Chapter 9

Note: All of the names of places in the Shan States are actual towns there located along the Salween River. The names of towns in China are actual towns located near the border with the Shan States.

Tweed and I left for home after the Major finished. I locked the commo room and returned the key to the CQ. We returned to the hotel to drop off our LBE and picked up a clean set of tiger fatigues to change into in the morning. We didn’t run into, or see anyone on the way to the house, but were glad to have the pistols with us never the less. It was nearly 2300 by the time that we got home. The showers that we took at home that night were very cold, and we decided to shower at the hotel from now on, as they at least had hot water.

Suenee was certainly sweet and warm when I got in bed that night, but we only slept after a little hugging and kissing. I was awakened a little before 0700 by a knock on the door.

“You up in there?” Tweed asked in a loud voice.

“I am now,” I told him.

“We’re done in the bathroom,” he called back. Suenee and I got up, and took care of our morning business, and I shaved. Breakfast was ready by the time I was dressed in the clean set of fatigues I had carried home last night. Tweed and I ate it quickly while our wives ate at a more sedate pace. We gave them quick kisses, before putting on our boots on the front porch and setting off for the hotel by 0745.

At the hotel, we reconfigured our field gear for what we would be carrying today, and then hurried over to the Team House. We drew our weapons and ammunition at the open arms room, filled all of our canteens from the water trailer, and drew our C-rations. Everyone met at the Major’s jeep just before 0830.

“Is everyone ready?” he asked.

“Yes,” Tweed and I answered, as did Captain Fleming. Captain Tamusarit answered for himself and his NCO.

“All right. Let’s get on the road for the Airbase. Our flight is scheduled for 0900, and I don’t want them wasting any fuel waiting for us. We may need all the fuel they can carry,” he told us. Tweed drove, and Captain Fleming and I sat in the back seat. Captain Tamusarit had his own jeep and followed us.

Arriving at the Red Tiger’s operations tent well before 0900, we parked our jeeps. Their Operations Sergeant was shocked when he saw how we were outfitted, as we approached his desk at the entrance of the tent.

“Whoa!! You all look like you’re expecting a fight,” he said, as he stood up behind his desk.

“It’s always best to be prepared,” the Major told him.

“Ah ... yes, sir, if you say so. I take it you are the passengers for the flight scheduled at 0900,” he said.

“Yes, we are,” the Major answered.

“The ship is over on pad 16. My clerk will show you where it is,” the Operations Sergeant told us. A young SP/4 (Specialist 4th Class, E-4) led us over to one of the waiting helicopters. It was a ‘D’ model Huey. The ‘D’ models were the most recent, and had larger cabins, doors, and engines than earlier models. This one showed several patches where it had taken damage from bullets in the past. It was not an encouraging sign. We were greeted there by an SP/5 (Specialist 5th Class, E-5) - the crew chief of the helicopter.

“Morning, sir,” he said, as he saluted. “I take it that you are our passengers.”

“Yes,” the Major answered again.

“We’ll be ready to leave shortly, sir. My gunner is drawing his gun and ammunition,” the crew chief informed us. “Go ahead and load up,” he finished. The pilots, two Warrant Officers, arrived shortly after we were loaded.

“Where’s Andy?” the senior pilot asked the crew chief.

“He’s over drawing a machine gun, Chief,” the crew chief answered.

“Machine gun?” the Warrant Officer asked.

“Yes, sir. Operations called, and said to draw one for this flight,” the crew chief told him.

“Are WE going somewhere dangerous?” the other Warrant Officer asked.

“Don’t know, Chief. Ask the passengers,” the crew chief told him with a shrug.

“Morning, Major. I’m Chief Andrews,” the senior Warrant Officer said, as he saluted. “I was told that we were going for a flight in the Shan States. That isn’t supposed to be dangerous this far from the Burmese border,” Chief Andrews stated.

“I’m afraid that where we are going may be as dangerous as flying in Vietnam, Chief,” the Major told him.

“Just where are we going, sir? The flight instructions weren’t real specific on that. They only said ‘Reconnaissance Flight’.”

“We’re going on a reconnaissance of the Salween River, Chief. I’ve laid out the route that I want to follow on the map,” the Major told him, as he pulled out his map. “We would fly out on an azimuth of 296 degrees for about 125 kilometers until we reached the town of Wan Hsa-la on the Salween River. Road 45 crosses the river there.

“From there I want to follow the Salween River north as far as you can go, but at least to the town of Nawng-awn, which is also on the river. Road number 4 crosses the river there. The return trip from there is about 190 kilometers on an azimuth of 141 degrees,” the Major finished while showing them the map and the overlay that he had all of this information drawn on.

“What’s this Hlkanbon that you have circled, sir?” the co-pilot asked looking at the map also.

“I was hoping to follow the river that far today, Chief,” the Major told him. “The return flight from there is about 250 kilometers on an azimuth of 153 degrees.”

“Those are some long distances, Major. Even with a full load of fuel, I don’t know that we can make it to that last town and return. The CO (Commanding Officer) would be all kinds of upset if I were to dent this baby,” Chief Andrews said as he slapped the side of the ship. “We’ll go as far as I think we have fuel for,” the Chief finished.

“Fair enough, Chief. I’m not big on walking back,” the Major assured him. The pilots got out their own maps then and marked the locations and route on them.

During all of this, Andy, the gunner, had returned with a modified M-60 and its ammunition. Tweed and I helped him get the gun mounted and the ammunition loaded.

“Let’s all mount up,” Chief Andrews said, as they finished marking their maps, and the crew chief removed the red flags from the tips of the rotor blades.

“Clear left,” the crew chief called checking his side of the ship, once we were all seated.

“Clear right,” Andy called after checking his side. We could hear the pumps and the starter run then, and shortly we heard the turbine engine ignite. The rotors slowly began to turn, and the ship to vibrate. We all put on the provided helmets to protect our hearing, and so we could follow the conversation between the pilots. The three officers had mikes to communicate with the pilots and each other.

“Here we go,” I heard the pilot say over the intercom, and we began to move forward and gain speed. Since it was a lot cooler here in the mountains, and we were more lightly loaded than my first flight in Cambodia, the pilot didn’t have any trouble getting airborne.

It took us just over 35 minutes to reach the vicinity of Wan Hsa-la. We came to the road before reaching the town and followed it to the town and the river.

The area around Chiang Rai had been hilly, and we had seen a couple of taller mountains. We had also seen the many rice fields in the area. Some were water filled near the river, but many were dry and had never held water, as the people here grew a lot of rice in dry fields.

The landscape grew progressively more rugged, as we flew into the Shan States, and we could see several tall mountains, as we approached Wan Hsa-la. There we turned generally north and followed the river. Even from the helicopter, we could see that the river ran very fast where it narrowed, and was slower and calmer where it widened out. The country became even more rugged as we followed the river north through its various meanderings, as much of it was anything but straight.

As we approached Nawng-awn, the terrain became even more rugged and mountainous. There were a number of very tall mountains visible from the air near the town.

“Just damn!” Tweed hollered in my ear. “This place is all up and down. It makes Houaphan look almost flat. Can’t we ever get assigned to someplace flat?” We heard the Major talking to the pilot then.

“Can you circle over the town, so we can get a good look at it, Chief?” he asked.

“Roger, sir,” the Chief replied, as the aircraft tilted, and we came around to circle the town. It wasn’t all that large, and the area around it while not level, nothing here was, most of it was on a reasonably flat incline. We could see the bridge where road number 4 crossed the Salween. It didn’t appear all that sturdy.

“The town is some three hundred kilometers from Chiang Rai by road according to the map. That is when the road is passable, which it may not be for much of the year,” the Major told us over the intercom.

After a good look at the town, we headed further up the Salween. The terrain became even more rugged and the mountains higher as we flew further north. We were partway to Hlkanbon when the pilot broke in with bad news.

“Unless you want to walk part of the way back to base, sir, we need to turn around and head for the barn,” he informed us.

“You’re the expert, Chief. Turn back when you need to,” the Major told him. We turned then, and started back south over some of the most rugged terrain that I had ever seen. Like Tween had said, it was almost all up and down. While we had seen some farming on the hills near the river, this area was much dryer, and crops were less plentiful. We passed over, or near a number of small villages or towns, and could see numerous tall mountains.

It was nearly noon by the time we landed back at Chiang Rai RTAB, and Chief Andrews shut the turbine down quickly once we were on the ground.

“In case you are interested, sir, we still have a few pounds of fuel left, but not a lot. I wouldn’t want to cut it that close all of the time,” the Chief told him.

“Were we that close to being out of fuel, Chief?” the Major asked.

“Yes, sir. The low fuel light has been on for the last fifteen minutes,” the Chief replied.

“Don’t worry, Chief,” the Major told him. “I’m planning on setting up a refueling point at Nawng-awn, so we can reach the more northerly parts of the river.”

“More northerly?” Tweed and I asked in surprise.

“Oh yes, we’ll be setting up much further up the river than we went today,” the Major told us.

“Let’s return to the Team House, turn in these weapons, and have lunch. After that we’ll meet in the conference room at the Team House, and I’ll outline how I propose to set up the operation,” the Major told us. We loaded into the jeeps, and returned to the Team House. After a leisurely lunch, we gathered in the conference room.

“Now that you have seen the terrain from the air, here is how I propose to run this operation,” the Major said to start the meeting. He already had a larger map laid out on the table in the conference room that covered the area we had flown over that morning, and it went even farther north.

“First, I propose to have Captain Tamusarit and his Team set up their base of operation at Nawng-awn along with Captain Pengdith’s 3rd Ranger Company. They will be responsible for monitoring the river from Wan Hsa-la to Hlkanbon.

“Second, I propose to set up the American A-Team at Nawngh Kam along with Captain Paribetra’s 2nd Ranger Company. We will be monitoring the river from Hlkanbon north to Man-Namlet,” the Major told us while pointing out the various locations on the map.

“The distance from Man-Namlet to Wan Hsa-la is approximately 380 kilometers on the river, thanks to its meandering course. Initially I want to set up observation teams at each of the named locations to determine the amount of traffic on the river. These teams would track the traffic twenty-four hours a day to determine what the patterns are in each area. We’ll need Starlight scopes for that at night, which is when I suspect the enemy will move most of their supplies. Later we’ll set up observation teams to cover the most likely areas where they are hiding the supplies based on the initial observations,” the Major continued.