“Nothing. Nobody has seen her. Honcho said he would ask his mother. I think that she’s his mother’s cousin, a distant cousin, but lives in Chu Lai.
We going to meet the Marines?”
“Yeah. You’ll have to show them the bomb.”
“No problem. It’s pretty hard to miss.”
“Oh? So how come nobody else saw it?”
“Maybe they weren’t looking?”
“You are such a smart ass.”
The 250 # dud bomb, minus its’ fins, had been disarmed and pulled out of the culvert. It was on the shoulder of the road so the Marine EOD team could load it on to their truck. The Marine security detail was still in a defensive mode along the road and at the access to the village. One Marine from the EOD team was wet and muddy under his foul weather jacket that he had put on over his fatigues for warmth. He was smaller than the rest of the team and obviously had the unenviable task of climbing into tight spots. He had first taken a quick look following the comm wire to assure himself and the team leader that the comm wire had been run over the top of the bomb and into its nose where a fuse usually was. He cut the comm wire at the mouth of the culvert pipe then crossed the road and slid into the pipe to the bomb’s nose that was almost directly under the center of the road. With the team leader at the opposite end of the culvert he had communicated what he had found.
“They ran the wire over the top as we saw from your end. Then put a charge of what looks like C4, with an electric blasting cap into the fuse hole. I would say the fuse is completely missing, but I’ll know for sure when I remove the cap and plastique.”
“All right, can you remove the cap and plastique without any hassle?”
“Yes Sir. No problem.” He was quiet for several seconds. “You can pull the comm wire out now Sir. I have the cap and plastique. Just for future info, Sir, I don’t think its C4. Seems to be something else that I’m not familiar with so I separated the cap from it.”
“Okay, get out of there Gunny. Do you want to go in from this end and put a rope on that thing so we can pull it out?”
“Might as well, Skipper. I’m already wet and muddy. No sense in anybody else ruining their day.”
Laughing the Marine Captain said, “You can take a shower and put on clean fatigues as soon as we get that thing secured and destroyed, Gunny.”
As the Gunny walked back across the road he added. “I’m holding you to that offer, Skipper.
Now if the Corporal will give me a hand with the rope we’ll haul the beast out of there. We definitely ruined Charlie’s day and that makes it worth getting my manicure and coiffure screwed up.”
The Marine Staff Sergeant in charge of the security detail approached the EOD Captain and Chief Thomas as they stood in the middle of the road checking out the rice farmers who were showing some, but not a lot on interest in what the Seabees and Marines were doing.
“Sir, Chief, I think we should make a pass and a kind of look see in that village. Just to see if any of these so called rice farmers are or will get antsy and kinky. I doubt if we have much of a chance of any VC showing their hand, but you can never tell.”
Thomas turned to the Marine Captain and nodded. “It might be a good idea. It might put them on notice to be careful about messing with us.”
“I agree. Can’t hurt anything, Chief.
Okay, Sergeant, do your thing. In the mean time we’re going to load the bomb and get out of here.”
With a smile, his M16 hanging from his right shoulder, the Staff Sergeant spun on his heel and started back to his Marines. The M16 came off his shoulder and with few words and several hand motions his Marines started into the village spread out on each side of the trail which was the villager’s access to the highway barely wide enough for a jeep.
From the Chief’s jeep, Dan and Thomas saw that the Marine EOD team was ready to leave. They started down the road as the Captain came to meet them.
“I don’t have any business cards, but we’re at the Seabees service any time. Just give us a call day or night.” He said with a pleasant smile and held out his hand. “Thanks Davis, took some guts to checkout that culvert.
Chief, anytime.” As he shook Thomas hand before turning and trotting back to his waiting weapons carrier.
“Shall we wait around for the sweep of the village, Tom?”
“Let’s get out of here. We’ve wasted enough time and had our thrills for the day, don’t you think, Dan?”
TEN
Before 0800 on Tuesday Dan Lee Davis met Chief Thomas near the Chu Lai gate where he had left his grader the night before.
“The engineers want another day or so to run the grade lines. Also we need to finish up the bridge approaches. So we’ll let this end of the road go until we finish out on the bridge.
I’ll meet you out there later.”
“Ok, Tom See ya out there.“ Dan climbed up on his grader and headed south on Highway 1 for bridge 1.
With three dump trucks hauling from the laterite pit 4 miles away he spent most of the day rebuilding the approach shoulders on the north side of the bridge with the help of EON3 Casey Jones and his D8 Cat working the steep parts of the shoulders. For all intents and purposes at quitting time the north end bridge approach was finished. Casey Jones and Dan met with Chief Thomas next to the bunker to decided a course of action to finish up on Wednesday.
“Why don’t you guys leave the D8 and grader here for the night. Put them where ever the security troops want them.”
“I think that’s a good idea, Tom. I’ll be all right for fuel through tomorrow. How about the D8 Casey?”
We’re good for another day and a half or a bit more. You want me to stay out here and help Windy takeout the bypass tomorrow Chief?”
“That’s the plan Casey. If you’ll help Dan finish up the shoulders and approaches tomorrow morning, then in the afternoon the upper echelon and Vietnamese civilians are having a dedication ceremony to open the bridge. They want to tear out the bypass as soon as the official ceremony is over. You and Windy with his scraper, will start that when the Old Man gives us the signal after the ribbon cutting.
I’ll be ready to go into Chu Lai in 30 minutes or so. Right after security gets here and you can ride in with me rather than on the cargo truck with the builders. They’re leaving in just a couple minutes. So hang loose around here if you want.”
The builders and corpsman had gathered around the cargo truck and the Corpsman Pete Reynolds caught Dan’s eye and started to walk away from the group towards the now empty bunker. Dan sauntered over to the bunker and when they were both out of sight of the others Pete asked, “You talk to Honcho today?”
“Yeah this morning. He said he didn’t know where she was. And his mother isn’t talking.”
“He told me the same thing a few minutes ago. I’m not sure whether I believe him entirely or not. I’ve never completely believed him. Sometimes I have the feeling that he’s holding something back.”
“I don’t know him well enough, but he’s only a kid and maybe saying what his elders want him to say.”
“Could be, Dan. Nobody on the crew has seen her either since the last time we all saw her.”
“Thanks Pete. I appreciate it.”
“No sweat Dan. I don’t think that I’ll be out here again. No more builders, they will just be here for the ribbon cutting tomorrow. Then you EOs for whatever you have to do and you seldom have a corpsman with you anyway. The security troops were saying that they will only be out here tonight and tomorrow night, then the ARVN troops take over.”
“We’re tough.”
“Yeah. Right. See ya.” Pete Reynolds turned and went back to get on the cargo truck. As he climbed aboard he smiled and waved.
The ribbon cutting for the new bridge was set for 1430 so Chief Thomas brought Dan and Casey Jones out to the bridge before 0700 on Wednesday so they could finish the south bridge approach before the ceremony. Sin
ce less work had to be done than on the north approach they were sure it would be done before noon.
The trip out from the Chu Lai gate took a bit longer than expected since the Marine Corp road minesweeper was a bit late and standing Seabee orders were that no Seabee or Seabee vehicle could travel Highway 1 until after the mine sweep had gone south to Binh Son. The minesweeper was a 6 X 6 cargo truck heavily covered with sandbags. There was a layer of sandbags two deep on the running boards, along the tops of the fenders and across the hood. The windshield had been removed and the door windows rolled down into the doors to prevent casualties from flying glass. Inside the cab the floor was covered with sandbags and under the seats a double thick layer of bags to further protected the driver and his shotgun rider. The Marines were in full battle gear with heavy flak vests and the attachment that draped over their crotches and was usually worn by helicopter crew members. Steel piss pots covered their heads and heavy goggles covered their eyes with aviation ear protectors over their ears. Every morning the minesweeper would travel south then return north on Highway 1 looking for anything suspicious or disturbance on the road bed while traveling in each direction on the main traveled part of the road to detonate any mines, except command detonated ones, planted during the night.
The Chief pulled out a hundred yards behind the minesweeper and followed it south at about 25 miles an hour until they reached the bridge.
At 1000 hours Windy showed up at the bridge with his double barrel Euclid scraper followed closely by the Battalion’s second double barreled scraper.
“Thought we could use the extra help” Windy explained to Chief Thomas and Dan Davis as he jumped to the ground on the shoulder of the road at the south end of the bypass. “Adamson had the day off with nothing to do so he volunteered to follow me out. Besides, Chief Marks didn’t know we took it out of the maintenance compound. For all intents and purposes the mechanics won’t get to it until tomorrow anyway. It just needs the oil and filters changed and since Marks won’t let us do it ourselves we figured you guys had a better use for it today.
With a big smile Thomas spoke up. “I don’t know or see anything.
It will cut the time drastically so we can definitely take out the bypass after the ceremony and still be finished before dark.”
“Where are we going to get rid of the fill from the bypass, Chief?” Windy asked.
“The Marines have a tank road at the south end of the Chu Lai fence were it hits the highway. We’ll just lay it in there and build up a decent ramp to the highway. Eventually, like in the near future, we’ll be putting a road in there so that will give us a jump on it.”
“Gotcha. We can each take a pan full off the bypass now and go back down there to shape the new access road up so we can go like hell once we start seriously taking it out.”
“Good idea. We’ll probably want some more laterite fill for the shoulders where we take out the bypass don’t you think Dan?”
“Yeah for sure, Tom, no doubt but I think that can wait until Windy and Adam are almost through ripping out the bypass then have them each bring a pan full of laterite on their return.”
“Good idea. Also let the dumps haul a couple loads each which we can just dump along the shoulder of the main road for you to use later.” Thomas stated as he walked towards his jeep.
Dan met the last loaded dump truck that was headed for the bridge as he was going into Chu Lai. The grader was running low on fuel so he and Chief Thomas had decided it would work out all right if he refueled at the Chu Lai gate. He would then return to the bridge and finishing up the grading tomorrow morning without being pressed for time. The ribbon cutting ceremony had lasted longer than they had anticipated. The Vietnamese politicians were more talkative than usual. They were obviously looking for the Seabees to do something else for them.
Dan swung into the laterite pit on his way into Chu Lai and told the loader operator to call it a day. It was already after 1730 and the Chief had called the battalion from the bridge to set up late chow for his crew.
Two of the dump trucks that had been hauling laterite to the bridge pulled through the gate as Dave was getting ready to climb into the crew’s weapons carrier. He asked the driver to wait while he walked back to talk to the drivers since the third truck should have been with them as well as Chief Thomas in his jeep. Windy and Adamson had come in ahead of him with their double barrel Euclid scrapers and should be in the Seabee compound by now and Casey had parked the D 8 Cat behind the gate guard shack and was already aboard the weapons carrier.
“Jimmy was going across the bridge to turn his dump around. I had to wait for him to clear the bridge since I was all ready turned around and the Chief was still on the bridge talking to the security troops from his jeep.” One of the drivers told Dan. “I never saw either of them behind me all the way in.”
“Thanks. Head for the motor pool and then get some chow, They’re holding the chow hall open for us.”
When he reached the Seabee compound Dan had the driver drop him at the command post. Entering the CP he met Lt. Roberts the Alpha Company Commander also going in. “What’s up Davis?”
“We seemed to have lost a dump truck and Chief Thomas, Sir”
“Let’s find out what’s happening. I got a message to come over here, That’s probably what it’s about.
You came in ahead of them?”
“Yes Sir. The third dump truck should have been with the two that came in directly behind me and Chief Thomas should have been just a few minutes behind them. The last they saw of the Chief he was talking to the security detail on the bridge.”
The interior of the CP was dim with brighter desk lamps where the radio operator sat and over the maps tables.
“Sir, we have Chief Thomas on the horn for you. He asked that we contact you for him.”
“Ok, let me talk to him.
Chief, what’s going on?” Lt. Roberts had picked up the mike and spoke.
“We have a bit of a snafu out here on Highway 1, Sir. One of our dump trucks missed the place to turn around and drove to the next Vietnamese village and tried to turn around there. I believe he was getting worried and maybe a bit scared that he had gone too far and that affected his judgement on where to turn around.
To make a long story short, Sir, when he was backing up the tailgate of his truck hit the local gas pump. Didn’t knock it down, but broke the glass out of it and it probably isn’t safe to use as is. The villagers got a bit upset and instead of getting away from them and out of the village, he got out of the truck. Without his weapon I will add. To look at what he had done. He also wanted the villagers to know he didn’t do it on purpose and was sorry it happened.”
“Is he all right, Chief?”
“Yes Sir. When he didn’t come right back the Third Class Boatswain Mate in charge of the security detail and I went looking for him. When we got to the village they had cut him off from his truck and seemed to making all kinds of threats and demanding the truck and money. Basically pure intimidation.”
“You ever been in that village Dan?” The Lieutenant turned to Dan who was standing close by on his right.
“Yes Sir, but just while grading, Never had any trouble, but didn’t feel as comfortable as in the villages closer to Chu Lai. It’s the village were most of the laborers from the Vietnamese rock quarry come from and they aren’t particularly friendly.”
Mr. Roberts turned back to the radio mike. “So where is the driver and truck now, Chief? Was there any additional problems?”
Waiting for the Chief’s response the officer spoke to Dan under his breath. “I don’t want to hear shots were fired.”
“We had to use a bit of intimidation ourselves but nothing serious. The truck, driver, security boatswain mate and I are all back at the bridge.”
“What kind in intimidation, Chief?” He grimaced and rolled his eyes in mock worry.
“The boatswain mate I took with me.” The ch
ief hesitated for just a second. “Just happened to be holding an M60 and a couple hundred rounds when he got in the jeep and I forgot to remind him to leave it behind. No rounds were fired, but a belt of ammo had found its way into the breech just as we pulled up to the crowd.”
“I’m assuming everybody then became quite civilized?”
“Yes Sir, quite. They were also very quiet. But I did notice three or four of the village men that I wouldn’t want to meet in the dark. They were dressed in black pajamas and had rock dust on them.”
“It’s getting too late and dark to come in now Chief? You’re going to have to share some C-rats and spend the night in the bunker with the security troops?
So you’ll be in with security after the minesweeper goes through in the morning?” Asked Mr. Roberts but it was known by all parties that they were orders not questions.
“Yes Sir.”
“How are you set up for tomorrow? Anything we can do from this end to keep you on schedule? I have Petty Officer Davis with me now.”
“No Sir, Petty Officer Davis will handle what needs to be done to finish up the bridge approaches then start hauling fill and grading to get ready to blue top the north end of the road. Also Petty Officer Ryder will take care of the rock quarry and laterite pit.”
“Okay, Chief, have a good night.”
“Oh, I will Sir, I talked the Boatswain into letting me sleep with the M60.
Over and out Sir.”
‘Copy Chief.
You good with that Dan?”
“Sure, Mr. Roberts. Just do what we’ve already planned for the next few days.”
“Okay. You going to get something to eat?”
“Yes Sir. I haven’t made it to the chow hall yet.”
“I’ll go with you. I didn’t finish my supper and the officer’s mess is closed. Lead on Petty Officer Davis.” The officer said with a sweeping motion of his right hand and smiling.
ELEVEN
The company chief had dismissed Alpha Company from quarters and as Dan Davis walked across the company yard Chief Thomas hailed him from the company office. “Hey Dan, a notice just came down from the battalion command post. They’ve put some restrictions on our working and traveling on Highway 1 south of Chu Lai.”