Chapter 18

Posted: April 15, 2007 - 10:48:01 am?

Gabe carried the body of Private Jimenez for a few hundred meters before stopping his squads. He had someone build a hasty litter for her out of two stout saplings and a poncho. Stopping to build the litter gave his adversaries more time to find him, but the idea of leaving one of his soldiers, even a dead one, on the battlefield was inconceivable to Gabe. With two men carrying the improvised stretcher, they headed back to the front entrance of the caverns.

It was a solemn homecoming as Gabe and his troops walked through the defenses in front of the caverns with Jimenez's body. It was also a grim reminder to the dug in soldiers that such might soon be their fate. The men and women were still busy improving their fighting positions in the hard rocky ground, but they all paused and crossed themselves as the stretcher passed by. Juana Jimenez had been a well-liked woman with a brash and gregarious personality; she would be missed.

Gabe watched the stretcher-bearers carry the body of Private Jimenez around the thicket of vegetation that screened the cavern's entrance. That patch of jungle vegetation was probably one of the best-tended gardens in Colombia, each plant and tree carefully planted and nurtured to add to the camouflage. When the bearers disappeared from view, Gabe briefed the commander and Sergeant Morales before joining his soldiers in a quiet meal.

After they ate, the two squads tended to their weapons, checked their equipment, and pitched in preparing the defensive positions. Gabe and Selena joined Pete, Stephanie, Pilar and Katherine in constructing the bunker from which Zorra would direct the defenses. Selena noticed the obvious pride and pleasure Gabe felt as he worked alongside his son. It warmed her heart to see her husband so obviously happy.

Pete was going all out in constructing the bunker. It was about eight feet square and dug almost four feet into the hard, rock-packed soil. The sides were built up another two feet with large wooden support beams scavenged from abandoned mine tunnels. A criss-crossed double row of the same large heavy beams formed the bunker's roof. The roof beams were in turn, covered by a tarp and the dirt dug out of the interior. Gabe and Pete worked with picks and shovels digging more dirt from the interior while the women dragged up vegetation to conceal the bunker.

Zorra had situated the bunker in such a way that traffic in and out of the cave moved behind it. From the front someone walking into the thicket in front of the cave entrance looked as if they were entering the bunker. The capture US made M-60 machinegun was mounted in the center of the firing slit at the front of the bunker. The M-60 would provide the final protective fire if it became necessary for Zorra's soldiers to retreat into the caverns.

Nuñez's scouts cautiously walked out onto the trail in front of the first bunker guarding the path up to the front entrance of the caves, around one in the afternoon. The FARC guards were under orders to engage any AUC troops who showed up on the trail as a way of helping the paramilitary find the path leading up to the defensive positions. The initial volley wounded two of the scouts before they could duck back into the jungle. The guards in the bunker slipped away using their concealed escape route, while the scouts were tending to their wounded and notifying their colonel.

Nunez roused Delgado from a short siesta, and told him to prepare to move out to the scouts' location. The two officers studied their maps and decided on the best route to the scouts. Nuñez stabbed his fat, stubby finger at the crest of the peak that rose above the main entrance to the caves.

"I have a hunch that our quarry is somewhere near this peak, Captain, and running into a bunker here reinforces that feeling. What makes me think that, is how steep the cliff faces are on all four sides. At the base of these cliffs, one only has to worry about defending in three directions. And look at how the ground slopes here on the eastern side, just above where our scouts made contact, it is the only logical approach to the peak."

Delgado nodded. The colonel had an uncanny knack for figuring these things out.

"I agree, El Tigre," Delgado said.

The men studied the map for another few minutes in silence. Finally, Nuñez folded it up and stuck it in his map case.

"I am interested in whether this trail the scouts found leads out to the highway. If it does and a truck can traverse it, I will have Major Pasada bring up our mortars and the fifty-caliber machinegun. If it is impassable for vehicles, we can send a platoon down to the highway and man-pack them up here. One way or another, we are going to have heavy weapons support before we assault their stronghold."

Captain Delgado wholeheartedly agreed with the heavy weapons requirement as the men separated. Delgado went to round up his men to move out, while the colonel gave the scouts their new marching orders. Nuñez had just finished briefing the scouts, when they all heard a thunderous explosion from the direction of the airport. A few smaller concussions followed the first large blast. Nuñez grabbed the radio and called back to the airfield encampment. A harried sounding Major Pasada finally made it to the radio and explained the explosions nearly ten minutes later.

"The fuel truck was booby trapped, El Coronel. Lucky for us, it blew up right before we used it to fuel the trucks you wanted for later today. The guerillas did something to the fuel in one of the tanks, so that it stuck to everything and burned intensely. The driver of the fuel truck was killed and two other men badly burned. We lost three trucks and some of the canvass off five others. Thankfully, the fire truck here at the airport was equipped with foam and responded quickly."

Nuñez gripped the phone tighter, but kept his emotions in check in front of his men. When this mess was over, the DAS and CIA were going to have to spend some serious money re-equipping his battalion. He wanted better and newer equipment next time, and a doubling of his current troop strength was in order also. The thought of commanding a brigade of two battalions was enough to immediately calm El Tigre Gordo, for with added responsibility came added rank. General de Brigada (Brigadier General) Nuñez had a very nice ring to Pedro's well-tuned ears.

"Handle things there Major, and be prepared to move the trucks with the heavy weapons, rations and ammunition to the base of this mountain, no later than 1430. Keep twenty soldiers there at the airport, and send the rest to me. We are going to encamp about halfway up the mountain and attack tomorrow morning, so I also want a hot meal here for the men at 1800."

Pasada acknowledged his instructions and said that he would make it happen.

Nuñez had his troops assembled and told them of the FARC's perfidy in booby-trapping the fuel truck. He used the incident to fire up his soldiers for the coming action. Things started looking better when the scouts found the trail that led down to the foot of the mountain and determined the trucks could drive on it. The colonel modified Captain Delgado's marching orders so that they included sweeping the trail and providing security along it. The colonel assembled his men and moved out also. He was going to establish their base camp for the night near the bunker that was the site of the last contact with the FARC.

At 1430hrs, the Tiger Battalion was in place and digging in for the night. The spot Nuñez chose for his camp was about halfway up the mountain and in the same clearing that Gabe had used to establish his GPS fix the week before. Also at 1430hrs, Captain Delgado met Major Pasada where the trail spilled out onto the road to the airfield. Pasada, driving the colonels jeep, was leading a convoy of four trucks containing the heavy weapons, ammunition and more soldiers. With Delgado's men leading the way on foot, the big two and a half ton trucks lumbered up the narrow trail to the battalion's new base camp.

One of the cargo trucks held a three gun, 81mm mortar section. The mortars were 1970's vintage, US made, M29A1's. The M29 was a good mortar, with a range of almost five kilometers. Each of the battalion's companies had a trained crew for one of the tubes. By 1600hrs, the mortars were emplaced, complete with aiming stakes and range cards. The crews next erected a small general-purpose tent to serve as a fire direction center (FDC).

The three soldiers manning the FDC had the duty of converting target locations from map coordinates to firing data, by using firing tables and plotting boards. The firing tables provided the amount of propellant charge needed to get the rounds to their objective, while the plotting boards, in conjunction with the aiming stakes, did the geometrical conversion, so the azimuth and elevation of the mortar tube was set correctly.

At 1615hrs, the senior sergeant on the mortar crew asked El Tigre for permission to fire a few registration rounds to set the mortars' base plates. The base plates needed to be seated firmly to the ground, so that the tube didn't need to be reaimed for every round fired at the same target. Firing a few registration rounds also established a reference point (RP) for other targets. Once a reference point was established and made common knowledge among the troops, any one could call in a fire mission by adjusting from the reference point to the new target.

Nuñez gave his blessing to the fire mission and instructed the sergeant to use the mountain peak, visible and about fifteen hundred meters away, as their first RP. Three minutes later, a white phosphorus (WP) round whistled out of the first tube and arched toward the mountaintop. The gunners used WP rounds, because they produced a white cloud of smoke that made finding where the round landed easier. Nuñez watched with satisfaction as each of the three crews put a round high on the cliff face.

"Add fifty (meters) and fire one more," the colonel ordered.

When all three of the next rounds hit on top of the peak, the RP was established and recorded, and the base plates were set solidly. The sergeant accepted his colonel's praise and stood his crews down, so they could unload cases of ammunition and fuses for their tubes.

Commander Zorra was in the cavern that served as her headquarters, when the first mortar round hit the cliff face. The mountain muffled the noise and impact, but the explosion did shake some dust and dirt from the cavern's ceiling. She crept out the front entrance and dove into the command bunker just in time for the impact of the second round. The second explosion and white cloud of smoke hit high on the face of the cliff and a hundred and fifty meters to the south of the cave entrance. Gabe tumbled into the bunker right after the second round exploded. Zorra saw him and nodded toward the smoke.

"It seems they have found us already," she said.

Gabe shook his head negatively, just as the third mortar round hit in about the same location as the second.

"I don't think so, Commander, or they wouldn't be using Willie Pete (GI slang for white phosphorus). I think they are laying in their guns, using the mountaintop as a target. At least we know they have mortars now, so the troops should bitch less about digging deeper foxholes."

Zorra had to smile at his calm and humorous reply. Her soldiers had indeed started showing a renewed interest in improving their fighting positions. Of course if the bombardment became too intense, they could always retreat back into the caverns, but that was the option of last resort. The defenses in front of the cave entrance had to be manned and offering stiff resistance, in order for Gabe and Morale's plan to work. It proved to be as Ballard suggested, as three more rounds fell on the mountaintop and the mortars lapsed into silence.

Colonel Nuñez received the news that his scouts had located the guerilla camp just as he was finishing his evening meal. Major Pasada had come through with flying colors in providing them a fine meal for the night before battle. He was sitting at a field table set up in front of his simple field tent eating with Major Pasada and Captain Delgado, when the call came in on the radio. The colonel ordered the scouts to return to the base camp before turning back to his food. Waving a fork full of chicken and rice, he addressed his subordinates.

"Gentlemen, as you no doubt heard, our scouts have located the camp of the rebels. As I thought, it is right below the steep cliffs of the mountain peak. Our men tell me that they have established what appear to be formidable defenses; we will see that for ourselves first thing tomorrow morning. This Zorra is a cunning adversary, and I'm sure she has some plan to defeat us; else she wouldn't be taking her stand so soon. So here is what we will do..."

After their planning session, Nuñez dismissed Pasada and Delgado so they could prepare to carry out his plan. Delgado returned to his company, while Major Pasada took over the remnants of A and C companies. As the two younger officers briefed their subordinate leaders on the up coming day, their commander strolled over to the mortar section. The senior sergeant reported to the colonel and took notes as Nuñez gave him some instructions.

"Sargento Tolivar, tonight, some time after it is fully dark, I want you to drop six rounds at these coordinates. Mix your fuses between proximity (air burst), point and delay. Have your guns laid in on the same coordinates tomorrow morning. When we move out have full crews ready for action on all three tubes."

Sergeant Tolivar read back the colonels instructions, saluted him and moved off at a trot to plot his new target.

The evening passed quietly for the soldiers of the Columna Carlos Sanchez, as they went about the business of continuing their preparations. Everyone knew that the AUC scouts had found the defensive fortifications outside the main cavern entrance, because they had been spotted by one of the tree top observation posts. Zorra had three OPs hidden in the canopy of trees two hundred meters in front of her defenses. Two of the soldiers manning the OPs were equipped with silenced sniper rifles. Once the attack on the camp commenced, the snipers were to target troop leaders, radio operators and machinegunners.

Inside the caverns, Zorra and her leadership finalized the plans for the following day. Much of their conversation was based on what-if scenarios that tried to anticipate El Tigre Gordo's actions. The consensus was that they expected an early morning attack, preceded by a mortar bombardment. The mortars were the most nettlesome part of the mix. Even though the defensive positions were fairly well prepared, with marginally adequate overhead cover, none of them, except maybe the command bunker, could survive a direct hit.

After the leadership session, everyone went their separate ways to spend the evening on more pleasant diversions. As usual, things were the most interesting in the room of Marta and Pete Ballard. Pete had been working like a demon on the defensive positions out side the main entrance. For the last two days, he had been working with a pick and shovel, building a command bunker for Zorra. Because it would protect his love, he had tried to make it an impenetrable fortress. Pete was tired and sore and wanted nothing more than to hit the rack and get some Zs. That was not to be, however, as tonight the women in his life were once again planning his future.

This time around, there wasn't even room for Pete at the table, because in addition to the women from last night, Lorena, her arm in a sling but still looking beautiful, and Adriana from the Baby Brigade, were sitting at the table with Pilar and Marta. Stephanie and Katherine were again sitting on the bed. All the women looked up at him expectantly when he strolled through the door.

"What?" he asked defensively.

Marta arched her eyebrows and answered him.

"What indeed, mi vaquero guapo (my handsome cowboy). I guess you could call this the first meeting of our new family. Today, I questioned the members of the Brigada del Bebé, and verified that Lorena and Adriana were both pregnant. Since it is my fault they are in that condition and both of them want to join us, it seems as if you and I now have four wives and four children on the way."

Before Pete could completely wrap his arms around that concept, Katherine piped up.

"Four wives and a fiancée," Katherine amended. "When I finish school I want to be a part of the family also."

"Of course Caterina, if that is your wish when you get older, it will be so," Marta replied.

Pete finally saw a chance to get a word in edge-wise and jumped on it.

"Marta, how is this going to work without a lot of jealousy and hurt feelings?"

Marta laughed and waved off his concerns.

"We've lived together for years in a cave, suffering all sorts of danger and hardships, so we all know how to live together already. I think we'd actually thrive if we were together when times were good. I don't think Stephanie will have a problem with it and neither will Caterina, if she chooses to join us. We are real women, not spoiled, selfish Norteamericana debutantes. Leave making it work to us, and you will be the happiest man in Colombia."

Pete gulped and voiced his real fear.

"What if I'm not man enough for all of you? After all, you are all young, beautiful, healthy and sexy... each of you could have any man you wanted all to yourself."

That statement drew a lot of smiles from the assembled women, and the first comment from someone besides Marta.

"Pedro, do not forget that we will all have each other also. Marta says this must be a marriage between all of us, not just to you. We all agree that she is correct. As far as you being enough for us, I think you've already proven that you are, and judging how manly your father still is, you'll be that way for a long time," Lorena said.

Pete shrugged, it was as Marta said; he'd be the luckiest guy in Colombia, that was for sure. Pete acknowledged that he was willing to try it, but everyone had the option of opting out of the arrangement. The women agreed and all came over to kiss and hug him. He had his arms around Marta when the telltale shiver of an explosion sent everyone scurrying towards the entrance to the cavern.

While Pete was having the facts of his married life explained to him, Gabe, Selena, Morales and Lupe were sitting in the command bunker drinking coffee and talking quietly. The four of them were talking about Morales's idea of opening a restaurant. The conversation had advanced to the point of them discussing becoming partners in the enterprise, when the first sound of incoming mortar fire caused Gabe to grab Selena and fall on top of her. The round was an airburst that thankfully detonated above the canopy of the trees to their south. The sound of shrapnel flying through the leaves sounded like an angry swarm of bees. Gabe rolled off Selena as the next round exploded at ground level in the same general area, fifty to one hundred meters beyond their perimeter.

"Get inside, Little One, and inform the Commander that we are being shelled," Gabe said.

Morales told Lupe the same thing, then the men went in different directions to check the perimeter as another round fell. Neither man believed that the barrage was a precursor to a night attack, but they wanted to make sure the troops were ready just in case.

By the time Commander Zorra exited the caverns, the barrage was over. The mortar fire caused no injuries, but El Tigre achieved his goal of putting the rebels in a heightened state of readiness so they would be the ones losing sleep for a change. The defenses stayed on fifty percent alert that night, half the soldiers awake at a time.

Colonel Nuñez had the Tiger Battalion on the move at first light the next morning. As planned, Captain Delgado went down the main trail that led to the highway, before turning up hill, three hundred meters past the junction of the path that led to the FARC base camp. Major Pasada, along with Colonel Nuñez, took the larger group of soldiers up the path that led to the defensive positions. A few hundred meters short of the base camp, Pasada split his unit, one platoon left, one right, and one in the center. By nine in the morning, Pasada had effectively surrounded the FARC positions.

The opposing forces on the mountain were ready for what each thought was their final engagement. Major Pasada had one hundred and thirty troops facing Zorra's positions, while Delgado had sixty men sweeping the area around the mountain peak to rule out any surprise attacks. Zorra had forty soldiers manning her base camp defenses; Gabe had twenty-five fighters at the waterfall entrance to the caves, while Morales had the same number at the entrance that led to the bathing pond on the eastern side of the mountain. Zorra also had six of her best trackers shadowing the two AUC units, and reporting on their disposition and location. The cheap little walkie-talkies were getting a workout, as her scouts kept updating her. Pete Ballard relayed the information to his father and Sergeant Morales via the captured radios.

That Nuñez split his forces was something that Gabe and Morales had hoped would happen. The fact that one company was sweeping around the mountain was icing on the cake. Gabe and Morales conferred for a few minutes, then Gabe and his group left the caves, climbed out of the gorge and moved around the mountain to a point half way between the gorge and the bathing pond. When he found a likely spot that was in the path of the approaching AUC company, Gabe spread twenty of his soldiers along a hundred meter line, then continued moving towards the enemy with the other five. He set up a smaller ambush across the AUC's line of march, hunkered down and waited.

Sergeant Morales waited until the scouts reported the right wing unit was past the bathing pond, then he exited the caverns with his troops. Ten men silently fell in behind the AUC unit, while fifteen went around the mountain to the north.

Nuñez called Sergeant Tolivar on the radio as soon as Delgado reported the north side of the mountain was clear.

"Mortar Six, this is Tiger Six, fire mission. Target one, one round, WP, point detonating."

"Tiger Six, this is Mortar Six, copy target one, one round, WP, point detonating," Tolivar replied.

When Nuñez responded 'roger copy' Tolivar gave the call to fire to his number one gun.

Less than a minute later, a round thumped out of the tube and exploded in a gout of dirt and rock between his southern most platoon and the FARC defenders.

The colonel passed the correction on to the mortar crew.

"Mortar, Tiger Six, left two hundred, one round, WP, point."

It took the next round a little longer before it was on the way, as Sergeant Tolivar had to plot a new firing solution to make the colonel's correction. When the round did splash down though, it was almost directly in the center of the rebel camp. Nuñez tweaked the target slightly, moving the point of aim another fifty meters to the north. He was going to assault the rebel position from the front and left flank, because he knew both areas were clear of any rebels laying in wait.

"Mortar Six, Tiger Six, left fifty, thirty rounds, HE (high explosive), point detonating, fire for effect."

Commander Zorra and her troops held it together as the mortar rounds commenced to bracket the camp, her treetop snipers frantically searching for whoever was acting as the AUC's forward observer. Since Nuñez was well behind the lines, he was never spotted. The mortar barrage was another matter for the FARC defenders, as the shells seemed to fall from the sky in an unending stream. The raining mortar rounds didn't do that much damage physically, as only a few soldiers were slightly wounded by flying shrapnel, but the psychological effect of huddling up in a foxhole wondering if the next bomb would land on you was nerve-wracking.

When the mortar fire lifted, eighty members of the Tiger Battalion started advancing from the north and west. The measured advance using fire and maneuver exposed the assaulting soldiers only minimally. The problem was that even a mouse would have had a hard time eluding the overlapping and interlocking fire from Zorra's machinegun bunkers. When the well-aimed fire from the individual fighting positions was added, the attack stalled to a halt. The newly appointed commander of A Company tried to exhort his troops forward and was promptly dropped like a bad habit by one of the treetop snipers. Pasada saw the carnage, and ordered his men to pull back.

On the opposite side of the mountain, Gabriel Ballard was preparing one of the strangest ambushes ever concocted. At the same time, Sergeant Serafin Morales was sneaking his troops around behind the AUC soldiers who had just unsuccessfully assaulted the north side of Zorra's defenses.
Joe J & Wet Dream-Girl
Chapter 19