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THE BLOODY BUCKET The Keystone Division after WW3 Operation Barnburner -- PT II

04 MAY 03 / 0255 hours
Tyler's Recon Point
NW of target

The Scout Team and Tyler heard some engine noise from the west, and sat tight for 5 minutes. In that time, they've seen 2 vehicles on RT 11. Both travel at moderate rates of speed, and both were eastbound. One was a civilian truck, (like a Md. size Uhaul-the 24' one), and the other was a HUMVEE. Both headed east and disappeared from view.

There is also some vehicle activity closer to the tanks. Two or three pickup trucks moved from the truck turnaround loop, somewhere to the east before disappearing from sight. There are currently no vehicles in sight.

There is also some engine noise from the east, 1 Km away, perhaps on the Old Danville Hwy. Maybe near the VFW?...

Finally, Tyler spots his first lone human at the site. (Enemy troops will be a red dot, Friendlies will be a green dot. The whole of the Scout Team, plus Tyler is just one green dot, in the woods west of Oak Park. Enemy vehicles will be a red thick-outlined rectangle, perhaps with a turret if I feel creative. Friendly vehicles will be a green thick-outlined rectangle(buildings are solid, but same color)).

This lone person is seen pacing guard duty west of the site. S/he was first spotted at the green square south of the RR line and west of the westernmost tank. The guard apparently walks north to the RR line, turns, and goes south to the river, a distance of maybe 300 meters. S/he returns to the green building, really a small shack. Check out the resized map, attached.

[Tyler]
"Okay Captain, I've seen enough. Let's pull back."

After they pull back Shadow has them join the Fire Team. As daylight is approaching soon, Tyler quickly speaks to Panoke.

"Captain, have your scout team find us a place to hole up until tomorrow night. Ideally about five miles out from the target in the thickest brush you can find. Someplace where we can have a good defensive position if need be, but where we can sit tight and plan the attack."

[Panoke]
Sir is the very quiet reply. Panoke leaves to find a good place with the scout team as the major has requested

He gathers the team in and gives the orders.

Okay we are looking for thich bush or woods within 5 klicks of the target are that can be defended. Looking at the map panoke spreads it out in front of the team . I would say that this area to the north west is the best place to start.

McCain surveys the area as "the brass" makes plans. Once ready to move out McCain tries to find as many safe areas or rally points as possible. "You never know when you may have to high-tail-it out of here."

[GM]
To avoid sending a new map every posting, (yeah!), here's ROCK's current position -- smack in the middle of the forested, hilly ground east of RT 147 and south of RT 45. A stream is found, providing the group with some water. Someone comes up with some Hydra-pur tablets, and Flankers have been put out, the troops have been watered and given opportunity to munch, and the vehicles have been camouflaged. This area is pretty rugged, so the prevailing feeling is that the group will not see any other souls until they "light off" Operation Barnburner, after midnight tonite.

Panoke and scout team man a perimiter patrol keeping the main strike team secure. Once this is done Panoke finds the major. "Okay sir what do you intend for the target area. And what do you need me to do ?"

Robbo spent his free time he gets ensuring that his SA-58 is in tip top condition, ready to rumble. He also offers to do a last minute inspection of any other guns that need a checkup.

[Tyler]

"Alright, here's the plan. Our support element is going to hit them at midnight for our distraction. Just before midnight we'll set up where we did the recon. Valdez will take a good position and Yates will act as his spotter. McFee will man the main gun on the APC, Clark will sit in the driver's position. Yarmouth and Sneed will be manning the HumVee and it's machine gun in support of us. If things go to hell in a handbasket they will do a high speed pick up on us."

"I will accompany Scout Team in. We will get as close as we can before the distraction starts. McCain, O'Herren, and Robinson will all be placing the demo charges. Meanwhile Panoke and I will be covering them up close. Captain, you'll be taking one of the silenced weapons. After we place the charges we bug out in the confusion. If we get seperated, remember the rally points."

"We're keeping the plan simple to avoid complications. Does anyone have any questions?"

[GM]
Most of the squad was attentive, and quiet during the briefing. All of them had worked with Major Tyler for awhile, most for several months, and one or two had known him for a couple of years. Others in the group did not have that luxury.

Uncertainty was in the air. ROC/K had been hastily thrown together. The group had only minimal training as a unit. For that matter, they were all still getting to know each other. Throughout the day, may people were perhaps thinking the same thing, although no one mentioned it outright. And that was -- who could be relied upon, and who would freeze when things got intense?...

Tyler's reputation had preceeded him. Along with 1SG McFee, and Valdez, Tyler was in the 101st during the Second Gulf War. And had made it back alive. These men were no strangers to combat, and were survivors.

McCain had fought with a Militia group for several years in PA. He had been involved in raids against Canadian troops, and had fought marauders in the Northern Tier area of PA. Plus he knew his way around Central PA pretty well...

Robbo had fought in Somolia as a young grunt back in '91, and more recently, with the 1/110th, a sister unit of the 3/103rd. He had made it from Pittsburgh to Lewisburg on a special mission. Most of that trip was done alone.

Tina Yates, the LPN and medic for the group was the last person in the group to join ROC/K. She had come in from The Gap with Doc, Wiz, and a few others. She was competant in her area of expertise, but none in the group had seen her under fire.

Panoke and Reb had escaped Harrisburg together. A few days ago, they had scouted the Northumberland area, and provided the COL with much of the information that went into the Intel report ROCK received before this mission. Reb had earlier been decorated for Valor. Panoke had also escaped from the Civil War in the Russian Republic. The Captain was short of words, but long on experience, to be sure....

[Valdez]
The Hispanic marksman of the team spoke up, as he eyed Yates. She gave him a dirty look. "Yeah, I have one question, sir. Once it all goes down, what's the word on targets of opportunity?"

[Tyler]
"Leave off of them. Ammo may be in short supply and those tanks are objective. Your job is to keep the enemy that Panoke and I miss off the backs of the team emplacing the explosives. Pure and simple. Also excessive fire may attract attention. The diversionary team should be catching all the attention, not us."

[McFee]
The burly 1st SGT waited a few moments then spoke up. "Just three things, Sir. First, do we have enough explosives to do the job, Major? Second, do we have enough fuze to make sure yer all in the clear when she blows?, and lastly, what is the plan B in case Mr Murphey comes to call on us tonite?"

[Tyler]
"If they don't do the job, you'll have to finish it with the 20mm. I'd like to avoid that though. As far as the fuze, I plan on burning one foot of test piece to time it. We'll have an idea after that. And if things go snafu, I may call an abort. If so, we break off and go to the rally points. S.O.P."

[GM]
Your explosives consists of 15- 1 KG packages of home-brewed black powder. They were wrapped in waxed paper, which somewhat shielded them from the elements. These were later tamped into some scraps of PVC pipe, and the ends were sealed. This would make them more or less waterproof. To this, Berger added a 10 meter coil of commercial cannon fuze. (burns at 4 cm/sec). This would give 250 seconds (about 4 1/2 minutes) of delay if run in a straight line (point A to point B, not distributed to different charges). Again, it is somewhat doubtful how well the fuze will burn if damp/wet/submersed.

In checking over everyone's stuff, Robbo has an additional 10 meter coil of cannon fuse (burns at 4 cm/sec).

So a 1' piece of the fuze would be approximately 30.5 cm long, or .3 meters. You cut that off, and burn it to test how long it burns. The 1' length burns for 7 seconds, according to someone's watch. Your calculated estimate for the burn time comes out to be 7.62 seconds. And remember, digital watches are history due to EMP, and no one has a stopwatch, I believe...

After this test, you are left with 1- intact 10 meter coil(Robbo's), plus 1- (partial) 9.7 meter coil from which the .3 meter section was tested(Berger's).

[Robbo]
Robbo shifts forward from where he had been sitting and working out some sums in his notebook.

"Sir, I've done the sums. We can get 1.2 Metres per Bomb, if you want. If all goes as advertised. I think that if we use several bombs per tank, we should stagger the fuze times so that they all explode at about the same time."

"One other thing Sir, only having 3 people to set bombs with such a short fuze will make planting all 5 tanks difficult, to say the least. Maybe we go for only 5 bombs, and a longer fuze for each. And has anyone got any Thermite or Willie Pete grenades so we can ignite all this fuel after we blow it up?"

[Tyler]
"Good work. Make it five charges with the longer fuses. We have a smoke grenade. I'll use that to cover our exit. But even more importantly is that even smoke grenades burn hot enough that there will be no question of if setting off the fuel."

[Panoke]
Panoke reaches up on to his vest and hands over 2- HC smoke grenades, 6- fragmentation grenades. "There you go -- the last of what I have been saving for a rainy day. Sorry no WP's."

[Robbo]
"Well that makes one Smoker per person planting charges then, eh sir?"

"And as for timing of the fuzes, how about we make 3 long fuzes, at about 2 minutes, and 2 shorter fuzes at 1 min each. That way we have a chance to place the short fuzed bomds first, then move on to the long timed ones. We then light the short ones as we exit stage left. That way all the bombs should go off at roughly the same time."

Robbo looked round at his peers "and major holes in the plan?"

A few minutes later Robbo shook his head. "Wish I had thought of this earlier. Thermite is easy to make. Iron and Aluminium filings, thats all it is. Just got to remember how you were supposed to light it. Ah well, I'll have to get onto that when I get back to base."

[Tyler]
"No, one smoker will do it. We have to think about conserving equipment. I'll throw the smoke grenade. Trust me, when one of those goes up, either they all will, or the wind will carry enough sparks from the burning grass to take them all."

[Robbo]
"I hope so sir. But Dieso can be hard to ignite, if they happened to find enough around here. I'd rather be safe than sorry though. But you're the boss, and if you say one smoker, then you get to throw."

[McCain]
"Let's just hope we don't get blown to kingdom come in all this."

[Panoke]
Panoke hands over the grenades he has, keeping one Smoke for him self and One frag. "Sir which of the silenced weapons do you wish me to take ?" He back slings the M16 having checked it is ready for use and the safety is on. "Ready when you are sir."

[Tyler]
Tyler hands over the silenced .22 Automatic "Hushpuppy".

04 MAY 03 / 2000 hours
Panoke's Hidey Hole
3 miles NW of target

The members of ROCK spent most of the daylight hours before the attack in routine maintenance, readying the explosives, and of course, sleeping. The weather was extremely pleasant this day, sunny with a light breeze. The unit's fresh water supply was topped off, and people washed up, and ate sparingly. The food certainly wouldn't hold out forever. Especially the prepackaged stuff.

There were no animal or human encounters throughout the day. No vehicles were heard or spotted during this time either.

The good weather held through sunset, and into dusk. As 2000 hours approached, there was only a little light in the sky. A few lights could be seen in the direction of the two nearby towns, Sunbury and Northumberland. Soon it was pitch black, and a bit of moonlight (light level = 2) illuminated the night.

The attack was slated to begin at 0030 hours 05 MAY 03. A diversionary attack would hopefully draw off some of the enemy troops. Plus the Fuel Facilities seemed lightly guarded during the earlier sneek and peek. Everyone in the group was realistic, however, and followed Tyler's advice. How'd it go? Expect a regiment, but hope for a Boy Scout Troop...

To recap Tyler's plan:

[Tyler]
"Alright, here's the plan. Our support element is going to hit them at midnight for our distraction. Just before midnight we'll set up where we did the recon. Valdez will take a good position and Yates will act as his spotter. McFee will man the main gun on the APC, Clark will sit in the driver's position. Yarmouth and Sneed will be manning the HumVee and it's machine gun in support of us. If things go to hell in a handbasket they will do a high speed pick up on us."

04 MAY 03 / 2345 hours
Recon Position at Oak Park
3 miles NW of target

[GM]
The group had covered the 3 miles from the hide spot, gotten into position at about 2330, and readied for the attack. The group is at the recon position, a green dot in the woods east of Oak Park on the attached map. The guard that was seen earlier (in the shack near the western most tank) was still there. (Probably another person, but at same position)

[Tyler]
I know it's unusual to have the officers taking point, but we have the silenced weapons, and gunfire could ruin the whole show. Panoke will take point going in, and I will be covering him taking the slack position. My MP45SD will be set in the three round burst setting

[Tyler]
"Valdez; when the distraction begins that guard is your first job, then simply cover us. Everyone form up and take positions. We'll get as close as we can before calling in the attack."

When they had prepared to Shadow's satisfaction he nodded at everyone.

"Scout team, let's low crawl to the stream. The bombs should be fairly waterproof, but lets not take any chances."

Ryan could feel the gravel digging into his elbows and knees as they low crawled. Once they reached the water he looked at it until he was happy with a good crossing point.

Not wanting to call before 2nd Platoon was ready, he waited until his watch read 0030. They say that war is a game of days of boredom followed by minutes of terror. This gave elegant proof of the lie behind that. Waiting seemed to drag for hours. And while boring, the tension was palpable.

[Panoke]
Panoke takes point as Indicated and agrees to the route the Major Indicates. He has a quick word with his scout team before the team moves out.

"Sgt you three have the rear. If this goes pear shaped then get the Major out of the area."

Panoke takes point, remaining quiet and observant as he leads the team into the area. Once in the area the team settles down to wait. Panoke posts the Scout team as a guard force with instructions not to fire unless there is absolutely no alternative.

[Tyler]
Keying the mike on his radio he called out to second platoon. "Loco, I say again, Loco."

Then he sat tight waiting for the diversion to begin.

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