Disturbed by Alpha's slow progress on foot and in need of reconnaissance before British paratroopers hit the airfield, Godfather orders Bravo to trek through the night and get to the strip, treating all Iraqis as hostile. The trip is slowed when a supply truck is hit by friendly fire from reservists, prompting Ferrando to order it abandoned. After Alpha Company shells the town, Ferrando issues a new, more urgent order, push ahead 40 kilometers and capture an airfield controlled by Iraqi Republican Guard and defended by tanks. On new orders, Bravo heads to the town of Ar Rifa, where Fick tries to take control of a dangerous situation created by "Encino Man," who requests an artillery strike on a phantom RPG team. Scoping out a roadside hamlet, the company watches in horror and disbelief as a regimental combat team arrives with guns firing and the hamlet is obliterated. Having survived its first trial by fire, Bravo presses forward, awaiting orders for a new recon mission. Reflecting on the day's successes, Ferrando admits his biggest fear isn't fighting the Iraqis, but doing something his general won't like. Sixta's refrain to "maintain the grooming standard" and shave off all mustaches. Elated and relatively unscathed, the platoon celebrates its triumph, despite Sgt. Chomping at the bit while others are carrying the fight, the platoon finally gets "lit up" in a violent but successful skirmish in Al Gharraf, during which Trombley scores his first kill. "Encino Man" Schwetje, who blames it on Colbert. Heading north to Mesopotamia -the "Cradle of Civilization"- "Bravo continues to lag behind other companies, partly because of a wrong turn ordered by its commander, Cpt. Prompted by an anxious Major General Mattis, Ferrando orders Bravo to cross the Euphrates the next night, but they end up entering Nasiriyah by day, driving through the city with minimal gunfire, save for an AK-47 assault by Platoon 3 leader "Captain America" McGraw on an empty car. The Cradle of CivilizationĪlong with the rest of the First Marine Division, Bravo busts north towards Nasiriyah, where their sister company Alpha gets its first taste of combat in a skirmish with Iraqi forces at a bridge outside the city. After an unexpected and portentous mass delivery of pizza, the soldiers finally break camp, pack up their Humvees and cross the northern border into Iraq - and into an uncertain future. They also welcome a writer ("Scribe") from Rolling Stone magazine, who'll be embedded with Bravo's five-vehicle Platoon 2 unit, riding in a Humvee with Team Leader Brad "Iceman" Colbert, driver Ray Person and LCpl. Stephen "Godfather" Ferrando, the raspy-throated Commander of First Recon. At the Camp Mathilda staging ground, Marines in First Recon's Bravo Company combat boredom, cramped tents, shortages of necessary supplies and armor, mustache protocol, officer ineptitude, a wind storm, an espresso machine fire and rumors of J-Lo's death while awaiting orders from Col. First Recon Marines prepare to invade Iraq as the "tip of the spear" for Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the northern desert of Kuwait, the elite, specially trained U.S.
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