Chapter 4: Colonel Nguyen Dies

May 1, 1975

Colonel Wynn finished assembling his rifle after having cleaned it. He had placed second in a shooting competition, right behind Sergeant Major Washington. They had tied in the regular round and had to go into a second and third round before a winner was declared. He now had a nice little second place trophy.

After each competitor was eliminated, they had returned to the ready room to clean their weapons. Because of the extra competition rounds, he and the Sergeant Major been delayed in returning to the ready room. They had been further delayed from cleaning their rifles because of the awards ceremony. Now they were the only two people remaining in the ready room.

“That was pretty impressive shooting for an officer.”

Colonel Wynn looked over at the Sergeant Major somewhat surprised by his comment. He didn’t really know the man that well and wouldn’t have expected him to open a conversation in that manner. Still, he wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass. He’d heard things about the Sergeant Major and wanted to find out if what he heard was true or not.

“That was some fine shooting on your part as well. Too bad you were faking it.”

“Faking it? I’m not sure I understand what you mean by that.”

“Well faking it is not really the right way to say it. You weren’t shooting up to your true standard. I’ve heard that you have a very unusual way of using your rifle that doesn’t involve aiming it as we’re taught in basic training.”

The competition had been on an assault course. They had moved through a jungle environment with enemies that popped out at them. The Sergeant Major had moved woodenly through the course. Each time an enemy appeared, he deliberately put the rifle to his shoulder, aimed, and fired. His time through the course was good but nothing spectacular. It was almost as if he was using Colonel Wynn’s response times as a guide for his response times.

“Begging your Sir’s pardon, I always use my weapon in an army approved fashion.”

“Bullshit. Today’s exhibition wasn’t representative of that psychic control over your weapon that others claim you have. I’ve heard that you can get six shots into the enemy before anyone else in your unit can get off one. You don’t do that shooting the way you did, today.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Colonel Wynn said, “Let’s drop the bullshit. I want to know how you really use a rifle on a battlefield.”

Sergeant Major Washington smiled.

“I’ll tell you my secret if you’ll tell me about Colonel Nguyen.”

It seemed to Colonel Wynn that everyone wanted to know about Colonel Nguyen. It was well known around the Rock that he had been friends with the man. It seemed like every time he turned around, someone was asking him about Colonel Nguyen. He had a feeling that today he’d be getting even more questions than usual.

“What do you want to know about Colonel Nguyen?”

“I want to know how he’s done what he’s done. You know the man. You know what he knows. How was he able to take on the West Vam army for as long as he did?”

Colonel Nguyen had achieved legendary status among military personnel all over the world in the month since the East Vam government had fled. He had taken command of a single division and taken the war to the West Vam Army. Fighting against ten divisions, he decisively won battle after battle.

Everyone knew that he was engaged in a lost cause. West Vam had air support. Colonel Nguyen didn’t. West Vam had trucks with fuel. Colonel Nguyen’s men had to march. West Vam had food. Colonel Nguyen didn’t. The West Vam army had a government behind it. Colonel Nguyen didn’t. There was no one to provide his troops with munitions, gasoline, or food. He was a solitary figure standing against a giant throng.

A reporter from Filop had caught up with Colonel Nguyen and was now traveling with him. Through a fragile network of people, the reporter was able to send a filmed interviews with the man out of the country. The reporter also made films of engagements. The whole world watched while Colonel Nguyen attacked forces larger than his.

He was surprisingly photogenic. On camera, he came across as focused, strong, competent, and confident. Films of him giving commands showed a man completely in control. He strode across the battlefield as if he was invincible. The world was enthralled by the short man with such a powerful sense of destiny,

Everyone initially laughed when he said that all of Vam was his battle ground. They stopped laughing when the fighting moved deep inside the territory of West Vam. They were shocked when West Vam bases fell that hadn’t seen a bullet fired outside of the target range since Vam was split into East and West.

It seemed like everyone inside the Rock wanted to study what little video they could get of what was happening there. They dissected each and every little detail they could find out about the engagements. Here was a Colonel, known to only a handful of people, who was doing what all of them had wanted to do and he did it well and with style.

During the third week of fighting, the rains came. It was a deluge. Everything was flooded. Dirt roads turned to muddy truck eating traps. Anything left outdoors turned into a soggy mess. Cooking fires drowned under the onslaught of the rain. Visibility was so limited that a man could throw a full barrel of beer further than he could see. It was the perfect time to flee Vam, but Colonel Nguyen kept fighting.

In the middle of the fourth week, Colonel Nguyen exhausted his supplies. His men slogged through mud up to their knees to advance on enemy positions. His men had to scrounge bullets from the enemy dead to keep fighting. They ate whatever they could find. Yet, his troops still fought on and, to the amazement of everyone, they continued to win.

West Vam never knew where his army was going to attack next or even the direction from which his forces would appear if they were lucky enough to guess his next target. For the first time in years, there was nothing flowing in from spies to give them detailed plans concerning what he was going to do next. They were blind and had to fight with no knowledge of the enemies’ position or intention.

A military that had a reputation for being exceptional was now shown to be more glitz than fact.

The original ten divisions of the West Vam had been whittled down to four. Colonel Nguyen moved into areas occupied by fresh forces and took them down using tactics that were inspired. He had employed a Chen formation, called the Hawk’s dive, that hadn’t been used since the third century. The next day, he used a run through the center tactic on a convoy carrying troops. Eighteen troop carriers had been destroyed. Most of the convey wasn’t aware that they had been attacked until they drove past the burned out wrecks. That little episode took place seventy five miles from the capitol city of West Vam.

Convinced that he was heading towards the seat of government, West Vam reacted by pulling every available brigade back to the capitol. With enemy traffic swelling on the few usable roads, Colonel Wynn’s forces had to take alternative routes to reach their destination.

It was at that time when disaster struck. His forces, following an out of date map, discovered that they were trapped between two raging rivers flooding over their banks. The narrow strip of muddy land was getting narrower with every passing hour. There was a real possibility that they would ultimately be washed into the raging river and drown. They started building rafts in the hope of getting out of the trap before it was sprung.

The reporter was filming when the first artillery shells fell on his position. The shells would hit the mud, sink a bit, and then explode generating an avalanche of wet heavy mud that buried men alive. At that point, the film showed Colonel Nguyen grabbing an axe and joining the crew trying to build rafts. It was a heroic image of a man leading by example and inspiring men to greatness.

Later that evening, West Vam released the film when they announced that Colonel Nguyen had been killed fifty miles outside their capitol city. After ten hours of being shelled by artillery, his forces were captured by a massive assault by soldiers crossing the flooded river in boats. His body was found during clean up operations.

In a rather surprising gesture of respect, the Premier of West Vam posthumously promoted Colonel Nguyen to a general in the army of unified nation of Vam. He praised General Nguyen as being the most brilliant military leader of the century. He said that it was a shame that they had stood on opposite sides of this conflict. He was to be buried in Sage, Vam with full honors.

Colonel Wynn said, “Colonel Nguyen was my friend. We worked together, but we also spent many an hour outside of work discussing military history. He was extremely well read and had insights into the past that I found exceptional. He used that knowledge of how wars were fought in the past in his war campaign.

“He knew that the war was lost long before we pulled out of the country. We talked about it on many occasions, but he was a patriot and didn’t want to see his country fall without having put up a good fight. We came to the conclusion that the right man in the right spot could run a war as it was supposed to be waged. Nothing could begin until the politicians had been cleared out of the way. They took care of that all by themselves.

“His first act was to clear out all of the known West Vam spies. Although it was never reported, I’m sure there was a bloodbath in the streets of Sage. There were an awful lot of high ranking people on the payroll of West Vam.

“One of the things no one has mentioned is that he was never given a command of a field unit except for a brief stint as a lieutenant immediately after graduating from the Frankan Military Academy. The rest of his career was spent in army intelligence. He knew a lot about the real organization of the West Vam army and the men in charge. He used that knowledge to attack the weaknesses of their army.

“As I said, he only had a short stint as a unit commander. I believe that lack of direct experience is what kept his military thinking pure. Battles were not to be fought to wage war, but as a means to end the war. He wasn’t corrupted by the politics of command as practiced in East Vam. He focused on winning the war and not on how to get rich from it.

“Having known him, I’m sure that he engaged in battles only if he thought that it would take him closer to his goal of winning the war. He was the type of man who wouldn’t let ego dictate his decisions. He’d retreat if it was the right thing to do without worrying if others would judge him harshly. He didn’t care what they would think of him.

“If a new recruit came up with a good idea, Colonel Nguyen would use it. He didn’t care that it was a lowly enlisted man. He would listen to people without prejudice. I think that’s a rare skill in the world today.

“It’s a shame. If he had been given the resources, I believe he could have defeated West Vam. After all, he was just a week away from doing that. The world lost a great man when he died.”

Sergeant Major Washington was silent for a minute thinking about all that he had heard. There was a trace of humility in the Colonel’s description of the man that hadn’t come across in the media coverage of his campaign. There was also the spirit of a true warrior. Colonel Nguyen could face the Gods of War in the afterlife without shame.

He said, “He sounds like the kind of man I’d like to serve under.”

“He was a rare individual.”

“I think you’re going to miss him.”

“I already do. Do you have any other questions?”

“No. You’ve kept your end of the deal.”

“So how do you actually use your rifle?”

“I’d really have to show you for you to understand.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“Pick up your cleaning rod and pretend that it is a rifle. I’ll do the same with mine. You give the word and we’ll aim and fire at each other. Just say bang when you’re ready to pull the trigger.”

Colonel Wynn picked up his cleaning rod. It was a little shorter than his rifle and a lot thinner, Feeling a little foolish, he held it in a ready position. He was glad that nobody was around to see him.

When the Sergeant Major was in the same position, he said, “Now.”

Almost immediately, the Sergeant Major said, “Bang.”

Colonel Wynn hadn’t even moved his pretend rifle more than a few inches. He looked at the cleaning rod in the Sergeant Major’s hand. All he could see was the tip. The rod was pointed directly at his eye, even though the Sergeant Major was holding it in his lap.

“How?”

“How what?” Sergeant Major Washington asked.

“How did you get it aimed at me, holding it like that?”

“There’s an invisible line that goes through the barrel of my rifle. I’m the only one who can see that line. Where ever that line intersects something, that’s where the bullet goes when I pull the trigger. I don’t need to put the rifle to my shoulder and aim it. I don’t have to get into any specific position to fire my rifle. All I have to do is put that line on the target and pull the trigger.

“I have total control over that line. I can move both arms and my whole body to get that line where ever I want it to be. I can fall out of a tree and hit a target before I hit the ground. I can be bouncing around in the back of truck and hit the target.”

The Sergeant Major twisted and turned while moving the rod in various ways. It was as if the cleaning rod was mounted on a set of gimbals and was free to move in any direction. It didn’t seem to matter to him if he was holding it right-side up or upside down.

“That’s amazing,” Colonel Wynn said.

He said, “The whole trick in a shootout is to get a bullet into the other guy before he has a chance to get a bullet into you. My invisible line makes that possible. I love my invisible line.”

“Can you teach that to others?”

“They’d have to eat, sleep, and take their rifle to bed with them for a couple of years. Hell, they have to make love to it. They’d have to fire thousands of rounds every year.”

“Would you be willing to teach me?”

“I don’t think I have the time available to teach you or that you’d have the time to learn.”

“I think we’re going to have plenty of time. We’re no longer at war. They’re going to be wanting to cut back the size of our army,” Colonel Wynn said.

“You mean we’re going to be forcibly retired.”

“I imagine we’ll get some offers as incentives to retire that will be virtually impossible to refuse.”

“And you’re going to take it?”

“I’m going to resign my commission. I’ve got things to do and not enough time to do them,” Colonel Wynn said.

“You mean you’re going to write that book about fairies.”

“Elves.”

“Elves, fairies, or whatnots ... they are all the same to me.”

Colonel Wynn laughed. “You aren’t the only one around here who thinks that way. I’ll try to work a character like you into the story.”

He knew that within a year of retirement, Sergeant Major Washington would be thinking about eating a bullet. The man was a warrior and peace time was hard on a warrior. He’d leap at the chance to teach that skill with a rifle to the Orphan Army.

“I’ll sue.”

“You won’t sue. You’ll think its the best character in the book.”

“I’m not a fucking elf.”

An hour later, Colonel Wynn stepped into General Williams’ office.

Always abrupt and gruff, the General asked, “What do you need, Colonel?”

“I wanted to warn you now, that I’m resigning my commission.”

“I won’t accept it.”

“I’m not sure that’s possible.”

“Colonel, in two weeks we’re going to announce that you’re being promoted to General. It’s a little thank you from the Joint Chiefs for helping the Ministry of War salvage its reputation. You can turn in your resignation after that, although decorum suggests that you should probably stick around for six months or a year.”

“That’s going to put a damper on my plans.”

“What damper? You’ll still be able to write your elf book. You’re not going to have any real responsibilities. We’re no longer at war, and we’ve got more generals than we need. You can take a world tour to scout out locations for your book claiming that you’re there to inspect guard units at embassies if you want.”

“I’d feel guilty doing that.”

“Colonel, you may not realize just how important your little pep talk to Admiral Roberts was. We looked like a bunch of losers until you turned it around. Your friend, Colonel ... or I guess I should say ... General Nguyen, made your words solid gold. He proved that the Vam war could have been won by us or East Vam if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hadn’t screwed up.

“So enjoy your ‘attaboy,’ and get the hell out of my office.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Colonel Wynn stepped out of the General’s office stunned by what he had been told. His plans had been to take a world tour scouting out appropriate places from which to recruit orphans for his army. With his new credentials, he could also find sources from which he could purchase surplus equipment. Now that the war was over, there was going to be a lot of surplus equipment for sale.

He went into his office and pulled out his stack of notebooks. He searched through the stack until he found the one dealing with the training of a warrior elf. He opened it and penned that elves are taught to fire their bow from any position and orientation. He put three exclamation points at the end of the sentence. He added ‘Accurately’ after that. He closed the notebook and tossed back on the stack.

He looked over the stack fully aware that there were major gaps in it. He hadn’t found a good way to address the logistics issues. For every soldier with a gun, there were six soldiers supporting him. Supply folks, maintenance people, and engineers had just as big of a role to play in fielding an army as the grunt with a gun. There were cooks, medics, and other support people who kept the army healthy.

It was nearing lunch time. Feeling hungry, he headed to the cafeteria. On his way, he noticed an office with its door open. There was a banner inside proclaiming affiliation with logistics. He stopped, considered his options, and then entered thinking that nothing ventured, nothing gained.

He had only taken a few steps into the office when a voice to the side said, “Colonel Wynn, it’s about time you showed up.”

“Excuse me?” he asked surprised and turning to look at the man who had spoken.

“You’re here about your book about elves. You’ve finally gotten around to dealing with the support activities.”

“You know about the book?”

He had never met this man and had to read his name off of his badge – Major Collins. He didn’t even know him by reputation. A glance at his hand showed that he was a fellow ring-knocker.

“Everyone in the Rock knows about you and your book. You’ve got some of the finest minds in the place coming up with novel ways of dealing with an army of elves. You even have Miss Jennifer Walsh involved and that accomplishment alone makes you a legend in this place.”

“I wasn’t aware of that.”

“Now if you’ll have a seat in the conference room over there, I’ll arrange to have a few guys come over to discuss the support side of an army.”

Shocked, he asked, “You’ve got a few guys ready to discuss this?”

“We’ve been talking it over for a couple of months, now. Get in there and let me make some calls.”

“Sure,” Colonel Wynn said.

Over the next fifteen minutes four guys trickled into the meeting room. All four of them held the rank of major. He was about to introduce himself to the others when a guy pushing a cart loaded with a plate piled high with sandwiches, a bowl of potato salad, and a bowl of iced drinks showed up.

“Food?”

Grinning, Major Collins said, “It pays to be in supply. You learn how to work the system.”

“I can see where it’s a significant benefit.”

“Let’s grab some food and get this meeting underway.”

Colonel Wynn grabbed a ham and cheese sandwich, dumped a pile of potato salad on his plate, took a pickle, and a can of soda. He returned to his seat thinking that things were moving a little faster than he had expected. He watched the others load up their plates and return to their seats.

When everyone was at the conference table, Major Collins said, “The weekly lunch meeting of the supply chain management team is now called to order. We have a special guest with us, Colonel Wynn, who I’m sure requires no introduction since he’s the man who turned a miserable defeat into a victory.

“We’ll introduce ourselves and get down to business. I’m Major Collins. I’m in charge of purchasing helicopter repair parts. I’m told what kind of parts we need and how many to get. I negotiate the purchases with our suppliers and arrange for them to deliver them to us.”

“I’m Major Tompkins. I’m in charge of warehousing aircraft repair parts. I receive the parts that Major Collins orders, warehouse them, and then package them for shipping to wherever they are needed.”

“I’m Major Malinowski. I’m in charge of transportation. My job is to get things from where they are to where they need to be.”

“I’m Major Kestler. I’m in charge of aircraft maintenance. My job is get things fixed. I keep a local inventory and make sure that I have enough parts on hand to maintain the aircraft. When I run low, I tell Major Collins how many parts we need.”

“I’m Major Watson. I’m in charge of inventory control. My job is to track what’s been purchased, where things are stored, when they get used, and how they disposed of.”

Major Collins said, “The five of us represent the full supply chain.”

Major Malinowski said, “When we first heard that you were writing a book about elves fighting a war against orcs, we all laughed. Let’s face it, on the surface it sounds like something some college student would do, not a full colonel. Then Major Kestler made an interesting observation.”

“I wondered how supply for an army of elves would be different from supplying the Amra army.”

“It was an interesting question and we stopped our normal lunch bridge game to discuss the matter.”

Major Tompkins said, “As you may be aware, logistics always has a bad reputation. People are always complaining that we ship winter uniforms to tropical places. Our failures are often far more visible than our successes.”

Major Malinowski said, “We couldn’t help but wonder if elves would have some way of avoiding some of those errors. Would they have a different structure for managing supplies?”

“Well, we took the question to the Colonel and he suggested that we put a task force together to see if we could come up with any way to improve what we do.”

Major Watson said, “I got drafted into the team. You can imagine my surprise when the first meeting was spent discussing elves.”

“I can imagine,” Colonel Wynn said finding the entire discussion fascinating.

Major Collins said, “It took us a month to decide that it didn’t matter if you were dealing with humans or elves. The basic supply problems were the same. You have a bunch of folks who need supplies, and they are at a different locations which are owned by someone else. You’ve got to buy the supplies, store them somewhere until needed, get them to where they are needed, use them, and keep track of what you’ve got.”

“That sounds straightforward enough,” Colonel Wynn said.

“It may sound simple, but it isn’t. It’s probably the most complex problem the army has to deal with.”

Colonel Wynn said, “We all know that. It was drilled into us at the Academy.”

“What we got at the Academy was Logistics 101. You need a bit better understanding of it than that if your army of elves is going to be realistic.”

“We read a couple of those fantasy novels. They had millions of soldiers hiking a thousand miles across the wilderness without any comment as to how an army of that size is fed. When they did, it was so stupid that we had to laugh.”

“One of them caused us to split our sides we were laughing so hard. They had a million man army that was getting short of supplies. The author had a single wagon of food show up and everyone was fed. Even one wagon train of supplies wouldn’t be enough, much less a single wagon. It was ridiculous.”

“The idiot even failed to recognize that wagons move slower than men. If you march your men every day for a distance of a thousand miles, you’d get so far ahead of your supplies that it wouldn’t be funny.”

“You can’t move your supplies ahead of your troops because the enemy will just take them. You have to move your army forward at a pace that is slower than wagons.”

“Logistics controls the tempo and pace of an army’s movement.”

“Your people can carry some supplies with them, but at some point they are going to have to resupply. In most cases, that means they have to stop and wait for the supplies to catch up with them. In the mean time, they have to have sufficient supplies so that your army isn’t dead by the time the supply train arrives.”

“Even a fixed base requires that supplies be delivered from the home front or it has to tap into the local economy. No local economy is going to have everything an army needs, so there’s got to be a secure supply line from home to the base.”

Holding up a stack of papers, Major Collins said, “We worked through the problem and came up with what we think is an appropriate set of guidelines for your army of elves. We assumed a mixed force of elves on horseback and elves marching. We assumed that an elf ate a pound of food a day and that supplies were delivered by a wagon train. We considered what kinds of food could be shipped since most food stores have a finite life. We looked at fixed bases, large troop movements, and expeditionary forces. We also included weapons, repair parts, and other items without being too specific. You can tailor supplies as appropriate for your army of elves. I image you’ll have the elves using bows and arrows. That will involve quivers, bow strings, arrows, bows, and arm guards that have to be provided. We included spears, shields, swords, and armor. We documented it all in here.”

He handed the stack of papers over to Colonel Wynn.

Holding the papers in his hand, Colonel Wynn stared at the stack unable to believe the amount of work that had to have gone into it. He wasn’t going to mention it, but they had just given him a whole new problem. He was going to have to write and publish a book for real.

“We’d appreciate it if you’d mention our effort in your book.”

Colonel Wynn said, “I don’t know what to say. I’ll definitely give you full credit.”

“That’s all we ask.”

“Thank you very much. To tell the truth, I’ve been at a loss concerning the logistics for my army. You’ve solved that problem for me.”

Major Collins said, “Now if you’ll head over to Hall 23, Office 19, there’s a bunch of engineers wanting to talk with you about fortifications and facility maintenance.”

“I’m overwhelmed.”

“Come back next week and we’ll answer questions you might have. It’ll be good to chat with you again.”

“I’ll do that,” he said.

During an hour long meeting with the engineers, they discussed fixed and temporary structures, equipment requirements, and materials. They had a lot of details gathered in one place. One of them, a young man by the name of Major Brown, had really gotten excited about this project. He had designed complete fortifications: temporary forward operating bases, permanent bases, encampments, and a training academy.

He explained how the ancient Itan military would erect defensive structures as the first step in setting up camp, even if it was just for the night. They would dig a trench around the camp area with a mound of dirt as a barrier. Wooden stakes would be placed in the dirt mound with sharpened ends pointing outwards. Water drainage ditches would be dug so that tents wouldn’t get flooded in the event that it rained. Latrines were placed away from tents, but within the fortification.

Fixed structures were always in a state of improvement from a security perspective. Land was kept clear around the base to prevent an enemy from being able to sneak up without being observed. Wooden structures were inspected regularly and any wood that was weakening was replaced. Grounds were leveled, drains were put in place, and everything was cleaned on a daily basis. Even facilities that weren’t in use were periodically inspected, repaired, and kept in a state ready for immediate occupation.

The group of engineers argued that every elf should have minimal skills with tools and basic repair of any piece of equipment that they used. If they rode or drove a wagon, they should know how to change the wheel, replace the axle, and rebuild the carriage. For an army on the march, there weren’t going to be repair facilities on the side of the road. Some elves would have to have training as blacksmiths.

Once again, he walked away with a binder full of ideas. The engineers only wanted recognition for their contribution.