Location: 1km Southeast of Ladek Starey
Time: 0700 20 July 2000
<Not wanting to be caught by the trailing infantry, CPT Cappanetti gives the command to take the road by force.
After a few brief minutes of tension, the convoy clears the highway with no problem. Reaching a spot in the forest
about a klick southeast of village CPT Cappanetti calls for a halt.>
After a tense crossing of the highway, CPT Cappanetti calls for a halt about 1 km southeast of the village of Ladek
Starey. He points through the trees and says "there she is boys! She still stands. I better go ahead and scope
out the situation, to see if it's safe for us to bring in the vehicles. CPT Wolfe, you are in charge while I'm
gone. I need someone to go with to provide cover if things get hairy."
SGM Stewart speaks up "I'll stay and hold the perimeter." He grabs his rucksack and takes up position
near the duece and a half he was riding in, leaving the prisoner in the truck and scans the woodline.
Location: The village of Ladek Stary
Time: 0700 20 July 2000
<Josef calls for a quick head count, and though the village gave better than it got, the toll was still heavy...3
dead. Josef then tells everyone to stand-to until 0800, then to double the guard after that.
SFC Ikeman comes back in, meets up with CPT Lee, and discusses the battle.>
"Sh*t, I think we f*cked up." Lee shakes his head as he looks at the three villager's corpses. "We
should have stayed hidden, those guys probably would have let you all alone. Now they're probably radioing for
reinforcements and will come back. Dammit! Well, maybe some of their casualties dropped some equipment, you might
want some of your militia to check out the field."
SFC Ikeman doubletimes back into the village, looking for CPT Lee.
Lee awaits Ikeman's arrival, then speaks to him. "Well Army, what do you think? Cut and run or stand and fight?
I think we oughta sit tight for at awhile and help these people out."
SFC Ikeman speaks "Well sir, that wasn't the best ever. I caught a couple in the open with the 203, but probably
only hit their rucks in the troop bay on the track. It wasn't smoking on its way out. They might be back, or they
might figure we're not worth the effort. What worries me is the antennas on the BTR, this might have been a scout
patrol, or a command element. If thats the case, they probably broke contact to inform higher and reinforce themselves.
My personal opinion is that we should get the hell out of here, the opposite way from where they came from sir."
Still fully alert and looking at the perimeter, Ikeman reloads his 203 and readjusts the sights. He then starts
to account for his ruck and the rest of his equipment.
Location: 5 km south of Ladek Starey
Time: 0830 July 2000
<Kartz makes himself aware of the grenades, rolls out his sleeping gear, and offers to take first watch. "I
figure two hours on, two hours off and we should be allright, Capt. Get some
shut eye and ill get you up at the appointed hour."
CPT Whitedog rolls out his sleeping gear and falls asleep quickly, even though it's just after dawn.>
SFC Kartz walks over to CPT Whitedog and says "rise and shine Captain...you're watch."
Slowly, CPT Whitedog opens his eyes, and says "bleh, okay." CPT Whitedog then gets up and prepares to
take over the watch.
Location: Just West of Highway 43, 12 km Southeast of Ladek Starey
Time: 0815 20 July 2000
<MAJ Gunn watches the convoy pass into distance, then moves over to MAJ Pickett. "About how far are we
from your wreck? Since a convoy just went through, we should cross the highway now.">
"We are about 7-8 km west of where I wrapped my FLA around the tree." MAJ Pickett then asks "how
are you for food and water? I have enough food for three days, and enough water for four days."
MAJ Gunn replies "I have enough food and water for about 2 days, though I can stretch it longer if need be."
MAJ Pickett says "that's enough for now, but keep your eyes open for water, like I've been."
MAJ Gunn scans the horizon and notices a column of thick black smoke to the northeast. He says "I think we
should check out that column of smoke...probably a burning vehicle. We may be able to scrounge a few things..or
at least find out who got hit. I suggest we stick a little closer to each other, might have hostiles in the vicinity."
MAJ Pickett says "OK Major, sounds like a plan. We will head towards the smoke plume to the North. However
it's going to be hard to keep an eye on and zero in on the plume once we cross the road, because of the forest
canopy. I suggest we parallel the road on this side so we can watch the smoke, when it's due East of us then we
cross the road. We'll close up the distance to 20 meters separation, but Id be uncomfortable getting any closer.
My concern is to have one of us to step on a party favor and it get both of us. I'll make an annotation on my map
where we intersected the road to aid us back tracking for my gear."
After a quick annotation on the map, MAJ Pickett is ready to move out. Both majors move north on the west side
of the highway, until they spot a minor road to the north, about even with the column of smoke. After observing
the side road and the highway, MAJ Gunn crosses the road while MAJ Pickett covers, then MAJ Gunn covers MAJ Pickett.
The column of smoke is about 2 klicks east of your location.