The initial spattering of fire quickly grew into a continuous rattling of musketry. Caught off guard by this Nancy Kozak threw the telephone receiver she had been holding down without finishing her sentence. Pushing past an equally stunned Guardsman who had been standing behind her, she made for the door of the small shed that served as a command post. She no longer needed to seek guidance or clarification on the rules of engagement. Her people were being attacked. They were out there struggling to defend positions that she had selected and put them in. This was not the time to debate right or wrong. This was not the time to step back and consider who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. This was the time to do what she had been trained and ordered to.

Once outside she came across a number of confused Guardsmen milling about. Without pausing to explain, Kozak ordered them back to their positions and stand by. What exactly she wanted them to stand by for was unclear. The Guardsmen she had shoved aside in her efforts to get out of the shed stuck his head out of the doorway and yelled that Sergeant Lightfoot was at Post Number Four where the Cal. 50 was located. Coming to an abrupt halt, she turned toward the road. She could clearly see the backside of the position where Fran Meranno and her people were fighting for their lives. Spinning about she yelled back to the Guardsman in the shed, “Tell him to support the M-60 position from there as best he can. I’ll be with him in a minute.”

Without so much as a nod the Guardsman disappeared back into the shed to relay her order, leaving Nancy free to continue her sprint to where the fighting was. But she hadn’t managed to take more than a couple of steps, before a sergeant in charge of one of the positions facing to the west called out to her. “There are a lot of people moving around in front of my position. What should I do?”

Stopping a second time Nancy looked over to where the sergeant was pointing in an effort to see who they were and if they were a threat. Unable to do either from where she stood, she shot a worried glance back to the position under attack. With Lightfoot in the other position, and the M-60 pit holding its own, she quickly determined that it was more important at that particular moment to sort out the new threat. Without another thought she pivoted on her heels and made for the western side of her perimeter.