32
The Purple Heart Marines
Billy Martens
It had just rained, and now the sun was coming back out. Sweat began rolling down his face instead of raindrops. Creeping from coconut tree to coconut tree, he winced every third or fourth step—Billy’s feet were worse than they’d ever been. Still, he had a job to do and a duty to perform for his platoon. Bud still hadn’t ordered him out of the combat zone, for which he was grateful, and now he had another chance to prove to the corpsman the decision had been the right one.
X-Ray was pinned down. Which meant King Company was pinned down. Which meant the Regiment couldn’t advance. One sniper had done all this, and even after half an hour, Billy hadn’t been able to spot him. Two men from Hades squad were KIA and one from Titan. Corporal Navarro an
