Chapter 15

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

Mr. Kanoa

Mule owner, 5’-5’’ tall, 120 pounds, 43 years old, brown eyes and black hair, a rather thin older man

Mr, Mele

Kanoa’s Son and assistant, 5’-6’’ tall, 130 pounds, 22 years, brown eyes and long black hair.

Bane

Member of the Recon Squad, 5’-6’’ tall, 130 pounds, 27 years old, black hair, brown eyes, a bit thin

Analu

Squad Leader Third Platoon, 5’-5’’ tall, 140 pounds, 25 years old, black hair, brown eyes, a bit stocky

Mike still has the Narrative

Day number 9 was actually a Friday. We started classes that morning after everyone was fed, things were cleaned up, and all the details were finished. The classes went very slowly, as each class had to be given at least twice because of language differences. The instructor would give the class in one language, say Northern Lao. He would need to stop frequently, or go very slowly, so the translator who was usually one of the Senior NCOs could repeat his instructions in Akha or Tai Lue, depending on which platoon the other half of the class was. He would then have to give the same class later to the remaining platoon; again slowly, so his words could be translated. Captain Vanh had never considered the need to do this, but Lieutenants Keo and Souk had. Fortunately, the medics each spoke one of the platoon’s languages, so they could give their classes to the platoons at the same time or when it was convenient, and we could work them in between the other classes to keep everyone busy.

The men had produced enough target frames by now, so that was no longer something that we needed to worry about. Saturday was a half day of classes, and then everyone was off until Monday morning. They couldn’t go anywhere, but at least they could relax. The cooks still needed to make meals for them each day, and there was the clean-up following the meals to be taken care of. Bounmy was still off looking for more men for the Recon Squad during this time also. Thao and I returned to the house in Sing for the weekend. Our ladies were glad to see us.

Monday, we started a different schedule. After formation that morning, the first and second platoons went to classes. The third platoon went with me to the arms building. There, we started opening and unpacking enough boxes of rifles for each man in the platoon to have one. The cooks had been alerted that we would need a lot of hot water to clean the rifles. The cleaned kettles had been filled with water and heated.

The men began cleaning their weapons after they were issued, and the water was hot enough. We had found the cleaning equipment and supplies that had been packaged separately from the weapons. We would do only one platoon a day, as it required a lot of hot water and firewood to clean them. In the afternoon, the weapons cleaning platoon would receive the class or classes the others had that morning.

That afternoon, second platoon came to the arms building to clean up the empty boxes and other things from that morning. They immediately realized that the wooden boxes that the rifles came in were a source of firewood and only needed to be reduced in size to be used to heat the kettles of water for cooking and for cleaning weapons. Several of them hurried out to speak to the villagers they knew about borrowing tools to use on the boxes. They returned with hammers, saws, and axes, and then proceeded to demolish the wooden boxes to a size suitable for heating the kettles. The others in the platoon worked on setting up more of the racks to hold the cleaned rifles.

The next morning, it was second platoon’s turn to be issued their rifles and to clean them. There was plenty of wood to heat the kettles with now. First and third platoons attended classes. First platoon were the ones to clean-up the boxes that afternoon and produce more firewood, while second platoon had the same classes they’d had that morning. First platoon received their rifles the next morning, while the other platoons practiced sighting in their rifles and setting up the range for firing. Those in the Recon Squad and a couple of those in the headquarters received their rifles while the other platoons continued what they had been working on. Bounmy had succeeded in locating sufficient personnel to fill out the Recon Squad.

This left only the few boxes that contained the limited number of machine guns that we had received in the arms building. They would be issued later to those chosen to use them and cleaned by them and their squad. There wouldn’t be a lot of firing of them, as they use a lot of ammunition. That afternoon, I inspected the firing range that had been set up. It was small as the area available for it was rather limited. We would only be able to have one platoon at a time firing on it, and even then not all of them at once. It would require two full days, at best, to have everyone sight in their weapons. The machine guns would be sighted in on the last afternoon when the Recon Squad fired. The officers and senior NCOs would sight in their rifles with their platoon. There was no area suitable for setting up a grenade range, and we only had a limited number of them presently.

Sighting in the weapons over the next couple of days went well. Most of the men were used to hunting, usually with primitive weapons, and they had learned to shoot when training with the Thai Army. Those not on the firing range were practicing squad and then platoon assault formations. The training was going much better than I had foreseen. That said a lot about the training many of them had received from the Thai Army before they joined General Vang Pao’s forces.

In our ’spare time’ the Lieutenants and I had been coming to grips with the logistics of moving some 100 men over 34 miles (54 km) through the mountains between Sing and Luang Nam Tha, and then further to the vicinity of the opium plants near Houaydam. The 34-mile estimate was the straight line distance between the Chap Houma Valley and road #3 near Luang Nam Tha. I was sure that the way through the mountains would be a good deal longer than that.

Even worse was the need to carry the provisions for the men. At a quarter pound of uncooked rice per man per day, we were looking at 25 pounds of rice a day, plus the fruit, vegetables, and meat or fish to feed them. Over the 12 to 15 days that it would probably require to complete the mission, we were looking at a huge amount of food, and not all of the vegetables would last that long before spoiling. This would require either a resupply point, or acquiring some of the food along the way. I was certain that there was no way for the lorries to follow us through the mountains.

Even if we could set up resupply points at some locations along the way, the men would need to carry a lot of extra weight in food along with their usual gear, weapons and ammunition. All of this would slow us down and extend the time required to reach our objective, increasing the problem even more.

We were at our lowest point of despair at solving this problem when Sergeant Bounmy arrived with additional information.

“I have talked with the men in the Recon Squad, and we have developed a route that will take us to the refineries with the least chance of discovery,” he told us. This was one of the problems that we had wrestled with if we were to acquire some of the needed food along the way, so this was somewhat of a relief.

“Just what is this route?” I asked.

“We can leave the Chap Houma Valley at its lower end where the waterfall is. There is a trail that goes to the lower land in Long District. There are roads, dirt roads but roads, there that we can use to reach Ban Houakhoua on road #17B. It is only around 16 km (10 miles) from the end of the valley,” he told us.

“We will be seen by those in the village and when we cross road #17B,” Lt. Souk objected.

“Not if we wait until it is dark, and we cross the road away from the village. On the other side of the road, we will be in the Nam Ha National Bio-Diversity area. We can move through there easily as there are few villages there. It is about 67 km (42 miles) across that area to Chaleunsouk on road #3. It is about 10 km (6.2 miles) south of the turn off to Luang Nam Tha. From there it is only about 48 km (30 miles) to Houaydam where the refineries are located,” he told us while pointing out the locations on the map overlay that he and the others had drawn.

“That’s still a long way. It will take five or more days to reach the refineries even with no problems. We cannot assume there will be no problems or hold ups like rain, or blocked trails or even getting lost. How can we carry enough rations and ammunition for all of that?” Lt. Souk asked.

“There are several places where we can establish resupply points,” Bounmy pointed out, indicating them on the map.

“Possibly,” Lt Souk admitted, grudgingly. “It will still involve us moving a lot of food and other items like ammunition, explosives, and medical supplies. How are we to do that?” he asked.

“You could pick up part of those things at the resupply locations,” Bounmy reiterated but appeared to have a losing argument.

“What if the lorries are intercepted by the government or the drug-lords’ men, or if they wait at the wrong location, and that’s not to mention if they were to break down,” Lt Keo pointed out, further sinking the idea.

“We would need additional guards on the lorries also,” Lt. Kham pointed out just before Captain Vanh returned. He had left several days ago with Mr. Nai in his pickup truck to get some help, he had told us. There were two other men with him.

“This is Mr. Kanoa and his assistant Mr. Mele,” he told us, and we all exchanged greetings with the strangers.

“Mr. Kanoa has twenty-four mules. They will be brought here by his other helpers. They will carry the food and other equipment necessary for our operation,” Vanh told us. This seemed to solve our logistical transportation problem. However, he had more to say.

“In payment, they want rifles and ammunition. A few years ago, Zhang Qifu (Khun Sa) commandeered many of his mules and men to move a large shipment of drugs through Laos. They were attacked by the KMT and the Thai Army. He lost many of his mules and a number of men. They want a way to fight back in the future,” Vanh told us.

“Do they know how to use the weapons that we have?” I asked.

“Yes,” Kanoa told us. “We have used them previously when the drug-lords hired us, but we never got to keep them,” he added in Northern Laotian.

“We have some extra weapons. They will need to be cleaned before use. We also have a good amount of ammunition. It shouldn’t be a problem,” I told them.

“Alright,” Vanh said before turning to Kanoa. He spoke to him in Hmong, but I understood what he told him. We would be giving him a rifle for each of his men and 200 rounds of ammunition for each rifle. It wasn’t a large concession for the transportation provided.

“When will we be ready to leave?” Vanh asked following that.

“We’ll need another week for the men to work together and to do a Tactical Road March through the valley. Figure three days to rest and recover, and they should be ready to move out in ten days. During that time, we will need to accumulate sufficient fresh food for at least the first half of the operation,” I told all of them.

The formation (battle) drills over the next week went fairly well. The men had learned them from the Thai Army. Most of them were a bit rusty on them, but the practice soon had most of them back in tune. The exceptions received some remedial training. The tactical road march was fifteen miles (24 km) in full gear including loaded backpacks and ammunition. It went fairly well, and we only had a couple of men with foot problems. They were mostly due to them having the wrong size of footwear. The problem was easily corrected. The people living in the valley were more than a little shocked to see our men out marching in full uniform on their roads.

Mr. Kanoa’s mules and his men arrived two days before we were to depart. The mules were pastured in a field with plenty of grass where the water buffalo were often kept. His men kept an eye on them. In the meantime, the rest of us had been busy. We had been stockpiling food from the daily food trips to Sing for the past several days. The men had also been preparing and roasting the live fish (catfish mostly) purchased in Sing as well as some chickens purchased from the locals. We had also started breaking down everything to be moved into loads that the mules were able to carry.

A decision had also been made about the use of the lorries and setting up the resupply points. We had reached agreement only after a significant amount of argument over the merits of the matter. The lorries would now pick up fresh vegetables and fruit along with some meat from the markets in Luang Nam Tha and would be waiting for us near Chaleunsouk on road #3 to resupply us with fresh food. This would help reduce the loads the mules needed to carry. Those who’d had foot problems would be assigned as extra guards on the lorries until their feet were better.

Needless to say, with all of this activity, Thao and I had not been back to our house in Sing much. We did get the night and half a day after the road march but that was all for now. Our ladies were very glad to see us even for that short a time.