by Steven Linde
At mile eight they entered a large camp that looked to have a population in the hundreds, they realized they wouldn’t be able to go around it; their only option was to pass directly through it. The road passed through the center of it with all sorts of tents, dwellings made of wood and cardboard, some people only had a tarp over them. The SEALs moved slowly through the camp, people were startled to say the least as seeing the heavily armed me in what looked like armored rails off road vehicles, to top it off one of the vehicles was flying the flag of the United States. Over the radio was heard, “Chief off to the right we have several men with rifles.”
A moment later Lt. Kalen was screaming into the radio, “RPG! RPG! To the left!”
The SEALs quickly acquired the target and lit it up dropping the man with the RPG and another next to him. They were operating off of instinct, each SEAL was a combat veteran of Afghanistan and or Iraq, and they shot first and asked questions later.
“Lt!” Said Scott. “Those men with the rifles look like they are up to something.”
Now everyone in the camp came out to see what was going on, there was no mistaking machine gun fire, it was loud and obnoxious. “Keep an eye on them Chief. Only fire on them if they raise their weapons.”
“Roger that.” was echoed by everyone on the team over the radio.
The lead vehicle came to an abrupt stop when they saw that the road was blocked up ahead with a half dozen people that were armed manning the barricade. The three other DPV’s came to a stop, but they had left about fifty feet in between each vehicle. Lieutenant Wendell P. Scott the team commander sat in the front passenger seat of the lead vehicle. He was staring at the people at the barricade taking it all in. “Sir what’s the plan?” asked Master Chief Harry Reynolds.
“Well let’s see what they got to say?” replied the Lt.
Lieutenant Scott unbuckled and stepped over and out of the DPV, straightened his uniform, checked his weapons, “I’m heading over there to talk to them. If they kill me lite them up and get the hell out of here.”
“Roger.” said the Chief. “I’ll let the Marines know what’s going on. Maybe they could hurry their asses up.”
The SEALs manning the M-249’s had taken a side of the camp, the others had their M-4s up and ready to fire. Lt. Scott walked towards the barricade with his hands up not wanting to make a threatening move. He got about twenty feet from the barricade when one of the men spoke, “What do you want?”
“I’m Lieutenant Scott United States Navy. We’re only trying to pass through.”
“You can pass through.” said the man. “But you’re going to have to leave those fancy vehicles and weapons behind.”
“I’m sorry I can’t do that.” replied the Lt.
“You ain’t got no choice.” responded one of the other men.
“I think we do, if you fire on us, we’ll fire right back, and we can put more rounds down range faster than you and we may die, but a bunch of you will too.”
Then the Master Chief stepped out from the vehicles, “Sir!” he yelled. “The Marines are five mikes out they will be ready when they enter the camp.”
Lieutenant Scott knew that the Chief could have told him over the radio and the people at the barricade wouldn’t have ever known. “What? What’s he talking about Marines?”
“He’s referring to the United States Marine Corps they’re right behind us, were only scouting ahead. There are a few hundred of them and once they see you and you’re friends here they’ll level the camp, families and all.” said Lieutenant Scott.
“You’re lying!” said one of the younger men at the barricade.
Another man came running up to the original man that first spoke at the barricade and said something to him. The man looked shocked, then looked back at the Lt., “What do you want here, why are y’all coming here? We ain’t got nothing, this is our land.”
“I’m sorry.” said the Lt. “This is the United States of America, it’s not yours and this is a public highway you’re blocking. You have two choices as I see it, one - take down the barricade now and make nice and we can help you, two - everyone in the camp probably dies, which includes your families.”
“That ain’t right!” said the man.
The two Marine Corps scout Humvees could now be clearly seen taking positions overlooking the camp, their machine guns trained on the camp itself. This was causing quite a stir among the residents of the camp, some panic was setting in. The men at the barricade didn’t really know what to do now. “Well, what’s your decision?” asked Lieutenant Scott.
“How do you know y’all won’t hurt our families anyway?” asked the man that had first spoke.
“You don’t. I will say this when we entered the camp we were driving slow and not bothering anyone, we were only passing through. It was your buddy that was attempting to fire the RPG at us so we took action.”
Another man ran up to the barricade and spoke with the men there, this time Lt. Scott heard part of the conversation. The man was confirming that there was a large military convoy heading their way. “Alright you win.” said the man. He then instructed the others to clear the road, the reacted quickly and the road was open within minutes. Lt. Scott didn’t immediately load back up into the DPV he stood and watched the men clearing it. Once they were done, he walked over to the men, “Look we are the Navy, actually we’re SEALs, and those are really Marines. We’re here to help and by the looks of it you all need it. Who are you?” Lt. Scott was addressing the man that had originally addressed him.
“I’m Randy Kim, I was a police officer before everything went to shit. Most of these guys are prior law enforcement. Look we’re only trying to protect our own.”
“I get that.” said Lt. Scott. “You will get help count on it, the Navy at Oceana is alive and well and we can help.”
“Seriously?” one of the other men asked. “Why has it taken so long for you guys to get here?”
“I honestly can’t answer that.” said Lt. Scott. “We only follow orders. But I think there will be people coming in that convoy that may be able to help. Also, anyone right now need any medical help? Doc can look at them, but we have to be going.”
Randy looked at the other men, he nodded towards them, “Yeah we need medical help can you and your doctor come with me?”
As doc was getting out of the DPV the main body of the convoy was rolling up to where the DPV’s had stopped. Captain Luxon ordered the Marines out of the vehicles except for the gunners in the Humvees, he ordered them to stay put and keep an eye out. Captain O’Hara and Commander McDonald had taken a ride out and were in the middle Humvee. They got out with the Marines and followed them to where Lieutenant Scott was meeting with the camp members. Lt. Scott briefly discussed with Captain O’Hara what was now going on, Captain O’Hara ordered the SEALs back on course and the Navy Corps man would handle the medical issues here at the camp. He reminded Lt. Scott that although the camp was important it wasn’t the mission. Lt. Scott understood and returned to the DPV’s and left the AO heading to the museum.
In the meantime, Captain O’Hara spoke with Captain Luxon and asked that a squad of Marines escort the Corpsman to go with the mister Kim to check out the medical issues. Captain Luxon responded in Marine Corps fashion, “Aye, aye sir.”
For Captain Luxon who had no immediate Marine Corps superior had for the most part thrown his lot under Captain O’Hara. Captain Luxon trusted Captain O’Hara and he felt as long as he was working with him, the base commander, he had cover if anything went wrong. Captain Luxon called over his First Sergeant and instructed him to break off a squad from first platoon and to get doc to go with them and the faster he could get it done the better. The First Sergeant responded, “Aye, aye sir!” and quickly moved out. Within five minutes the squad and doc were standing with Captain Luxon and Mister Kim. They all moved out together further into the camp, they entered a large tent that had multiple beds all filled with people. Mister Kim explained that this was their hospital
, it wasn’t much but it was something. They had two doctors and several nurses, but no real medical supplies; they were all looted from the stores. They did get some, but those ran out months ago. Captain O’Hara told them once they were back at Oceana he would have the bases medical center gear up and head out to help.
“Seriously?” asked Mister Kim. “You would, can do that?”
“Yes of course, why not, we’re here to help.” The Captain replied.
The Navy Corpsman left the group and went to speak with doctor, he returned after ten minutes. “Sir may I speak with you a moment?” the corpsman asked Captain O’Hara. The Captain nodded his head and stepped away with the Corpsman.
“Sir I spoke with the doctor he said they have the plague.”
“I’m sorry please say that again.” There was concern in the Captains eyes.
The Corpsman sighed, “Sir the doctor says the sick ones, and they have the bubonic plague. It’s very contagious.”
Captain O’Hara heard what the Corpsman said he was thinking about his next moves, he turned to Captain Luxon and called him over.
“Yes sir,” said Captain Luxon.
“Captain I need for you to round-up your men as quietly as you can and load up and get the hell out of here.” Captain Luxon stood there staring at Captain O’Hara for a moment speechless, then turned and headed off to his First Sergeant. “Corpsman did the doctor say anything else?” asked Captain O’Hara.
“Yes sir they were wondering if we had any medicines to treat it.”
“Where’s the doctor at? Can I speak with him and Mister Kim?”
“Yes sir there over here.” The Corpsman walked away with Captain O’Hara following.
The Corpsman led Captain O’Hara to the doctor on duty which so happens Randy Kim was also speaking too. “Excuse me sir.” Said the Corpsman to the doctor. “This is our CO Captain O’Hara, he’d like a word with you if you can spare a moment.”
At that time all of the Humvee’s and trucks pulled out heading towards the museum except for the Captain’s Humvee and the two scout Humvees remained behind. Commander McDonald stayed with the main convoy body that had left moments ago.
The doctor reached out his hand towards the Captain, the men shook hands, “What can I do for you Captain?” Dr. McVee asked.
“Well doc I was hoping you could further explain to me what’s really going on here.” Captain O’Hara said.
Dr. McVee looked to Randy Kim, he nodded his approval, “Captain we have a small outbreak of bubonic plague, I think – not entirely sure. It started about twenty-four hours ago and I have no way to treat this.”
Captain O’Hara peeked into the tent, he could see a dozen or so people laid out, “What do you need? And can you please put it in writing? I’m going to send back one of the Humvee’s to Oceana BHC and tell them to send out a medical team, hopefully with medicine, to help you with this. I’ll include my own observations and order them to get moving now.”
Dr. McVee looked away for a moment, “What’s BHC?”
“Base Health Clinic.” Responded Captain O’Hara.
“Yes of course.” Dr. McVee was searching around his makeshift desk looking for a pen and paper. Once he found it, he began to scribble out what was happening, or what he believed was happening and what he thought he needed, and then handed it to the Captain.
“Listen doc, are any of my people gonna get this from being here? I really need to know, they’re going to be heading back to the base later on today and I don’t want to infect anyone there.”
“I honestly don’t know Captain I’m not an infectious disease doctor. Before the lights went out and everything went to shit I was a surgeon. “I might suggest keeping everyone away from the base for twenty-four hours to see if any of the symptoms show up. I can give a list of them to your Corpsman here.”
‘Well this wasn’t part of the plan,’ thought Captain O’Hara also wondering now if he was going to die of the plague himself. “Thanks doc I’ll get this out now and you should be seeing them in a couple of hours. Regardless I’ll check back myself this evening to see how things are going.”
Captain O’Hara stood there for a moment looking inside the makeshift hospital, then around the camp. “I’ll be back.” He said looking at both Dr. McVee and Randy Kim. He then turned and left heading over to the scouts, he spoke with them and gave them the Dr. McVee’s message. While Captain O’Hara stood there the scouts got into their Humvee’s and took off, he returned to his own Humvee and headed to the museum.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lieutenant Steven Danielson was in the lead DPV as they arrived at the Aviation Museum. The last few miles to it were uneventful and the SEALs made good time. They pulled up to the Museum slowly, taking in what they could and looking for any people. As far as they could tell it was deserted, Lt. Danielson exited the vehicle and thought he would try the most obvious way first, he walked up to the main entrance and tugged on the door, it was secure.
Lt. Danielson ordered two of the SEALs in the last DPV to check out the rear of the building to try and determine if there was an access point they could exploit without having to tear the building down. He ordered two more SEALs out to pull perimeter security towards the front of the building. The last two SEALs he ordered to come with him, there were a few outlying buildings on the compound he wanted to check out.
Warrant Officer Two (W-2) Mark Lindsey and Petty Officer Randy Jones exited the second DPV and began to move towards the back of the museum. There were only two of them; they moved carefully, Lt. Danielson was still at the entrance covering them as they moved up. There was still no sign of anyone and the building for now looked secure. The two other SEALs that he called on to help him check out some of the other buildings moved to him as the Chief and Jones were moving towards the back.
They were moving down the left side of the building, there was a single door, glass that looked to be controlled by a card reader to gain entrance, past that was the fence into the compound which was surrounded by wire. They could bring over one of the DPVs and use it as a ladder and throw something over the wire and climb over, which is what they decided to do. As the DPV pulled up the driver, Petty Officer Second Class Bell Morgan, jumped out of the vehicle, quickly tied off rope on the fence, hurried back to the vehicle and floored it! Ripping the fence away essentially eliminating the need to climb it, “What the hell Morgan?” said the Chief.
“It’s not like they’re gonna miss it, I don’t see why we don’t knock down the door and enter the building, what are they going to do, arrest us?”
The kid had a point thought the Chief, but now that the fence was already down they might as well head around the corner to see what’s there. The Chief ordered Morgan to stay close with the DPV and by all means keep the engine running. The Chief and Jones approached the corner of the building carefully, Chief Lindsey carefully poked his head around the corner to quickly look for any surprises, there was nothing. He did see another set of doors about fifty yards down that was their next objective. He turned and explained to Jones what he saw and what they were going to do. With his weapon up and ready Chief Lindsey stepped around the corner looking for any threats, Jones followed in the same manner. They stepped quickly towards the doors and covered the fifty feet within moments. They were a set of glass double doors, Chief reached over to the closest one and pulled on it, and it was open. The Chief carefully closed it, then stepped away from it; he then contacted the Lieutenant and told him they had found a way in. He also contacted Morgan to bring the DPV up they were going to need him.
Lt. Danielson told them to go ahead and enter the building; he advised them not to fire unless fired upon. They were there to secure the aircraft in the building which they needed without any holes and if they needed to fire make sure their rounds were well placed. The Chief acknowledged the request, but wasn’t sure he agreed with the ‘don’t shot first policy’. It was now Chief Lindsey, Jones and Morgan they were stacked behind each other, �
�Alright I’m going to pull the door open I want Jones to round me first head in and to the far wall, you follow Morgan and take up the position closest to here. I’ll follow behind Jones and bring up the rear.” The two men nodded.
The Chief reached over and pulled the door open, holding it, Jones entered the building with weapon up and ready to fire. They were at the end of a hall so there was nothing behind him, which was fortunate for them, but it was also a bottleneck if they were attacked. It was one way on and out it would be easy to set up and wait for them to step out of the hallway. Jones moved against the far wall and took a knee to lower his profile while keeping his weapon pointed down the hall. Next Morgan entered the building in the same fashion and took a knee against the wall closest to the door with weapon facing down the hall.
The Chief came in and moved around Jones, weapon up and ready, moving directly down the middle of the hall with Morgan and Jones on either side. They stopped before entering a much larger area where they could see some Word War One Bi-planes. They stopped, took a knee, listened for a few moments and looked around. Chief Lindsey leaned out slowly so he could see around each corner; it was clear as far as he could tell. He stood, stepped out into the large room, followed by Morgan and Jones; they had lowered their weapons a bit not sensing any immediate danger. Chief Lindsey directed Jones to go to his right and Morgan to his left and told them to move down the walls of the hall keeping an eye out for anything that may look out-of-place. Chief Lindsey was going to move from his current position and cut across the hall to the other side; he wanted to see if he might draw some fire.
The three men moved all at once to give multiple targets if there were any shooters present, they would hope their aim was off and they would be able to target them quickly and eliminate the threat, but there was no fire. Chief Lindsey moved across the floor to the other side with no problem, Jones and Morgan continued to move down the walls eventually crossing themselves to join the Chief. The only thing they thought odd was the place was spotless like someone had been cleaning it, the event happened several months ago and if no one had been in the building you would have expected a coat of dust on everything. That wasn’t the case, everything was dusted, the trash cans emptied, they even looked through some of the bathrooms where they found the occasional candles that had been burned, odd that those hadn’t been cleaned up.
