Location: 1 km south of the village of Ladek Starey
Time: 1505 20 July 2000
<"Anything you ground pounders want to point out before we head out?"
Lee then speaks back into the handset. "Ikeman, Stewart, give me a sitrep, over? We're in a bit of trouble.
We're moving out, sit tight at your current location.">
CPT Wolfe speaks up, "I may not exactly be a groundpounder, but I spent enough time with them. I'll take Sargeant
Martinez, the Sargeant Major, and Cutter and see what we can find out, and possibly give them something to think
about. We'll move east then swing north, then cut back to the west. If we are not back in 30 minutes or a heavy
firefight breaks out, it's your call whether you stay or move to the rally point."
He then turns and says "Let's go!"
The patrol locks and loads and moves out with Cutter on point. About 10 minutes later, the woods to the north explodes
in racket as a fire fight breaks out. At least two machine guns can be heard, most likely Cutter's M60 and an enemy
one. The assault rifles are drowned out by the machine guns and the occassional grenade.
Lee looks around at what he has left, 2 trucks, a humvee, himself and two villagers...he has a firefight to his
north, and to his south.
SGT Smith watches the 4 man patrol leave, heading away east from the group of vehicles, leaving 3. Smith debates
whether the group is friendly or not, but from the uniforms, they seem to be friendly troops. After about 10 minutes,
he decides to find out the only way he can, show himself and find out.
After stashing his ruck and most of his gear, he moves to the flank of the remaining group, holding his weapon
in a nonthreatening manner - yet ready for near instant use.
He steps into the open, gripping his weapon a little tighter in anticipation of eating lead, and challenges the
group: "Identify yourselves!"
1700 meters south of the village of Ladek Starey
Time: 1505 20 July 2000
<SGM Stewart yells as loud as he can "last chance boys. "I start dropping you if you dont
sing up."
Stewart then looks over to check on Ikeman.>
Stewart gives Ikeman the nod to move forward, and as Ikeman starts to move, a long burst of machine gun fire flies
well over his head.
Ingle thinks to himself "So here I lay, waiting for someone to show the initiative to check me over and discover
that I am not a bad guy." He begins to loudly sing a collection
of tunes by Laura Branigan. "Gloria, how's it going to go down? Will you meet him on the mainline, or will
you catch him on the rebound?" After about 2 minutes he yells out "There are Warsaw Pact forces around,
and I want BLOOD!"
<Kartz, ensuring that Whitedog is nowhere near his field of fire, puts a 20 round burst over the two unknowns'
heads. Making sure they both realize that he purposefully aimed high, Kartz shouts, "Both of you drop your
weapons, and lay flat on the ground, or I drop you both!" He then calls out to Whitedog to come search them.>
Whitedog hears the singing and shakes his head, thinking to himself "whoever is singing wants to make sure
they don't get shot, but with singing like that, they just might!" He then advances slowly towards the singer,
keeping an eye out for the ambusher that shot the singer.
Location: 2km East of Highway 43, 14 km Southeast of Ladek Starey
Time: 1400 20 July 2000
<A quick examination of the truck and surrounding area reveals some bloody bandages in the bed, as well as some
blood in the bed of the truck. There is a good size wet spot underneath the radiator, but you can't locate the
source of the leak easily. The cab is pretty well cleaned out. There is nothing that gives any clue to the owners
or drivers. The thing that suprises you is that the truck still has a half tank of fuel... As any good scout would,
Smith checks the gas tank to determine the type of fuel. As soon as Smith removes the cap, he gets quite a shock.
"Hey Major, you might want to check this out...I know why the bastards were moving so fast...DIESEL!">
Major Pickett says "Son of a bitch! that would explain why they moved so fast!"
SFC Smith says "The truck's half full too, maybe we can hot-wire this sucker? Anyone have
tools on hand? There's also a leak under the radiator that I might be able to fix."
Major Pickett says "no tools, and I don't really want to stick around for too long. We passed a set of tracks
of a friendly AT unit about 10k north of here, they may have the tools you need. They were heading east by the
tracks. You might want to link up with them. As for myself and the rest of my group we are going to Krakow...we
heard rumors that the city has electricity and running water. We are going to check it out. I know what you are
thinking, and as much as I'd like an additional man, it's probably better for you to link up with that AT unit."
With that said, Pickett gets up and says "good luck, if you ever make it to Krakow, look me up." Pickett
then dissapears into the woodline.
It's been almost a month since LTC Star's group was overrun. By the last radio traffic he received before being
overrun was the 11th Corps was going on the offensive and would pass through the area. Based on the amount of enemy
traffic he's seen, the 11th corps was about to be bogged down. To his knowledge, Star was the only member of the
group to escape, and that was only because he happened to be on the ATV at the time. That ATV has been both a blessing
and a curse. It helped him escape several close calls, but other times, such as now, it has either broken down
or run out of fuel.
LTC Star decided the best way to get fuel was to "acquire it" rather than brew his own. The best place
to find it is where vehicles travel, in this case highway 43. He had been traveling for almost an hour when he
spotted the truck, which to his dismay had an individual with it. "Damn, I thought I could get a freebie out
of this one." He thinks as he moves in on the truck, his G11 at the ready. As he gets closer, he realizes
that the individual with the truck is american.