“Relax, Steve, the colonel got a kick out of it. He even told me you might make a good sergeant.”
“In your dreams, Gunny. I’m going home, hooking up with Masra, and getting out of The Crotch as soon as they let me. That’s the plan and I’m sticking to it.”
Barlow was about to respond when they heard the first salvo of naval gunfire roar over the compound heading for targets somewhere near Suq al Gharb. There was a cheer from the Marines out along the perimeter. “Here we go,” Barlow said. “Those are five-inch, thirty-eights from the tin-cans offshore. It won’t be long before the Jersey opens up.”
“I’ve been wanting to see that,” Mallory focused the binoculars, searching for the impact of the naval gunfire rounds. “I talked to the Golf Company First Sergeant who was a naval gunfire spotter
