Various Short Stories

Korea

Finally, I thought, coming home after five years of Korea... As a United States Pararescuman I rarely get time off, since there are only three hundred of us at any one time. Two years after joining the Air Force, North Korea launched an attack, sinking four US Aircraft Carriers, and two South Korean Battle cruisers. I smiled I was turning twenty-eight in two weeks, and I was definitely happy to be going back to the states.  

"Hang on back there guys, we got some AA fire coming in..." The pilot said over the headset. I looked around at the men in my squad who were all replacements of the originals. There was SSgt Matthews, Sgt. Jenkins, and the newbie Airman Collins. I'd been the squad leader since two years ago, when the original squad was caught in the battle for Seoul.  

Hundreds of Marines, SEALs and Green Berets were stranded in a burning city, with no hope of escape, and no chance for survival. Those are the kinds of situations that my Pararescuman brothers and I faced on a daily basis. Fighting was heavy in the city and hundreds of civilians were being rounded up by NK forces and taken god knows where. We landed on the outskirts of the city; all of us kitted out in the newest tech, our objective find and secure a VIP, a man by the name of Joseph Benfield. He was a SEAL with information of the very, very valuable variety, the kind that wins wars. 

My squad at the time was comprised of three men who passed through the Pipeline (pararescue training) with me. A Chief Master sergeant named Antonio Delafuente, a Senior Master sergeant whose name I never actually knew, he just had me call him Mac, and a Tech sergeant named Joe Scott. CMS Delafuente was a mean mother fucker with a wicked scar running the length of his arm, and a tattoo of our squad logo, a flaming skull with a knife clenched in its cracked teeth. A banner ran above the skull, and one below, the top said, "Angelus Mortis", the bottom, "video meliora proboque deteriora sequor". When I asked what that meant, he looked at me and said solemnly "I see and approve of the better, but I follow the worse. You'll understand it soon." 

SMSgt Mac was one of those guys who looked really intimidating, but was actually kind of a cool dude. His idea of a good time was doing a good job saving the lives that he promised to save. His tattoo was the Pararescue motto, "That others may live..." and he was proud of his job, and was glad that we rarely if ever get too much attention for what we do. 

Then there was Tech Sergeant Joe, he liked us to call him Joey, and he was new to the squad, his rank came from the four years he'd served as an engineer on a C-130, and he had passed through extended training day not two years ago, meaning he was fresh out of the pipeline and ready to do some damage.  

January 7, 2018 

0300 hours 

Seoul 

South Korea 

"Alright guys let's move up," CMS Delafuente said. So we did, quickly and quietly we moved. From house to house, street to alley and back to street. Delafuente raised his right hand in a clenched fist we stopped. He signaled three tangos in the street to our right, and a technical to our left. I glanced down at my G36 Assault Rifle, and flipped the switch to burst. Looking back up Delafuente signaled to silence weapons. I did so, and waited for the next order. He pointed at Joey and I, motioning us to move through the left building to get behind the technical. Then he and Mac would take out the hostiles and we would continue. 

I tapped Joey's thigh and ran silently to the house entrance on the left side of the alley. We ghosted through the house, and came out on the other side behind a small truck with a .50 mounted in the back. There were two men dressed in NK uniforms and talking in rapid mandarin to a small man dressed in overalls. They were obviously angry as he was bleeding profusely from a broken nose, and a smashed eye socket. Joey tapped my shoulder and pointed to a diner across the street. I could only see shadows, but I knew what was going on there, NK combatants were inside beating and most likely raping the women inside. I grimaced and pushed Joey back into the shadows.