SSI OFFICES
Daniel Foyte convened the next briefing with Omar Mohammed alongside as SSI’s chief training officer. They sat at the apex of a semicircle of folding chairs.
“Okay,” Foyte began in his gravelly baritone. “This briefing will focus on specific mission objectives so it’s more detailed than the overall brief that Colonel Carmichael gave us.”
He referred to his notes, once neatly typed but now littered with pen and ink hieroglyphics. He felt odd sitting; he was accustomed to standing or kneeling from twenty years of addressing Marines in classrooms, tents, oases, triple-canopy jungle, and other venues.
“First a little more about Chad’s military structure.” He turned to Mohammed. “Doctor?”
The urbane Iranian-American required few notes. He began, “The armed forces consist of the army, air force, and gendarmerie, plus more specialized units such as National and Nomadic Guard, which is a border force, the Rapid Intervention Force, and regular police. Presumably the most ‘elite’ unit”—he etched quote marks in the air—“is the presidential guard.”
Chris Nissen raised a hand. Though brand-new to SSI, he was not shy. “Excuse me, Doctor. Does the intervention force deploy outside Chad?”
“Not that I know of,” Mohammed replied. “I infer that it’s an internal unit. For what it’s worth, it was originally formed as the Republican Guard.” After an ironic response from the audience, he added, “Any similarity to the Iraqi organization of the same name is probably intentional.
“Current military spending runs a little over one hundred million dollars. To put that in perspective, it would not buy much over half of an F-22 stealth fighter.
“The military has a draft for twenty-year-olds for three years,” he continued. “Officially, enlistments are accepted at eighteen, but in truth there’s no minimum with parental consent. You will be dealing with men at least in their second tour.
“The Air Force has no combat aircraft: mostly C-130s, An-126s, and even some C-47s. Helicopters are Alouette IIIs.”
Mohammed shifted his weight, speaking extemporaneously. “Now, here’s some background. There’s been speculation over the years why the Reagan administration was so eager to help Chad against Libya. Aside from Qadhafi’s blatant aggression, there didn’t seem much reason for our intervention, even though we were allied with the French. Far as I know, neither of us needed much African uranium, and that caused some raised eyebrows. But I think that the critics overlooked something pretty obvious: if we didn’t need the stuff, other places did.”
Nissen said, “So it was in our mutual interest to keep the Strip out of Libyan hands.”
“Just so.”
Foyte resumed the briefing, turning to his bread and butter: hardware.
“The Chad Army is pretty much a hodgepodge as far as small arms. There’s no standard infantry rifle: depending on the branch and unit there’s M16s, AKs, FALs, Sigs, and G3s. Squad automatics are RPDs, RPKs, and even some old M24/29s.”
Breezy asked, “What’re those, Gunny?”
“They look like the British Bren Gun: a 7.5mm with top-feed magazine. They replaced the Chauchaut after World War I.
“For the units we’ll train, I’m recommending standardization on the Heckler-Koch system. That means G3s and HK-21s, with obvious advantages: same 7.62mm ammo and the same operating system. That roller-locking action can be hard for low-dedication troopies to maintain but the guns are reliable as tax time. They’ll keep working with minimum maintenance.”
“Why not M16s?” asked Joshua Wallender. “I mean, we know them inside out and they’re easier to shoot than the .30 calibers.”
“Concur, as far as you go. If we could ever use decent 5.56 ammo, something designed to kill people rather than meet some pussy standard in Sweden—which hasn’t fought a war in about two hundred years—I might consider M16s. However, in this case we’re contractors to the U.S. Government, so we gotta abide by its regs.
“But the big problem is that we’re working in Chad. As in, desert. As in, sand. As in, major malfunction. M16s just aren’t reliable enough.”
Wallender ventured another query. “Well, why not AKs? They work everywhere.”
Foyte was slightly disappointed in the new man. A veteran NCO should know the reason. “Because the opposition likely uses them. No point giving the guerrillas more guns and ammo that they can use.”
Wallender seemed to blush slightly. Foyte predicted that he would shut up for a while.
“Now, personally, I trust AKs and I like FALs,” Foyte enthused. “And I really like Sigs. Good sights, good trigger. But FALs aren’t a lot better than ’16s in the desert and I’ve never used Sigs in that area, so I don’t want to be the one who’s experimenting. So we’ll use G3s and related systems. We’ll get up to speed on those before we leave.”
Mohammed interjected. “If I may add something.”
Foyte nodded.
“Because of the language situation, we should review the course material even if the Chadians will not see it. I can work with the French and Arabic speakers to standardize phraseology.” He glanced at Johnson, Nissen, and Wallender.
Breezy leaned toward Bosco and muttered, “Ignorance is bliss, dude.”
Foyte speared the former paratrooper with a Parris Island glare. “Something to add, Brezyinski?”
Breezy sat upright. “Ah, nosir. Gunny.”
Foyte walked in front of the rostrum and leaned forward, hands akimbo. “Oh, come now, my boy. You would not interrupt Dr. Mohammed unless you had something significant to contribute.”
Bosco smirked behind one hand, enjoying his pal’s discomfiture.
“Ah, I was just remarking to my esteemed Ranger colleague here that I consider myself fortunate not to be bilingual. Sir.”
Foyte squinted as through a rifle sight. “How many times do I gotta say it? Don’t call me ‘sir’…”
“I WORK FOR A LIVING,” the audience chimed in.
Mohammed enjoyed the exchange as much as anyone, but decided to make a point. “Gentlemen, regardless of the language, we need to be consistent in our instruction. For example, what is the difference between covering fire and suppressing fire?”
Bosco and Breezy exchanged looks. “Damn’fiknow,” Breezy responded.
Bosco shrugged. “I’m not sure there is any difference. Just terminology.”
Foyte was primed. “Well, for our purposes there is a difference. Covering fire is basically suppressive fire for a specific purpose—getting a squad close enough to engage a defended position, for instance. Suppressing fire is just a straight-up shoot-out. We lay down a heavier, more accurate volume of fire than the bad guys so they stop shooting at us.”
“Fire superiority, in other words,” Breezy offered.
Foyte grunted. The audience took that as an affirmative.
Johnson raised a hand. “Gunny, I don’t mean to seem superior or anything, but are the Chadians going to understand the distinction?”
Foyte’s grimace said that the un-PC question had struck home. “Well, let’s just say that it’s our damn job to make sure they do. By the way, Johnson, how do you say ‘covering and suppressing fire’ in French?”
“Covering fire would be Le feu de bache. Suppressing fire would be Suppression de feu.” Johnson paused a moment. “When you think about it, that makes a lot of sense. The literal translation would be ‘the fire that covers’ and ‘suppression of fire.’”
“Go to the head of the class, Johnson.” Foyte actually smiled at the former Legionnaire. “Now then, we have a lot of other ground to cover. If you’ll refer to your briefing papers…”