Ok, I found the critical part I was missing, I have to actually retreat and knock down rubble to make the radiators get exposed. I simply parked my tank at the first base and had a guy repair it each turn. Ended up beating the mission by the skin of my teeth, the last AP of the Last turn, I didn't count on having to also blow up the tank after I took out all the Radiators, so I to redeploy all my lancers in a rush.
Also, the Retreat Solider command from the old guy is super useful, all the other ones have been sort of meh (Heal is nice, haven't found a use for Sniper Fire, not even sure what the other one I got was)
I hope the PC version sells enough to get Sega to port/remake VC2 and 3, or better yet, just make a new game in the series.