James Rosone - Battlefield Russia

Sergeant Price looked at the map they’d handed him and traced his finger across it from their current position to where the little village was located. It was an ideal position to set up an artillery base; any guns set up there could provide support to any location in the city and twenty plus kilometers beyond it, which would certainly be helpful if they ran into any serious trouble.

“OK, sounds good. When do we leave?” asked Price.

“As soon as our vehicles arrive from the airfield. That said, the rest of the company is going to do this mission,” explained Fowler. “I’m personally tasking you, your platoon and Lieutenant Martinez here with gathering intelligence on an Indian air base.”

Price and Martinez exchanged a surprised look.

Fowler continued, “Arakkonam Air Base is roughly 75 kilometers from our current location. I need you guys to figure out what sort of military presence is still there and what condition the runways are in. I was told the Navy didn’t crater the runways, just hit the aircraft hangars, etcetera. If the runways look to be in good condition and the base doesn’t appear to be heavily occupied by the enemy, then the battalion may assault it and expand our military footprint deeper into the country.”

They talked for a bit longer, making sure they had a fallback plan in case they ran into trouble.

Fowler concluded, “I was told by our Air LNO that within an hour, the first several Wolverines will be ready to provide close air support should we need it, and we’ll also have some Apaches on standby as well.”

With the meeting officially finished, Lieutenant Martinez and Price walked back to their platoon area to let the guys know about the new mission.

“LT, when are they going to give you your captain bars? I heard you made O-3 last week,” Price said lightheartedly to Martinez.

Martinez shook his head. “No idea. I think I pissed the major off and he’s holding my bars on me until he feels I’m good and ready for them. I don’t really care. I checked my LES statement and I’m getting paid O-3 pay. That’s all that matters.”

Sergeant Price grunted. “Lucky you,” he shot back. “I checked before we left, and they hadn’t bumped me up from E-6 to E-7 yet.”

When they approached the platoon area, the men crowded them, looking for info.

“Have we got a mission yet, or are we still on babysitting duty for the airborne?” one of the specialists asked snarkily. He obviously was not happy about being stuck on QRF duty.

Smiling, Martinez responded, “We have a mission, a real mission. We’re going to scout out an enemy airfield and see if it’s operational. If it is, then the battalion is going to capture it.”

A few whistles and hoots could be heard from the men.

“Calm down, girls,” said Sergeant Price with a laugh. “I need everyone to make sure your rucks are ready. I want three days’ worth of food and a triple combat load of ammo. We have no idea what we’re driving into, and we’re a long way from help. Understand?”

The guys nodded and went to work getting their supplies organized while they waited for their vehicles to show up. Twenty minutes later, eight SOF-outfitted JLTVs rolled up to their position, fully armed and ready to go. Unlike the conventional Army JLTVs, the SOF ones had machine guns mounted on special swivels on the sides of the two front doors, an M2 .50 or Mk19 grenade gun mounted on the turret, and a M240G mounted in a rear position in the bed of the truck. These small vehicles packed a whole lot of firepower and made for great scout vehicles.

Once their rides had arrived, the platoon started loading up their rucks and double-checking the weapons, ammo, water, and fuel. The few 82 ndAirborne soldiers nearby just looked on, seemingly jealous of the exciting mission that they were missing out on and the sweet ride they were traveling on to get there.

The Rangers, for their part, made it look like this was just an everyday vehicle to them. Once the platoon had their equipment fitted out, Lieutenant Martinez called them all over to gather around him and began an impromptu mission brief. Since he didn’t have a lot of information, or really even maps to show them, he used the GPS map built into the vehicles. For the most part, they’d stay on the highway since it would give them the fastest route to get there. Once they were roughly ten kilometers out, the platoon would break into squads and envelop the base from multiple positions, approaching as close as they dared to get a peek at what was waiting for them.

As the day turned to evening, the Rangers had taken cover in various locations around the air base and the surrounding city.

“It looks like the base is empty,” Lieutenant Martinez said. Sergeant Price saw Martinez shoot him a look, asking for confirmation.

Sergeant Price pulled out his binos and surveyed the scene anew. “The runways look clear. The parking ramps and taxiways, however… well, they’ve seen better days.” Burnt-out wrecks of several aircraft and helicopters dotted the area, along with the charred-out remains of the buildings on the base. “I think whatever enemy units were at this base have long since abandoned it. I’ll bet our platoon could seize this base right now.” Price lowered his binoculars. Night was almost upon them, and soon they’d have to switch over to their night vision goggles.

Depressing the talk button on his radio, Martinez radioed in what they were seeing. Sergeant Price smiled when he heard the lieutenant suggest that they attempt to take the base at nightfall. Some chatter took place between Martinez and Fowler for a few minutes while their options were discussed.

After a few minutes, Martinez walked back to the vehicle and singled out Sergeant Price. “You really think we can seize that base after dark?” he asked.

“The other squads have all checked in and they haven’t reported any movement,” Price answered. “We’ve watched the base now for several hours. Whoever was there has probably long since left after the Navy paid them a visit. I think going in after dark using the NVGs is the best approach.”

Martinez thought about that for a moment and nodded. “OK. I’ll let Major Fowler know we’re going to do it after dark. He offered to get us some gunship support in case we need it. Do you think we should request it or just keep it on standby?”

Price didn’t think they would need it at all, but having it on standby, ready to help them should they need it, couldn’t hurt anything. “Let’s keep them ready to assist in case we run into trouble, but I think we’ve got this, Sir,” he answered.

An hour after dark, Sergeant First Class Price and half a dozen Rangers slowly crept along the outer edge of the base perimeter where it came closer to an access road. Once they found the point where the two ran next to each other, Price reached for his Gerber and began to cut the wire while the other men in the squad took up a defensive perimeter around him. In a matter of minutes, he’d cut the five strands of barbed wire that made up the external security and pulled the wires back to the nearest pole, creating a twelve-foot gap in the fence.

He depressed his radio talk button. “Zombie Six, this is Zombie Five. Entrance is open. Heading in now,” he announced.

Price’s thirteen-man team broke out into three four-man teams as they headed to their respective sections of the air base. Using their NVGs to see through the night, they quickly made their way past the outer perimeter of the base to the main facilities, stopping every so often to listen for sounds of movement.

Thirty-minutes after entering the base, Price’s team found themselves sitting in a thicket of trees just opposite a road that led to the main headquarters building of the air base, or at least what was left of it. Pulling a thermal scope out of his ruck, Price turned it on and looked at the structures across the street for any signs of life.