He gave the report and copied down the reply from the JTAC sitting at the FIRES desk. They were launching a flight of two A-10s that were sitting alert at Bagram since there were no other fighters nearby. They would be on station in fifteen minutes. Carpenter breathed a sigh of relief.

“Flight of two Hawgs, sir,” Carpenter said, turning to Major Hilton.

“Fuckin’a’ right son, good job,” Hilton replied as he started to exit the HUMVEE. “Now grab a rifle and your radio and let’s kill these sons of bitches.”

Carpenter grabbed his rifle and radio and followed Hilton to a covered position behind the HUMVEE. They had set up a 360-degree defensive perimeter around the vehicles as the enemy fighters continued to assault their position. Carpenter made sure his headset was plugged in and switched to the tactical frequency that the fighters would check in on.

Carpenter watched as Maj Hilton moved from position to position, rallying the troops and redirecting their efforts. The man was a “lead from the front” kind of guy. Carpenter respected that about him. He seemed to have no fear at all.

Carpenter took cover behind the HUMVEE as another mortar whistled toward their position. It hit with a thud on the road about forty meters from them and then nothing happened. It was a dud.

“Fucking dumbasses!” Gomez yelled from the turret before unleashing another volley of rounds toward the mortar’s position.

“Sandman, Cajun 34 flight checking in,” the metallic voice said over the secure radio. Carpenter looked up; he could see two specs circling overhead in trail of each other. The flight of two A-10s had finally made it on station.

Carpenter checked in the two ship with the situation update. He talked them on visually to friendly positions and gave them all the information of the suspected enemy ambush he had. There were two primary ridgelines on the north and south sides of the road where the attacks appeared to be originating. Their main concern was the advancing of the Taliban fighters and overrunning their position before they could make the necessary repairs and get moving again.

Once the orbiting A-10s had their required information, they responded with their fighter to FAC briefing. They were a flight of two A-10s each equipped with five hundred pound laser guided bombs, GPS guided bombs, and 1,350 rounds of 30MM bullets.

“Cajun 34 this is Sandman 41, request a show of force east to west,” Carpenter replied. He was asking the A-10 pilots to fly low over the bad guys’ heads to let them know that the A-10s were on station. His hope was that the fighters would realize that they were severely outmatched and flee. It had worked before, and the rules of engagement encouraged it over the use of lethal force.

“Cajun 34 copies, we’ll get their heads down,” the lead pilot confirmed.

“Cease fire! A-10s inbound!” Carpenter yelled over his shoulder. The guns fell silent as the soldiers echoed the cease-fire command. The soldiers kept concealed as an occasional round plinked off the side of the armored vehicles.