Chapter 13

New characters introduced in the next two chapters:

Colonel Thuathao

Senior Colonel, Thai Special Forces, Suenee's 'uncle', 5'-10" tall, 170 pounds, 48 years old, black hair going gray at the temples, brown eyes

I arrived at the airfield while they were still unloading the C-130 aircraft, as it is only about a four mile drive. I pulled up on the unloading ramp near the plane and walked over to the Air Force Loadmaster who was supervising the unloading.

"Howdy," I said as I approached, "You have anything for us?"

"I have three jeeps and two trailers plus miscellaneous equipment for Advisory Team 67-14-1. There are also two drums of gas for them. Are you from that Team?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm the assistant S-4," I told him. "We were expecting something else."

"That's all that I have for you on this flight. What ever you were looking for must be on another flight," the Loadmaster told me.

"Oh, we were hoping to get these, but our Headquarters wasn't real positive about the possibility," I informed him.

"Well, I need you to sign for these," the Loadmaster said. I signed the document and returned to Sawyer's jeep.

"Young Cowboy, Young Cowboy, this is Cowboy 3 Alpha, over," I transmitted.

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, this is Cowboy Tango 1 Alpha, over," I heard Tweed come back.

"Cowboy Tango 1 Alpha, this is Cowboy 3 Alpha. There are 3 M-151s and two Tangos out here along with two drums of go juice. I'll need drivers and a truck to transport the juice, over."

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, this is Cowboy Tango 1 Alpha. Roger. Assistance on the way, out."

It was about fifteen minutes later when Tweed showed up in the other jeep with one of the 5/4s right behind him. He had more than half of the Team with him.

"The rest are figuring out where to put the gas," Tweed told me, as they all unloaded.

"Just damn! Look at that. Brand new jeeps, hot damn," Williams of Team 2 said.

"All right, let's get these babies ready to roll," Tweed told the others. "Ramirez and Quincy, get the trailers unstrapped and ready to hook up to the jeeps," Tweed, obviously the one in charge, told the others. "Carson, Williams, and Colby check the jeeps and see what they need to run."

"Come on Bill, let's see about this gas," he finished to me. The two fifty-five gallon barrels of gas were on a pallet and sitting apart from the vehicles.

While Tweed and I checked the gas, Ramirez and Quincy broke the straps holding the two trailers together one upside down on top of the other and got the top one right side up on the ground.

"Damn, look at this. There are radios for the jeeps in the first trailer," Quincy shouted.

"Plus some tools and gas cans," Ramirez added.

"The damn jeeps are dry as a bone," Carson told us after inspecting the first jeep. "We're going to need some of that gas to get them going. The oil is full though. I just hope the batteries are charged."

Tweed and I had discovered that the two barrels of gas were also banded together. Luckily, someone had remembered to include a hand-cranked gasoline dispensing pump with them. It would be relatively easy then to fill the jeep's gas tank with that.

"Two barrels of gas aren't going to give us that many refills with all of the vehicles we have now," Tweed stated.

We got the bands on the barrels broken to separate them some and installed the hand pump in one. Several of the other men pushed the first jeep over to us and we started pumping gas into its tank. It took a lot of cranking to fill the tank most of the way.

Then came the real test. Carson had connected the battery before moving the jeep. He got in and hit the ignition switch. The motor turned over for a number of seconds before gas reached the cylinders and it started. The engine was a little rough at first, possibly from air still in the fuel line, but smoothed out shortly.

"Well that's one down," Carson said as he moved the jeep out of the way and over to hook it up to a trailer. The other two jeeps were pretty much the same. Everyone had taken a turn at cranking the gas pump. We had put about fifteen gallons of gas in each jeep and finished off the drum by topping off the other jeep and 5/4. This left us with one empty drum and one full one.

"Damn," Tweed remarked, "this gas really isn't going to go far. We're going to need a steady supply."

"That's why we have Sawyer and the CO," Quincy told him.

"If we are going to be going to the outposts in this province, we're going to have to take gas with us. We're going to need a lot more gas, count on it," I said, echoing Tweeds comments.

There wasn't any trouble getting the empty gas drum into the back of the 5/4. The problem came with the full one. The thing weighed over 350 pounds and getting it up into the back of the truck was going to be a major problem.

One of the Thai Army NCOs, that had been watching us, came over and offered to lend us some planks that they used to get drums of gas into the backs of their vehicles. It was a lot easier rolling that full barrel up the incline of the planks than it would have been lifting it up into the back of the truck. We secured it in the truck with the cargo nets, which we still had.

Finally after an hour and a-half or more we were ready to head back to the compound. We formed a convoy with Tweed in the lead and headed back. I followed the 5/4, as last vehicle to be sure everyone got there.

I got back to a late lunch. Suenee had saved some food for me. By the time I had cleaned up and eaten, it was nearly time to go to Carstairs's place for the daily intel update. I went by myself today.

There were more reports of fighting near Long Tieng (LS-20A) and in the Plain of Jars region. There were also reports of increased contacts in Houaphan province. I was beginning to worry about these increased contacts. It showed the NVA and Pathet Lao were getting bolder and starting to invade Thai territory. I mentioned my misgivings to Sawyer when I got back to the compound.

"Yes," he agreed, "they are getting ready to do something but what?" We mentioned this in our report to the B Detachment in Nan that night.

All of the radio equipment had been removed from the jeep trailer and brought into commo while I was at Carstairs's. There were enough parts for complete radio sets for the three new jeeps as well as five of the KY-8 Voice Security devices. All of the jeeps' radios could be fitted with one, and I was sure 'the Radio' would be able to pick them up when I fitted its encryption module.

We were prepared to install the radios the next morning, or thought we were. The installation was a reasonably simple one and could be done in any reasonably complete motor pool, but not in Luang Phrabang. The installation required a drill, a power drill, to drill holes for the bolts and screws used to install the metal mounting plate that the MT-1029 shock protection mount was bolted to. Naturally, we didn't have an electrical drill or any other kind of drill.

All work stopped while I went in search of a drill. It soon became evident that power drills were not to be had in Luang Phrabang at this time. The best I could come up with was a large gear driven manual breast drill and some drill bits of undetermined ancestry. We would just have to make due with them.

Drilling the holes for the mounting plate was slow work and several of the men took turns turning the drill while I worked on the first jeep when it was ready. We eventually got the radios installed in all three new jeeps. The drill bits were dull by then, and I went in search of someone to sharpen them the next morning. Suenee went with me in Sawyer's jeep. We eventually located a machine shop. All of its equipment was still run by belts from an overhead pulley system. Before we left, the owner told us proudly that he had replaced the original steam engine with an electric motor three years before. He had sharpened our drill bits for a few baht while we waited.

When I returned we started drilling the holes for the antenna mounts on the back of the jeeps. Again it took most of the rest of the day to finish the drilling and installation of the mounts. The next morning I was ready to hook everything up and test the radios. The three new jeeps went out a few miles from the compound in different directions and I started calling them after ten minutes or so. I was able to contact each jeep and they were able to talk to me and to each other. They all soon returned.

It was shortly after the jeeps returned that two C-123's landed. We heard them as they came over the house, and I got ready to leave immediately for the airfield. There wouldn't be any problem with communication now with all of the jeeps having radios.

During the past two days there had been a lot of traffic going in and out of the Luang Phrabang airfield. We had heard numerous large aircraft come in and depart. There had also been a lot of smaller planes. Tweed had spent a lot of time out there while I worked on the radios. None of the incoming material however had been for us.

I got quite a surprise when I got to the airfield. There were now many Thai Air Force T-28 fighter aircraft parked there. I had heard them flying around during the last two days but didn't realize that they were apparently now stationed here along with their support elements. The U.S. Air Force also had a larger presence here now. It certainly looked like things were heating up. After parking the jeep, I approached the Loadmaster of the nearest plane.

"Anything for Team 67-14-1?" I inquired.

"Yes, quite a bit. We'll have it all off loaded shortly. Stand by," he told me. I could see a number of the aluminum pallets that had been off loaded already and more would soon follow. I returned to the jeep to call in.

"Young Cowboy, Young Cowboy, this is Cowboy 3 Alpha, over."

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, this is Cowboy 3, over," I heard Phillips reply.

"Cowboy 3 this is Cowboy 3 Alpha. There is quite a bit of material here for us. Send both trucks, but only one trailer. Also send a jeep with a trailer, over."

"Roger, 3 Alpha. Will send. Cowboy 3, out."

I could already see a water trailer that had been unloaded in the last few minutes and there were pallets with other things also. I could see a medium size generator, a large metal container of some kind, and a pallet with six drums of gas on it. I didn't know how we were going to handle that.

A short time later both trucks with one trailer showed up along with two jeeps with trailers. I was over talking to the Loadmaster at the time and signed his paperwork right after that.

We got the generator loaded on one of the trucks. It was a 5 Kw and fairly heavy. The container went on the trailer along with stacks of sandbags and several cases of oil. A couple of cases of kerosene went into a jeep trailer along with part of the miscellaneous stuff. The rest went in the other jeep trailer along with the partial roll of fencing for the radio room. There were also cases of ammunition and a wooden box with a number of M-79 grenade launchers along with cases of ammunition for them.

"Boy, we hit the jackpot," Colby said, seeing all of the stuff.

"What are we going to do with all of the gas?" Tweed asked, apparently in charge again.

"Let's talk to the Air Force," I suggested, and we headed over to the Operations building looking for someone in charge. We found a very harried Captain there. It took a few minutes before we got to talk to him.

"Sir, we're from Advisory Team 67-14-1. We have received a pallet containing six drums of gasoline. Is there somewhere here that we can leave it until we can use it. We don't have the capability to move it at present or a place to store it," Tweed told him.

"Gas you say?" the Captain asked. "Yes, I have a storage yard that we have set up. I can have a forklift move it there. Be sure that it is identified with your unit designation. We are getting a lot of material in now and it could get lost otherwise."

"Yes, sir. We'll be sure to mark it," Tweed said, and added under his breath, "some how". We thanked the Captain and went back out to check on the progress of the thing being loaded.

A short time later an airman with a large rough terrain forklift came over to us.

"Where is the gas you want moved?" he asked. We indicated the pallet with the six drums on it.

"I'll put in a corner where it will be easy to find. You can come over and get one then," he told us. That fork lift sure made short work of moving that pallet of gas.

"We still need to mark that shit," Tweed reminded me as we watched the forklift move away from us. Just then De Foor came over.

"Will you look at this shit?" he asked, exasperated. "They must think we're still in the states." He was holding up a cardboard stencil with the team numbers cut in it and had several cans of white spray paint.

"That's just what the hell we needed!" Tweed exclaimed excitedly and taking the stencil and a can of paint he followed the departed forklift.