Chapter 18

I awoke just after 0430 hrs. As tired as I had been when I turned in, I felt fine now and crawled out of my nice warm sleeping bag to be greeted by a very chilly morning. I dressed quickly and headed for Operations, the coded messages, and the code book.

Williams was on radio watch. He looked a little tired and cold. The radio was quiet, and the generator was the only sound to be heard.

"You can go to bed, Williams. I'll take over," I told him as my eyes grew more accustomed to the intensity of light in Operations.

"Thanks, Sarge. It's sure cold enough here at night, even if it is nice during the day," he said before he headed for his bunk.

"Yes, it is!" I answered, as I collected all of the loose sheets of paper that we had gotten from the merchant and the code book. I sat near the radio so I could hear any calls that came in.

I spread the papers out and looked them over. There were notations on the sheets in what looked like Thai or maybe Lao, plus there were some Chinese characters in the margins. I would need to get someone to look at them. The rest of each sheet was covered by well spaced groups of three letters in the English alphabet.

Opening the code manual, I could see that it was divided into several sections. The topics were spelled out at the tops of various pages in Chinese characters, in Thai characters, and surprisingly in English letters. They divided the book into different categories, so the correct code could be easily found for sending messages.

The second part of the book was an alphabetical listing for decoding messages and ran from AAA to ZZZ. The meaning of each set of letters was spelled out in each of the three languages. I was able to fairly quickly decode several of the messages. They were reports of our activities here, but only in a very general way, as if the reporter had only seen part of what was happening.

The message that I had intercepted the other night turned out to be a request for information about the missing column. No one had checked in with the spies, as they had been told they would, and it appeared that he / they were anxious over the delay. He repeatedly kept requesting information in several places in the message.

The final sheet contained the message they had received tonight, and I was very careful decoding it. I was equally as shocked at what it said, as I was at what it left out, and I looked up to see what time it was. To my surprise it was 0700 hrs, and Tweed came in as I was looking at the clock.

"You're up early!" he said in surprise. "I thought you would sleep until noon at least."

"I got up about 0430. Couldn't sleep," I told him. "I've been working on these messages, and have discovered that we have a problem!!" I finished.

"What kind of problem?" I heard the Major ask from behind the two of us, as he entered the tent.

"Morning, sir," Tweed said, as I turned and handed the sheet of paper with the translation on it to the Major. He took it and read it.

"Was there anything else following this?" the Major asked, as he returned the sheet of paper to me. "That is a little cryptic and lacking in details," he finished.

"No sir. That is all there was. It's possible that we interrupted him before he finished copying the message, but from the others that I have decoded, I don't believe so. It seems that he / they were only told what he / they needed to know," I told him.

"Let's look at what we have then, and see if we can read anything more into it," the Major told the two of us.

"This first part basically tells him / them not to worry about not being contacted by the, ... the word used in the message was 'scout', ... but that seems a little odd to me," I told them.

"Could it be that he wasn't aware of just how large a unit was sent to check on things?" Tweed asked.

"Yes, that's quite possible," the Major said. "They would probably have only been contacted by one or two people, and never realize how many were actually present. The need to know thing again."

"The next part instructs him / them to keep a closer eye on the camps. It definitely used the plural of the word, as there are both singular and plural codes in the book. How would he keep an eye on both camps?" I asked.

"He could easily keep an eye on us simply by coming over here on the pretext of buying or delivering something, but our camp at Nawng-awn in another matter entirely," the Major observed.

"Unless there is more than one group of spies," Tweed injected.

"Yes!" the Major breathed tiredly, "There could be more than one spy cell at work here. Anyone with the right receiver could pick up those messages."

"What about the rest of it though?" the Major asked after a pause.

"It just tells them that the matter of the camps will be dealt with by others, and not to be too near them at any time," I said.

"Dealt with by who?" the Major asked.

"Again, I don't believe that he / they had a need to know the who, how, or when," Tweed stated.

"Yes, secrecy!" the Major agreed, disgustedly. "The need to know, and keeping everything compartmentalized, is typical of their form of government.

"Well, at least we know that something is up, but what we don't know is the where, when, or who it will involve. Wonderful!!" the Major finished in a disgusted voice.

"I don't think they'll try sending anyone down the river again," Tweed observed. "What does that leave them with?" he asked.

"An overland or airborne assault," the Major replied.

"Overland!?" Tweed asked in surprise. "Have you seen the land on the other side of the river, sir? With all of those mountains, that could be a real trick."

"Remember the NVA were marching a battalion toward our camp in the Tri-border area," I reminded him.

"Yes, but over those mountains on the other side of the river in the winter?" Tweed demanded.

"They used mules in World War II to move the heavy stuff," I reminded him.

"Let's take a fresh look at what roads there are coming out of China into the Shan States," the Major suggested as MSG Sorenson entered the tent.

"Sir, if all of you are going to eat, you need to move out to the mess tent," he told us.

"Yes, it will wait until after breakfast at least," the Major agreed. Starling had come in with MSG Sorenson, and he began checking the generators for fuel and oil, as we all set off to breakfast.

When we returned from breakfast, we found that MSG Sorenson and SFC Lee had created an overlay on the wall map highlighting the roads leading into and through the Shan States from China, and how they related to our camps and observation locations. It was immediately apparent that there could be a serious threat to several of our sites.

"I think we can leave Wan Hsa-la out of it for now," Sorenson told us, as we gathered around the wall map. "It's too close to the old Thai border, and would be difficult to reach unobserved from China.

"Nawng-awn could be in real trouble though. There are several roads leading out of China that intersect Route 4 at Kengtung, Mong Ka, and Mongping. Additionally Route 4 leads right to Nawng-awn and that nice big bridge over the Salween," Sorenson finished.

"Yes, Top. I'll need to go down there and talk with Captains Tamusarit, Pengdith, and Fleming about their situation. I don't want to put any of this out over the airwaves in case the Chinese, or their agents are monitoring our transmissions," the Major told us.

"Man-Namlet is also open to attack, sir," Sorenson continued. "There is a major border crossing at Hopang, and a decent enough road, Route 34, that runs from China, through Hopang, and then down to Lashio and beyond. There is a smaller side road that leads directly to Man-Namlet from it.

"Hlkanbon is in a little better position, but here is the thing, sir. If they are all staging out of Menglang, Guanglong, or Menglion Daizu in China, they could send columns out against our sites at Nawng-awn, Hlkanbon, and us here in Nawngh Kam.

"The roads through the mountains would get them close to our sites, and even the really poor roads in those mountains are going to be passable during the dry season with a little work. They might need to use the river for the last part of it, or use mules across some of the mountains, especially near us, but they could get those 107 mm mortars that they have within range fairly easily," Sorenson finished.

"You're right, Top. Also, since we have in effect identified all of the storage sites along the Salween, and they have all been eliminated thanks to those 'Ammunition Malfunctions', as Tweed and Baker are so fond of calling them, I suppose that we can call in our observation teams and consolidate everyone in the two camps," the Major said, and paused.

"How are the Rangers and laborers coming on the bunkers and the other defensive works?" he asked next.

"Lieutenant Wesley has been supervising that along with Sergeant Lendry, sir. They have informed me that all of the planned bunkers and defensive works should be finished by the end of the month," MSG Sorenson informed him.

"Does that include being fully sandbagged?" the Major asked.

"Yes sir, it does," Sorenson told him.

"What about the Engineer support that we were offered, sir?" I asked remembering the Engineer Captain at the initial coordination meeting.

"Let's see how the bunkers look first. We can decide on that later," the Major told me before changing the subject.

"All right, here is the plan. Today is the 14th. I'll fly down and talk to Captain Tamusarit tomorrow. Lay on a flight for me for 0830. The observers are scheduled to be changed on the 16th. We'll just pull them on the 16th, and not replace them. We'll still maintain our observation posts at both camps to keep some watch on the river, however.

"Also Top, we'll need to order more ammunition, and that also includes seeing if we can get any additional ammunition for those 82 mm mortars," the Major ordered.

"What about some .50 calibers, sir? It's a good ways across the river to the other side," SFC Tweed commented. "Old dead-eye here knocked off a Charlie at 800 yards in Cambodia with one," he added looking at me.

"Yes, go ahead and put in a request; it can't hurt," the Major acknowledged before he left to check with Lieutenant Wesley on the bunkers. SFC Lee and I were both making notes about what to order.

Starling had heard all of this while on radio watch, and when I went over to check on things, he had a question.

"Did you really hit a guy at 800 yards!?" he asked in amazement.

"It was just a lucky accident," I said modestly, as I had never put much faith in it being more than that.

"Don't believe Mr. Modesty here," Tweed told him from behind me. "I saw the body. He blew the back of the guy's head off with one shot. The patrol even brought the bullet back with the body. It went right through the face and blew out the back of the skull. All of the troops in camp thought it was a great deed."

"I was only hosing down the area," I said modestly, as I didn't think that I deserved any credit for it.

"Right, that's why Sawyer got you into Thai Sniper School," Tweed continued. "And don't forget how you took out that machine gun position from 600 yards during the Battle in the Pass before that."

"It was Sawyer's rifle that did that. It really is accurate. It's a National Match rifle," I told him.

"National Match rifle?" Starling asked.

"The Army builds them to compete in the National Matches held at Camp Perry every year. They didn't use the M-14 the year mine was built. They stayed with the M-1. Sawyer got his from someone that he knows," I explained. "And the custom loaded ammunition for it too," I added, but let it drop by changing the subject.

"Call the Red Tigers and set up a flight for the Major to Nawng-awn at 0830 tomorrow," I told Starling. "I'm going to shave and brush my teeth," I added before heading out.

Apparently Major Del Vecchio conferred with Captain Paribetra while he was out, as I noticed a new urgency in the work on the bunkers and other things around camp later that day when I was out in the camp. I took over in Commo at 1430 hrs after checking the fuel and oil for the generators, and the lines to the antennas. I checked the radio equipment after taking over and did a commo check with Nawng-awn. After that there wasn't really much to do but monitor the radios, which were very quiet.

Broyels relieved me for dinner at 1730, and the Major called me over to his table in the mess tent.

"Have a seat, Baker," he said when I got to the table, and indicated one near himself and Captain Paribetra, who was the only other officer eating at that time.

"Two things," the Major started after I was seated. "First, I want to talk to Jockey 3 about that message tonight, so set up the encrypting device on your radio. Also inform Desk Jockey Commo to set up theirs when you get them.