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True to his word, the rifles arrived that morning by floatplane. Rusty was never one to turn down a delivery bonus. I had Brady flying them into the church courtyard 250 rifles at a time plus ammo. It took eight trips to bring in the rifles and then he had to start hauling in tents. Rusty didn’t get everything in one trip and would have to make a second trip the day after tomorrow with the rest of the tents.
I had all of my Seals gathered around me except for Doc who was still treating the injured and Brady who was transporting equipment from the ship. Later on that day he’d have to bring in the food supplies so I had him staying out at the ship waiting for the arrival of the cabin cruisers from our isle.
“This is how I want us to get everyone trained in the use of the AK47s. Each of you is to choose ten men to train. I want them to be able to field strip and clean their weapons in their sleep. Teach them the proper way to load, aim and fire the weapons. Teach them how to properly sight them in. These first men you train will become the trainers for the other 1,900 plus fighters. It’s the only way we’ll be able to get them all trained in the time we have to do it.”
“I think we’re going to have a problem with the rifle range. It’s not going to be big enough to handle that many men,” the chief pointed out.
“Carlos, is there anywhere else we can go to sight in more rifles?” I asked. “We can’t waste time with men waiting in line to use their rifles.”
“There’s a small cove about two hundred yards from where you first landed when you came into Cuba. It’s about eighty yards across. We could have targets setup so the men are firing across the cove.”
“I need you to send some men to the cove to clear the trees from the edge of the water. We need room for the shooters on one side and room for the targets on the other side.”
“I’ll have it taken care of right away Rick. It should only take them a few hours with enough men to do the work.”
“Do you know most of the fighters that have come to help us?” I asked the Estaban brothers.
“Most but not all of them, El Diablo has many enemies and they come from far away looking for revenge,” Francisco stated.
“Help my men pick out the ones you think will be the best men to help train the others.”
“It was a good thing Rusty threw in cleaning supplies LT. We forgot to include them on our shopping list,” Dave said.
“That’s one of the reasons I like working with him. He’ll see something I missed and just add it automatically knowing we’d want it.”
“Carlos, the tents are starting to arrive. Get a detail of men together to start putting them up. There is plenty to do today to keep everyone busy.”
Carlos looked at his brother. “Francisco, have all of the carpenters in camp work on setting up the tents. They may need to construct frames for the tents to fit over.”
Before long I could hear gunshots from the make shift rifle ranges. It was a good thing I ordered so much ammo. Five hundred rounds per rifle sounded like a lot until you figured in practice time with the rifles. I needed my Cuban allies comfortable with their new weapons before we went into battle.
That afternoon the makeshift kitchen was setup. We had women baking fresh bread in their homes to help feed the troops. We had volunteer women helping to tend the cook fires and peel vegetables.
The first meal we served wasn’t much, beef stew and fresh bread. But the mood in the camp improved considerably when their bellies were finally filled.