Chapter 15

The following new characters appear in the remaining chapters:

Richard Starling (Rick)

Commo specialist, SP/4, 5’-10” tall, 145 pounds, 23 years old, blond hair, gray eyes.

Harry Williams

Commo specialist, SP/4, 5’-7’ tall, 155 pounds, 21 years old, brown hair, brown eyes

Noon

Thai girl from Chiang Rai, 5’-0” tall, 100 pounds, 32C-20-31, 19 years old, long shiny black hair, brown eyes, very cute

The next morning, the 19th, I was up early and fired up the AN/VRC 47 radio after the generator had stabilized. I sent Broyles to breakfast when he came in, and also turned on one of the PRC-77 radios for any local traffic.

Operations came to life around me shortly after 0700, and I went to breakfast when Broyles returned to watch the radios. There was a notice of a briefing at 0900 for all U.S. personnel in camp posted in the mess tent. On returning to Operations, Captain Paribetra was there talking to the Major.

“We need to do something about the bodies on the river bank,” he was saying, as I entered the tent.

“What’s the problem?” the Major asked.

“They are starting to decay, even in these cool temperatures, and flies are gathering on them,” the Captain told him. SFC Bill ‘Doc’ Fleming, the Senior Medic, came in then to also speak to the Major. He heard the last part of Captain Paribetra’s remarks.

“Yes sir, they are quickly becoming a health hazard,” he said. “I was just coming to speak to you about them.”

“What preventive measures can we take, Doc?” the Major asked.

“We can use the same lime that is used in the latrines on them to keep down the smell, and cover the bodies to keep the flies off of them,” ‘Doc’ Fleming told him.

“Cover them with what?” the Major asked, unsure of what to use.

“We have a number of canvas covers that the tents were delivered in. Some of them could be used. They can be washed and disinfected later,” Fleming told him.

“Make it so,” the Major told them. “I don’t know when the village headman will have the timber available to cremate the bodies. If he takes overly long, we’ll burn the tent covers with them.” Both Captain Paribetra and SFC Fleming left to take care of it.

Apparently, the Major had spoken to Sergeant Lee about assuming part of the duties of radio operator while I was at breakfast, as he came over to talk to me when things had calmed down in Operations.

“What additional do I need to know about the radios,” he asked me.

“Not a lot more than you are already familiar with,” I told him. “Broyles and I will take care of turning the sets on and off, and changing the frequencies. We’ll also take care of the generator, although you will need to keep an eye on the fuel when we are aren’t here.

“The log is to keep track of the calls, and only requires a few notes. It’s fairly self-explanatory. Other than that, it’s just listening for calls, and we normally don’t get that many calls here. It’s when things go wrong that there will be additional calls, or when there are arrivals like the courier that is coming in today,” I finished, as the light came on in my mind. “Aviation personnel,” I kept hearing in my mind, but I didn’t have a chance to talk to the Major before the briefing at 0900 hrs.

Just before 0900, all of the U.S. personnel had gathered outside of the Operations tent. There were all of the members of the A-Team who were in camp. One was in Man-Namlet with the observers. Even the Medics had closed down for the meeting. The personnel from the Red Tigers were here also. I hadn’t realized how many of them there were until now. Captain Paribetra and several of his Officers had also joined us. They were wearing the Browning Hi-Power pistols that I had found and were as proud of them as could be.

MSG Sorenson called everyone to attention at 0900, and the Major appeared from the Operations tent to receive his report of ‘all present’. The Major then gave ‘at ease’ and then ‘take your seats, such as they are’. He waited while we got settled before he began to speak.

“As most of you are aware, there was quite a bit of activity yesterday. There were debris and bodies spotted in the river by our people at Man-Namlet north of here, and we retrieved some of the bodies and debris last evening.

“Among the bodies that were recovered was that of a Lieutenant Colonel who had a waterproof dispatch case with him. Inside it were orders and maps in Chinese. After a lot of effort by SFC Lee, two Ranger Sergeants, and an elderly civilian from town, we believe that we know what those orders say. I would like to extend my personal thanks to all of those who helped in the translation effort.

“Basically what the orders said was that the unit that the Chinese Army’s High Command had sent here was to check on all of the supplies that had been pre-positioned here in the Shan States and determine if they had been discovered or removed. If they determined that they had been discovered or were missing, they were to determine who had done that and were to eliminate the people in that town, or the unit if they were Military. There were to be no survivors. They were not to return until they had fulfilled their mission.

“Now the good news: there were no instructions for them to report their progress until they returned to their base in China. There were also no additional supply sites indicated on their maps.

“Finally, the bad news is that their maps had everyone of our observation posts located as well as our camps. Are there any questions?” he finished.

“Have we any idea how they located all of our positions, sir?” one of the pilots asked.

“There are several possibilities that suggest themselves,” the Major answered. “Since we have been in contact with all of our locations, they could have located them by triangulation of our radio signals. Secondly, they could have agents here who are keeping an eye on us and sending reports of our locations to their superiors in China, or both of the above. Anything else?” he asked.

“Yes sir,” SFC Fleming, the Senior Medic, asked. “Do we have any idea what happened to them? The bodies that I examined all appeared to have already been dead when they reached the water.”

“We know that Man-Namlet reported seeing fierce lightning and hearing very loud thunder at around 0400 hrs yesterday morning. How that affected them, and what it may have caused we don’t know, and may never know,” the Major told him.

“What will happen when they don’t return, sir?” SSG Lewis, the light weapons specialist, asked.

“We don’t know, Sergeant, and that’s what worries me. We also don’t know how long they were given to complete their mission, or if they were to contact any agents here. That information wasn’t in the orders. The Political Officer may have had that information, but we didn’t recover his body,” the Major told us.

“What are we going to do with the bodies that we recovered, sir, and what about all of the other bodies that will be washing up on shore all along the river?” SSG Taggert, the Junior Medic, asked.

“The bodies here will be cremated as soon as the village headman delivers the wood that he has promised for the cremation fire. I believe a few gallons of jet fuel and gasoline added to it will help things along. As for the other bodies that wash up along the Salween, I don’t know what will happen to them. We saw some on the shore during our reconnaissance flight yesterday. Most were in inaccessible locations. The vultures will get most of them, I would imagine,” the Major finished.

I had sent Broyles in to monitor the radio after the Major had answered the first couple of questions. I was hoping to be able to talk to him before everyone left, but that wasn’t possible. It wasn’t until after we returned to the Operations tent that I was able to speak to him.

“Sir, about that extra man for Commo,” I said approaching him. I could see that he was vexed at my initial statement, but I continued. “Would it be possible to get someone from the Aviation people in here to help out?” I finished. He became very thoughtful looking over the last part.

“I don’t know!” he said at last. “Let me speak to Captain Rust at lunch, and see what could be arranged.”

Just before 1045, the radio came alive.

“Old Hand, Old Hand, this is Black Horse 210. We are approaching with a VIP visitor, and will be landing in about ten minutes. I repeat one zero mikes. Do you copy? Over.”

“Black Horse 210, this is Old Hand. Roger. We copy, and will be ready to meet the visitor. Over,” Broyles sent.

“Old Hand, Black Horse 210. Roger. Out.” We had all heard the transmission and were looking at each other.

“Is this the courier?” MSG Sorenson asked. “They said a VIP visitor!”

“Maybe they sent someone important to pick the stuff up,” Tweed suggested.

“I suppose that’s possible, so let’s get ready to meet them,” the Major told us, and he and MSG Sorenson left in a few minutes to greet the visitors over at the helicopter landing pad. The rest of us made sure that Operations was presentable for the visitors.

The Major and MSG Sorenson returned in about twenty minutes with Major Carlson, the Group S-3, and a Captain, who I didn’t recognize. Tweed called attention just before they entered the tent.

“At ease. Return to your duties,” Major Carlson said, as he entered. He stopped to shake hands with Tweed and also came over to shake hands with me.

“If you’ll have a chair facing the map board, we’ll explain what has occurred over the last thirty-six hours or so, sir,” Major Del Vecchio told our visitors. Once they were seated, he launched into an explanation of the events of yesterday, and finished with an explanation of our attempt to translate the documents last night.

Major Carlson asked some of the same questions that had come up at our briefing: Cause of the accident; what would be done with the bodies, etc. Major Del Vecchio gave him the same answers, as they were all that we had. Major Carlson sat there in thought for a few seconds before he looked up.

“I noticed that you very carefully refrained from mentioning the Amulets,” he said, and then looked from Major Del Vecchio to Tweed and me. “I seem to remember a similar occurrence in Cambodia in 1966.” Major Del Vecchio turned to look at me and shrugged.

“Yes sir,” I answered. “It was similar in many ways. I believe it was blamed on “Jungle Spirits” at the time.”

“Yes, and I suppose it’s ‘River Spirits’ this time!!” Major Carlson said, sarcastically.

“I haven’t actually heard the local people speak of ‘River Spirits’, sir. Of course my Hmong is rather poor,” I told him.

“I see, and all that we DO know about the cause is a report of lightning and thunder?” Major Carlson asked.

“Yes sir. It is the dry season, and those are unusual occurrences now, which is why the observers reported it,” Major Del Vecchio told him.

“So we don’t know where they were when this unfortunate ‘accident’ occurred then?” Major Carlson asked.

“No sir. My people only reported that it was up river, north of them,” Major Del Vecchio replied.

“What about this debris?” Major Carlson asked next.

“Pieces of broken boats, broken boxes, and a few whole but empty boxes were retrieved. All were things that could float. Anything with any weight appears to have sunk long before it reached us, or was destroyed in the many rapids on the way here. The gorge that the river flows through above Man-Namlet is rather narrow and the sides are very steep. We flew up there yesterday morning looking for answers, but could see little in the turbulent water from the height that we needed to fly at because of the narrowness of the gorge,” Major Del Vecchio explained.

“All right!” Major Carlson said after a few seconds, sounding rather tired. “Let Captain Wakefield examine those documents. He is an expert on the Chinese written form, and is on loan to us from USARPAC. He will leave a translation for you before we leave. We’ll be taking the documents and maps with us to be forwarded to USARPAC for further scrutiny.

“While he is doing that, let’s go down to the river, and look at some of this debris. Maybe we can make some sense out of it,” Major Carlson finished.