Rolling Thunder

by Mark Berent

CHAPTER THREE

  1530 Hours Local, 17 December 1965

  Room 1D1024, The Pentagon

  Washington, DC

  Power in the Pentagon is situated on the Third floor E Ring between corridors 8 and 9. From here, the Secretary of Defense (SecDef) exercises direction, authority, and control over the Department of Defense (DoD) which encompasses the departments of the Army, the Navy (including the Marines and Naval Aviation), and the Air Force in addition to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the unified and specified commands, and various other defense agencies. What this means is that the SecDef has 3,374,808 men and women to assist him in his duty to support and defend the United States Consti­tution and to ensure the security of the United States, its possessions, and other areas vital to its security. Right now, like it or not, an area called South Viet Nam, which was 12,500 miles from the SecDef's office, has been declared vital to the security of the United States. This Asian country half way around the world currently had 460,202 of the SecDef's military people stationed there. An additional 40,000 were cruising around offshore in the South China Sea, while 35,000 more were at a half dozen air bases in Thailand.

  The SecDef's main office is located in Room 880. His Deputy SecDef is on the same floor in Room 944. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose job is to administer to the JCS while advising the president through the SecDef, is located almost directly beneath in 2E872. Scattered about are the offices of the Chiefs of Staff of the Army (3E666), the Air Force (4E924), and the Chief of Naval Operations (4E660). The Commandant of the Marine Corps is a half-mile away in the Navy Annex on Columbia Pike.

  Down the corridor two hundred feet to the right from the SecDef was the office of USAF Major General Albert G. "Whitey" Whisenand who held the position of Director of Operations and Planning, Special (Detached). Whitey Whisenand's job was unique in that he worked directly for the SecDef, not for his service chief or any other military boss.

  As a two-star, Whitey was old in grade at age 55. He had flown his first airplane, a 3,000lb P-26, for the Army Air Force in 1933. In WWII he flew Mustangs. He flew his last fighter for the USAF, a 12,000lb Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, in Korea. On his 83rd mission he crashed and burned on takeoff when his water injection failed. He had been medically grounded since. At 55, he looked a senatorial 60 due to his expanding girth and white hair. He was not tall. Due to his burn scars, he had a slightly rosy and grainy textured matte around his upper cheeks and eyes making him appear forever as if he had just removed his oxygen mask after a long flight. The rest of his face was smooth and pink. His eyes were pale blue and generally compassionate. He hid a high IQ and an enormous interest in what made people tick behind his normal expression of benign curiosity. He sat at his large oak desk sipping steamy Brenny's coffee from a chipped Aynnsley bone china mug and thought of the odd position he was in.

  His job for the SecDef was threefold:

  **Evaluate target requests sent from MACV in Vietnam via CINCPAC in Hawaii to the Pentagon to the president for approval.

  **Generate other targets to fulfill the president's requirements.