MOUT
Cold rain comes down in unsteady sheets. Thick mist hugs the ground, obsuring our movement into the village. Water constantly slides off my helmet as I get a quick view of my target from several buildings away. A quick hand movement silently guides others in the team which direction to go. We pass between a few buildings with ease, weapons up and at the ready. The "vil" isn't that quiet...
Heavy firefights can be heard from the other side of the village. Occasional bursts of automatic fire and explosions from concussion grenades rock this grey, foggy day. In contrast, we still move silently. An almost Bavarian style hotel, our target, looms within 75 meters of my team. We still are partially concealed by fog...and the slowly creeping dusk. That and we are temporarily holed up behind a wall.
Another hand signal gets our security up to the corner of our cover. A blazing jaunt to another building gets us within 25 meters of our objective. Still quiet. With a whisper and nod of the head we haul balls to the hotel. No movement detected inside as I keep eyes and weapon trained on the windows on this side.
The team is stacked tight on the corner. I send my number four man to open a door next to us as you turn the corner. The two man and myself give our "up" status to the number one, the door is flung open and in we go.
Our gunlights illuminate the deepening darkness. "Room to our front, hallway to the right," is whispered to me. I quickly position my team, security hits the hallway as burst across into the room across the hall. Two rooms clear, many more to go. Leineman reports two more rooms off to the left and right in the hall and another room, in partial view at the end. Movement is slow and smooth. Even a "civilian" popping out at the wrong time doesn't really slow me down.
"ON THE FUCKING GROUND!", is yelled by me, along with the equivelant motion of my rifle, until it is understood by the other party. Security is kept on the "civilian" and the room directly ahead as we clear the room off to the left down the hall. Firing from a stairway, that we hadn't seen prior, erupts into a brief firefight. No causulties on my side, unknown on the enemy's crew. After a quick consolidation, the room on the right in the hall and main room is taken. Another room is taken in quick succesion while we pull security on the stairs. The "civilian" was restrained and placed in a cleared room as we began to go up into the upper level. More of the same pain in the ass...
Now I could finish up the story (I shortened it for "the viewing audience") but I wouldn't want to bore you too much more. So, "what's the purpose of this post?", you may be thinking...and too be honest I have no clue. ;) I guess just another reminder to everyone about how much the warrior's path has changed. Perhaps this was spurred on by the requests for articles to Wolf Age or mention of hunting. Anyhow, just got back from MOUT training yesterday...so I have urban warfare stuff still on the brain. ;)