Chapter One

June 24, 1985: 

All night long, North Korean armor, along with infantry and support vehicles, pushed through the city of Chuncheon and down the highway south, and when the sun finally came up, the Jake and all the Reapers had a good, clear view.

Jake had been watching the steady stream of enemy personnel as they continued to roll down the highway below him, heading south. To everyone’s surprise, the North Koreans had pushed fifty miles and did it in just two days, meaning that the Reapers are now behind enemy lines. Jake knew that even traveling at night, they could have been at least twenty miles further south and at least have had a chance of getting out of harm’s way, but not now.

He could still hear the distant thunder of explosions as the enemy and Allied troops engaged in battle. From what they had heard on the radio, Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was surrounded and on the verge of surrender. Army and Air Force troops around the Osan air base were engaged in battle, and the base was at risk of being overrun.  This has turned out exactly as the North Korean Great Leader had said. 

As Jake stared down at the enemy, he remembered when he first arrived at Rebel Station on 31 May. He had full expectations of going to war.  It was coming; he knew it, and the memory of these past four days played repeatedly in his mind. The first attack, Rebel Station, killed one-half of the 90 men, and the ambush that followed killed all but the nine remaining men who now watched the same armor he was watching – if Jake didn’t have his hands full before, they are full now.  He thought about ‘Murphy’s law’ which says that if anything could go wrong, it would, and it did.

Pete came up beside him and, seeing the look on Jake’s face, he asked, “What-cha thinking?”

“Oh, not much, just about the mess we are in and how we are not getting out of it,” Jake grunted, “I mean, we had every chance to get as far south as we could, but…”

“Well, one thing is for sure, that Captain is out to get us all killed,” Pete said in a whisper.

“It would seem so,” Jake responded.

“What made him decide to stay until this morning anyway, is he’s afraid,” Pete said, stating the obvious fact.

“That he is,” Jake said, agreeing, but he couldn’t do anything about it. The captain was the captain, and even as incompetent and afraid as he is, he’s still in command. Jake was about to get up when he thought about what was coming next. Then he heard a group of fighters fly overhead, probably North Korean.

“And if we stay here any longer, I’m afraid we’ll be here permanently,” Jake said. He waited for another second.  “We need to get ready to move.” He got up and left.

The men were positioned in a tight defensive circle with Kidd and the Captain in the middle. Kidd was working the radio.

When Jake approached each man, he asked how he was doing, and each one responded positively. Nevertheless, he knew their tension. He knew that everyone had thoughts about how they were going to get out of this one, or maybe something about the captain. They didn’t say it, but he knew they felt like doing something to him for his decision.

Jake approached the captain.

“Sounds like it’s just about settled down,” Captain Beckman said.

Jake looked at his watch, “Sir, it is now 08:00, armor is pouring through, and we are deep in enemy-occupied territory, and the longer we stay, the deeper we get.”

Beckman stood up and appeared to be deep in thought, or maybe he was trying to avoid the conversation.

Jake said, “Sir…”

“Captain,” Pete said, coming up beside him, “we need to get outta here, and I think I know where we can start. It’s that passage between these two mountains; it’s about 20 miles long, and we’ll be well hidden from enemy view. We need to get to it and head south.

 The captain didn’t look at him.

“Captain,” Jake said.

After a long pause, the captain said, “Good, Sergeant, contact Griffin and tell him we are on the way, for him to get the Duck ready.”

“Yes, sir.” Jake grabbed the radio and made contact.

Happy to be finally getting out of here, Jake walked over to Howard. “Howard, we’re moving out, so make sure we don’t lose anyone,” and slapped him on the shoulder.

“It’s about cotton-pickin’ time.”

“Let’s go.”

“What happened? Did the Captain finally get tired of being where he was?” Hammer said sarcastically.

“I think he is just tired,” Hathaway said.

 “Well, alright, let’s do it.”

Pete followed Jake as he hurriedly led the way back up the road to where the Duck was located.

As Jake walked ahead, he thought about the emotional and physical strain this was putting on everyone. It’s situations like this that can hurt the mind and body, especially when they get caught behind enemy lines. These men were never trained for this scenario, so it remains to be seen how they will handle it. 

Hathaway always thought of himself as gung-ho, and to top it off, he was the sixty-gunner. As a five-foot-eleven-inch-tall young man, he held the M-60 up in the ready position and smiled. He thought he looked like a warrior, and he felt like one with the long links of M-60 ammo crossing his chest. He thought about all they had already been through and some possible scenarios they might soon be involved in. “Man,” he said softly. “We’ve been through the battle on the hill, the ambush.” he paused for a second. “And now here we are behind enemy lines, we are combat veterans – that’s what it makes us.  We can handle anything. Sergeant Steel said we would learn a hard lesson; well, we did.

The Kidd was listening as Hathaway rattled on. “Man, are we in trouble or what?”