank you for that too CV9, return my regards, Wrangler out.’

‘How are your men?’  Tom asked tentatively.

‘Och their fine.’

‘All of them!’  He seemed a little incredulous.

‘Aye, well Abie’s crippling a bit and Buff’s got a broken nose but apart from that, the odd cut and bruise I think.’

‘That is truly amazing.’  He sat down.  ‘Did you know we saw the whole thing from here?’

‘No, I didn’t.  How did you manage that?’

‘It was us,’ confessed the cameraman.  ‘We were forced away from the main fight just in time to catch your one.  I caught the whole thing on camera.’

No wonder the poor bastard was so white faced he must have got a hell of a shock.  ‘Are you alright?’

‘Are you for real, Christ can you believe this man?’  He asked Tom.  ‘They did the fighting all I did was film it and he asks me if I’m alright.’

‘Well you don’t look it.’

‘I’ll be fine honest.’

‘No you won’t, I’d say you’ll both need counselling after this.’

‘Will you seek counselling?’

‘It’s automatic, everyone here will.  I’m sure Tom here can arrange it for you, the army counsellors are the best for this.’

‘Yes no problem I can put you through with my men.’

‘OK then we will, I will make sure Tina comes too.’  She still wasn’t conscious and a worried operator hovered over her.

‘Do you have any clean clothes with you Jim?’  Tom asked.

‘No why?’

‘Come with me.’

He took me into the ablutions and stood me in front of a full-length mirror.  ‘Oh shit.’

‘Is any of it yours?’

‘No I don’t think so.’

‘I’ll go collect the rest of your men and see if I can get you any spare clothing.’

He left me standing in front of the mirror and I stood there for quite a while staring at my reflection.  I was unrecognizable, very little of my uniform wasn’t covered in blood.  My right arm and hand were completely red.  My face was as bad and my hair stuck up with congealed blood.  By the time the rest joined me I had finished being sick.

CHAPTER 63

We all sat in silence until he came back with the piles of fresh towels, soap and a dozen pairs of oil workers coveralls.  ‘This is the best I can do for now, I’ll get some plastic bags for your uniforms, we’ll wash them the best we can.’  A crewmember informed us.

‘Thanks.’  The silence resumed.  Eventually my brain started to work again.  ‘Is anybody wounded?’

‘Now he asks,’ bemoaned Gigs, it raised a few smiles.  ‘No, no, no,’ the call did its rounds until it came to Buff.  ‘Dooh,’ he sniffed.  It raised a few chuckles; we were on our way back.

I had taken my kit into the shower with me to scrub it off.  My clothes apart from my socks and boots were in a black bag.  A steward came in and took them away.  I thought I was never going to get clean, every time I ran my fingers through my hair I found more clots of blood, which frequently sent me retching to a sink.  Eventually the water stopped turning red and I pulled my dripping gear and myself from the shower.

I was exhausted, only wanting to sleep.  I sat myself down and Buff came over with a couple of sets of coveralls.  ‘Fucking big, or fucking wee.’

‘Fucking wee.’  He opened a hand and let a pair drop at my feet.  ‘How’s the nose?’

‘Fucking sore.’

I dressed then used the towel to dry my belt gear.  I turned my attentions to my weapons, hoping the familiar routine of cleaning them would keep me awake.  The others had already embarked upon this task and I was playing catch up.  An urn of hot sweet tea appeared and for once, I was eternally grateful.  Abie came back from the shower limping and I could see why.  Most of the skin was off his right shin and the ankle looked banged up.

‘What happened to your leg?’

‘Forget it, aright.’

A few looks went round but nobody pushed it.  I cleaned the knife last, oiling it before I slipped it back onto its sheath and put it on.  Its familiar weight was comforting.

The door opened and a Private walked in.  ‘I’ve got to take you all up for a debriefing.’  We slung our gear and followed him wearily nursing our aches and pains.  The SBS man stopped with his hand on a door handle.  ‘Is it true what they say about you?’

‘Don’t know, no-one’s had the balls to say it to our face yet,’ Gigs growled.

He thought about it for a second, his face split into a wide grin.  ‘In here.’  He pushed the door open and left us to it.

We walked in to find Tom waiting for us.  ‘Come in, please sit down.’  He waited until we were all seated.  ‘First I would like to thank you for what you did today, from my men and myself.  Secondly, I would just like to say, I have never seen such courage, determination and, just sheer fighting ability in my life.’

‘What do you mean seen?’  Buff interrupted.

‘Ah, he hasn’t told you?’

I was getting funny looks.  ‘I forgot all about it.’  I confessed.

‘I see, oh well, never mind, what happened was the news team was forced to take cover on the staging behind you and caught the whole thing.’

‘Aw fuck,’ exclaimed Buff; obviously, thinking about what Marie was going to say.  ‘Is that why Mac turned up when he did?’

‘Yes that’s right Buff, but by the time we noticed what was happening it was all over, sorry.’  Buff shrugged.  ‘We got it all on disc would anyone like to see it.’

‘No!’  The vote was unanimous.

‘Wouldn’t you like to see how well your men did outside Jim?’

‘Don’t need to.’

‘I think you should, you have a unique chance here to go through one another’s roles.’

‘I want to ken fit happened to Abie?’  Davie asked.

‘Why?’  He sprang to his feet.  D´ yé think I ran like?’

Davie stood up slowly but it never fazed Abie.  ‘You saved our bacon in there Abie.  I ken ye never ran bit even if ye did, I wouldná give a fuck.  What I want to know is how ye got sae bad hurt.’

Abie came down a little.  ‘I’m sorry Davie bit can yeh no just leave it?’

Of course, by now we all wanted to know what happened to him.  The TV and video switched on.  It had been wound forward to where they had taken cover.  The camera swung round to the explosions.  ‘They’re hurt, they’re hurt,’ came Tina’s frightened voice.

‘No look, they’re getting up,’ the cameraman answered.

‘Where’s Jim?’

‘There, Davie and Buff’s got him.’

‘Is he hurt?’

‘I don’t know, I don’t think so.  What the!’  We sprang into firing positions and the camera swung up and focused on to the rising Chinook, from this angle you could see it was packed with waiting men.  ‘Oh my god!’  Exclaimed the cameraman to grunts of agreement from us.  Battle Commenced, we watched with a mixture of emotions.  We leapt onto the crates, four men on a narrow front almost side by side.  Then Abie just disappeared.  It was so fast I missed it.  I swung round.  ‘What the fuck happened there?’  But the cameraman had noticed his disappearance too and searched for him.  It zoomed in on something.  I had to squint to make it out; it was a foot.  Abie had inadvertently jumped onto a damaged crate, which had collapsed beneath him and left him hanging upside down by his ankle.  There was a moment’s stunned silence then the room erupted with laughter.  The video was forgotten as we tore into Abie.  He went into a super sulk, which just made us worse.  I ended up on the floor howling and I wasn’t the only one.  The recording had been stopped until we got control of ourselves.

Mac arrived with a message.  ‘Can I see the bit I missed?’  So we had to watch it again and discovered how Abie had gotten out of his predicament.  Two Marines had managed to squeeze through a small gap between the containers under the Chinook and outflank Ali and Gigs.  Abie had heard them and fired through the crate killing them.  Then it had collapsed on top of him.  He had finally struggled free and came to our aid.

‘This is becoming a bit of a habit Abie.’

‘Fit is Jim?’

‘Saving your bacon.  That’s twice in two days you’ve saved mine.’

The only one watching the video now was Mac.  We were ribbing Abie again, Gigs was in full swing doing his superman impression over the back of a chair.  ‘Hi, ho, Abie away, is it a bird, is it a plane, no it’s super Abie, dit, dit, di, da.’  We were in kinks again and he began to unwind a wee bit and laugh with us.

‘It’s fucking embarrassing,’ he protested half-heartedly.  He would never fully live it down, we wouldn’t let him, but I had learned a valuable lesson, never again would I leave our backs unprotected.

Tom gave up trying to debrief us; we weren’t interested in reliving the slaughter.  ‘What’s happening now?’  I asked.

‘Well the Yanks have finally landed.  They’ve loaned us two surgical teams and two doctors.  The surgeons are working flat out while the doctors are categorizing the wounded and giving pain killing injections.  Some of the wounded have already left.  A general cease-fire is in effect; their engineer arrived as well and is going round the rig with Mr. White.  Preliminary reports are good.  Osprey won’t be able to carry oil for a very long time although our underwater pumps still work and we can control the flow of oil for the whole field.  So in that respect we’re still fully operational.  To this date there is still no declaration of war and orders for opening fire stand.’

‘You look tired.’

‘I’ve no time to be tired, too much to do.’

‘Well don't go near Whitton; he’ll stick a needle in your arse and knock yé out for eight hours.’

Tom grinned.  ‘I’d better avoid him then.’

‘Are they letting supplies through yet?’

He shook his head, ‘no the blockade is still in operation.’

I felt my anger beginning to rise again, ‘bastards, what about our wounded?’

‘Don’t worry about them; we’ll get them out tonight.’

I thought that over for a moment, ‘aye that’s fair enough but is anybody shouting about it.  If we don’t it won’t be long before they realise we do have subs.’

Tom realised the truth in my statement, ‘that’s a good point.’

‘How many casualties did we have?’

‘They were pretty light considering, six dead, ten seriously wounded with another fifteen with varying degrees of wounds.’

I could see the underlying pain in his eyes, ‘your command has taken quite a battering this week.’

‘Yes, but we did the job.  We always knew Osprey would be their prime target, that’s why the SBS got it in the first place, but our casualties have been lower than we estimated.’

My mind moved forward, ‘so what happens now?’

‘I don’t really know, they’re in no fit state to put in another attack and the rig couldn’t possibly stand one.  Half my men are being relieved tonight, myself, and the other half in three days’ time.  At the moment, we’re sorting out the dead and escorting Yank medical teams.  We’re gathering quite a nice pile of souvenirs if you’re interested.’

I showed him my captured Colt 45.  ‘Do you think I’ll be able to get ammo for this at home?’

‘Yes should do.’

‘Maybe I’ll try and scrape up a few spare mags for it then.’

‘I know what I want.’  Davie stood up and left.

‘Hey wait for me,’ Abie scrambled after him.

I stood.  ‘I’m going to go and check on Davie Whitton then grab a coffee, unless there’s something you want us to do?’

Tom thought it over, ‘no don’t think so, not at the moment anyway, but could you do the fish and chip routine for us in a little while?’

‘Consider it done.’