Free Issue In Doubt by David Sherman Page B

here for battalion,” he instructed the four, then resumed trailing third platoon.
    An hour later, not much more than half a kilometer from the position that was the platoon’s objective, but still in forest, Sergeant Martin called a halt and reformed the platoon into squad columns twenty-five meters apart, with first squad in the middle, flanked by the other two rifle squads. The gun teams were on the flanks. He went ahead of first squad and called on the net, “Squad leaders up.” The three corporals who were acting as squad leaders quickly joined him and Mausert.
    “Going for a repeat performance, Sergeant Martin?” Adriance asked with a soft laugh, thinking of what happened when Commiskey called for a squad leaders’ meeting.
    “Just for that, your ass is mine later,” Martin said. After making sure everyone he wanted was present, he said, “Follow me,” and stepped out in the direction of the platoon’s objective.
    A hundred meters farther, the forest petered out into a terrain spottily covered with shrubs about half human-height. In most places, there was sufficient space between bushes for a man to pass without brushing one. Fifty meters beyond where Martin stopped his command group, the ground started slanting upward at a modest angle until it formed a ridge more than three hundred meters distant. The last fifty meters looked to be cleared of shrubs. They could faintly make out bunkers on the military crest of the ridgeline.
    “I wanted you to get a good look at what we’re facing. Now, most of us have been here before,” Martin told the others, “so you’ll remember those bushes are thorny. But not all of our Marines have had to make this kind of movement at night. The trick is going to be to use those bushes for concealment as we advance, while not getting hung up in them. The closer we can get to that ridge without being detected, the better our chances of taking the objective. Any suggestions or questions?”
    “Stay low, that’s all I can think of,” Corporal Glowin said. “The trees behind us should hide any silhouettes until we get fairly close.”
    “Unless they’ve got good night vision,” Adriance added.
    “That’s why we keep low,” Glowin said.
    Martin studied the landscape to the front for a few moments, deciding how to proceed. Finally he said, “Go back, get your squads and bring them up. Put your people in columns of fire teams with ten meter intervals. The lead man in each fire team has to find a way between the thorny bushes, so be careful about who you put where. We’ll get as close as we can before I give the signal to open up. Depending on how close we are, we’ll either advance by fire and maneuver, or we’ll get on line and charge. Questions?”
    Nobody had any questions.
    “So get your squads.”
    Fifteen minutes later, nine fire teams and the guns were on line parallel to the ridge. Martin gave the signal to move out.
    Lance Corporal Mackie looked at his two men and decided he’d take the lead between the bushes.
    “Stay low,” he said. “Try not to rise up above the tops of the bushes.” The same thing Adriance had just told the fire team leaders. “Stay close to me, and go exactly where I go. If you see me flinch, or back up, don’t go where I did, because that’ll mean I just got stuck by thorns. Got it?”
    PFCs Orndoff and Zion said they did.
    “Let’s go.” Mackie crouched, almost doubled over and stepped out. While he looked mostly at the bushes close in front of himself to avoid the thorns, he also looked forward to make sure he had bushes in his line of sight, between himself and the ridgeline. He also checked his HUD to see where the red dots of his fire team were relative to the dots of the others. A few times Sergeant Martin called on the net for most of the platoon to hold in place while someone caught up, or for a fire team to stop because it had gotten too far ahead of the rest.
    The weight of his combat load made it difficult to walk