Reilly said, “the sheer joy of being able to shoot the son of a bitch on a daily basis.”
Reilly’s battalion was the regimental mechanized force. It consisted of two infantry companies, a tank company, and a headquarters and headquarters company.
The infantry companies consisted each of three rifle platoons in turretless Elands, plus a weapons platoon with two 120mm mortars that were carried by more Elands and had to be dismounted to fire, nine forward observers, and an antitank section with three gunned and turreted Elands and two antitank guns, plus a small headquarters. The infantry companies were almost pure American and European, with only thirteen to fifteen hand-picked locals, each. Generally speaking, the Guyanans were there to learn, before being sent back to one of the other battalions to become junior noncoms.
The infantry companies were commanded by Hilfer, in Alpha, and Snyder, in Bravo.
In the tank company was a weapons platoon indistinguishable from those of the rifle companies, except that there were only four forward observers, rather than nine. There were also three platoons of six each heavily modified T-55’s or Type-59 tanks, with another two tanks in the headquarters. Green commanded the tank company. Only the weapons platoon and company headquarters had Guyanans on strength, since there wasn’t a lot of point to teaching them to become tankers, only to send them back to become infantry team leaders.
Reilly had developed, rather he had borrowed, four standard methods of task organizing the battalion, dubbed, “ companies pure,” “armor Alpha,” “armor Bravo,” and “companies balanced.” All he had to do was give one of those phrases, preceded by the command, “reconfigure,” and the battalion would shift its setup with a minimum of fuss. Even on the move.
The former, pure, required no cross attaching; each company kept its own organic forces. For the second and third, Green sent either his first platoon to A Company and picked up A company’s first platoon in return, or his second to B Company, picking up B’s second platoon.
For the last, “balanced,” the tank company gave up both its first and second platoons, picking up A Company’s first and B Company’s second.
The last company in the battalion, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, was commanded by Reilly’s South African-born, Israeli-national wife, Lana Mendes-Reilly. She had, it was generally acknowledged, the toughest command in the battalion, with twenty-seven different job skill sets—“MOS’s,” the mother Army would have called them—and more than a hundred if one counted different skills being required for different ranks within the same MOS, organized in twelve different platoons and sections: Command, the four staffs, S-1 through -4, Maintenance, Medical, Supply and Transport, Signal, General Support Mortars, Scouts, and her own company headquarters. The complexity of the job was perhaps part of the reason she’d never acquired a nickname.
HHC had two hundred and seventy-five men (and one woman) on strength, the bulk of them being Guyanans. That was another reason the bloody job was so hard; the unit was twice as big as any other, bigger, in fact, than some of the regiment’s battalions and squadrons. At the end of any given day, Lana’s right hand was cramped and sore from the sheer frequency she had to scrawl her name across some document or other.
She was also responsible for the twenty-two cooks the battalion picked up from the regimental mess company, still slaving under Master Sergeant Island, whenever the battalion was in the field. Which was often.
Still …
I love my job , Lana thought, stroking her elegantly rebuilt nose lightly as she observed some of the mechanics struggling with, and finally conquering, a recalcitrant camouflage net that caught on every little projection and corner of the truck they were trying to screen. The men worked diligently, and with only the minimum
Reilly’s battalion was the regimental mechanized force. It consisted of two infantry companies, a tank company, and a headquarters and headquarters company.
The infantry companies consisted each of three rifle platoons in turretless Elands, plus a weapons platoon with two 120mm mortars that were carried by more Elands and had to be dismounted to fire, nine forward observers, and an antitank section with three gunned and turreted Elands and two antitank guns, plus a small headquarters. The infantry companies were almost pure American and European, with only thirteen to fifteen hand-picked locals, each. Generally speaking, the Guyanans were there to learn, before being sent back to one of the other battalions to become junior noncoms.
The infantry companies were commanded by Hilfer, in Alpha, and Snyder, in Bravo.
In the tank company was a weapons platoon indistinguishable from those of the rifle companies, except that there were only four forward observers, rather than nine. There were also three platoons of six each heavily modified T-55’s or Type-59 tanks, with another two tanks in the headquarters. Green commanded the tank company. Only the weapons platoon and company headquarters had Guyanans on strength, since there wasn’t a lot of point to teaching them to become tankers, only to send them back to become infantry team leaders.
Reilly had developed, rather he had borrowed, four standard methods of task organizing the battalion, dubbed, “ companies pure,” “armor Alpha,” “armor Bravo,” and “companies balanced.” All he had to do was give one of those phrases, preceded by the command, “reconfigure,” and the battalion would shift its setup with a minimum of fuss. Even on the move.
The former, pure, required no cross attaching; each company kept its own organic forces. For the second and third, Green sent either his first platoon to A Company and picked up A company’s first platoon in return, or his second to B Company, picking up B’s second platoon.
For the last, “balanced,” the tank company gave up both its first and second platoons, picking up A Company’s first and B Company’s second.
The last company in the battalion, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, was commanded by Reilly’s South African-born, Israeli-national wife, Lana Mendes-Reilly. She had, it was generally acknowledged, the toughest command in the battalion, with twenty-seven different job skill sets—“MOS’s,” the mother Army would have called them—and more than a hundred if one counted different skills being required for different ranks within the same MOS, organized in twelve different platoons and sections: Command, the four staffs, S-1 through -4, Maintenance, Medical, Supply and Transport, Signal, General Support Mortars, Scouts, and her own company headquarters. The complexity of the job was perhaps part of the reason she’d never acquired a nickname.
HHC had two hundred and seventy-five men (and one woman) on strength, the bulk of them being Guyanans. That was another reason the bloody job was so hard; the unit was twice as big as any other, bigger, in fact, than some of the regiment’s battalions and squadrons. At the end of any given day, Lana’s right hand was cramped and sore from the sheer frequency she had to scrawl her name across some document or other.
She was also responsible for the twenty-two cooks the battalion picked up from the regimental mess company, still slaving under Master Sergeant Island, whenever the battalion was in the field. Which was often.
Still …
I love my job , Lana thought, stroking her elegantly rebuilt nose lightly as she observed some of the mechanics struggling with, and finally conquering, a recalcitrant camouflage net that caught on every little projection and corner of the truck they were trying to screen. The men worked diligently, and with only the minimum
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