During the Gulf War an old Army buddy was tasked with leading a scout platoon to an abandoned village to secure it for a team of Air Force combat controllers and then maintain the position while the controllers called air strikes on Iraqi units counterattacking in the area. Even though he was pretty sharp, he was sick at the idea since he'd only had desk and training duties in the years prior. Regardless, he loaded up and moved out in the dark across featurless terrain. Knowing they might have to rout the enemy out of the village if the Iraqis were there first he played out all the combat drills in his mind and tried to ready his soldiers over the intercom. When they finally got there near dawn they saw movement and then saw there were well hidden vehicles tucked behind the buildings. They dismounted scouts from the Bradley into a wadi (gulley) for cover and concealment to work their way in.
At the edge of the village they saw figures assumed to be the enemy unloading a vehicle. What were they unloading- ammo, land mines?
Moving closer they heard somebody say, Hey, the Army's here!
The Air Force guys had arrived at the village first and were unloading cases of Cokes and food. It was the first Coke my buddy had in weeks and his first hot food in days. They spent the day cooking out and calling air strikes on Iraqi Army units.
He always ended that story with, Those Air Force guys sure know how to fight a war...
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