Chapter 16

Wednesday the first of March 1967 dawned the same as every other day had. I spent the early morning hours after breakfast straightening up the radio room. It was something I had been putting off since the Teams had left on Friday, but I had decided to get it done this morning. About 1000 hrs 'the Radio' came to life all on its own for no apparent reason.

"Any station, any station, this is Cowboy Tango 1 Alpha, over," I heard immediately. In my hurry to get to the radio, I tripped on a box and was rubbing my knee as I picked up the mike.

"Cowboy Tango 1 Alpha, this is Cowboy 3 Alpha, over."

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, this is Tango 1 Alpha. I wasn't sure that I could get you. Be advised that I have been informed that there was an attack at site Hotel 16 very early this morning. We are on the way there at present, over."

"Tango 1 Alpha, this is 3 Alpha. Roger. Understand attack at site Hotel 16. This station will remain on the air for further updates, over."

"Roger, 3 Alpha. Nothing further now. Cowboy Tango 1 Alpha, out." I immediately hurried out to let the others know.

Sawyer and Phillips were in the S-3 (Operations) working on the monthly report. The CO, however, was at Thai Army Headquarters here, again. Since we didn't have a land line connection to them, and he wasn't likely to have left the radio on in the jeep or to be near it, we had no way to contact him about the present situation. That would need to be remedied.

There was another call coming in when I returned to the radio room.

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, Cowboy 3 Alpha, this is Tango 2 Alpha, over."

"Tango 2 Alpha, this is Cowboy 3 Alpha, over."

"3 Alpha, we also have reports of attacks over night at sites Hotel 23, 24, and 26. We are on our way to investigate, but expect it to be some time before we have a final report, over."

"Tango 2 Alpha, Cowboy 3 Alpha. Roger. Do not wait for a final report. Send reports as you have the information. Anything further, over?"

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, negative. Tango 2 Alpha, out."

Team 2 called back at about 1115 hrs.

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, Cowboy 3 Alpha, this is Tango 2 Alpha, over."

"Tango 2 Alpha, this is Cowboy 3 Alpha, go."

"3 Alpha, we're at site Hotel 23 (Phat Tong). There is some light damage here. The locals report receiving four rounds of mortar fire just after midnight, over."

"Tango 2 Alpha, Cowboy 3 Alpha. Roger, I copy light damage from four rounds of mortar fire, over."

"Roger, 3 Alpha. We are on the way to Hotel 24. Tango 2 Alpha, out."

It was 1145 hrs when Tweed called in again.

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, this is Tango 1 Alpha, over,"

"Tango 1 Alpha, this is Cowboy 3 Alpha, go."

"We are at site Hotel 16 (Pa Hang), 3 Alpha. They received two rounds of mortar fire very early this morning. There are no clocks here, so they could only say that the moon was still up. These were followed by a large flash of light and then thunder. Does this sound familiar, over?"

"Tango 1 Alpha, this is 3 Alpha. If you mean like when I arrived at our old camp, yes, over?"

"Roger, 3 Alpha. That's what I was thinking. The militia here is forming up a patrol to go investigate the site. Some of the local men say they know where the flash came from. I will be off the air for some time, as I am accompanying the patrol, over."

"Tango 1 Alpha, Cowboy 3 Alpha. Understand you will accompany patrol. Be careful, over."

"Roger, 3 Alpha. Always careful. Tango 1 Alpha, out."

"Well, damn," Sawyer said as he had been in here listening with me. I finished filling out my log just before the CO returned. After reading it, he and Sawyer went over to Operations while I stayed near the radio and finished the clean-up I had started earlier.

Around 1230 hrs, Team 2 reported that H 24 (Pha Deng) also had light damage from a mortar attack and two people had been killed.

At 1400 hrs, Team 3 reported that travelers had informed them that road 1C had been closed by the Thai Army at the internal Thai border between Lang Phrasing and Houaphan provinces. Following Team 3, Team 2 reported that H 26 (Tony Duane) had received ten rounds of mortar fire sometime early that morning. There were 5 dead and several buildings had been badly damaged or destroyed. The locals were very nervous. We had heard nothing further from Tango 1.

"So where is the real trouble going to come from?" I asked Sawyer and the CO when they returned to the radio room.

"Too early to tell," the CO, Phil, said with a grin, "but it's not too early to lay on some transportation for tomorrow. Baker, get in touch with the helicopter unit and request two CH-47s for tomorrow morning. I'm going back out to Thai Army headquarters to see the S-3 Air and arrange for a fighter escort if necessary.

"Sawyer make sure that the people at the airfield have four pallets ready for us. Have them put a drum of gas on each one, and tell them to leave room for the boxes of bike parts. We'll bring them out in the morning, and take everything to the sites with us. We'll see what else is needed when we get the regular reports tonight," he finished.

"What about Carstairs?" I asked.

"Yes, go over there this afternoon and see what he has. Don't let too much out of the bag though," the CO told me.

"Yes, don't mention Team 1. The attacks in Team 2's area are OK and the road closing at the border is OK, too," Sawyer advised me, and the CO nodded in agreement.

Going to see Carstairs was a waste of time as usual, and I was the one that gave him the latest intel this time. He couldn't believe it.

Tweed didn't contact us at his normal reporting time, but we weren't too concerned, as he had said it would be a while before he returned from the patrol. The other Teams reported in at their normal times, and I alerted them to expect visitors tomorrow at their primary sites and to have their radios on after 1000 hrs.

Tweed finally contacted us just before we were to contact Desk Rider.

"Cowboy 3 Alpha, this is Tango 1 Alpha, over."

"Tango 1 Alpha, this is Cowboy 6, go."

"Cowboy 6, this is Tango 1 Alpha. I just got back with the patrol. We hit the jackpot here, six. Get 3 Alpha to tell you about his first night at the old camp. It was almost the same thing here. Apparently there was an 'Ammunition Malfunction' that killed the mortar crew, but left the weapon in fairly good shape. However, there was no explosion in the depot here like at the old camp. The depot is in caves here and it's loaded.

"There must be a division's worth of supplies here. There is everything from AK-47s to tons of bagged rice. It looks like this little valley was to be one of the main invasion routes for the NVA. They must have been quietly stocking this place for months and the locals never knew it.

"The local militia leader, who was riding with me has alerted everyone in the area with any kind of transportation to come in here and help move it all before the NVA realize what has happened and sends people to secure the area again, over."

"Tango 1 Alpha, this is Cowboy 6. Roger. We will be at your location by more or less 1030 hrs tomorrow. See if you can persuade them to stockpile basic infantry weapons and ammunition there for us to move to the other Teams sites. If there is as much as you say, they can afford to share some of it. Do you have smoke grenades, over?"

"Cowboy 6, this is Tango 1 Alpha. Roger, I have two and can probably find more in all of this. Come in to Hotel 16, as the area where the caves are is inaccessible even to choppers, over."

"Tango 1, Cowboy 6. Roger. Have your radio on and we'll call in. Good luck. We'll see you tomorrow. Cowboy 6, out."

"Just damn," was all that Sawyer said after the CO signed off. Right after that I contacted Desk Rider, and the CO filled them in on today's happenings, but didn't mention the liberated supplies. Desk Rider had initially been unhappy that we were late with our report, but by the time the CO finished, they were excited.

After the CO got off the radio with Desk Rider, Sawyer and I explained what had happened at the old camp in Cambodia and what an 'Ammunition Malfunction' was. He was suitably amazed.

"We are going to need a portable radio," I told them after all of the explanations were done. "Plus we may need to start monitoring the radio 24/7 for updates."

"That could be difficult," Sawyer said, "and we don't have anything more portable than the jeep radio."

"Do we need to monitor the radio all night?" the CO asked.

"I don't know. The calls all started coming in around mid-morning. It will probably take that long again for information to get to the Teams unless the trouble happens where they happen to be located. I'll monitor the radio until midnight," I told them. "If nothing comes in by then, I'll turn it off till in the morning."

"All right. Don't be up too late. You're going with us in the morning," the CO told me. "I want someone on each of those choppers, as I may have to leave you part way through."

"Leave us?" Sawyer asked.

"It has been strongly suggested by those at Thai Army Headquarters here that I visit the governor of Houaphan Province, a Mister Pheuiphanh in Xam Neua, the province capital, since we have been operating in his province for several days now with out his knowledge," the CO informed us.

"Who will man the radio while I'm gone?" I asked.

"That could be a problem," Sawyer said. Suenee walked in as he was saying this.

"I will sit by the radio," she said. "It will function if I am here. Sgt. Phillips will have to talk on it though, as I know nothing of your way of doing that."

"You're sure of this?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes, my amulet told me this. The Amulets are the ones that made the radio and it will work for me. Also there are parts to construct a portable radio in the shipping container. There are new pages in the manual that explain how to do this," she told us. I was shocked at her words, but they certainly explained a lot of things that I had wondered about.

"Aren't you just full of surprises?" Sawyer managed to say when Suenee finished.

"It is the Amulets that have the surprises, as the North Vietnamese will find out," Suenee told him with a small smile.

The others left after that, but Suenee stayed with me. I dug the main manual for the radio out of the shipping container and sure enough there were pages in the back that had been blank before but now had instructions and pictures of how to put together a man-portable radio using the repair components of 'the Radio'.

The finished unit only had five watts of output as it just used the first stage transmitter module and the receiver module. There was even a small encryption module. It all fit into a parts container that the battery attached to with another parts container to form a sealed unit.

Luckily we had received several PRC 25 batteries, in error we had thought. That is, up until now. There was even a small whip antenna in the shipping container for it, and I had everything put together in an hour or so.

At midnight, Suenee and I went to bed, as there had been no further calls.

Thursday, I was up at 0700, but let Suenee sleep longer. I went down and got a bucket of the hot water from the heater and came back upstairs and showered using it to warm another bucket of cold water. I still didn't like cold showers. Suenee was up by the time I finished and used the remainder of the warm water to wash up also.

After breakfast I turned on the radio, but didn't receive any calls. Phillips came in and I gave him all of the frequencies that we used and the call signs. Sawyer had already explained to him about Suenee being here to make 'the radio' work. After that I took the portable and drove out several miles to be sure that it was working. It worked just fine.

At 0900, Phillips drove us out to the airfield and then returned to the compound which Suenee and Sophie had been guarding in his absence.

The two CH-47s arrived at 0930. There hadn't been any mechanical problems today, and we had the same two pilots again today. The four pallets had been waiting on the loading ramp when we arrived and we had added the boxes to them and marked which team they went to. I helped get them loaded while Sawyer and the CO briefed the pilots on today's missions. We were ready to take off by 1000 hrs.

The flight to site H-16 (Pa Hang) took around forty minutes. I started calling Tweed when we were five minutes out and he popped smoke for us to judge the wind for landing. We actually landed on the road just outside of the village and the pilots shut down both aircraft.

"Boy, am I glad to see you guys," a very happy Tweed said after a quick salute.