![]() The illumination popped overhead, bathing the paddy in 450,000 candle power of eerie yellow light. James squatted in the dirt and raised his rifle. Instead, the sound heralded an incoming illumination round. It was not the high explosives they hoped would plaster the village in the tree line. James and every other combat vet from 1st Battalion, 9th Marines immediately recognized the telltale sound. Time halted when an artillery round raced through the sky. The paddy appeared less than 100 yards wide in the twilight, but an eternity passed creeping on line through the darkness. What kind of cluster f- were they getting into? ![]() The Ka-Bar knife hanging at his side would not attach. The whispered order skipped past James and continued down the line.įix bayonets? James didn’t even have a bayonet for his new rifle. How were they supposed to get their machine gun up quickly? A muffled hush sped up the line of Marines strung out to his left. ![]() Eli stood only yards away but was nowhere in sight. One more click brought his weapon into full automatic. He clicked it down from safe to semi-auto. James fumbled with the plastic rifle in his hands, feeling for the selector switch. The setting sun vanished, fleeing with every perceivable trace of light on its heels. Darkness veiled the crop of thatch-roofed huts behind a tree line at the paddy’s edge. ![]() Lance Corporal James Stogner tiptoed across the open rice paddy. ![]()
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