IT WAS THE ENEMY SENTRY HIMSELF, my brother Li Thi, who made the first kill that day. I knew this, as did most of the patrol, because all eyes were on the man he killed. The Major, struck above me and left standing, stunned, his chest shattered by the shot, before moving a foot in the charge.
Needless to say, most of the men immediately withdrew; a few others took only some token shots before retreating from what otherwise would have been a bootless suicide mission. The enemy held.
Stretchers took the Major's body to a clearing three hundred meters away. Airlifted to be pronounced a proper mortem.