A Veteran's Affair

Chapter 5 - Rolling out

Operation Iraqi Freedom

March 18th

Cpt. Jethro "Cowboy" House

3rd Armoured Com., 1st Armoured Bn., 64th Armoured Regiment

House and the other battalion officers were in the command tent where the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Eric Schwartz was briefing the officers in the battalion on what to do.

"Here's the direct orders from Col. Perkins and Maj. Reed, we are to move westward then northward through the western desert towards Baghdad. Shamal winds moving in tomorrow gusting up to 113 kph. We will be commencing the invasion on March 20th 03:15 Zulu. We will Oscar Mike tomorrow to move to the staging area. Make sure to check all equipment before we Oscar Mike. Understood?"

"Understood sir!" The officers answered.

"Dismissed!"

The officers then got up and walked to their company tents to check the morale of the soldiers. Each company had 3 tents. One officer tent which had 5 officers and the 2 tents are for the enlisted men, one tent containing 28-29 men. House meanwhile went to his M1A2 Abrams and sat on top of it. The rest of the company had M1A1HAs (Heavy Armour, made from depleted uranium). His gunner, Sgt Lucas Bowman was also on top of the M1A2.

"You all right there Lucas?" House asked.

"Yeah, I'm ok sir," Lucas responded. "The rest of the company are in the tents,"

"I want the company to perform last-minute maintenance and equipment checks. Can you start now?"

"Of course, sir!" Lucas responded.

He then opened the gunner's hatch and dropped down. Jethro hoped off the M1A2 and began to make his way to the company tents. He first stepped into the officer's tent. The Executive Officer, First Lieutenant Raphael Verne was lying down on the bed. First Lieutenant of 1st platoon, Sebastien Monroe was looking at his laptop while lying down on the bed. The Second Lieutenant of 2nd platoon, George Robinson was playing cards with the other Second Lieutenant of 3rd Platoon, Frank Carville.

"Gentlemen," Jethro said. The officers then looked up at him and stood up. "I need you to gather your men and perform maintenance checks before we Oscar Mike. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir," They said and ran off to the enlisted tents. House then ran to the second enlisted tent. As he entered the men were reading out letters from school kids.

"Peace sucks a hairy asshole, Freddie. War is the motherfucking answer." One of the men said after reading a letter.

"Oh, shit it's the captain!" One of the men said. They then stood up and stopped what they were doing to listen to the announcement.

"Once you're done reading letters from schoolkids, orders from Col. Perkins to perform last-minute maintenance checks," Jethro said.

"Understood sir!" The men replied back and jogged to the tanks.

Jethro followed and went to his tank. Lucas was in the middle of cleaning the gun barrel and the driver; Specialist Stepan Spartakov along with the loader; Specialist James Wilson, who was also trained as a medic, was checking the engine.

"Oh, come on!" Stepan shouted. "The dust clogged the engine again!" "Why the hell did the army choose the gas turbine engine instead of the German deiseal engine which is more reliable in every way!"

"Get Dirty Earl to fix it dawg!" Someone shouted.

"Yeah, no shit bro!" Stepan shouted back. Earl Green was the engineer of the platoon. He got his nickname "Dirty Earl" because the grime from whatever he was working on, would paint him black and he would smell disgusting. Nonetheless, everyone respected him for the knowledge he harbours with fixing vehicles.