Part I 'Ghost Enemy'

Now
NPR reported on Saturday evening that the United States has changed its Pilotless Drone targeting policy. Up until this past week the human target of the American operated drone had to be identified as a terrorist that has had connections to past attacks on American Interests. NOW a target may be engaged without knowing its identity if it appears to be committing a suspicious act that may lead to terrorism. There are more of these Pilotless planes of war being flown right now than at any other time in history. The drone marks the target from above and then the bomb is dropped from a another plane that is sometimes a hundred miles away completely detached from looking at the faces of innocent on the ground. Nothing about the outcome of this call for fire is precise.

February 25, 1991
Sometime around late morning on the second day I was woken up by verbal information transfer and the loud sound of our track's Detroit Diesel Cummins motor coming to life. Spartan came over the net and told us that the BN had identified a Company sized Iraqi Mechanized Infantry Unit just over 10klicks(1 klick = 1,000meters) in front of us. Everyone in Golf Co. sat inside the red glow of their tracks listening to Spartan describe the situation. He told us that the Iraqis were dug in on a small rise that was surrounded by a tall chain linked fence topped with coiled concertina wire. Apparently their defensive position was a Kuwaiti radio tower transmitter site before the occupation. The enemy was in the ground with their BMP transport vehicles parked at the base of the hill behind them. The plan was for Golf Co. to take this position with its four platoons plus machine gun and 40mm mortar team support.

The top side hatches of our vehicle were now open allowing me to see the Cimmerian shade of day around us. One of the SAW Gunners went up on the roof as we moved forward with the other tracks. There were plenty of cautious stops between receiving Spartan's frag order and getting to the spot where we exited the track and set up our supporting position roughly five hundred meters from the fence. It was so dark that I could not see anything past a few feet in front of me. At first I remember quiet being interrupted by the sound of the other tracks delivering the line Platoons to their objective. Curtis was behind the gun and I was to the left looking into the same emptiness that he was. Small red and white lights came out of the void in front of us from the inside of the tracks that had breached the perimeter and were lowering their back hatches allowing the riflemen to get out and do what they were trained to do. There was chatter going on around our position as the rest of Golf Co. advanced forward up the hill.