Chapter 10

New characters appearing in chapter 10 and after:

Phil Del Vecchio

Captain, Bill met him in Bangkok, 5’-7”tall, 185 pounds, 36 years old, black hair, hazel eyes, very muscular

Tweed

SSG, Engineer, Bill’s friend from Cambodia, 5’-9” tall, 155 pounds, 32 years old, blond hair, blue eyes

Carson

SSG, Infantry, 5’-11” tall, 170 pounds, 32 years old, black hair, gray eyes

Williams

SSG, Infantry, 5’-9” tall, 150 pounds, 30 years old, Brown hair, hazel eyes

Colby

SSG, Artillery, 6’-0” tall, 170 pounds, 31 years old, dark blond hair, green eyes

Ramirez

SSG, Artillery, 5-7” tall, 145 pounds, 31 years old, black hair, brown eyes

Quincy

SSG, Infantry, 5’-9” tall, 155 pounds, 30 years old, auburn hair, gray eyes

Chang

SSG, Engineer, 5’-9” tall, 145 pounds, 33 years old, black hair in crew cut, brown eyes

De Foor

SSG, EOD, 5’-8” tall, 135 pounds, 32 years, brown, blue eyes

Phillips

SFC, Infantry, 5’-10” tall, 175 pounds, 41 years old, brown hair, gray eyes

Bob Carstairs

CIA Station Chief, 5’-10” tall, 215 pounds, 39 years old, brown hair, hazel eyes

Sawyer returned to Udorn to check on the progress of his team, while Suenee and I got things ready to load on the trailer. Suenee had emptied and turned off the refrigerator to defrost it that morning. We cleaned it up and dried everything off. We then took the bed apart. It broke down into several pieces that were easy to move. We loaded the pieces onto the trailer and followed them with the refrigerator. The rest of the wicker furniture followed. Soon our house was very empty, again.

We would be leaving the stove and its propane bottle in the house. The partial bag of rice went in with the pots, pans and dishes into a hamper. We would sleep on the mattress on the floor tonight and wrap it in plastic tomorrow before loading it on the truck.

That evening Luang came over again for the last time. I didn’t know if I would see him again in the morning. We talked for an hour or so. He told us about when he had gone to Luang Phrabanh a number of years before. He also warned us of things to look out for, as he claimed that they weren’t above cheating outsiders and especially long noses.

Later that evening a number of women came by to wish Suenee well and say goodbye to her. They all seemed sad to see her go. Suenee spoke to them at length and if my understanding of Thai was correct, she told them that another would come to continue their instruction in the Amulets. We spent a very quiet night after that, just holding each other.

We were up early in the cool morning air and needed to put on extra clothes. After a hasty breakfast, we got to those things that must always be left until the last minute, like washing that morning’s dishes and packing them. We also wrapped the mattress set in plastic and tied it securely shut.

Sawyer showed up in his jeep just before 0800 hrs. There was another man in the jeep with him and a 5/4 truck behind him. You can imagine my surprise when I recognized Phil from the Team House in Bangkok, but he had a shirt on now, a shirt with Captain’s bars on it. I was in shock and just stood there for several seconds with my mouth open. I quickly recovered and saluted.

“This is Captain Del Vecchio,” Sawyer said, “the Team Leader.”

“Good morning, Baker,” Phil said with a smile.

“Good ... good morning, sir,” I finally managed after saluting. “I ... I never realized... !!”

“That I was an officer,” Phil finished after returning my salute.

“Yes, sir.”

“I was a Sergeant for a long time before becoming an officer, Baker,” he told me with a grin. Tweed had been driving the 5/4 and came over to say hi also.

“Are you ready?” Sawyer asked.

“Yes,” I answered and waved good bye to Suenee in the house.

“Hop in the back. Tweed will follow us,” Sawyer told me. We found a wide spot to turn both vehicles around and headed for Ramasun station.

As we approached the main gate, the Thai Army guards came to attention and saluted, but the American MP waited until we had stopped and he had stepped up to the vehicle before he hastily saluted in surprise.

“I’m glad to see that you remember how to salute an officer, young man,” Phil said after returning the salute.

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. They never had an officer with them before,” he mumbled in excuse.

“Judge every vehicle as a new one, young man. Not as what they may have been previously,” Phil admonished him before we showed him our IDs and proceeded.

We drove directly over to the Operations area and they parked outside while I went in to get the shipping container. I was amazed to see John. Ernie, SFC Wilson and several others there to say good bye to me. It wasn’t something I had expected and I was deeply touched.

While my experiences with those in charge here had been better than at the 83rd, I hadn’t really been that close to most of the enlisted men here. With living off post and working in the vans most of the time, we just hadn’t gotten together much. Yet here some of them were to wish me well. I was very grateful.

After the good-byes, they went back to work and I pushed the hand truck with the shipping container out past the red guard shack. With the four of us, we had no trouble getting it into the back of the 5/4, especially with Phil there.

“You drive the 5/4 Baker,” Sawyer told me. “Take care of what you need to do here. We’re going over to Pepper Grinder so they can meet Captain Del Vecchio. We’ll meet you over at your place.”

“OK,” I told him. They all left for Pepper Grinder, and I drove over to the Headquarters to see Duffie and sign out. There wasn’t any trouble there and I was soon on my way back to the house after picking up my things at the barracks. Dow was there, and she also was sad to see me go.

At the house, I loaded the mattress in the front of the truck’s bed and the hampers and my duffel bag and B-4 bag in front of it. Miscellaneous stuff was piled on top of and around the shipping container. We were soon ready to go, only needing help to hookup the trailer to the truck.

Sawyer and the others returned shortly, and we got the trailer hooked up to the 5/4 and set out for Udorn Royal Thai Airbase to link up with the rest of the team.

Udorn Royal Thai Airbase was a very busy place this Tuesday morning in February 1967. It hadn’t taken long to get to the base and the Thai and American Air Police there didn’t make the mistake the American MP had at Ramasun Station. They all saluted and then checked our IDs.

I realized that I still didn’t have an American dependent’s ID card for Suenee, but we had just gotten approval of our Command Sponsorship. I would need to find out how to get her an ID card, but it would have to be later after we got settled in.

Once on base we headed for the flight line to link up with the rest of the team. We pulled up where they were waiting at about 1030 hrs. There was an Air Force Major there and he was very unhappy.

“Here’s our CO now,” one of the NCOs said.

“Can I help you, Major?” Phil asked as he came up to him and saluted.

“Are you the commander of this outfit?” the Major demanded.

“Yes, I’m the Commander of this Advisory Team. What seems to be the problem?”

“The problem, Captain, is that you people have thrown off my schedule for today and probably tomorrow, also,” the exasperated Major answered.

“How so?”

“It’s going to take three planes to move you and your equipment. That’s how,” the Major stated.

“And?” Phil asked.

“It upsets a very tight schedule. We have a lot of cargo and personnel to move at this time. There are also several platoons of Thai Rangers to be moved plus others.”

“We only have fourteen people to move in three aircraft. The limiting factor is our equipment. There should be plenty of room for more passengers,” Phil told him.

“The orders said... !” the Major began.

“Sir, the orders were written by people that didn’t have a schedule to keep,” Phil said with a smile.

“Well, that would help,” the Major agreed. You could almost see the gears turning in his head as he thought about it. “You’re sure that it won’t interfere with your mission?”

“No, it won’t interfere. We’re going to advise the Thai Army,” Phil informed him. By now we were all out of the vehicles and the Major noticed Suenee and Sophie. They were both wearing the Thai Special Forces tigers that they had left the camp in Cambodia in. Without the hats, their long hair and large bellies definitely marked them as women.

“Those women are pregnant. Are they going with you?” a very astonished Major asked.

“Yes, they are,” both Phil and Sawyer answered.

“All right. You won’t be flying that high anyway. It won’t affect them,” he answered. “I’ll send over a Loadmaster to check your vehicles and make sure they are ready to load,” he told us before he left after they exchanged salutes.

The whole team had gathered around by now to look at Suenee and me. They had probably done the same thing with Sophie at some point.

“Listen up,” Sawyer started in that big voice of his, “this is Sergeant Baker and his wife Suenee. Do all of you remember the little lecture I gave about the Amulets of Power back in Lop Buri? Well do you?”

“Yes, we remember,” they answered.

“What does it have to do with now, and do you really expect us to believe that?” one of them asked.

“What it has to do, young Sergeant,” Sawyer said, as if instructing a child, “is that Miss Suenee is the one that predicted the explosion at Attapu. She is also the one consecrated to the Amulets, and touching her is a quick way to die. That is what it’s about.”

“Oh, shit!” the startled soldier said. Tweed was just smiling.

“And Sergeant Baker is the one with the classified radio. He’s also our Sergeant York when it comes to shooting. They’re married by the way,” Sawyer told them.

“Now, I guess introductions are in order,” Sawyer said, changing the subject. “When I call your name raise your hand or sound off so Baker knows who you are.

“Tweed and Carson are team 1.

“Williams and Colby are team 2.

“Ramirez and Quincy are team 3.

“Chang and De Foor are team 4.

“Captain Del Vecchio and myself are team 5, and Phillips and Baker are Operations and Commo.” They were all E-6s except Phillips, who was an SFC, and of course Sawyer and Captain Del Vecchio.

I eventually found out what a diverse group of men they were. Of course I knew that Tweed had been an Engineer. So had Chang. Ramirez and Colby had been in the Artillery. Carson, Quincy, Williams and Phillips were Infantry. De Foor was the odd-man-out. He had been in EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). They were all Special Forces now, and all had Airborne and Ranger training as well. We had just gotten all of the introductions done when an Air Force Sergeant E-6 showed up.