“Your choice of any one of 10 meals fresh from the carton, Sir.” Jones added. “The other two are already spoken for.”
“In other words your guest gets the leftovers?” Mr. Roberts asked.
“Kind of. But Petty Officer Jones has just started to heat his . I’m sure he’d share with you.” Dan offered
“Thanks, Dan. You know that the beans and franks are my favorite.” Casey said with a bit of friendly sarcasm.
“Not to worry, Casey. I’ll happily settle for the chicken and noodles.
That is if I can heat it up?” The officer added.
“Sure Mr. Roberts. I’m through with my heater.” Casey handed the Lieutenant an empty M-2 ration can that had three triangular holes punched along the bottom edge with a church key. (beer can opener.)
“Heat tablets?”
“Here, Sir.” Dan started to hand him what looked somewhat like a square tube of slightly off white putty wrapped in wax paper. It was about 12” long, and about 3” square.
“C4?” Mr. Roberts asked with a smile.
“Yes sir, only thing that will get wet and still heat your coffee.
Here this should do it, Sir.” Dan offered breaking off a hunk of the plastic explosive about the size of a big gum ball and pulling a little tit on one side to facilitate lighting it.
“Why I came out here was that I was told that you two men knew what was going on with Petty Officer Rainer. Is that true? You turned him in as AWOL on February 23, Dan?”
“Yes Sir. He missed muster on that Thursday morning after taking a courier run to Da Nang on the 22nd which I believe was Wednesday the day before..
Petty Officer Jones only knew that he wasn’t in the hooch on Wednesday night and on Thursday he didn’t see him.”
“He did witness the incident with the pistol and knew of your intentions to let him, Rainer, take care of it himself before you wrote him up?
Did anybody find a pound cake for desert?”
“Here, Sir.” Casey handed the Lieutenant a can that he pulled from a ration box still in the carton.
“Thanks, Casey. Do you by any chance know what is in each of those meals.”
“SOP and self defense Mr. Roberts. We always pick through the rations and get what we want if there’s a surplus.”
“Also the way to get what you want to eat and the best of the mediocre.” Dan added with a smile.
“You’re correct, Sir. I was in the hooch during those times and heard everything that Dan said to Rainer. I also saw the pistol being fired in our bunker and later in the hooch.” Casey told the Lieutenant.
The Lieutenant picked up the thread of his conversation. “I just wanted to have you Petty Officers verify what I and NCIS had been told. There are no problems for either of you and I for one think you did what was right and what any Seabees should have done in this case.”
“Want some coffee, Sir?” Jones offered as he stirred a packet of instant coffee into a ration tin, faux cup, of boiling water.
“Please. Straight. No sugar or phony cream.
This isn’t scuttlebutt and I don’t want it turned into gossip like some old ladies sewing circle. Understood?”
“Yes Sir.” The two Seabees answered loudly and simultaneously.
“Rainer was arrested in Da Nang by NCIS and the Army Provost Marshal for selling greenbacks for military script. That was on February 22nd. That is what he was doing on the courier runs. They also got him for carrying a concealed weapon which they were informed, before the fact, he was carrying. Thanks to you guys.” He stopped talking long enough to take a drink of his coffee.
“That stuff is still terrible. How do you drink it all the time?”
“Pretend it’s a day old, over-brewed, burned and you have a bad taste in your mouth from a hangover.” Dan answered. “I don’t understand exactly what Rainer was doing, Mr. Roberts. How could he swap the script for greenbacks to take home? And why?”
“As I understand it, he had a couple thousand dollars in script which he bought for one greenback dollar for $1.50 to $1.75 worth of script. Sometimes as much a $2.00 in script depending on the market price at the time. He figured that when he got his travel orders to CONUS he’d exchange X number of script dollars here in our disbursing office for greenbacks at face value. Then go to Da Nang and exchange X number more, again at face value. If he ends up in CONUS at a place like Treasure Island with more script he can claim that he forget to exchange his script in-country so they’ll exchange the rest for him the same way. With this procedure he could probably get away with a couple or three thousand greenback dollars and a nice profit. The why is about at least 25% or more profit.”
“So he’ll be courtmartialed for trading in greenbacks?” Dan asked.
“A serious offense. The United Staes doesn’t want the North Vietnamese to get greenbacks to spend on the world market. And being charged with carrying a concealed and illegal weapon. As well as being AWOL. He’s going away for quite a while. As I said, you men did the right thing.
Now I’m going back to Chu Lai and take the rest of my day off after I clean the mud off my boots. Might even put on civvies and go have a beer in the club.”
“Thanks Mr. Roberts. I for one was wondering what was going on.” Dan said as he followed the Lieutenant to his jeep.
“Thanks for lunch, Casey.” The officer spoke while climbing into the jeep. “Don’t stay out here too long. It’s supposed to be your day off. Though I can see you are getting the road dried out and more passable than the last time when I was out here.”
The two Seabees stood in the mud next to the grader and watched the jeep disappear traveling back north on Highway 1.
“Nice guy isn’t he Dan?’
“Yeah. Yeah, he really is. I could see that he was ticked off that one of his Seabees would pull that kind of shit. Rainer is just plain stupid to think he could get away with black marketing greenbacks.
You want to get our stuff together and meet me on the road in a while? I’ll start laying some of the fill back on the road bed so we can head back into Chu Lai.”
“Gotcha. Go back in about 15 or 16 hundred?”
“Sounds good to me, Casey. Let’s make it 1500 or quicker. As soon as I can put a layer of laterite in the road.. After all it is Sunday, the day of rest.”
FOUR
“Gee, another day without it raining, Chief.” Dan Davis said to his crew boss, Chief Dale Thomas, as he turned away from the chief’s jeep and headed for his grader. “I’ll be on the road as soon as I get fueled up.” Nodding towards the approaching diesel fuel tanker.
“Okay. I’m going straight out to the bridge job. The drilling crew will be along with their rigs most scratch heading south to the ROK (Republic of Korea) compound in Binh Son. I want to be there to make sure they get around the bridge bypass all right.”
“It looked good on Saturday when I was out there, Tom. Windy made a couple of passes on it with his scraper and laid some more dry fill on it. I didn’t even have to hit it with the grader when he got through.”
“I know what you mean. We’re going to lose him in April. His DEROS is about the third week of April.”
“I’ve been avoiding thinking about it.
He’s our best scraper operator. I for one will definitely miss him, as a friend also.”
“He’s in your squad isn’t he?’
“Yeah. I never have to worry about Windy for anything. Hates the military but is a hell of a Seabee.”
The chief nodded in affirmation as he put his jeep in gear and started south on Highway 1 towards bridge #1 and the village of Binh Son.
About a quarter of a mile south of the cantonment gate Dan started rolling part of the berm of laterite that he had bladed onto the shoulder of the road yesterday back onto the roadbed. The only way he could keep the mud under control was to blade windrows of wet fill onto the shoulders of the road and hope it would dry out en
ough to blade it back across the road where maybe it would dry out some more during the middle of the day.
Best this muddy mess has looked in weeks. He thought as he eyed a covey of young Vietnamese girls carrying their baskets of salable goodies and chattering amongst themselves as they walked south on Highway 1 towards the Army’s Brigade headquarters a mile or so further along the road.
Oh, who is she?
Of the 6 girls walking ahead of the grader only one turned at the sound of the slowly approaching grader. She seemed to be walking by herself, bringing up the rear.
Never saw her before. Really cute. Actually very pretty. Taller than the others. More woman than girl
The girl who had turned to look and was trailing the others was obviously 2 or 3 inches taller which made her 5’ 1” or so, and prettier than the rest, also older by 4 or 5 years which did make her a woman.
Operating the grader not much speedier than a fast walk, Dan had time to study her. She turned away to look where she was going to avoid stepping on any wet spots of mud. She didn’t seem to be paying any attention to him or the grader. Unlike the other girls who were wearing the traditional peasants’ black cotton pants and white cotton shirts, she had on white silky looking pants which had legs tapered down to her slim ankles. Her pastel blue shirt was hip length, buttoned down the front and tailored to fit her waist and shapely hip, and outlined her small Vietnamese breasts without emphasizing them. Her clothes appeared to be newer, and washed less than the other girl’s clothes. Her cone shaped non la hat was of a slightly different style and newer than what the other girls were wearing. It had several pink and light blue silk flowers that matched her shirt on it. A piece of pastel blue floral silk ribbon was under her small chin to hold the non la on.
Several feet behind her he spun the steering wheel enough to move the grader a couple feet out closer to the middle of the road while his left hand pulled a lever sliding the blade away from her several inches. Doing so left the windrow that he had been picking up still on the shoulder of the road.
The grader blade was alongside her but about three feet away when she turned towards the big noisy machine next to her. First she looked down at the shiny steel blade passing her. With no change in the calm, soft look of her dark brown eyes, she slowly raised her head and met Dan’s eyes. For several seconds there was no change in her eyes until a small soft smile started to betray itself on her delicate pink lips. For just a flash of time, her eyes also seemed to smile and sparkle before she quickly looked away.
Dan also broke into a involuntary smile, and saw as she turned away the flash of white teeth and the soft upward curve of her mouth when her smile deepened. He could see a blush of embarrassment spread up the exposed, faintly tinted skin on the back of her neck becoming lost under the bob of shiny, healthy looking black hair gathered under her non la.
The other girls had crossed the road so he swung the grader back to pick up the windrow of laterite on the shoulder before turning back to look at the woman.
She had started across the road but stopped walking when Dan turned to look down into her pretty face from his vantage point on the grader. Her small soft smile crept back onto her mouth and in her eyes as she hurriedly looked down and away. At the same time her right hand raised slightly above the basket she was using both hands to hold and waved with a discrete small wiggling of her finger tips.
Is that a wave or my imagination?
He turned away from her for several seconds to make an adjustment of the grader’s blade before he raised his right hand above his shoulder and waved casually with small motions of his fingers.
Never saw her before today. Very nice to look at.
Was she’s flirting with me?
Not dressed like the others. Better. More like a city girl, not from one of these local villages.
Dan started to think about lunch. Checking the time and trying to figure how long it would take him to reach the bridge job. There he could relax and eat lunch amongst the bridge crew of Seabees and not have to be alert and on guard. If he stopped along the road to eat he couldn’t relax even for a minute.
Since there was quite a bit of Marine and other military traffic along the road today, he had opted not to take along a ‘shotgun’ rider to watch his back as he worked.
Maybe a bad decision not to take Thomas up on his offer of sending a ‘shotgun’ along.
The well-drilling convoy for the ROK camp in Binh Son had passed him 5 or 10 minutes ago. He hadn’t realized how many vehicles were involved until he pulled onto the shoulder of Highway 1 to let them pass. First, leading the way was a jeep with the battalion’s Marine Corp advisor Gunnery Sergeant Joe Simpson. Riding with him in the jeep’s front seat was a first class builder who Dave didn’t know. In the back seat, were two seamen from the battalion’s security forces armed with M14’s. Next was a tractor and low boy trailer which had some water tanks and other smaller equipment for the well drillers. It had a member of the drilling crew riding ‘shotgun’ with an M14. Third in line was the battalion’s wrecker. A second class driver was in the driver’s seat and riding ‘shotgun’ was a first class mechanic. Bringing up the rear of the convoy was the huge well-drilling rig itself with the first class equipment operator who was in charge of the drilling crew driving. One of his crew was in the ‘shotgun’ seat with two more riding on the back of the rig. All armed with M14s which Dave assumed were locked and loaded. All the Seabees looked big and bulky in their flak vests with steel piss pots on their heads.
FIVE
He felt the thump in the pit of his stomach before seeing a mixed black and red cloud swirling into the sky and hearing the explosion a couple miles further south down Highway 1 a few seconds later.
Oh shit! That wasn’t a mortar round.
I don’t see any of our aircraft around. Had to have been a mine.
Dan looked all around checking to see if there were any Vietnamese farmers in sight. A quarter of a mile or so behind him was a small village where the farmers who grew rice in the paddies on his left, the east side of the highway, lived and processed their crop. There was no one in sight. He knew that wasn’t unusual. There were more rice paddies out of sight of the road, behind the village further east, but it could also be a sign of VC in the area.. He felt the need to be on the safe side and reached behind him to pull his M14 toward the front of the grader’s seat. Without stopping the grader he lifted the rifle. Made sure the safety was on, then pulled the bolt back, released it and let a cartridge enter the rifle’s chamber.
Guess I’d better just keep working towards the bridge even if it means a late lunch.
After laying his rifle back on the seat his right hand pushed against the throttle handle but it was already opened all the way. He then put on his flak jacket taking both hands off of the grader controls to hook up the jacket’s zipper.
Each hand grabbed a blade control lever and made a couple of minor adjustments of the grader blade. He was grading by feel and instinct with his eyes constantly searching the area around him.
The violent red and black cloud had continued to climb for several seconds before changing to a tall black column of smoke. Dan kept glancing up towards where the cloud’s origin appeared to be. As he moved down Highway 1 the column slowly dispersed and drifted out of sight behind the low hills and tall trees he could see off in the distance..
On the south end of the half mile long straight away passing through another series of rice paddies he watched what appeared to be a weapons carrier approaching him. The weps was moving fast and in just seconds became recognizable as the Seabee green, road crew’s weps carrier. The vehicle slowed down as it drew closer to the grader and the driver, a third class builder from the bridge crew flagged Dan down.
Pulling off the throttle and bringing the grader to a halt next to the weps Dave saw how excited the builder was and several thoughts flashed across his mind. The VC blew the new, unfinished
bridge!
NO! They’d wait until it was finished.
Charlie blew up the Chief’s jeep!
Oh shit! His original presumption came back. Charlie got the drilling crew!
The excited Seabee was talking at hyper-speed and Dan could only catch a word or partial word now and again.
“Slow down! Start over. What’s going on?”
“They blew up the wrecker! Chief Thomas wants you to get the grader there as fast as you can to fix the road and make sure the three dump trucks from the bridge job get to the laterite pit to haul fill for the crater.”
He stopped to catch his breath before going on. “The Chief said you would know where to get the laterite and where the loader would be.”
“I do. I need you to keep going towards Chu Lai about a mile and a half behind me and watch on the left for a short road going towards a Vietnamese rock quarry. Also look for 6X6 tire tracks coming onto the road. The loader will be in there a hundred yards or so off the highway. The dump truck drivers know where it is and will go there. Make sure the loader stays there and loads the dumps until a dump driver, the Chief or I, tell him what else to do.
And do me a favor after you get to the loader and are waiting for the trucks.”
“Sure, what is it, Dave.”
“Take that damn mortar round off the hood and get rid of it before it falls off and someone hits it with a tire.
Besides, it marks the weps as belonging to the road crew.” He added as an after thought.
A blue, spent 81MM illumination mortar round had been wired to the weapon carrier‘s hood a couple of days ago. One morning while waiting for the Marine mine sweeper to go through on Highway 1, a couple of Seabees had found the separated pieces of several mortar illumination rounds which had been fired the night before and thought it would be cool to wire it to their weps.
“Do you know where the dump trucks are?”
“Yeah, they should be along any minute they were getting turned around when I left the bridge and Chief Thomas was in his jeep going back to where they blew up the wrecker.”
Dan pointed towards the road. “I see ‘em. They’re just coming over the hill.