Chapter 14

Captain Tamusarit (Cowboy 6) was early with his report that evening.

"Old Hand, Old Hand, this is Thai Cowboy 6. Over."

"Thai Cowboy 6, this is Old Hand. Over."

"Old Hand, this is Cowboy 6. Is your Six available? Over," I handed the mike to the Major who was standing next to me now.

"Cowboy 6, Hand 6. Go."

"Hand 6, Cowboy 6. My people are all back from their patrols. The site near my location was the first one checked. They found a large crater in the mountain side above a small river southwest of us, and approximately twenty-four kilometers from us. The river was blocked by rubble from the explosion. There was nothing left to indicate what had been stored there.

"At my southern location, there was also the remains of a cave above another small river approximately twenty-three kilometers due west of that location, and it was near one of the narrow local roads in that area. There was nothing worth recovering there either.

"At the shared middle location, the site of the explosion was also on a small river, but it was due north of their location about ten kilometers. It would have been blocked from your observation by the mountain with an elevation of 2045 meters about six kilometers behind it. There was nothing worth recovering there either.

"Have you any instructions for us? Over."

"Cowboy 6, Hand 6. No further instructions at this time. Keep a sharp lookout. The people that those supplies belonged to will eventually find out that they are gone. They'll be real unhappy about that.

"Our northern site was just as destroyed as your sites were. The site near our location was more fruitful. We'll be sending your support unit a gift on the next big chopper that comes this way. Old Hand 6, out," the Major finished.

"I'll be arranging a Commanders conference in a few days to get together and discuss the current situation. As I mentioned to Cowboy 6, the Chinese are going to be real upset about losing all of that material. What is that phrase that the Thais use?" he asked, as he handed me the mike.

"The Mon-sai!?" I asked with a grin.

"Yes, I believe that's it. I've heard it translated variously as a 'bloody period' and as a 'bad case of the ass', but I believe the first would be more appropriate for this situation," the Major said with a grin.

At 2200 hrs, I made contact with the B-Detachment in Chiang Mai for our nightly report. The Major took the mike once I had established contact with them. Desk Jockey 3 was already there.

"Jockey 3, Hand 6. Patrols today verified all five of the explosion sites. Apparently there were six explosions. The site near my location had two caves. Both exploded. There was nothing worth recovering at any of the sites after the explosions.

"All of the cave sites were located on small rivers that flowed into the Salween from the surrounding mountains. One site was located behind a waterfall. All of the sites were searched for additional caves, but no additional caves were located.

"It would appear that the enemy is using these small rivers and the caves located in the mountains above them as storage sites for war materials to resupply their units during an invasion. We will be forwarding overlays of the explosion sites on the next available aircraft. Do you have anything for us? Over."

"Hand 6, Jockey 3. Nothing further at this time. How is the security of your camps coming? Will you be able to pull your observation posts out in the event of trouble? Over."

"Jockey 3, Hand 6. Yes, we have contingency plans for pulling all of our observers out if necessary. They are also prepared to E & E (Escape and Evade) if necessary. Over."

"Hand 6, Jockey 3. Roger. Desk Jockey 3, out."

"You didn't mention the mortars, sir," SFC Lee said, as I shut down the radio.

"Most certainly not, Sergeant!" the Major answered. "What the Thai Rangers managed to acquire is theirs, and not something that we would be interested in. Besides, we may need them if the Chinese are really upset, and Desk Jockey 3 would want us to send all of them down to him."

"Do you expect an attack then, sir?" SFC Lee asked.

"Expect - no. Taking precautions if there should be one - most certainly. We need to order more sandbags and ammunition. Also mines and claymores for the concertina. The Rangers can also start on bunkers around the perimeter. We will also, in a week or so, need to speak to the village headman about the possibility of an attack here," the Major informed us.

After all of this excitement, things settled down for a while. Work on the camp progressed steadily. The tents were sandbagged. Additional ammunition was received, and mines and claymores were installed in the concertina wire surrounding the camp. Two of the mortars and half of their ammunition were transferred to the 3rd Company in Nawng-awn. The medical tent was dug in to form a large bunker. The water system was expanded to pump water to a central point in Nawngh Kam, so that they didn't need to go all the way down to the river each day to carry water back for their houses.

With all of this activity, the medics weren't lacking for patients. Someone was always getting injured. Malaria wasn't a big problem here in the mountains, but the medics made sure that standing water was eliminated as much as possible to eliminate breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Word of soldiers being here had quickly spread, and soon a number of young, fairly good looking women began to arrive in town. Additional restaurants and some bars had also opened, as a number of Rangers were allowed to go into town each evening. This did lead to some clashes with the local people and a new problem - VD.

It wasn't long before the medical personnel had to set up a VD clinic and require the young women working in the bars and restaurants to have blood tests each week and carry an immunization card at work to show that they had been tested that week and were clean, at least on the day tested.

The local people, who had no doctor, also began to show up at camp with all kinds of maladies. The medics, both ours and the ones from the Ranger Company, set up a 'sick call' for the locals each morning after seeing the military people that had complaints. We needed to order a lot of medical supplies to keep them in business.

The Major's Commander's conference was held on Tuesday the 16th and involved him and the three Thai Captains and Captain Fleming. It only lasted for one morning.

Payday rolled around again. The 30th was on a Sunday this month and payday was on the 29th. The Major allowed half of the Team to return to Chiang Rai on the 29th and the other half on the 30th. He allowed Tweed and me to stay both days because our wives were there. We definitely appreciated that, as did our wives.

A CH-47 arrived with supplies on Saturday morning, and we boarded it for the return flight to Chiang Rai. It stopped at Nawng-awn for half of the Thai A-Team before returning to Chiang Rai. We got a ride from the Airbase to the Team House and got paid. Lieutenant Wesley informed Captain Richardson that the remainder of both teams would be in tomorrow.

Our wives and daughters were very glad to see us when we arrived home around noon time. Suenee had gotten a bit larger from her pregnancy in my absence, but was still doing well.

"How long will you be able to stay, my Bill?" she asked after I had put Lesia back down on the floor again.

"Until tomorrow afternoon," I told her.

"Not long! Is all well at your camp?" she asked, concerned.

"Yes, so far," I told her, and explained all that had happened that month.

"The Chinese will be very unhappy when they learn of the destruction of their supplies. They will send people to investigate, and to attack you," Suenee told me, knowingly.

"Yes, we have been preparing for that," I told her, and held her to me tightly.

"There will be danger, soon," Suenee told me when I released her.

"You're sure of that?" I asked.

"Yes, but the Amulets are with you. Do not worry, my Bill," Suenee told me.

That night Suenee and I, plus Tweed and Phesila went to bed early. Suenee and I made love that night, and again in the morning. I was certain that Tweed and Phesila had also.

Sunday morning we went shopping for a few things that we wanted that weren't available in Nawngh Kam. Early that afternoon, Suenee pulled me into the bedroom again for more sex. My sweet wife definitely missed me when I was off on an assignment.

We were back at the Team House at 1600 to catch a ride to the Airbase with the others. The helicopter departed at 1630 hrs, and we were back at our camp by1800 hrs. The Thai Paymaster was on the flight back with us. He would go on to Nawng-awn tomorrow after paying the troops here to pay the soldiers there.

It was definitely cold in Nawngh Kam in December. The 5th of December is the King's Birthday - a national holiday, and as many men as possible were allowed to be off while still maintaining our security. There was a big party planned by the cooks to celebrate the King's Birthday. We hadn't really celebrated Thanksgiving and joined in with the Rangers in celebrating the King's Birthday. The local people here also didn't really celebrate Loi Katong, which had been a few days before Thanksgiving this year, so this was really the first holiday that we had celebrated here, and everyone really enjoyed themselves. On Saturday, the 6th, it was back to the grind, although there were a number of people with bad heads and / or bad stomachs.

It had now been four weeks since the explosions on the 8th of November, and we hadn't seen nor heard of anything unusual occurring on the Salween. Our observers had reported only normal traffic. There had been no more explosions or anything else unusual. Tweed and I were worried.

"Something should have happened by now," we both told the Major.

"Can't you deal with peace and quiet?" he asked with a smile.

"The Chinese have had a month to find out about their missing supplies," Tweed said.

"They aren't the kind of people to let something like that happen without doing something about it. Surely some of their people heard the explosions, or have gone to check on their supplies, or to deliver additional supplies," I reminded him.

"There has been nothing reported by our observers. No additional traffic or supplies of any kind have been spotted on the river," the Major assured us.

"They could have snuck in some inspectors quietly, or they could have already been here," Tweed reminded him, but nothing unusual was being reported. Both Tweed and I even went to check the river ourselves, in the daytime and at night, but we also found nothing unusual.

It was therefore quite a surprise when on the morning of 18 December, the observers at Man-Namlet radioed us at 0800 hrs to report seeing heavy lightning flashes and hearing loud thunder that morning at around 0400 hrs. Normally this wouldn't have been of any concern, but December is well into the dry season, and lightning and rain storms are considered very unusual. Later that morning, they reported seeing heavy debris and many bodies in the water, but they had no ability to recover any of it or them.

I was immediately instructed to contact the other observation posts to make them aware of this, while two platoons of Rangers were organized to see if we could recover any of this debris or those bodies when they passed by our area. By our best estimate it would be several hours before any of that could make its way this far.

We had received two Army assault boats with outboard motors for work on the river. They were launched and placed on standby until something was detected in the river. There was a squad of Rangers sent up along the river with a radio to report any sightings.

The Major immediately alerted our helicopter support to prepare to launch a reconnaissance flight up the river. He and Tweed set off on the flight about 45 minutes later. I received a message from them half an hour after they departed.

"Old Hand, Old Hand, this is Old Hand 6. Over."

"Old Hand 6, this is Old Hand. Go."

"Old Hand, Hand 6. We are approaching our northern outpost. We have started seeing debris in the water. There are rapids that begin just south of that location and it was difficult to see anything in the water there. Will resume contact when we reach calmer water. Old Hand 6, out."

It was another twenty-five minutes before they came back on the air.

"Old Hand, Hand 6. We are well north of our northern observation post. The river here is flowing much slower, and we can see a lot of debris in the water and many bodies. It appears that any equipment with any weight to it has sunk to the bottom of the river.