The Battle for Houston...The Aftermath (19 page)

“Victor, where is your commander, my brother?” Manuel demanded asking Alberto’s commander.

“Maybe he is with Pedro somewhere in the terminals. We have had men looking for him for hours in and around the empty terminals you stayed in, Sen…Señor!”

“I will wait for ten minutes and you radio me back when you find them. Tell them, Victor, Carlo, that I’m crazy mad!” shouted Manuel over the mike and handed it back to his operator sitting behind him in the lead jeep. “Mierda, Mierda!” he shouted. It wasn’t like his brothers to act like this. He thought he heard a thudding of a helicopter blade to his east for a couple of seconds, but the wind gust fell, and so did the faint noise with it.

* * *

“What do you think is happening?” asked Lieutenant Colonel Mathews to his commander, Colonel Garrote. They were both over a mile north of the Mall on the highest roof of St. Luke’s Woodland Hospital on Needham Road or Highway 242. Their men were all north of Needham Road and looking at the advancing army through binoculars.

“Hell, they could be having a bathroom break for all I know. I wanted them at least another 800 yards closer to the intersection before we let out the rabbit,” replied Colonel Garrote. The “rabbit” was four jeeps, Marine Mutts with a forward machine gun and a rocket launcher standing up rear. They were to drive south on command to the center of the intersection from the north to become visual to the advancing rebels. The idea was to make them look like a U.S. army patrol that suddenly spots the advancing army from the intersection below the two colonels. As would be expected, when soldiers see an enemy patrol, the leader certainly would want to give chase and silence the enemy patrol before they radioed information to their headquarters.

Both men had estimated that this major thoroughfare, I-45, would be the one used to head north, if north was the direction the rebels wanted to go. The colonels had 5,000 men, mortars, heavy machine guns and two howitzers within range of this intersection. Also, Highway 242 was closed off by several more mortar and machine gun locations 200 yards off each side of the intersection in case the rebels decided to change direction.

They knew 5,000 wasn’t much against the 30,000 to 50,000 rebels they estimated to be coming their way, but, Marines versus rebels, then add ambush and air support to the mix, and the odds should be evened a bit. There were three AC-130s ready and circling a mile or two north at 8,000 feet for air support. They hadn’t seen the end of the vanguard army; their position and weather wasn’t high or clear enough to see much further than a mile past the mall.

“Mike Two, Alpha, Bravo or Charlie, this is Mike Three; we have rebel movements one mile to our south. Have you seen any movement on your 1314 road? Over.”

“Mike Two Alpha here, Negative Mike Three
.”

Colonel Garrote checked the command points of the other three roads heading north and got the same answer.

“Mike Two Bravo, leave Alpha and Charlie and head towards my direction. I count large numbers of enemy, and we might need some backup. All Mike teams, I need immediate warning of any enemy movement. All Mike teams and all aircraft, we will have “friendlies” mobile from east to west on Highway 242. Over.” Several radios responded, acknowledging the information.

Colonel Garrote had just ordered a major and a thousand men to head westwards towards him along Needham Road.

“That will give the men in the western barricade a little backup if they need it,” he stated to Colonel Mathews.

“Mike One here, extractions one and two are out of here. We have picked up their channel frequency and we are monitoring it. Over,”
stated Colonel Clarke at the railway depot, and who was fluent in Spanish.

“Mike Three to Mike One, they have halted their progress north. Any ideas? Over.”

“Roger that, Mike Three. I think Extraction Three is looking for his brothers. We overheard him call a halt and give his brothers ten minutes to surface. Hold on; he is shouting verbal abuse to others we believe are still at the airport. I think he is getting ready to move out. Charlie Six and Paul Six will be back at Bush in 30 minutes. Over.”

“Two, zero minutes!”
interrupted Charlie Six heading back.
“We are ahead of schedule.”

“
Easy Girl
here, Charlie and Paul, estimate aircraft attack on airport terminals beginning in two to five minutes,”
added the radio operator in Easy Girl, two miles north.
“We are waiting for a few friends. Mike Three, do you want us to take out your intersection at the same time? Over.”

“Only when I ask for assistance,
Easy Girl
; I think you could give us a hand on your way out of here. We want first blood. Over,” smiled Colonel Garrote into his headset.

* * *

“Alberto, Pedro!” Manuel shouted into his radio. “I’m moving out. Get your armies on the road now. I mean now! Army Two and Army Three, get your men moving, forget my brothers. The weather is clearing fast, and I want your men out of the airfield in 30 minutes. Comprehend?” He got a dozen acknowledgements and he waved his hand to start engines. “Get this jeep moving!” he ordered his driver angrily.

* * *

Information moved fast from Colonel Clarke listening in to all the patiently waiting U.S. troops. Colonel Garrote ordered the four jeeps forward; it would take his vehicles 20 seconds to reach the intersection, at least 800 yards in front of the approaching rebels.

“
Easy Girl
here, our two girlfriends have arrived;
Blue Moon
is five minutes behind and four fixed-wing bad boys five minutes behind her. We are starting our approach into Bush. We are coming in five minutes early to catch the exit rush, and will be approaching from the east across the northern perimeter of the airfield.”

“Charlie Six, Roger that. Leave our lone M35 alone. It’s a block north of the northern perimeter fence. We’ll be there in fifteen. Out.”

* * *

Manuel Calderón didn’t know that the enemy now knew what he was doing. He was too angry to care, and he desperately wanted to shoot something! He was going to beat the living daylights out of his brothers when he saw them again, and he really wanted to shoot something! He grabbed for his M-16 and looked towards the intersection.

To his utter amazement, he saw four jeeps coming towards him three quarters of a mile away and he immediately knew they were Americans. As the shapes rose up the intersection’s slight incline and above the line of asphalt stretching north he saw a rear rocket launcher and a machine gunner. The light contrast was now perfect to see American camouflage, and he shouted into his radio that there was enemy in front and to charge forward as fast as possible. “Kill! Kill the gringos in front!” he shouted to the three radios of his forward vehicles on both sides of the wide highway, and the “dogs” leapt forward after the “rabbit”.”

* * *

The Americans saw and heard the rev of vehicles on the highway to their south and, as planned, stopped. They sat there and waited for nearly 30 seconds before Colonel Garotte gave the order to fire.

“Mutts on Highway only, remember to leave the front jeeps alone. Open fire with everything you have, now!”

Four machine guns began their clattering and four rockets headed out of the launchers seconds later. The Mutts still looked down at the surging army now less than a quarter of a mile in front of them, and they easily fired into vehicles three to four rows behind the front jeeps which were gaining ground and speeding forward faster than the troop transporters. Several civilian trucks of all types were behind the jeeps and three took direct hits as the rockets slammed into them. A troop transporter on Manuel’s side and a hundred yards behind him took a direct hit, which made him even angrier upon hearing the explosion, and he slapped his driver over the head to get his chariot moving faster.

It took the launchers thirty seconds to reload and fire off four more rockets. The machine guns had already emptied a case each of 7.62 rounds and were reloading. They hit several more vehicles, one of which exploded causing a second one to stop, cause a small pileup and then explode as well. One went up in smoke. The rockets this time went into four troop transporters three hundred yards behind Manuel’s position, two trucks on each side of the highway, which made the headlong frontal push slow down slightly.

Manuel was oblivious to what was happening behind him as he saw the jeeps, now 200 yards in front of him begin taking fire themselves and head back the way they had come. With his momentum he would get close behind them.

It was interesting to watch the proceedings from the top of the hospital as Colonel Garrote gave orders for several mortars placed on roofs around the area to begin to bomb the highway. The lead rebel vehicles, a couple of dozen of them, were too close now for the mortars, and the bombs popped out of the tubes to drop into the positions where the later vehicles had to slow down to get around the burning debris.

“Manuel! Manuel! We are being hit by mortars, It is an ambush!” shouted somebody over his radio, and he looked behind for the first time and saw explosions riddling his vehicles half a mile behind his position.

“Retreat! Retreat! Take cover! Use the exit ramps. Turn down the exit ramps, get underneath the intersection. There are Americans all around us!” he shouted over his radio as his jeep continued. Several vehicles immediately took the exit ramps off the highway. There were already rebel vehicles on these side roads and as usual, exiting traffic had to slow down. He and several men continued after the jeeps, and he was away from the ambush. He was gaining on the American jeeps in front of him and began firing at the enemy now only a hundred yards in front of him.

* * *

As if in a ballet routine, the four jeeps screamed to a stop and spun around to face the oncoming rush. They were now abreast of the ramps north of the intersection, and a couple of armored vehicles drove out of the ramps to join the jeeps. All at once they began firing at the oncoming rebels.

* * *

“Turn, turn around! Get out of here, It’s another ambush!” screamed Manuel over the radio as his vehicles now a dozen on both sides of the highway screeched into turns, the drivers spinning the wheels as hard as they could. One vehicle behind literally toppled over and began somersaulting down the highway missing Manuel’s skidding jeep by inches. He fired at the enemy and emptied his banana magazine of thirty rounds, pulled it out and fitted the second magazine strapped to the empty one and began firing; his driver slammed the jeep into first and nearly threw his passengers out, as he smoked the tires and turned to retreat. Manuel and the radio man held on for dear life as the panicked driver did his best to push the accelerator through the steel floor.

They reached the top of the intersection and Manuel ordered his men to take side roads and head west, directly west. His driver screeched the brakes again as he approached the southern exit ramp and sped around the corner and down the ramp northwards. There were several men in front. It looked like they had fallen, or had jumped out of the rear of a truck and were right in the way of the fast moving jeep. The driver didn’t flinch as he applied full brakes and turned the jeep left and scythed through the half dozen men, throwing bodies and guns in all directions. He expertly got the jeep facing west; there was a break in the line of turning vehicles, and he sped through a hole and down a side street.

Many of the men in the forward vehicles had done this often in Colombia to escape Colombian forces, and managed to escape the ambushes. Like Manuel’s driver, they exited the intersection and headed onto side roads for a block and then were forced southwards by enemy fire. Some headed a block too far and straight into a Marine barricade which made them quickly turn and head through alleyways and even broken doors of buildings. The enemy vehicles all ended up moving in a southward direction.

* * *

It was the colonel’s plan to leave three blocks of escape routes open for the enemy to lure them into believing they were escaping, right into the hands of the U.S. Army five miles south.

“Keep firing until all moving vehicles are out of the kill zones,” Colonel Garrote ordered as he heard
Easy Girl
stating that she was going in.

The killing zones now stretched a mile south of the intersection; the mortars with him on top of the hospital had the furthest sight to the south, and kept firing. Mortars are reasonably quiet weapons and his hearing was still in one piece. Colonel Garrote hated to be near loud guns like artillery, which deafened people around them and halted the delivery of orders. His three mortars were fifty feet away from him and aiming southwards along the highway.

The highway south of the intersection had hundreds of burning vehicles and thousands of men running south on foot. There were fires for over a mile, and he looked down both sides of 242 to see the same thing. Slowly the rebel force, five times larger than the total number of his troops, were being routed southward, thousands already dead, and the living were heading into the arms of an even more powerful force to the south.

* * *

“
Easy Girl
here, we are beginning our attack,”
Preston heard over his radio as he saw plumes of smoke rising into the air from a highway twenty miles in front of him, Carlos, Martie and Colonel Wright, the P-38 pilot.
”
Pave Pronto
and
Pave Spectre
, keep 300 yards distance between aircraft and stay above 500 feet. I want howitzer fire into the rear terminal buildings and cannon fire into visual enemy rebels leaving the airport. There is a long line of vehicles heading out through the northwestern corner, I want those taken out. Do not fire on any lone trucks! I repeat do not fire on any single vehicles, could be friendlies. We will do two passes and then let in
Blue Moon
and, after her, the fixed-wing guys. Boys, the fixed-wing have heat and it will burn. Here we go. Good hunting.”