The Rag

The “A” team was in danger of being cut off from its planned escape route that would take it back to the rest of Colonel Blake’s force. Jamie was with three other men of the team under the direct command of Sergeant Willie Jones, who was a heavy set black soldier who had been an army ranger before resigning in order to join the militia. Jones made an immediate decision; he sent one of the members of the team to alert their commander, Lieutenant Robert Cannon to the danger on the flank. Jones had already decided what needed to be done, he and Jamie and the other team member would attack the flanking enemy unit to cover the retreat of the rest of the team. Jamie was well aware that this was probably a mission that would not end well, but he did not hesitate because it was his job. When Sergeant Jones ordered Jamie and the other soldier, Private Phillip Goldberg, forward they immediately complied. Fortunately, despite the fact that it was a moonless night, all of “A” team members had night vision weapons on their weapons so they could see the enemy movements while not being easily seen themselves. It took just few minutes to get into position, and they opened fire on the flanking enemy soldiers. They took down four of them with their opening volley, but there were at least twenty men in the attacking group, and Jones and his men were taking heavy fire. They were spread out about fifteen yards from each other with Jones in the middle, Jamie on his right, and Goldberg on his left. They were in a thick patch of woods so Jamie could see Jones, but not Goldberg. Jamie was equipped with an M-16 automatic rifle with an attached grenade launcher. He saw Jones signal him to move forward so he could get in effective range to use the grenade launcher. The sergeant also signaled Jamie that he and Goldberg would provide covering fire while Jamie advanced. The young Donnelly acknowledged the order and stood up to start moving. However, when Jones stepped out of cover behind a tree to cover Jamie he was cut down by enemy fire, but Jamie didn’t hesitate; he ran forward in a zig zag movement, and miraculously avoided the heavy, but random fire that was tearing up the trees and bushes around him. Then he jumped behind a fallen tree that gave him some cover and launched three grenades at the enemy positions. Five federal troopers were killed and three more wounded. In the meantime, Goldberg, who was an excellent marksman, had killed two other enemy soldiers. This was enough for the federal commander; he had lost almost half of his troops and really had no idea how large the militia unit he was attacking was. He ordered his men to stop advancing, but continue firing into the woods at suspected militia positions. This fire did no prevent Jamie from getting back to Sergeant Jones, and to find that he had been killed by the incoming fire. Then Jamie checked on Goldberg and found him lying on the ground severely wounded. The random, but massive amount of fire laid down by the enemy had been partially successful. While moving from one tree to another in his effort to get back to his comrades Jamie had periodically stopped to fire at the federal forces and this made them continue to think that they were facing a formidable force. The American military had a commitment to the philosophy that no one was left behind dead or alive. That philosophy was also ingrained in the members of the East Texas militia, and while Jamie knew that he could not carry both Jones and Goldberg out he could at least try to save Goldberg who had become a good friend. He slung his weapon and reached down to pick up his friend when he felt a sharp pain in his side. He reached down and felt the wetness and knew he had been hit. He took his rifle off of his soldier and despite the intense pain fired his weapon toward the federal position where he thought the incoming rounds had come from. He emptied his clip, reloaded and emptied another clip. Then he quickly reloaded again, slung his weapon and picked up his friend. He had apparently pinned down the enemy for the time being, and he was able to start making his way back through the thick woods in the direction that he hoped would take him to the rendezvous point where the rest of the team would be assembling.