Chapter 24

Starling had left Operations when I returned, but was soon back with the pieces of his Army Green Class A uniform. Suenee took them and placed them on the chair that she had been sitting on.

"I will have these ready when you come on payday for your wedding," she told him. As quietly as she had spoken, the Major had picked up on it, and turned to look at both of them.

"What wedding?" he asked.

"Sergeant Starling and my student, Noon, will be married on payday when he returns to Chiang Rai," Suenee told the Major, as if it were a foregone conclusion.

"Why is this the first that I have heard about this?" the Major asked. "And has his Unit Commander given his approval?"

"YOU will approve it. The Amulets have decreed it. It will happen," she told him matter-of-factually. The Major took a deep breath in the face of her certainty.

"Suenee," he started calmly. "I am not Specialist Starling's Commander. He is only working for me for now. His Commander is the Officer in Charge of the Red Tigers contingent in Chiang Rai. I cannot approve his marriage," the Major finished in as calm and reasonable a voice as he could manage. "And he is not a Sergeant!"

"Major Del Vecchio, you WILL BE his Commander when it is time for approval. He WILL BE a Sergeant when YOU approve his marriage. It will be arranged. I have been promised by the Amulets," Suenee told him in the same calm, certain voice that she had used before. The Major just stared at her in disbelief.

"I must go now," Suenee told us before coming over to kiss me. "My daughter is waiting for her lunch," she finished, and with that she and Starling's Greens disappeared, leaving everyone there staring at where she had been standing.

"Sergeant Baker, Sergeant Tweed, and SPECIALIST Starling follow me to my quarters, NOW!" the Major directed in a perturbed voice, as he rose and left for his quarters. Tweed, Starling and I followed him out.

"Now, just what is this about a marriage?" the Major demanded, when we were all three standing at attention before him in his tent.

"Sir, I... !" Starling started, but Tweed reached over and stopped him.

"Sir, Specialist Starling met Noon, Suenee's student, at the end of December. They have been seeing each other since then," I started.

"You mean they have only known each other for three days!" the Major interrupted, incredulously.

"No sir, they have only been with each other three times," I told him, carefully.

"And they consider that enough to base a life together on!" the Major demanded.

"Sir, Noon is Suenee's student just like Phesila was," Tweed pointed out.

"And that makes it all right?" the Major wanted to know.

"He was chosen, sir," I said, carefully. "I know that you may not understand that. It's an Amulet thing. Noon will be consecrated before they are married, and the Amulets have chosen Starling to be her husband. I don't know how they will do it, but it will all happen just like Suenee told us in Operations," I finished. The Major sat there for a minute or so after I had finished before he exhaled.

"Damn it!" he said forcefully in an agitated voice before regaining his calm, and looked up at the three of us.

"If I had learned of this on any other day, and you had said the things that you just have, I would have called all of you either crazy, or drunk, maybe both. But today, of all of the days you could have told me this, TODAY, I have to believe you! How could I not after all that has happened so far today!?" he asked, and actually managed to smile.

"We'll see how this plays out, and if necessary I'll do what I can for Starling," the Major finished. We all returned to Operations, and had only been there for a short time when another call came in on my Radio.

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

"Thai Cowboy 6, this is Old Hand 6. Go," the Major said after I handed him the mike.

"Hand 6, Cowboy 6. We just returned from our reconnaissance flight. When we reached the area, there was wreckage everywhere! It must have been twenty kilometers or so wide and at least two deep. There were parts of planes, supplies and bodies! So help me, more bodies than we could count, and they were scattered all across the landscape! We didn't see any survivors or whole aircraft. It was just total destruction. I assume that your crash site was similar! Over."

"Cowboy 6, Hand 6. Roger. Total devastation. No survivors. I'm not sure how this is going to play out. Stay on your toes, and keep your people close to camp. Over."

"Hand 6, Cowboy 6. Roger. Concur. Out."

Captain Paribetra had come in during this call.

"Did you get most of that?" the Major asked.

"Yes sir, I'll be keeping all of my men in camp for the next several days. The two squads that went with us have told the rest of the company about what we saw, and they are all... !!" Captain Paribetra came to a halt unsure how to finish.

"Unnerved?" I asked.

"Yes. I think that is as good a word as any. They have been very quiet since we returned," the Captain told us.

"Yes, it's a good time for a little introspective thought," the Major agreed. We weren't given a lot of time to reflect on the happenings of the day, however, as a short time later another call came in on my radio.

"Old Hand. Old Hand, this is Desk Chief. Over." It came in on Single Sideband. My Radio had changed by itself to receive it.

"Desk Chief, this is Old Hand. Go."

"Old Hand, Desk Chief. Are you prepared to go to encryption mode? Over."

"Desk Chief, Old Hand. Give me two minutes, I say again figure zero two mikes, and I will be ready. Wait." I quickly opened the shipping container, removed the encryption module, plugged it into the Radio, and turned it on.

"Desk Chief, Old Hand. We are prepared to go to encryption mode in 3... 2... 1." and I activated the encryption module.

"Desk Chief, Old Hand. How do you read me? Over."

"Old Hand, Desk Chief. Read you 4 by 5. Is Hand 6 available? Over."

"Desk Chief, Old Hand 6. Go," the Major told them taking the mike.

"Old Hand 6, Papa Bear 5. These orders have just arrived from our Higher, and are only being passed on. I quote, 'You will make no remarks, or statements concerning the events of this morning, until, or unless you receive permission to do so from this Headquarters or from our Higher Headquarters'.

'The Thai Government has advised State that they are waiting to see what the Chinese have to say concerning this morning's events. You will continue to report no activity to the B-Detachment until further notice. You can expect visitors once the situation has been clarified or resolved'.

'You are requested to keep a very private journal detailing what you 'think' happened, but only for future reference.' End of orders. This call never took place, and will not appear in your radio log. Is that clear? Over," Papa Bear 5 demanded.

"Bear 5, Hand 6. Roger. Will comply. Hand 6, out."

"Wow, can you believe that?" Sergeant Lee asked, excitedly.

"Believe what, Sergeant? I didn't hear anything," the Major said, straight faced. "Did you, Top?'

"Not a thing, sir. There was just a little static on the radio," MSG Sorenson replied. Everybody just looked around at each other then, but didn't say anything further.

"Top, we need to have an Officers Call. Send runners to alert all of the units that there will be an Officers Call for all Officers in camp, half-an-hour from now at the mess tent," the Major told Sorenson.

"Pilots too, sir?" Sorenson asked.

"Yes, especially the pilots," the Major told him. I sent Williams to alert the Red Tigers while Starling went to advise Captain Paribetra. The Major and Sorenson had a short chat that the rest of us weren't privy to before he left for the mess tent. Sorenson sent Sergeant Lee to round up the rest of our Team for a briefing in our tent. After that no one mentioned what had happened that morning, not even the Rangers

The remainder of the day was very quiet and uneventful, other than the Major's quick trip to Nawng-awn to talk to Captain Tamusarit. That night we reported to Desk Jockey that nothing of any importance had happened that day. Things continued in that vein until Wednesday, the 18th of March.

Just before 1100 hrs on the 18th, we received a call from the Black Horse.

"Old Hand, Old Hand, this is Black Horse 112. We are 10 minutes from your location with visitors, high level visitors. Over."

"Black Horse 112, this is Old Hand. Roger. We'll meet them. Out."

"Williams, call the Red Tigers, and alert them to a flight inbound," I directed, as I got up to find Major Del Vecchio. I found him in the Ranger's Operation tent.

"Sir, there is a flight inbound with high level visitors," I told him and Captain Paribetra.

"Thank you, Baker. We had better get over there, Captain," the Major told him, and they departed while I returned to our Operations where everyone was straightening things up. About 15 minutes later the visitors arrived in Operations.

"Attention," MSG Sorenson called as Colonel Thuathao, LTC Hawkins, Major Carlson, Major Del Vecchio, Captain Paribetra, and SGM Sawyer entered the tent.

"At ease. Carry on," Colonel Thuathao quickly directed.

"Top, we need to clear the excess personnel out of here. Leave Tweed and Baker plus Starling on the radios," Major Del Vecchio instructed Sorenson.

"Take a coffee break the rest of you," Sorenson said to those remaining and went to leave also.

"You can remain, Top," LTC Hawkins told him.

"Thank you, sir," Sorenson replied.

Sawyer had crossed the tent to the Commo area while this was going on.

"So, you're Starling!" he said in less than a roar. "We need to have a talk after this. You too, Bill," he added.

"Let's get started," Colonel Thuathao said after everyone present had a cup of coffee from the pot here.

"First, I want Major Del Vecchio to go over exactly what the sequence of events were on the morning of the 13th," Colonel Thuathao told us.

"Sergeant Baker was on duty in Commo at the time the message came in, so we'll start with him telling us about the message from High Flier," Major Del Vecchio told them. I had made my own notes and referred to them several times during the explanation of what I had been told. The Major then went over the rest of that morning after that.

"Yes, that pretty well meshes with what we got from the Air Force," LTC Hawkins said. "Where is the film that you shot at the wreckage sites?" he asked next.

"I have it here, sir," MSG Sorenson said, producing the four rolls of film. Two were ours, and the other two were from Captain Tamusarit. They were all marked as to location.

"Right. Now here are some of the pictures that the SR-71s have taken over the intervening time," LTC Hawkins said, as he opened a folder that he had with him, and removed a number of pictures. The first pictures looked very similar to what we had seen at the crash site. The last ones were quite different - stunningly different in fact!

"What happened!?" all of us asked in unison on seeing them.

"That is what we want to know," Colonel Thuathao told us. "We assume that you had nothing to do with this."

"No sir. We haven't even been out there since the 13th," Major Del Vecchio told him. "When did this happen?" he asked pointing at the last set of pictures

"Apparently on the 15th, or the 16th," LTC Hawkins told us. "The Air Force has pictures from the 14th and the 17th. That is when the difference showed up."

"But what could have done, or caused this!?" Major Del Vecchio asked, amazed at what the pictures showed. "It looks like everything has been burned, and not just the bodies and wreckage, but the entire area of the mountains they are on. It would have required a huge amount of fuel or chemicals to cover that entire area!"

"The more important question is WHO did it, and in such a short time, too" Colonel Thuathao asked.