'We did it!'
Yes, they had. They had taken the bridge, won a great victory. They had driven the state away. They had claimed the Fourteenth Street Bridge for the Coalition for Peace and Justice.
They had won.
'We did it,' someone was saying next to her, it was Peter.
ncos and squad leaders up front ASAP. NCOs and squad leaders up front
ASAP!'
The men milled loosely on the broad esplanade of closed-down Route 95 about a half mile on the DC side of the Fourteenth Street Bridge, behind a barricade of jeeps, police cars, deuce-and-a-halfs. Jefferson watched in marble splendor from the portside, amid a canopy of dogwoods and from behind a cage of marble columns. A pale lemon sky oversaw the scene, and helicopters fluttered through it, making far more noise than their importance seemed to warrant. It looked like a fifties movie, the one where the monster has attacked the city and the police and military set up barricades to impede its progress while in some lab, white-coated men labor to invent a secret weapon to bring it down.
'Napalm,' said Crowe helpfully.
'I'd use napalm. Kill about two thousand kids. Roast 'em nice and tasty-chewie.
Make Kent State look like a picnic. Boy, the war'd be over tomorrow.'
'Don't think the lifers haven't thought of it,' said Donny, as he left to head for the command conference.
He slipped away from Third Squad, slid through other squads and platoons of young men festooned comically for war, exactly as he was, who seemed to feel equally foolish with the huge pots banging on their heads. That was the odd thing about a helmet: when it's not necessary, it feels completely ludicrous, when it is necessary, it feels like a gift from God. This was one of the former occasions.
Donny reached the informal conclave where the barracks commander stood with three men in jumpsuits that said justice deft on the back, some other officials, cops, firemen and some confused DC Guard officers, of whom it was said their panic had led to the rout on the bridge.
'All right, all right, people,' the colonel said.
'Sergeant Major, all of 'em here?'
The sergeant major made a quick head count of his NCOs and from each man received a nod to signify that the men under him had arrived, it was done professionally in about thirty seconds.
'All present, sir.'
'Good,' said the colonel, climbing into a jeep to give him elevation over his subordinates, and speaking in the loud, clear voice of command.
'All right, men. As you know, at 0400 hours a large mass of demonstrators commandeered the right-hand span of the Fourteenth Street Bridge, effectively closing it down. The traffic is tied up back beyond Alexandria. The other bridges have been cleared by this time, but we've got a choke point. The Department of Justice has requested the Marine Corps to assist in clearing the bridge, and we've been authorized by our command structure for that mission. So let me tell you what that means: we will clear the bridge, we will do it quickly and professionally and with a minimum of force and damage. Understood?'
'Aye, aye, sir,' came the cry.
'I want A Company and B Company formed up line abreast, with Headquarters Company in reserve to go by squads to the line as needed. We do not have arrest powers and I do not want any arrests made. We will advance under cover of moderate CS gas with bayonets fixed but sheathed. Under no circumstances will those bayonets be used to draw blood. We will prevail not by force but by good order and solid professionalism. A DC Police mass- arrest unit will follow behind, detaining and shipping those demonstrators who do not disperse. Our limit of advance will be the far end of the bridge.'
'Live ammo, sir?'
'Negative, negative, I say again, negative. No live ammo. Nobody will be shot today. These are American kids, not VC. We will move out at
Company commanders and senior NCOs, I want you to hold a quick meeting and get your best squads into the line at the point of contact. This is a standard DOD anti-riot drill. All right, people, let's be professional.'
'Dismissed!'
Donny made it back to his squad, as around him other squad leaders were reaching their people. With the weird -sensation of a large herbivore awakening, the unit was picking itself up, beginning to form up as each smaller element got instructions. There was some cheering, moderated by ambiguity, but nevertheless a simple expression of the soldier or Marine's preference for doing anything rather than nothing.
'We'll be in that arrow-formation, platoons-abreast thing,' Donny explained.
'The sergeant major will be counting cadence.'
'Bayonets?'
'On but sheathed. Minimum force. We're moving these people out of here by our presence. No ammo, no clubbing, just solid Marine professionalism, got it?'
'Masks?'
'I said masks, Crowe, weren't you listening? Some CS will be fired.' He looked about. The sergeant major had set up a hundred yards beyond the trucks and now the Marines were streaming to him to form up at the line of departure. Donny looked at his watch. It was 0850.
'All right, let's assemble and march to position. Form up on me, now!' His men rose to him and found their places. He marched them at the double time to a formation that was putting itself together on the broad white
