by John Chapman
Dan let him finish getting the tourniquet on and synched down nice and tight, before he shot the asshole in the head. He was happy to send that dude to hell with pain having been his last conscious thought.
Only then did Dan look to his right and survey the damage. His machinegunner was down hard, his face distorted from the overpressure created by the passage of a high velocity rifle round through his cranium. A large pool of blood was already seeping around his head, while the assistant gunner struggled to haul the M240 back up on the roof by pulling on the belt of ammo he had been feeding into the gun when it fell off the roof.
Dan ran and helped the assaulter muscle the machinegun the last few feet over the ledge of the parapet as rounds started snapping overhead. He heard Phil on the radio, “Knight Three, there are new muzzle flashes coming from the woods to the southeast. It must be the guys they didn’t get across the road before we initiated.” Dan and the assaulter he had left got low, and dragged the 240 toward the south end of their side of the building.
Up on the hill, JR was continuing to work over the treeline on the southwest side of the building, and while the fire was slacking off, it hadn’t stopped. He took a second to check on the guys on the roof, and immediately saw something was wrong. On the southwest corner of the warehouse, only one of the assaulters was moving and shooting, and he thought he could see blood pooling underneath the other one in the waning daylight. “Knight Three, Sniper One. It looks like one of our guys on the southwest corner is down. I’ll keep the dongs off the building as long as I can but I’m Winchester on .308, and I’m down to my last two mags of 5.56.”
Dan heard the transmission and stopped crawling for a second to think. Where the hell is the rest of the Squadron! his mind raged. He took a deep breath and calmed down, then said as calmly as he could, “Roger, Sniper One. I have one assaulter down hard on my side as well. Keep them back and let me deal with this group on the southeast side. They are doing a good job of suppressing us.”
Phil knew he needed to move south to take the pressure off Dan and JR, but he also knew several of the dongs from the second group in the failed attack on the east side made it back into the woods. It would suck fighting through them, but it needed to be done. Phil pushed his PTT and said, “Knight Three, Three-Charlie-One. We are going to push south and try to assault through the dongs on the southeast corner.” Dan didn’t reply, so Phil took that as permission, and got his guys moving.
They ran east through the woods until Phil thought they were well into the east treeline, then turned south. He got his guys on a skirmish line and they advanced at a fast walk. Within 50 feet they encountered their first dong, an unarmed wounded dude lying in his own blood, who appeared to be hit in the stomach. The dong begged for help, but the team ignored him. One of the assaulters stopped long enough to handcuff and search him, then laid him on his face. Phil pushed the team on, until they got shot at from their front. All four assaulters fired at the shape partially obscured by a tree, and the shooting stopped. When they got to the spot, they found a dong lying on his back, eyes open and buck teeth bared in death. They found a Kel Tec shotgun next to his body, and one of the assaulters picked it up, not wanting to leave it for another dong to pick up.
On the roof, Dan got the 240 ready to rock by unloading it, doing a quick function check, and reloading it. He looked at the assaulter he had left on the roof with him, and saw the man was grimly determined. The assaulter, whose name Dan didn’t remember at the moment, said, “I’m ready to lay waste to these assholes. We’re all we got bro.”
Dan tried to think of something funny to say, to lighten the mood before they stood up into the river of gunfire passing nearby, but all he could feel was the fire of an all-consuming anger. He hadn’t felt the warm blanket of hate in his soul since his last trip to Iraq; and he embraced the darkness, knowing unleashing the hate in his heart on their enemies was his team’s best chance of mission accomplishment. Dan gathered his legs under him, and steeled himself to pop over the top of the parapet to start the killing. He settled for a simple, “We’re all we need brother,” and stood up.
To be continued in Book 2 of the Black Knight Squadron Saga
Glossary
ACU: Army Combat Uniform. A recent U.S. Army uniform with a camouflage pattern not known for its effectiveness.
APD: Alliance Police Department
AR: ArmaLite Rifle. Pertaining to any AR-15/M-16/M4 type rifle.
Assaulter: The core designated skillset for tactical operators, common to all team members. Additional skillsets include Breacher, Medic, and Sniper.
Breaching: Skills for gaining entry into denied areas. Includes mechanical, ballistic, thermal, and explosive methods to forcibly defeat barriers.
CCP: Casualty Collection Point
CME: Coronal Mass Ejection
Comms or Commo: Communication
CONEX: Container Express box system. A generic name for any large metal shipping container.
CQB: Close Quarters Battle. A type of combat focusing on the tactics, techniques, and procedures for fighting at short distances and within and around enclosed spaces like structures.
Det Cord: Detonation Cord. Plastic flexible tubing filled with explosive that can be used to detonate larger explosive charges or used by itself in different configurations to produce explosive and cutting effects.
DHS: Department of Homeland Security.
DRMO or 1033 Program: Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service. A Defense Logistics Agency program that lets the Department of Defense transfer excess military equipment to U.S. law enforcement agencies.
ECP: Entry Control Point
EMP: Electro Magnetic Pulse
EMS: Emergency Medical Services
EOC: Emergency Operations Center
FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency
FOB: Forward Operating Base
FOP: Fraternal Order of Police
Fragmentary Order or FRAGO: An abbreviated operation order used by subordinate units frequently used for follow-on missions or changes to the OPORD, focusing on the first three paragraphs of the OPORD.
HMMWV: High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. Pronounced “Humvee”. A military light truck that can be a light utility vehicle or armored.
Hotel: Hostage
IFAK: Individual First Aid Kit
M2 Browning. A heavy machine gun in .50 caliber.
M113: A tracked armored personnel carrier.
M4 or M4 Carbine: An updated and lighter version of the M16 style rifle that has become predominate in military and law enforcement use.
Mk46: A lighter weight, Special Operations capable variant of the M249 light machine gun.
M240: A general purpose machine gun in 7.62 caliber. Weighing over 30 pounds loaded it is frequently mounted on vehicles.
M249: A light machine gun in 5.56 caliber. Weighing less than 20 pounds it is used as a squad automatic weapon in infantry units.
MAWL: Multifunction Aiming Weapon Light. A weapon mounted device that utilizes a choice of visible or invisible infrared lasers to aim at or mark a target for identification.
MRAP: Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle. A heavily armored vehicle designed to resist improvised explosive devices common in overseas operations that is frequently used as a rescue vehicle by SWAT Teams.
NCO: Non-Commissioned Officer
NODs: Night Observation Devices, i.e., night vision goggles
NVGs: Night Vision Goggles
Operation Order or OPORD: A five paragraph format for organizing and disseminating information for the conduct of infantry type operations. The five major paragraph headings are Situation, Mission, Execution, Sustainment, and Command and Control.
Overwatch: To support another tactical element by observation and fire.
PMag: A plastic magazine for the M4 family of weapons.
PMC: Private Military Corporation
POI: Point of Impact
POS: Position
PTT:
Push To Talk switch
QRF: Quick Reaction Force
RMR: Ruggedized Miniature Reflex Sight. A type of miniature electro optic red dot sight frequently used on pistols.
SIMS: Simulated Munitions for training.
Squirter: Bad guys who are trying to get away.
Stryker: Wheeled armored personnel carrier, infantry fighting vehicle.
SWAT: Special Weapons and Tactics. A law enforcement unit with special training and responsibilities for conducting tactical missions to resolve critical incidents including High Risk Warrants, Hostage Rescue, Barricade Suspect, and Active Shooter.
TL: Team Leader
TOC: Tactical Operations Center
VBIED: Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device
About the Author
Born and raised in the tony suburbs of Sacramento, California, John Chapman (known to his friends as Chappy) joined the Navy at 18. After his enlistment, Chappy returned home to Northern California and embarked on a law enforcement career while attending college.
Over 20 years later, Chappy has served in Patrol, SWAT, Investigations, Training and Admin assignments. Chappy became a firearms and tactics instructor in 1994, and has traveled the US and the world teaching armed citizens, SWAT teams and military units combat marksmanship and tactics. Best known in the tactical community as a SWAT and Night Vision instructor, Chappy continues to teach, now exclusively for Forge Tactical, a training firm serving law enforcement and armed citizens.
He maintains his police commission, and serves as a Police Officer with the Alliance, Ohio Police Department, where he serves as a SWAT Team Leader. Chappy also volunteers his time to serve as the Director of Training for the Ohio Tactical Officers Association, the largest tactical officers association in the country.
Chappy lives in northeast Ohio with his wonderful wife Kris and their cat Duce. When he’s not chained to his desk writing, he can be found at the Alliance Police Range shooting, developing curriculum, testing gear, or teaching.
To learn more about opportunities to train with Chappy and his partner John Spears, visit forgetactical.com. To learn more about the Alliance Police Training Center (yes, it really exists) visit alliancepolicetraining.com.
Stout Hearts
Coming in Spring 2018
Black Knight Squadron
Book 2
Consolidation
