Tape One: Events of September 25th 1998

0035 Hours

My Hometown of Raccoon City had fallen into a sate of chaos and my unit was being sent in to rescue civilians. Part of the 10th Mountain Division my unit was the nearest Active Army unit to Raccoon. Usually the National Guard handled riots, but I knew this wasn't a normal riot, instead of our normal woodland BDUs we had been issued sterile pitch black BDUs, something my unit never practiced. The Blackhawk buzzed dangerously low as we flew through the outskirts of town, and I caught a glimpse of my Aunt and Uncle's house, I hoped that they were all right and that my cousins were safe. I saw the blockade ahead, and the chopper began to descend rapidly. Several tents were setup behind the roadblock, and as soon as the chopper touched down I was the first one out, and I quickly scanned for the CP.

"Sergeant Daniels!" I called out and my platoon Sergeant was right in front of me seconds later. "Yes Sir?" He asked.

"Get the men gathered up, I'm going to find out who is in charge here." I told him. "Yes Sir." I received back.

I walked around for a bit until I found the right tent. Inside there were several soldiers pounding away at computers and answering phone calls. Then I saw a Lieutenant Colonel at a map table with two other men.

"Colonel, Lieutenant Davis reporting sir." I said standing at attention. "At ease son." I complied with his order and he turned back to the other men. "Lieutenant this is Captain Scott with Delta, and this is Mr. Craig from the UBCS" I nodded to both of them after the Colonel introduced me. The Colonel then went over the plan that we were supposed to follow. If I had known what I was getting myself into I probably would have told him to kiss my ass, but I followed orders. My team was supposed to search for and protect any innocent civilians from the protesters in the municipal part of town. Protesters? Who came up with that bull shit? Delta was going to the industrial part of town and the UBCS was heading to the business part of town. The Colonel then dismissed us.

I arrived back to my platoon, and saw them checking their weapons like good soldiers. We were short twenty men some how the division had gotten twenty airborne slots and gave every one of those slots to my platoon. So we were down to fourteen men as if my platoon wasn't already below the standard number of men.

"Third platoon school circle around me!" I called out to my small platoon, and the group gathered around me. "Alright here's the plan boys we'll be broken down into three separate squads, with myself leading first squad, Sergeant Daniels leading second, and Sergeant Blake leading third."

I spread out a detailed map of the city in front of the group. "We'll be inserting here near the Streets and Roads building." I pointed to the spot and the marked it with a red x. "I will take first squad to the elementary school, while second while second will head to the high school and third squad will link up with local law enforcement."

I handed the sergeants maps of their respective buildings. "We will have close air support upon request from this blockade, and we will also have two other units in the area."

I drew lines on the map with the marker to show where our line of advance ended. "Not much information on this one guys, we're going in blind. So adjust accordingly, and fire when only fired upon."

"Any questions?" I asked, I knew there would be at least one. "Sir, who are we protecting these civilians from?" One of my privates asked. I didn't know what to tell him at the time, but I came up with something.

"Well, there have been a number of murders in the area over the summer and it is believed that these riots have broken out do to the lack of effort put in by the police, so to put it short we are just here for rescue and presence patrolling." I knew I hadn't really answered his question, but it seemed to work.

"Anymore questions?" No one asked, I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "Alright load up." I lead my small group to another Blackhawk helicopter.

It took us about ten minutes to get to our insertion point. The chopper touched down and we setup a loose 360 circle around the chopper. When it took off it sent dust and litter everywhere, and restricted my vision for the few seconds that it took for the pilot to get out of the area. I listened for a moment after the chopper left and all I heard was a strange silence. I decided to send out the teams.

"Ok let's move out." I said quietly. Third squad headed its separate way while first and second stuck together. I lead the joint formation to the schools, and we would break off when we got closer to the buildings.

"Sergeant Blake, how's your squad moving." I radioed the third squad leader, a few moments after they had headed out. "Fine so far, but it's way to quiet sir." He radioed back. "Agreed, stay in radio contact, and let me know when you make contact with the police." I replied. "Roger that sir." He replied back and the transmission ended.

I decided to keep the radio conversations informal on this mission, just to keep things less stressful. My formation finally made it to our break off point, I nodded to Sergeant Daniels and we went our separate ways. As I lead my team to the entrance I started to pick up the caw of crows, but I brushed it off. Later I would find out exactly what those crows could do.

"Entering the school now sir." Sergeant Daniels radioed. "Roger that." I replied just as we crept to the front door. I lead the squad into the building followed behind me was Corporal Smith who armed with a standard issue M16, behind him was Specialist O'Shall who was a squad designated marksman and was armed with a M14. Bringing up the rear was Private First Class Hanes. Hanes would look behind us every now and then to cover the rear, but we all covered each other. I stepped into the main lobby and realized that it could take us forever to search the school.

"Alright, we're going to split into two elements. O'Shall you're with me, Smith you and Hanes are together. We'll take the left side of the school, you two take the right, we'll meet back here and go upstairs together. Hooah?" I said to the squad. "Hooah sir." Smith responded.

Thank God it was starting to get light out, but it gave the hallways an eerie glow. Books and papers were scattered throughout the hallway. I lead O'Shall into the main office, and I told him we needed to head to the Third grade classrooms. "My youngest cousin goes to school here O'Shall, we need to keep an eye out for him." I told him. "I understand sir." He replied.

It had been a number f years since I had been in the building and I needed a refresher for which grades, belonged to which rooms, because it was not labeled on the map I received from the Colonel. I found an attendance sheet on the reception desk, the grades were listed and it seemed that rooms 108 through 110 were the rooms we needed to head to. Again I lead O'Shall down the hall after we left the office. We moved quite fluidly as a two-man team, and it made searching the other rooms quite fast. When we got to a room we would open the door, yell 'United States Army', then move on to the next, if we didn't get a response. We continued to do this till we got to 108. I entered the room first with O'Shall directly behind me. I decided to search the room with a little more detail then the other rooms mostly because of my cousin. The coat rack caught my eye from across the room, because there was only one backpack hanging from the hoks. When I got closer, I noticed that above the backpack was my cousin's name.

"Is that your cousin's sir?" O'Shall asked and I nodded to him. I started to reach for the bag, but the sound of a light cough caught my attention. Both O'Shall and I trained our weapons at the source of the sound, and clicked on my tac-light that was mounted to my M16. The beam landed on the teacher's locker that was in the corner of the room by the door. I gave O'Shall the signal to open the locker while I cover the opening. He nodded and crept over to the locker. He reached for the locker, then looked at me I nodded and he swung the door open. Inside the locker was a child curled up in a ball. "Are you alright?" I asked and knelt down to be closer. "Russ?" The child asked and turned his head toward me, it was Jeb and relief rushed over me. Tears swarmed his eyes and he jumped into my arms almost knocking me over. I set my rifle down to give him a hug over security.

"Sir third squad has made contact with the police force, we securing the building now." Sergeant Blake had radioed me as I was holding my cousin. "Roger that, we've secured a civilian child and we'll be heading back soon." I replied. "Roger that Sir."

"Russ I knew you would come." Jeb said to me. "Jeb where is everyone?" I asked him. He looked up at me with a blank look. "They're all gone."

"Wait? What do you mean?" I asked him staring deep into his little brown eyes, and they began to swell with tears again. "Alright don't worry about it ok, we're gonna get you out of here."

"Sir, Daniels here. There's blood all over the second floor, no bodies though sir." The second squad leader radioed to me. "Roger that, head back to the break off point, we're heading to the police station." I decided it was time to head to the police station to find out what was going on in this town. "Blake, we're heading to the station, standby for our arrival."

"Roger that sir, we'll be waiting." The third squad leader replied.

"Smith, Hanes get your asses to the lobby, we're getting out of here."

"Roger that sir." Smith replied.

I looked up at O'Shall. "You think you can lead us out to the lobby." He nodded with a readied look on his face. "Yes sir."

I had to let go of Jeb for a second, so I could sling my rifle. "Alright buddy you just hang on to me real tight ok?" He nodded, and I picked him up, he clung to me like a pair of vise grips. I think I was holding on to him just as tight.

Nearly an hour later, we were all regrouped at the police station although Daniels had gotten there first. Blake and Daniels had done their best to distribute the men throughout the building to increase security. "Daniels, Blake on me." My voice boomed in the main hall. Seconds later the Sergeants were in front of me. "Who's the kid sir?" Blake asked. "My cousin Jeb, it seems he locked himself in a locker to keep away from whom ever is creating this chaos, I need to talk to who is in charge here."

"That would be Chief Irons sir, but the guy has a screw loose." Blake informed me. 'Why does that name sound so familiar?' I asked myself.

I dropped Jeb off in the operations room where the police were keeping all the civilians. An older lady offered to look after him while I had my meeting with Irons.

"Ok stop the tape there, we can discuss the meeting with Chief tomorrow." The Special Agent said.

"Alright sounds fine to me." Russ said. "You might need a whole roll for that one."

"Really?!" The Special Agent perked up quickly.

"Hell No the guy was a nut case."