Nac Sec Ad, HR Mac

General H.R. McMaster has a long and varied military career that includes commanding the Tigres-Euphrates Campaign in Anbar in 2004-2005.

He is now going to be President Trump's National Security Adviser.

McMaster also commanded Eagle Troop at the Battle of 73 Easting. This is of course the climatic battle in my book, A Line through the Desert.

Jut saying.

If you like tank battles, and lord knows I do [you don't say?-ed] 73 Easting is for you.

Basically, the elite 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment repelled multiple attacks by two Iraqi divisions, one of the a Republican Guard division. It was an all night slug fest fought in a raging sand storm. Over the course of the battle the cavalrymen made mincemeat of the Iraqis.

An excerpt:

“How’s the fight south going, L-T?” Jake asked.

            “We’re kicking ass” replied Lt. Drew “And now Eagle is…wait one…”

            While Jake was waiting for Lt. Drew to resume, Dan spoke. “Hey what do you make of this?”

            Jake dropped back inside the turret and asked, “What do I make of what?”

            He scanned the horizon with his TIS and saw a series of undefined splotches and right angles. He’d never seen anything quite like them before. Jake switched the resolution from white on black to black on white, but with the storm he still couldn’t make out any clear hotspots. He used his TC override to line up and laser the nearest target. Jake got back up in the cupola and peered through the storm but still saw nothing.

Just as Jake was about to ask Lt. Drew what he thought, 1^st Platoon opened up with a barrage of TOW missiles.

           Lt. Drew shouted over the net, “Contact forward! Contact forward! Engage! Engage!”

            Jake dropped into the turret. “Fire Dan!” he shouted.

            “On the way!”

            Jake got his eyes on his site just in time to see the target explode and a turret flip through the air.

            “Engaged and destroyed!” he reported.

            Lt. Drew barked in Jake’s ear. “What did you take out, Bloom?”

            “I don’t know. A tank, I think.”

            “What do you mean, you think?”

            “Can’t see shit out there L-T.”

            Jake scanned the target area. “I found one!” He lased the target, “1300 meters!”

            “What the hell is it?!” Dan asked.

            “I can’t fucking tell!” He peered further. “Ahh, shit. Veras, Sabot!”

            Veras took a Sabot round from the ready rack and slammed it into the breach. “Up!”

            “Blast it!”

            “On the way!”

            Jake waited for a report but saw nothing. He reached down and slapped Dan on the back the head. “You missed! Re-engage!” he shouted.

            “Veras gimmie another Sabot.”

            Veras opened the ready rack took a round and slammed it home. “Up!”

            “Fire!” Jake ordered.

            Dan didn’t miss this time. The round penetrated an Iraqi tank with unimaginable kinetic energy, vaporizing the crew and exploding its ammunition. The turret spiraled through the air and landed 50 meters away.

            “Holy Shit, it’s like flipping God dam tiddlywinks out there!” shouted Jake.

            Jake tried to select another target, but every time he identified one it went up in a ball of flame. Ghost Troop fired and rolled forward against sporadic and ineffective Iraqi return fire delivered from the reverse slope of a wadi. By the time they came upon the edge of the wadi, Ghost Troop blasted the Iraqis right out their positions, reducing the Iraqi battle line to a hellish wreckage of flaming metal and flesh.