0005a - On the Move – 0200 18 JUL 2000

We had been overrun, so much was known. We heard the fighting going on around us. Lots of fighting, lots of dying.

Schmitty caught one just before the rest of the brigade was pushed back west. Logan said we couldn‘t move him if we wanted a chance to save him. Logan‘s word was law, regardless of what the brass wanted.

Logan was the closest thing we had to a doc. He was a nurse (yeah, I know, quit laughing, there are male nurses) working in the emergency rooms of Philly before the war. Logan had seen gunshot wounds and a lot more. Dude knew his stuff. Uncle Sam thought so too and Logan ended up being invited to Europe, all expenses paid.

Logan gave his best but Schmitty had other plans. He left us there and we dug a grave for him, nice and proper, just like all of us hope we would save someday. Major Harris, our resident sapper, said a few words but they sounded kind of hollow, like the clods landing on Schmitty‘s box. Words don‘t matter none, dead is dead.

We patted down the grave and Major Harris called a pow wow. The six of us put our heads together. Major Harris explained the situation to us. The brigade had been pushed back a couple of days ago, We had no idea what the current strategic or tactical situation was. Judging by the Russian an Polish voices on the radio, we were behind the lines but on the wrong side. We were in the woods about 20 klicks north of Szadel and about the same west of Lodz. The big question was what to do now.

SSG Griffin, Ranger in house and Starshina Eduard Potapenko, known locally as Potato, argued against following the brigade west, as that would mean we would have to also follow the units that pushed them west and the chance of a run-in were too high. Instead they argued we should swing south and try to find a crossing over the Warta and then make our way back toward Germany and our „home“. It was as much a home as any cantonment can be. Nobody had a problem with the plan so we mounted up.

We would be traveling by night. Back before the show started, Mitchell, scrounger plus ultra, apparently found some NVGs that had fallen off some trucks. We had an advantage and we planned to use it.

Caitlyn Mitchell, our token Canuck would be driving „Tom“ with Griffin riding shotgun and Harris on the Ma Deuce. Logan will drive „Jerry“ with yours truly riding shotgun and Potato on the Mk-19.

We were making our way south, we kept to the woods. Everything was great until we ran into those marauders.