Location: 1km Southeast of Ladek Starey
Time: 0730 20 July 2000
<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.>
SGM Brantley steps forward "I will cover you sir, covering is one of my specialties, but then again, so is
just about everything."
CPT Cappanetti grabs his M-16, checks the chamber, then heads over to talk to CPT Wolfe. He says to CPT Wolfe "I'm
not sure what the situation in the village is, so if you hear fire, mount up and get the dueces rolling. We'll
link up here (points to a point on the map about 10 km south). If you take fire, roll towards the village and hopefully
we can scare off whoever is bothering you."
He then turns to Brantley "grab the handheld radio out of the humvee and lets move out."
Brantley grabs the radio, checks the battery and the freq, then moves out shadowing CPT Cappanetti.
SGM Stewart settles in and grabs a bite to eat. Finishing that, he then begins to question his prisoner. CPT Wolfe
wanders over and says "if you wait until the captain and the jarhead get back, we'll help you interrogate
your prisoner. It's been a few days since we "questioned a prisoner"..."
Location: The village of Ladek Stary
Time: 0730 20 July 2000
<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.">
Looking at the Captain, SFC Ikeman says "Sir, I think we should get the hell out of here. What are the two
of us going to do in a battle against armor? We need to link up with friendly forces and reqroup. We're on E&E
here and need to keep our noses in the grass."
CPT Lee says ""Ok, Ikeman, we get ready to cut and run. First off, I want you to take 2
guys and make a quick sweep of the area, don't go farther than 1km. They might have left some observers behind."
Lee then turns to Josef. "I need 2 guys to go with Ikeman, and I need 2 guys to go with me. I want to check
the battlefield, maybe some of the soldiers dropped something. At worst, we can collect the spent brass. I think
we made a major mistake, those soldiers are probably calling for reinforcements right now."
Josef glances about then calls 4 of the villages defenders over to him. He speaks to them, then turns to Lee and
says "all set, move out whenever you're ready."
Lee and Ikeman take their villagers and head towards the battlefield. They search the battlefield for the better
part of an hour, but all the search turns up is a few dozen spent casings.
While Lee and Ikeman search the battlefield, CPT Cappanetti and SGM Brantley enter the village. Josef is overjoyed
to see his old friend. He grins and says "I assumed that you would have been captured or worse...after all
you are getting rather long in the tooth!"
CPT Lee and SFC Ikeman return to the village and spot to men talking to Josef. As they approach Josef, Josef says
"ahh, my guests have returned from their foraging expedition. Have you found anything useful?"
**Location: 5 km south of Ladek Starey
Time: 0830 July 2000
<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: 0830 20 July 2000
<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.>
After crossing Highway 43, Pickett and Gunn then switch to the southern side of the road they were following toward
the smoke. Gunn follows the road, about 20 meters off it, Pickett covers his flank about 20 meters south of him.
Pickett watches for any signs of recent traffic. Both Gunn and Pickett spot tire tracks on the road, and from what
they can tell there were several trucks and humvees. As they continue on, Gunn suddenly calls for a halt, he has
spotted the source of the smoke column about 150 meters away...what remains of a vehicle. Gunn looks at it and
says "I think it's a BRDM...though it's hard to tell...it's pretty well destroyed."