(20th Oct. 1962)

EPISODE ONE (CLEAN SWEEP)

“No mission is too risky… no sacrifice is too big. Duty comes first!”

I was just 19 when I took this oat; I knew exactly what I was signing up for –to serve my country with all my strength, defend her unity and uphold her honour and glory in the military. I also knew it won’t come easy but I signed up anyways, with the enthusiasm of making a difference in the world of terror. I wanted to play a part in assuring security and zero panic to the hearts of men… this is how I show patriotism…

19th Oct. 1962 I and my army buddies; my brothers in jungle, were on night watch duty as we took shifts at the northern border of my country where we pitched our tent and camped. We took an hour shift each until its first light…

20th Oct. 1962 I was taking my shift of the night watch, suited up in my kaki army uniform with my super tight boots buckled up to my calf and of course armed with my wife (as we called it) –Ak-47 rifle, and my little pistol stocked into my pants behind me, just above my waist line. I stood at the outer perimeter of our camp as I stared dead into the eyes of the darkness of the night (though not so dark). It was a peaceful and starry night with the moonlight shining so dim, covered by the clouds in the sky. But soon the night lost its peace… 

Just few minutes to the end of my shift as my digital wrist watch alarmed, I heard a creep in the woods; I took two steps forward, squinting in scrutiny for movements, advancing my index finger towards the trigger, ready to pull at the sight of any tango. Just then I observed a movement, it was a quick one, someone just hurled a grenade towards me from the woods, it rolled down to where I stood… 

"Holly Christ" , I whispered to myself… everybody down! I yelled and quickly took off, then dived to the ground as the grenade went off. 

Blast!!! 

We had just been ambushed…

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….i was deafened for 20 sec. by the sound of the blast, i felt numbness on my legs, I couldn’t move so I sat right there and fired towards the woods at will as I blinked away my blurry vision. Each kill was a head shot, I didn’t miss, I made sure of it… 

"Man down! Man down!" I shouted repeatedly for help but the 50 man squad was already busy, fighting off the multiple tangos that approached the camp from behind them. Nevertheless the army brotherhood never leaves a man behind… As I sat there, almost running out of ammo, someone reached out for me, grabbed me by the vest and dragged me to cover. It was the squad captain –Steve.

If we were going to stand a chance of surviving this raid, we would need back-up, we would also need more gun power because we were already running out of ammo, we’ve all switched from rifle to pistol and have lost some men already. Just few rounds to go before the rest of us face our fate; die as a good soldier –at our duty post...