away, at his right. "If I'm not mistaken, these are the same huts that we have marked as on-call targets for the artillery battery."
"You're right, Sergeant Hathcock. We gave them these huts here and the set of huts around the bend to the west as primary targets. They should have these spots bore-sighted."
"If what I have in mind works, we'll send most of the rest of these not dogs back to Hanoi in pieces. We're gonna let them eventually reach these huts... just about daylight.
"We'll defend these huts for now. Later on, we'll move up this ridge and go back over to where we first caught these hamburgers on the march, but just a little higher up the slope. We'll start hammerin' on 'em and let them see that we moved to the opposite end from the huts. Once they start out, we'll have the arty hit our on-call targets, while we do a Hank Snow and go a movin' on, over the hill."
"What about the sweep team?" Burke asked.
"We have to call operations and ask them to move up their timetable a couple of hours. We'll leave the sweep team a real easy operation, once we're done."
By midnight, the NVA had made a fourth push toward the group of huts and each time lost men. Each time they turned back, the two Marines ceased fire-encouraging the retreat.
For three hours after midnight, neither side fired a shot. And, for three hours after midnight, a drizzle soaked Elephant Valley and the men who lay imprisoned behind the mud wall, as well as their captors. Other than the drip and patter of the light rain, only the sound of the Ca De Song's rushing water and the intermittent popping of the illumination rounds overhead broke Elephant Valley's silence.
Both snipers lay quiet, their rifles trained at the end of the dike now nearest to them. Nothing but stillness met their eyes as they monotonously watched the low mud wall through the night. "Burke," Hathcock whispered.
"Yeah," came his quiet reply.
"Let's get ready for the big adios. It's just past four o'clock and I'll bet those shovel heads are sleeping. When we get to the other end, we'll wake 'em up."
Slowly and silently, the two Marines crept up the ridge and edged across the lower face of Dong Den.
Two hours later, they reached the ridge that overlooked the western end of the paddy dike. Hathcock slipped through the thick vines and brush like a snake, hardly making a sound as he pushed himself up to a place where the ground leveled off. Carefully he pulled a thick branch from one side and bench-rested his rifle across it, focusing his scope on the west end of the mud wall.
Above and to the right of Hathcock, Burke bellied himself behind a fallen tree where he sat cross-legged with his body following the contour formed by upward-turning roots mat jutted at a right angle from the fallen trunk. He took out his binoculars and began searching for movement along the low dike below him.
Hathcock looked at his watch and offered a thumbs-up sign to Burke. Burke smiled back, and taking the handset, he called the artillery battery, warning them to ready their guns for the fire mission.
Hathcock looked at the thick black clouds that hid the sunrise and allowed only dim gray light to usher a new day into Elephant Valley. He hoped that the clouds were high enough to allow helicopters to land the sweep team into the eastern end of the valley, near the tree line.
He pointed at the sky and shrugged at Burke.
Burke took the signal and radioed the sweep team, which now sat mustered in the landing zone south of Dong Den with their three CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters prepared for takeoff. He glanced back at Hathcock and put his thumb straight up.
Hathcock sighted down his scope, picking the corner of the west end of the low dike, and sent a round whining toward the river after it ricocheted at a right angle off the wall. Moving his scope along the dike, he found a tuft of black protruding from behind. One of the soldiers
"You're right, Sergeant Hathcock. We gave them these huts here and the set of huts around the bend to the west as primary targets. They should have these spots bore-sighted."
"If what I have in mind works, we'll send most of the rest of these not dogs back to Hanoi in pieces. We're gonna let them eventually reach these huts... just about daylight.
"We'll defend these huts for now. Later on, we'll move up this ridge and go back over to where we first caught these hamburgers on the march, but just a little higher up the slope. We'll start hammerin' on 'em and let them see that we moved to the opposite end from the huts. Once they start out, we'll have the arty hit our on-call targets, while we do a Hank Snow and go a movin' on, over the hill."
"What about the sweep team?" Burke asked.
"We have to call operations and ask them to move up their timetable a couple of hours. We'll leave the sweep team a real easy operation, once we're done."
By midnight, the NVA had made a fourth push toward the group of huts and each time lost men. Each time they turned back, the two Marines ceased fire-encouraging the retreat.
For three hours after midnight, neither side fired a shot. And, for three hours after midnight, a drizzle soaked Elephant Valley and the men who lay imprisoned behind the mud wall, as well as their captors. Other than the drip and patter of the light rain, only the sound of the Ca De Song's rushing water and the intermittent popping of the illumination rounds overhead broke Elephant Valley's silence.
Both snipers lay quiet, their rifles trained at the end of the dike now nearest to them. Nothing but stillness met their eyes as they monotonously watched the low mud wall through the night. "Burke," Hathcock whispered.
"Yeah," came his quiet reply.
"Let's get ready for the big adios. It's just past four o'clock and I'll bet those shovel heads are sleeping. When we get to the other end, we'll wake 'em up."
Slowly and silently, the two Marines crept up the ridge and edged across the lower face of Dong Den.
Two hours later, they reached the ridge that overlooked the western end of the paddy dike. Hathcock slipped through the thick vines and brush like a snake, hardly making a sound as he pushed himself up to a place where the ground leveled off. Carefully he pulled a thick branch from one side and bench-rested his rifle across it, focusing his scope on the west end of the mud wall.
Above and to the right of Hathcock, Burke bellied himself behind a fallen tree where he sat cross-legged with his body following the contour formed by upward-turning roots mat jutted at a right angle from the fallen trunk. He took out his binoculars and began searching for movement along the low dike below him.
Hathcock looked at his watch and offered a thumbs-up sign to Burke. Burke smiled back, and taking the handset, he called the artillery battery, warning them to ready their guns for the fire mission.
Hathcock looked at the thick black clouds that hid the sunrise and allowed only dim gray light to usher a new day into Elephant Valley. He hoped that the clouds were high enough to allow helicopters to land the sweep team into the eastern end of the valley, near the tree line.
He pointed at the sky and shrugged at Burke.
Burke took the signal and radioed the sweep team, which now sat mustered in the landing zone south of Dong Den with their three CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters prepared for takeoff. He glanced back at Hathcock and put his thumb straight up.
Hathcock sighted down his scope, picking the corner of the west end of the low dike, and sent a round whining toward the river after it ricocheted at a right angle off the wall. Moving his scope along the dike, he found a tuft of black protruding from behind. One of the soldiers
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