Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

Free Sample Chapters 277
16 loosely at his side, gasping for air every few seconds. In extreme
slow motion, before Lance Corporal Poole or any of the other shocked
onlookers could act, Private Murdock’s eyes glazed over and the gasping
stopped. Fox/2/5 had sustained its second death in a matter of seconds.
The Air Force sergeant was seriously wounded by the same burst.
Despite the gunfire spraying the back side of the wall—or because
of it—several members of Brown’s squad streaked into the street, intent
upon reaching the apparently safer left side. Most of the men made it to
cover, but Corporal David Collins, Private First Class William Henschel,
and Private First Class Cristobal Figueroa-Perez were shot off their feet.
When the dust settled, none of them was moving.
As Chris Brown shrugged off the shock of near sudden death,
Lieutenant Homer’s piercing yell reached him: “Move it out!” Brown
looked up, but there was no one around him. For a second, the squad
leader didn’t know what to do. Then he went into automatic overdrive—
he moved on training and instinct. Brown whipped out from behind the
wall and zigzagged down the sidewalk. When it seemed the right time
to dive in, he landed next to Lance Corporal Campbell, who told Brown
that, every time he tried to fire back at the NVA in the buildings, bullets
kicked cement dust into his face.
Corporal Brown yelled to Private First Class Gasbarrini, who was
in front of everyone. Gasbarrini yelled back that he had been hit in the
arm and that he was playing dead because he was afraid to move behind
the nearest cover.
Corporal Brown’s squad was stymied. If anyone made a move, NVA
soldiers in the buildings overlooking the street fired into Tran Cao Van.
Brown sent word back to Lieutenant Horner that Gasbarrini was wounded
and beyond reach. Horner sent word forward to Brown that he was trying
to get a tank up to cover a rescue effort. Brown ordered everyone who
could to withdraw back behind the wall. Then Fox/2/5 settled in to wait.
There wasn’t anything else anyone could do. Minutes later, Lieu-tenant
Colonel Gravel ordered Fox/2/5 to call it a day and return to MACV as
soon as the company could police up its casualties.
It seemed to Chris Brown that hours passed before two Marine M-
48 tanks turned into Tran Cao Van and chugged toward Private First
Class Gasbarrini. When the lead tank pulled up even with the wall Brown