Over the vast open ocean, a lone, grey UH-1Y Venom call sign Star Force 64 cruised very

low
under the cloudy skies. On board was a section of 8 Marines, 27-1-B-3-1 or call sign Bravo 3-1, a
team of Marines from the 27th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 1st Battalion, Bravo Company, 3rd Platoon,
1st Section. Everybody’s face looked nervous but confident. Through his large, round aviator
spectacles, Warrant Officer 3 (WO3) Christian Shannon saw the coastline of Utes Island appearing
from the thick wall of fog.

“One minute!” shouted WO3 Shannon. Everybody in the back squeezed their weapons hard.
The gunner and crew chief gripped the rubber grips of their M134A2 miniguns, mounted on the back
of the side doors.

“Are you nervous?” said Private (Pvt) Angus McCall. “I mean, no need to be, I heard we got
all kinds of support available to us”.

“Of course not buddy, it’ll be like old times like in saltwater,” said Private First Class (Pfc)
Jamie Dermont. “We’ll show them who’s the boss!”

“Hey! I’m the boss here and I’m telling every one of you to shut up,” said Corporal (Cpl) Sol
Casita. “Everybody, get ready for the landing!”

The massive Venom cruised low over the sea as the rotor’s downwash started picking up
droplets of water. It approached the coast and then made a nose high descent, it established a
hover as it lowered towards the gravel beach. To the right of the LZ was a short rocky cliff while to
the left was some old fishing boats and the wreckage of an old Russian Mi-8 transport helicopter.

“Everybody out!” called Cpl. Casita. Every infantry inside the chopper poured out of the
helicopter like ants crawling from its nest. “Formation line! All move to that house at 12 o’ clock”.

The section of 8 Marines divided into two squads, each squad crouched on each side of the
UH-1Y in a wedge formation as the mighty Venom took off, heading back to the USS Khe Sahn
carrier. They have landed on the south beach of Utes Island. Their objective was to clear enemies
on the island, with support of other sections landing on other beaches. First task was to capture the
village of Strelka located on the South Western end of Utes Island, the village lied directly north of
the beach they’ve landed on. As the Venom left, the squads went in different directions. 1 squad
will advance from the south of the village while 2 squad will make their way to the rocky cliffs and
attack from the south western end of the village. Cpl. Casita and his squad of 4 moved up and hid
behind a wooden hut just as the enemy opened fire.

“Danger! All, lock n’ load!” shouted Cpl. Casita over the sound of AK-47 assault rifles and
PKM dual purpose machine guns. Cpl. Casita raised his M16A4 rifle, equipped with an M203
grenade launcher and an ACOG 4x zoom optical sight, and pointed it ahead as he leaned out. A man
with a PKM machine gun opened up and launches a burst of 7.62mm bullets at the edge of the
wooden house. Parts of wood cracked of as Cpl. Casita took cover. He could hear and feel the
bullets bounce on the house and the gravel floor around him. “2 engage that machine gunner at 11
o’ clock!”

“Copy, I’m on ‘em” said Pvt McCall, the number 2 man of the section. Pvt McCall was laying
prone on the slope which led up from the beach to the village. The machine gunner was directly up
the slope and down the road in front of him. He opened one of his side pouches and felt for a round
object. He pulled out a M67 anti-personnel, fragmentation grenade, pulled out the safety pin and
held the spoon of the grenade. Pvt. McCall listened carefully and judged the position of the machine
gunner, which he thought was far away from the voice of Cpl. Casita. He decided that the gunner
must be far away enough from the corporal that he could safely used the grenade. “Frag out!” he
shouted just as he released the spoon of the grenade, watch the spring flick out the spoon which
flew of and then tossed the grenade at the machine gunner.

“3,4 advance!” shouted Cpl. Casita. Pfc. Dermont who was the number 3 man, the section’s
machine gunner and Pvt. Mal Billal, the platoon’s medic who was the number 4 man ran forward to
an intersection in the village. A man with an RPG ran down the road, stopped and pointed an RPG at
Pvt. Billal, however, Pvt. Billal was faster. He lifted his M4A1 assault rifle up and shot two rounds
just as the red dot in the rifle’s optical sight was in between his eye and the enemy. The man with
the RPG fell as two 5.56mm bullets cut across his brain.

“One less!” shouted Pvt. Billal who raised his rifle high above his head and cheered, thinking
that this is probably the first US kill using bullets in the Chernarussian campaign.

“Get down!” screamed Pfc. Dermont as he pushed Pvt. Billal over and crouched, using Pvt.
Billal’s back as a surface for laying the bipod of his Mk48M2 machine gun and sprayed a burst of
7.62mm bullets at the enemy ‘Chedaki’ militia, running down the left road of the intersection. Billal
felt the hot 7.62mm bullet casings landing on his back plate armour.

“Cover me!” shouted Cpl. Casita from behind. Pfc. Dermont pulled Pvt. Billal up and Billal
stayed crouched while Dermont layed prone. Cpl. Casita and Pvt. McCall moved up from behind.
They were conducting the so called ‘fire team rush’ a movement of two soldiers covering the other
two who are moving. Dermont sprayed some bullets at two more Chedakis coming down the north
road. Casita and McCall are moving up cautiously from the south road as Billal fired a few bursts to
take out a sniper on a hill at the end of the east road who was trying to and almost killed them.

“Sol!” called Billal. Sol Casita turned around and listened. “We’re too exposed out here.
There’s a fortified bunker up that mountain to the east and Chedakis keeps comin’ down the north
road! It’s too dangerous to stay at an intersection.

“Fine! 3,4 cover that north road,” decided Casita. “1,2 cover 9 o’ clock”.

“Copy! Executing,” shouted Billal. Billal and Dermont moved a few meters up the north road
to stay clear of the intersection where snipers on the east hill could take them out quite easily.
Casita and McCall moved up the east road and took cover as the snipers started firing.

“2 engage that sniper!” ordered Casita. As he took cover behind a wall on the side of the
road.

“Copy, engaging,” agreed McCall. McCall crouched behind a white pickup and laid his
M16A4 on the pickup and fired some shots at the muzzle flashes he saw before he shot bursts.

After a few bursts, a Soviet .51 DshKM heavy machine gun opened up. The bullets fired
were 12.7mm in diameter which were way bigger than the hand held rifles and machine guns the
section carried. The machine gun seemed to fire over their heads and not at them. Casita looked
back and noticed 2 squad making their way from the cliff and down the west road just before
breaking for cover on the sides of the road. The machine gun was targeting them. Soon 2 squad
disappeared behind white smoke which came from a smoke grenade that 2 squad popped to conceal
their movement. Casita realized that the machine gun didn’t notice them, the burst that McCall had
fired and hit the bunker made the machine gun think 2 squad was shooting at them.

McCall guessed that the machine gun was about 120 meters away from them so he adjusted
his rifle so that the 150 meter mark on the grenade launcher iron sight was just above the line of
sight between and the gunner and launched a high explosive grenade from the M203 launched slung
under the barrel of his M16A4 rifle. It seemed to hit the roof of the bunker. The machine gun
stopped firing but when Casita looked up, the machine gun opened up again, this time at the wall
Casita was hiding behind. The gunner now knew Casita and McCall was trying to shoot them.

He realized that just below the 150 meter mark which was about 140 meters was too high.
He decided to aim at about 140 meters instead of 120 meters which should be about in between the
100 and 150 meter mark because he judged the hill was 20 meters high so 120+20=140. He thought
again, it must be less than 140 meters because he remembered that one of the snipers taught him a
technique to think of a triangle. He thought, if the bottom of the triangle is 120 meters and the
vertical side is 20 meters, the sloping side must be less than both of it added together.

“Negative!” shouted McCall. “I can’t hit ‘em. That gunner keeps on shooting at me and I
can’t get a sharp, clean shot. I aim to long that gunner’s gonna get a fifty through my skull. That
machine gun already ripped my night vision mount of my helmet, ya gonna pay for my new helmet
coach. Try the 203!”

“Can’t get a clean shot either!” shouted Casita. “Draw fire! When he stops to reload cover
me! Then I’ll blow the bunker”.

“Engaging!” shouted McCall. McCall staring firing a shot or two each time which hit the
bunker wall. The gunner fired long bursts, not knowing that he is being tricked by US Marines so
that he runs out of ammo, reloads and gives the marines a chance to get them. Soon the gunner
started reloading.

“He’s loading!” shouted McCall.

“Cover me!” replied Casita.

“It’s overheated, I’m jammed!” McCall complained. “Why do terrorists always get more
reliable weapons than us!”

“I’m after that gun!” reported Casita. Casita ran to the center of the road and aimed,
ignoring the sniper fire landing all around him. How inaccurate are these snipers he thought. They
can’t even hit a man just over a hundred meters away! Probably armed with assault rifles but
worked as snipers, he thought as he launched the grenade and saw the gunner finish reloading and
closing the top lid of the DshKM .51 heavy machine gun. Casita dived for cover as he heard an
explosion.
 “On target!” replied McCall. “Right into the bird’s nest!”

Casita and McCall regrouped with 2 squad, Dermont and Billal. They formed a wedge
formation as planned in the chopper and slowly moving up the street, firing short bursts occasionally
when Chedaki militias pop out from the side streets.

“Incoming enemy armour!” shouted a soldier from 2 squad.

“Take cover!” shouted Casita. Everybody laid prone, camouflaging themselves with the
grass and hiding from the bullets ahead. “SMAW guy! Private First Class Jones, hit that BRDM-2
with a high explosive dual purpose warhead”.

“I left the SMAW in the chopper,” confessed Pfc. Jones. “I heard we got supports and we
don’t need extra weight carried”. As Pfc. Jones replied, he vaguely stood up, pretending to be useful
as if he had a SMAW anti-tank launcher. It was this moment when a 7.62mm round from a PKM
machine gun hit him in the shoulder.

“Medic!” shouted Pfc. Binns from 2 squad. “He’s hit in the shoulder”.

Billal crawled over to Jones as the others picked off some of the Chedakis who are standing
up. He went over to Jones who was still alive, breathing and able to fight. Billal tore of the brown
fabric cover of the Kevlar armour plates. “Relax Binns, you’re lucky Jones to have been hit by a ball
round which is designed to create a large hole in your body. If you’re hit by an amour piercing
7.62mm round it would have went through your armour, this one bounced off. There’s just a bump
in ya armour, you could get back to work now.

“Snake 6, this is Bravo!” called Casita over the UHF radio. “With an immediate close air
support request over!”

“Bravo, this is Snake 6, we’re coming inbound, send target location over!” reported back the
pilot of the AH-1Z Viper gunship attack helicopter.

“Snake 6 come inbound, north of Strelka and see if you can take out some armoured targets,
over,” replied Casita.

“Snake 6 inbound, ETA 30 seconds, we have a visual on you at the horizon, real foggy day
huh,” replied the AH-1Z pilot in a calm enjoying voice.

“Well get over here, this isn’t a drill! And don’t just fly around and watch us fight, here’s
your chance to help fight!” barked Casita over the radio.

“There’s live infantry and BRDM’s for your target practicing today, fresh meat!” Dermont
added in a war thirsty accent.

“We’ll definitely take this chance, I like shooting just like you, but I’m up here because it’s
safer and I enjoy it as much as down there as well as getting to risk millions of dollars on this tax
payer funded strafing safari,” replied the gunner of the lead AH-1Z just as he launched an AGM-114
Hellfire missile and several rockets at the BRDM and some infantry before taking out the other
technicals and infantry with the 20mm cannon.
“Where do the civilians live in this village if they don’t live in buildings?