O:JA&L FLASH NONFICTION: ALL MILITARY
Flash Memoir, CNF, or Vignette
Clement Valot
April 2008, Gulf of Oman, Indian Ocean
(Excerpted from WIP Liberty)
If it was moving, it was moving slow. I kept it in my sights, and the Conning Officer was keeping the contact’s position off the starboard quarter as we maneuvered around it. The water was mostly calm. The water looked green with the overcast sky. There were no other contacts around us. If this thing was being remotely controlled, there were no other contacts around that would have been master to this vessel. Something over the horizon maybe? Something satellite controlled? We couldn’t tell from our vantage point of the gun mount. It did not appear to be a threat for us on the mount. A threat to the ship, as far as scouting and positioning goes, maybe.
“GCO, mount nine. What is the plan with this thing?” Bramon asked the Gun Control Officer, then paused. “I guess they are trying to figure that out now. They want us to track it.”
“Well, I’m tracking this mother fucker. I got the cocksucker right in my sights as long as we hold this position.” I continued staring down the barrels through the iron sights centered between the two guns.
“Mount nine, aye. Clint, go to condition one.”
“Fucking A.” I racked the charging handle on the left side of the left gun twice, and then the charging handle on the right side of the right gun twice. I was locked and loaded. Despite the cool breeze, I had sweat built up in the palm of my hands and sweat running down the crack of my ass, and it was chilled by the wind passing over the gun mount through my palms and through my coveralls. I was nervous, but too focused to pay attention to it.
“Jesus Christ, I think they are going to let us shoot it.” Bramon mentioned listening in to the conversation over the net.
“Just for target practice, or what?”
“They think it’s manned and tracking us.”
“They think there are people in this thing?”
“Semi-submersible, I guess. I don’t know if they really know. GCO said the Skipper is concerned about it and wants to get rid of it.”
“Yea, but are there people in it?” My adrenaline rush was broken for a second thinking about the hell that was potentially about to rain upon this craft, if it was really manned.
“GCO aye. Mount 9, batteries release. Kill small boat, sector four.” Bramon ordered from the GCO.
“Batteries release? Kill it?”
“Yea mother fucker… batteries release.”
“Shit!” THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD… I sent a downpour of .50cal rounds on top of the target with a long burst before I paused to establish a trigger control rhythm; short, short, long. The initial burst was to see the splash and the lineup of the tracer rounds. It only took a couple seconds for me to lock on with Kentucky windage of where the rounds were landing. Once I was on top of it, I started using controlled bursts to lay rounds down range and not overheat the barrels. I went through 200 rounds easily. “Reload!” Bramon had two more ammo cans ready to go.
“GCO, mount 9, reloading. Continue engagement aye. Clint, load the fucking machine gun. I’m grabbing the 14!” I took the cans he had laid out and put them up in the ammo trays, draped over the ammo belt above the chamber, slammed the top cover down, and charged both charging handles enough to chamber the rounds. Then I reengaged the target. Bramon had the M14 loaded and firing before I could get the next volley of shots out. He would not miss this chance to shoot at an actual target.
The splash and wreckage from the hundreds of .50cal rounds was incredible. Now two other mounts had opened fire also. The next mount forward on the starboard side was a 25mm chain gun, mount 7. This was a much larger and more devastating gun than the 50s. Forward of mount 7 was mount 5, which was an M240. This fired the same rounds as the M14, but the ammo was linked and the cyclic rate of fire was 750 rounds per minute. The captain of the ship was having us unload holy hell on whatever this contact was. After about five reloads, 1000 rounds from my mount alone, we heard the cease fire alarms.
AAAAYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOGA. We ceased fire.
“Clint, clear and safe the gun.” I locked the bolts back, lifted the top covers, removed what ammo was left on the belt from the feed tray and kept the guns pointed in a safe direction.
“Clear and safe. Bore’s clear, no apparent damage or casualties. 1000 rounds expended.”
“Roger. GCO, mount 9. 1000 rounds expended, .50cal. 120 rounds expended, 7.62. Weapons condition four, bores are clear, no apparent damage or casualties. Contact is smoking and sinking.” The contact was smoking and sinking. The madness from four machine guns of varying calibers made light work of whatever that target was. Rounds had been bouncing all over the hard target itself and flew in every direction ricocheting off the water all around it by the view of the tracer rounds that went flying in every direction. When a bullet hits the water at those speeds there is no telling which way it is going to be diverted with the force that it hits an uneven surface with. Some of the tracer rounds appear to fly straight into the air, or even right back at the gun mount after hitting the waves around the target.
“Holy fucking shit, we destroyed that bitch.” The reality settled into me as I watched what remained sink into the green abyss.
“That shit was so dope.”
“What the fuck was that even? Do you think it was a threat?”
“I don’t think we would have been ordered to shoot it if it wasn’t.” We were shouting at each other after how pierced our ears were, and we were still wearing the hearing protection.
“Do you think it was manned?”
“I think it was manned.”
About the writer:
Clement Valot served in the United States Navy for over twenty years, with ten years enlisted, advancing to Chief Gunner’s Mate, and ten years commissioned as a Surface Warfare Officer, advancing to Lieutenant. His service began in December of 2005 and concludes in August of 2026. His military occupational specialties include small arms and machine gun instructor, ammunition administration, anti-terrorism training supervisor, and non-compliant visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) member and officer, as well as several other classifications. LT Valot’s Naval career is highlighted with a Doctoral Degree, over ten deployments, and a circumnavigation of the globe.
Image: NVPZ: NO-GO Violation (AI-assisted digital image) by O:JA&L staff creative. 2026. Public domain via Midjourney AI.
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Follow other general guidelines that may apply. When possible, each piece should state as a subtitle the time, date, and location of the described situation.
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