by Eric Helm
“Yes,” said Hull coldly. “I imagine you do. Now why don’t you just shut up and let me talk to Captain Gerber.”
“General Hull,” protested Crinshaw, “I might remind you that I, too, am a general officer and I demand—”
“You demand nothing, Brigadier,” said Hull, emphasizing the fact that he outranked Crinshaw. “Now, Captain, what’s the story?”
“If you can spare your helicopters,” said Gerber, “I could use them to take wounded to Dau Tieng and Cu Chi.”
“Of course,” said Hull. “How’s Sergeant Fetterman?”
“Tony is fine. I believe he’s working on the east wall right now, if you care to speak to him.”
Hull nodded. “Listen, Mack, I’m here only to learn what you need to get this camp reestablished. You did a hell of a job taking it away from the VC with the limited forces you had.” He smiled. “You may have rewritten a couple of pages of military history. I don’t think a combined heliborne-airborne assault has been tried.”
“We did our best.”
“Yes. Oh, what happened to the reporter?” asked Hull.
“She’ll be okay, I hope. It wasn’t very pretty, but Sergeant Washington tells me there’s nothing that won’t heal in time. I’d like to use one of your choppers to get her to Saigon.”
Hull noticed that Gerber was glancing around as if looking for something. Hull said, “I know you have things to do. Go and arrange to get your wounded out. I’ll get everything I need from Tony.” He patted Gerber on the shoulder. “Good job. Well done.”
As Hull moved off, Crinshaw fell in beside him, talking rapidly. Hull shot a single glance at Crinshaw and continued to walk, trying to ignore him.
Gerber grinned at that and then headed back up the runway. At the helipad he stopped to ask Washington, “How are your patients doing?”
“They’ll all be happy to get out of here. What’s the word on that?”
Gerber hitchhiked a thumb over his shoulder. “General Hull has given us permission to use his. Make the arrangements with the pilots there. And make sure you tell them which hospital to use.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll coordinate that.”
Gerber moved across the pad to where Morrow lay on her stomach. She was wearing a fatigue shirt, the tails pulled away from her waist, which had been wrapped in loose gauze. There were bloodstains on it. Her lower body was wrapped in the gauze, too, and covered with a towel.
Gerber knelt beside her and took her hand.
“Hi, Mack,” she said, turning her head to look at him.
“Hi. We’ll have you out of here in a few minutes.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” she said slowly in a singsong voice. “I’m fine now. Sergeant Washington gave me something.”
Gerber glanced down at her bloodstained bandages. He felt something grab his stomach and massage it with an icy hand. “Robin, I’m sorry about this. I really am.”
“Not your fault. Not your fault.”
Gerber rubbed his eyes and tried to think of something to say. Something that could take away the pain she had to feel but didn’t know what it would be. Words were just that — words. They couldn’t bring back the dead strikers who lined the runway waiting a graves registration party, and they wouldn’t help the wounded. He knelt there, looking at her, wondering what he could say.
“I’m coming back,” she told him. “In a couple of days, as soon as the danger of infection has passed, I’m coming back.”
“Robin, don’t take this wrong, but maybe it would be best if you waited a while before you returned. You said that you had a job to do. Maybe you should spend some of your time doing it.”
“You let me worry about my job, Gerber.”
He smiled. “Yeah, I really should do that. Let me put it this way. We’ll need time to rebuild the camp before we’ll let tourists, even pretty tourists with a job to do, back in. How’s that?”
“Pretty shitty, Gerber,” she said. “But you’re probably right. I’ll look into a couple of the other aspects of the war on a single condition.”
“You name it and you got it.”
Even through her drug-induced haze, she saw that comment for what it was. “I could ask for the moon.”
“You could, but I trust your judgment.”
“Then I’ll just ask for permission to come back out here when you’re ready.”
“You got it,” said Gerber.
“And maybe a dinner,” she added. “A night in Saigon, like the one we had once before.”
Washington appeared beside him. “Chopper’s ready, Captain. We should load Miss Morrow.”
“Come with me, Mack?” she asked.
Washington grabbed one end of the stretcher, and a Vietnamese picked up the other. They began walking toward the helicopter. Gerber was beside them, holding one of Morrow’s hands. They reached the chopper and shoved the stretcher in.
Morrow looked up long enough to say, “Just like the last one. Our last night in Saigon.”
“Okay,” said Gerber.
He, Washington and the striker moved away from the helicopter as the pilot started the engine. At first it was a quiet hum that built quickly to a high-pitched scream. Over that noise Washington shouted, “Sounds like you’ve got a date in Saigon, Captain.”
As the helicopter lifted to a hover and then took off to the south, Gerber said, “Yeah. I guess I do. But not for a while. Not until we get the camp rebuilt.”
“So we’re going to rebuild it, then?” asked Washington.
Gerber turned and stared at the medical NCO. “Of course we are. If we don’t, then the VC have won. They’ve been trying to throw us out of here for a year. They couldn’t do it when we first arrived, and they couldn’t do it now. We can’t give them the victory in the end.”
“But we’ve rebuilt the camp once already,” Washington pointed out, “and repaired damage a dozen times.”
“Makes no difference. Besides,” said Gerber, “now we can make it better.”
“Yes, sir. Better.”
He clapped Washington on the shoulder. “Of course, better. And Charlie will think twice about attacking us again.”
“But is it really worth it?” asked Washington. “When all is said and done, is it worth the price?”
Gerber caught sight of the men who had died in the fight. At the bodies lined up and waiting. “Yes,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ve betrayed their trust. That makes it worth it.”
***
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ALSO BY ERIC HELM
THE SCORPION SQUAD SERIES:
Body Count
The Nhu Ky Sting
Chopper Command
River Raid
THE VIETNAM GROUND ZERO SERIES:
Vietnam: Ground Zero
P.O.W.
Unconfirmed Kill
Soldier’s Medal
The Kit Carson Scout
The Hobo Woods
Guidelines
The Ville
Incident at Plei Soi
Tet
The Iron Triangle
Red Dust
Hamlet
Moon Cusser
Dragon’s Jaw
Cambodian Sanctuary
Payback
MACV
Tan Son Nhut
Puppet Soldiers
Gunfighter
Warrior
Target
Warlord
Spike
Recon
GLOSSARY
AC — Aircraft Commander.
ACTUAL — Actual unit commander, as opposed to the radio telephone operator (RTO) for that unit.
AFVN — Armed Forces radio and television network in Vietnam. Army PFC Pat Saják was probably the most memorable of AFVN’s DJs with his loud and long, “GOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, Vietnam!”
AIT — Advanced Individual Training.
AK-47 — Selective f
ire assault rifle used by the NVA and the VC. It fired the same ammunition as the SKS carbine, which was used early in the war. The AK-47 replaced it.
AO — Area of Operation.
AO DAI — Long dress-like garment, split up the sides and worn over pants.
APC — Armored personnel carrier.
AP ROUNDS — Armor-piercing ammunition.
ARVN — Army of the Republic of Vietnam; a South Vietnamese Army soldier.
ASH AND TRASH — Single ship flights by helicopters taking care of a variety of missions, such as flying cargo, supplies, mail and people among the various small camps in Vietnam, for anyone who needed aviation support.
BAR — .30-caliber Browning Automatic Rifle.
BEAUCOUP — Many. Term derived from the French presence in Vietnam prior to the war.
BISCUIT — C-rations or combat rations.
BLOOPER — See M-79.
BLOWER — See Horn.
BODY COUNT — Number of enemy killed, wounded or captured during an operation. Used by Saigon and Washington as a means of measuring the progress of the war.
BOOM-BOOM — Term used by the Vietnamese prostitutes to sell their product.
BOONDOGGLE — Any military operation that hasn’t been completely thought out. An operation or idea that is ridiculous.
BOONIE HAT — Soft cap worn by the grunts in the field when they were not wearing a steel pot.
BURP GUN — Any compact submachine gun, especially the 7.62 x 25mm Soviet PPSh-41 or any of its variants, such as the Yugoslavian M49 and M49/57, the Hungarian M48 and the Chinese Communist Type 50, which was sometimes called a K-50.
BUSHMASTER — Jungle warfare expert or soldier highly skilled in jungle navigation and combat. Also a large deadly snake not common to Vietnam but mighty tasty.
C AND C — Command and Control aircraft that circled overhead to direct combined air and ground operations.
CARIBOU — U.S. Army twin-engine cargo transport plane.
CHINOOK — Army Aviation twin-engine helicopter. A CH-47. Also known to the troops as a shit hook. Depending upon the model, it could carry thirty to forty-five troops, or up to eight tons of cargo in an external sling.
CLAYMORE — Antipersonnel mine that fires 750 steel balls with a lethal range of 50 meters. It can either be command detonated by electricity or manually detonated by a tripwire or pull device. It was a directional mine, designed to throw its fragments outward in a fan-shaped pattern rather than indiscriminately.
CLOSE AIR SUPPORT — The use of airplanes and helicopter gunships to fire on enemy units near friendly troops.
CO — Young, unmarried Vietnamese woman.
CO CONG — Female Viet Cong soldier.
DAI UY — ARVN rank equivalent to a U.S. Captain.
DCI — Director, Central Intelligence. The head of the CIA.
DEAD ZONE — Radio dead spot. A location where, because of the geographic or atmospheric conditions, radio communication is difficult or impossible.
DEROS — Date of Estimated Return from Overseas Service. It came to mean going home.
DING — To shoot someone was to ding him.
DINKY DAU — Crazy. From the Vietnamese Dien cai dau, literally, off the wall.
DONG — Unit of North Vietnamese money, about equal to a U.S. penny.
E AND E — Evasion and Escape.
EOD — Explosive Ordnance Disposal. This aspect of demolitions deals with booby-trapping and the disarming of explosive devices.
FAC — Forward Air Controller. U.S. Air Force pilots who flew tiny 0-1 and 0-2 light observation aircraft, later OV-10, and directed artillery fires and close air support strikes, served as scouts and as aerial radio relay links and conducted psychological warfare operations.
FAST MOVER — Jet aircraft. Also called oil burners. Usually referred to a tactical support aircraft, such as the F-100 or F-4 fighter bombers.
FCT — Fire Control Tower. An elevated structure protected by sandbags, used within a camp to direct mortar, artillery and machine-gun fire when the camp was under attack.
FIFTY — Browning .50-caliber heavy machine gun.
FIIGMO — Fuck It, I’ve Got My Orders.
FIRE ARROW — Large wooden arrow with burning gasoline cans affixed to it used in Special Forces camps to mark the direction of enemy troops for close air support at night.
FIVE — Radio call sign for the Executive Officer of a unit.
FNG — Fucking New Guy. Any replacement that had recently joined a unit.
FREEDOM BIRD — Name given to any aircraft that took troops out of Vietnam. Usually referred to the commercial jet flights that took men back to the World after they had completed their tour of duty and were eligible to DEROS.
FRENCH FORT — Distinctive, triangular-shaped fortification built by the hundreds throughout Vietnam by the French.
FUBAR — Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition (or Repair).
GARAND — Second World War vintage U.S. rifle, .30-caliber M-1. It was replaced in U.S. services by the M-14. The Garand was issued to Vietnamese troops and Special Forces advisors early in the Vietnam War.
GO-TO-HELL RAG — Towel or any large cloth worn around the neck by grunts to absorb perspiration, clean their weapons and dry their hands.
GRUNT — Infantryman.
GUARD THE RADIO — To stand by in the commo bunker and listen for incoming messages.
GUNSHIP — Armed helicopter or cargo plane equipped with miniguns, used in the close air support role.
HE — High-explosive ammunition or bombs.
HOOTCH — Almost any shelter, from temporary to long-term.
HORN — Specific radio communications network in Vietnam that used satellites to rebroadcast messages.
HORSE — See Biscuit.
HOTEL THREE — Helicopter landing area at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut Airport.
HUEY — UH-1 helicopter.
IN-COUNTRY — American troops operating in South Vietnam were all said to be in-country.
INDIAN COUNTRY — Bush slang for enemy-controlled territory.
INTELLIGENCE — Any information about the enemy’s operations, including troop movements, weapons’ capabilities, biographies of enemy commanders and general information about terrain features in a specific area of operations that would be useful in planning a mission. Also refers to the branch of the military that specifically deals with the gathering and dissemination of such information. Often abbreviated to Intel.
JP-4 — Enhanced kerosene fuel used in military jet aircraft and jet turbine helicopters.
KA-BAR — Military combat knife.
KEMCHI — Foul-smelling Korean delicacy made of fermented cabbage.
KHMER SEREI — Cambodian underground political group similar to the Khmer Kampuchea Kron (which see) but more reliable and trustworthy.
KIA — Killed in Action. Since the U.S. was not engaged in a declared war in Vietnam, the use of the term KIA was not authorized to refer to U.S. troops. Americans were referred to as KHA, or Killed in Hostile Action, while KIA came to mean enemy dead.
KKK — Khmer Kampuchea Kron, a nominally pro-U.S. Cambodian exile group, which operated as guerrillas against the VC in Cambodia.
KLICK — One thousand meters; a kilometer.
LBE — Load-Bearing Equipment. Web gear. A pistol belt and attached shoulder harness assembly for carrying a soldier’s individual equipment and ammunition.
LBJ — Long Binh Jail. A military stockade near Saigon.
LEGS — Derogatory term for regular infantry soldiers used by airborne qualified troops. Also known as grunts.
LIMA LIMA — Land line. Refers to telephone communications between two points on the ground.
LLDB — Luc Luong Dac Biet. The South Vietnamese Special Forces.
LP — Listening Post. A position outside the perimeter of a camp manned by a few men up to a squad to warn of the approach of enemy troops.
LZ — Landing Zone. An area designated for helicopters to land.
M
-14 — Standard rifle of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps during the late 1950s and early 1960s. A replacement for the Garand M-1 rifle, it was itself eventually replaced by the M-16. The M-14 fired the 7.62 x 59mm NATO cartridge, known to civilians as the.308 Winchester.
M-16 — Became the standard infantry weapon of the latter part of the Vietnam War. Derived from the AR-15 assault rifle designed by Eugene Stoner of the Armalite Corporation. The rifle underwent a series of modifications by the U.S. Army, which made it both fire at an excessively high rate and prone to both fouling and jamming. This version, properly known as the M-16A1, is the weapon most grunts carried in Vietnam after late 1966, and accounts for the weapon’s poor reputation as a combat rifle. The original AR-15 design was an excellent weapon, and the few examples of it that found their way into Vietnam frequently brought high prices on the Little Black Market in Saigon.
M-79 — Short-barreled, shoulder-fired weapon launching a 40mm grenade. The grenades could be high explosive, white phosphorus or canister (sometimes called buckshot rounds). The M-79 was also known as a blooper, bloop tube and elephant gun, the former deriving from the sound made as the grenade left the barrel, the latter because of the diameter of the weapon’s bore. It could effectively launch grenades up to about 350 meters, and the bursting radius of the grenades was about 15 meters.
MACV — Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. The headquarters of the U.S. Advisory and assistance effort in Vietnam. MACV (pronounced Mack-Vee) replaced MAAG, the Military Assistance Advisory Group, in 1964.
MARS — Military Affiliate Radio System. A link through Signal Corps and Stateside volunteer amateur radio operators allowing a soldier to send messages to the World.
MEDEVAC — Medical Evacuation. Also called Dust-Off. A helicopter used to take the wounded to medical facilities.
MG — Machine gun.
MIA — Missing in Action.
MOST RICKY TICK — At once. Immediately.
MP — Military Police. They enforced order and escorted convoys.
NCO — Noncommissioned officer. A noncom. A sergeant.
NCOIC — NCO In Charge. The senior NCO in a unit, detachment or patrol.