Team Yankee: a novel of World War III Read Free Page A

his arm to clear the branches. As he proceeded, Bannon decided that rather than fight the underbrush and roots on his way over to 3rd Platoon, he would skirt the tree line.
    This was not a good practice, but as it was dark and hostilities had not been declared yet, he decided to do it, one more time.
    When he reached the ITV, the launcher's hammerheadlike turret slowly moved to the right, indicating that the crew was awake and on the job. Knowing that the crew would have the troop door combat-locked, Bannon took out his buck knife and rapped on the door three times. As he waited for a response, the shuffle of the crewman on duty could be heard as he climbed back over gear and other crewmen to open the door. Struggling with the door handle, the crewman rotated the lever and let the door swing out. Bannon was greeted by a dark figure hanging halfway out the door and a slurred, "Yeah, what ya want?"
    "It's Captain Bannon. Anything going on down in the valley?"
    Straightening up slightly, the ITV crewman realized whom he was talking to. "Oh, sorry, sir, I didn't know it was you, sir. No, we ain't seen nothin' all night 'cept some jeeps and a deuce 'n a half going up to the cavalry. Been quiet. We expectin' something?"
    "No, at least not that I've heard. The cavalry should give us some warning but just in case, I need you to stay on your toes. You checked your batteries lately?"
    "Yes, sir, 'bout an hour ago we cranked her up and ran it for twenty minutes."
    "OK. Keep awake and alert. Let the XO over there know if something comes along." After a perfunctory "yes, sir," the crewman closed his door and locked it as Bannon turned away and walked out to the edge of the tree line. It bothered him that he didn't know the crewman's name. Bannon had only seen that ITV crewman for the first time three days ago after the Team had pulled into its positions. That's the trouble with attachments. You never know whom you're going to get and you never get a chance to know them. Except for the fact that he was the CO and the Team headquarters track was parked nearby, the ITV crewmen didn't know much about him either. And yet, very shortly, they might have to take orders from him in combat. Bannon hoped that the ITV crewmen trusted his ability to command in battle with the same blind faith that he trusted their ability to kill Russian tanks with their ITV.
    As he trudged over to the 3rd Platoon, he reviewed the Team's dispositions and mission.
    The Team had gone over it often enough using map exercises, terrain walks, battle simulations and field training exercises, or FTXs,
    on
    similar ground. But Bannon was still not totally satisfied that they were in the best possible positions to meet all eventualities. Team Yankee was deployed on the forward slope of a large hill overlooking a river valley. The forest where the Team was located came halfway down the slope until it reached a point where it dropped all the way down onto the floor of the valley. That point was the Team's left flank and it was where 2nd Platoon was positioned.
    From there the platoon could fire across the face of the slope, into the valley or across the valley, toward the high ground opposite them.
    In the center was the Team's headquarters section, consisting of Bannon's tank, the XO's tank and two ITVs from the mech battalion's antitank company. From there they had a good view of the valley, a small village situated in the valley to the right front, a road, and a separate small valley that ran along the Team's right flank. This constituted the limit of
    the Team's battle position.
    It was on the right that the Team had the greatest concentration of power, the 3rd Platoon and the Mech Platoon. The Mech Platoon was equipped with M
    113 armored personnel carriers and Dragon antitank guided missiles. This Platoon had been scheduled to receive Bradley fighting vehicles, but that kept getting put off since procurement of those powerful fighting vehicles had slowed down. The Mech