Background

Cole was nineteen the first time he heard a gun go empty in a fight. He was a SAW gunner with the Rangers in a valley in eastern Afghanistan whose name he never learned, and the box he reached for wasn’t there.

He made sergeant, then went to Officer Candidate School. Asked why, he gave the same short answer every time: he wanted to be the one doing the math.

That math rules his platoon. Every rifleman in Stalker carries three hundred spare rounds on top of his basic load, and every SAW carries a thousand. Cole’s own ruck weighs the same as his men’s. They curse him for it on every ramp. He lets them.

In the field

Quiet on the net, deliberate in a fight, and always two moves ahead. Cole decides fast and explains later, if at all. He trusts his sergeants, listens to his specialists, and keeps the weight of every call to himself.

Kit

• M4A1 carbineVortex Razor HD 1-6x LPVO, RMR offset, suppressor, NGAL
• Ammunition7 magazines + 300 spare rounds
• Grenades2 fragmentation, 2 smoke
• Night visionPVS-31A
• CommsAN/PRC-163, ATAK on a chest-mounted handset
• Cold weatherLight layers on the move; Level 7 parka at halts

Chain

Background

Mills has nineteen years in and talks about getting out the way other men talk about the weather, constantly and without meaning a word of it. The Army took his marriage and most of his left knee, and he would re-up in the morning if they asked.

He is a decade older than most of the platoon and has been everywhere they are going. He once took his kids to see Wolf’s Lair, the summer before the divorce.

In the field

Sarcastic in every situation, and steady under all of it. Mills will tear a plan apart first, every piece of it, then turn around and tell you exactly how it’s going to work. The worst part is he’s usually right on both counts.

He moves at the rear of the formation, counts every man through every door, and doesn’t let go of things. He calls the lieutenant LT. The lieutenant calls him Mills, never Sarge.

Kit

• M4A1 carbineVortex Razor HD 1-6x LPVO, RMR offset, suppressor, NGAL
• Ammunition7 magazines + 300 spare rounds
• Night visionPVS-31A
• CommsAN/PRC-163, platoon net
• Cold weatherParka, gaiter, and opinions about all of it
• Left kneeBraced. Not discussed.

Chain

Background

Webb quit a history degree two years in and enlisted, and he never stopped reading. On every field problem there is a paperback somewhere in his ruck, always about the same war. On this one it’s Ambrose’s Citizen Soldiers, the spine cracked white.

Mills found it during the load check and held it up like contraband. Every man in the platoon was humping three hundred extra rounds, and Webb was packing a library. Webb kept the book. The platoon kept the nickname.

In the field

A good RTO sticks to his lieutenant like a shadow, because the radio has to be wherever the decisions are. Webb is never more than a few feet from Cole, handset ready, keeping the net alive through rock, concrete, and bad weather.

He hedges what he isn’t sure of and says plainly what he is. When Webb sounds certain, the lieutenant listens.

Kit

• AN/PRC-158 manpackWhip and SATCOM antennas, spare batteries
• M4A1 carbineVortex Razor HD 1-6x LPVO, RMR offset, suppressor, NGAL
• Ammunition7 magazines + 300 spare rounds
• Night visionPVS-31A
• EyewearPrescription ballistic glasses. Fog in the warm.
• ContrabandOne paperback. “A full mag of book.”

Chain

Background

Doc grew up outside New Orleans, where they cancel school for anything under forty degrees. He has never been this cold in his life, and he says so, and then he gets to work.

He is a Special Operations Combat Medic, trained to keep a man alive for hours with what fits in one bag. On the ridge in Poland he went past the lieutenant in a low scramble before anyone had finished yelling for him.

In the field

He reports the way Cole likes it, flat and in order: who is hurt, how bad, and what it is costing. He packed Holt’s calf under fire, kept Reyes in the fight, and splinted Dawson’s ankle inside the boot.

In 1944 there is no evacuation, no resupply, and no hospital he can reach. Every dressing he uses is one he will never get back, and he knows exactly how many are left.

Kit

• Aid bagTourniquets, hemostatic gauze, chest seals, airways, IVs, plasma, splints
• Whole blood kitsTwo, with the platoon’s donors pre-typed
• Hypothermia kitCritical at 24°F
• M4A1 carbineVortex Razor HD 1-6x LPVO, RMR offset, suppressor, NGAL
• Ammunition7 magazines + 300 spare rounds
• Night visionPVS-31A

Chain

Background

Ramirez is the oldest man in the platoon after Mills, and he has done more deployments than any of them. The gray is starting to show in his stubble. His men don’t talk about it where he can hear.

He takes bad news the same way every time: he puts it in a box, closes the lid, and asks what he should tell his guys.

In the field

When the first burst came out of the trees in Poland, First Squad was already down and returning fire before anyone gave the order. Ramirez ran the fight flat on his stomach in the snow, working both teams over the radio and sending the contact report in one breath.

His squad goes first. On a march it is on point, and in a fight it holds the corner. When Cole lays out a plan, Ramirez is the one walking the ground to see where it breaks.

Kit

• AN/PRC-163Two channels: platoon net and squad net
• M4A1 carbineVortex Razor HD 1-6x LPVO, RMR offset, suppressor, NGAL
• Ammunition7 magazines + 300 spare rounds
• Night visionPVS-31A
• GrenadesFragmentation and smoke

Chain

Background

Murphy grew up in Boston, a cop’s son. His father taught him to read a room the way other fathers teach their kids to throw a ball: who is scared, who is lying, and who already knows how the night ends.

That lesson came through the doorway with him. While the platoon ran for its life, Murphy saw a man hiding behind the cabinets who wasn’t surprised by any of it. He grabbed him without asking anyone.

In the field

Second Squad is the platoon’s base of fire, and Murphy runs it with a cop’s calm. He holds the long side of an ambush and sends the search team down after.

The prisoner is his now. Cole made that clear: you brought him, he’s yours. Next time, ask first.

Kit

• AN/PRC-163Two channels: platoon net and squad net
• M4A1 carbineVortex Razor HD 1-6x LPVO, RMR offset, suppressor, NGAL
• Ammunition7 magazines + 300 spare rounds
• Night visionPVS-31A
• RestraintsFlex-cuffs and 550 cord. One prisoner.

Chain

Background

Keller grew up hearing German at home, the old-fashioned kind his great-grandmother spoke. He never thought it would matter in the Army.

In the bunker in Poland a round hit the concrete beside his head and filled his face with stone chips. Doc picked them out and called it mostly skin. Keller says it doesn’t hurt. Nobody believes him.

In the field

On the road in the Ardennes, Keller was the first to understand the officer walking the column: “Keep moving. Close it up.” Since then he has been the platoon’s ears. He reads what the dead carry, and he tells the rest of the squad the Germans talk funny.

Dawson crossed the German road on a broken ankle, leaning on him. He eats when he can, because nobody knows when the next chance comes.

Kit

• M4A1 carbineVortex Razor HD 1-6x LPVO, RMR offset, suppressor, NGAL
• Ammunition7 magazines + 300 spare rounds
• SAW ammunitionOne extra 200-round box for his team’s gun
• Night visionPVS-31A
• Cleaning kitRag, rod, oil. He cleans it whenever they stop.

Chain

Background

Dawson is from Missouri. He doesn’t say much about it, or about anything else.

He went down hard on a root breaking contact in the first fight in Poland, face first into frozen ground, and somebody hauled him the rest of the way up the ridge. He has been walking on the ankle ever since.

In the field

Doc splinted the ankle inside his boot and told Cole he can walk on it the way a man walks on glass. He crossed the German road in the dark leaning on Keller, his jaw clenched so hard it stood out.

He keeps up. He eats when he can, and he doesn’t complain where anyone can hear.

Kit

• M4A1 carbineVortex Razor HD 1-6x LPVO, RMR offset, suppressor, NGAL
• Ammunition7 magazines + 300 spare rounds
• SAW ammunitionOne extra 200-round box for his team’s gun
• Night visionPVS-31A
• SplintSAM splint, inside the boot

Chain