Captain Pantoja and the Special Service
Page 15
(b) The statements from all members of Convoy No. 25 coincide in categorically asserting that their stay in Borja was due to the fact that the Delilah’s propeller was maliciously removed by unknown hands in order to prevent the plane’s departure and to detain the convoy in Borja, since on the eighth day the propeller reappeared mounted on the apparatus in the same mysterious manner.
(c) At the same time, all members of Convoy No. 25 coincide in asserting that during their compulsory stopover of eight days in Borja, Specialists Coca, Peludita, Flor and Maclovia (the latter only while she was in the garrison, of course) were induced to grant daily and repeated services to all officers and subofficers of the unit, against SSGFRI regulations, which exclude high-ranking and intermediate authorities from its benefits, and without said services being financially compensated.
(d) The pilot of the Delilah declares that the reason for his confinement to the Borja jail was, exclusively, his having attempted to prevent the specialists from offering their services ad honorem and against regulations when they were so demanded, which services, according to approximate calculations of the women themselves, amount to the escalated figure of 247.
(e) The undersigned wants to make it clear that he is not communicating the findings of this investigation with the thought of contradicting the testimony of Col. Peter Casahuanqui, PA, an outstanding Army chief whom he admires and respects, but rather as a mere contribution intended to amplify the report of said chief in order that the whole truth may shine forth.
2. On the other hand, he has the honor of making known that the investigation conducted by the SSGFRI into the flight and subsequent marriage of Specialist Maclovia to former First Sgt. Teófilo Gualino coincides mathematically with the version contained in Col. Peter Casahuanqui’s report, the former averring only that former First Sgt. Gualino and the woman took possession of a garrison launch as a loan, because the river was the only means of leaving Borja, and that it was their firm intention to return it on the first possible occasion. Specialist Maclovia has been expelled from the SSGFRI, without compensation and without a letter of recommendation on account of her irresponsible conduct.
3. The undersigned allowed himself to make the observation to headquarters that the origin of these incidents, like the majority of those that have been recorded in spite of the efforts of the SSGFRI and the officers in charge of the utilization centers, is the Service’s dramatic lack of funds. Notwithstanding the dedication and the good will of all the collaborators in the SSGFRI, the corps of twenty (20) specialists (nineteen at present, since the said Maclovia has still not yet been replaced) is totally insufficient to cover the exorbitant demand of the utilization centers, which we are unable to take care of as we would like, except, if the expression will be excused, with so many drops in the bucket, and this rationing causes anxiety, feelings of frustration and, at times, precipitate and regrettable actions. Once again, the undersigned permits himself to urge his superiors to take a vigorous and bold step by allowing the SSGFRI to increase its operational corps from twenty (20) to thirty (30) specialists, which would signify an important advance in pursuance of the still distant satisfaction of what science has called the “virile plenitude” of our soldiers in the Amazon.
God bless you.
[Signed]
CAPT. (QUARTERMASTER) PANTALEÓN PANTOJA, PA
Encl: Report of Col. Peter Casahuanqui, PA, Chief, Borja Garrison (Marañón River), and two (2) meteorological reports from the PAF and the PN
NOTE: Transmit the above report from Capt. Pantoja to Gen. Roger Scavino, Commander in Chief of Region V, (Amazon) with the following instructions:
1. Carry out an immediate and detailed investigation of what took place with Convoy No. 25 of the SSGFRI at the Borja Garrison between 22 and 30 September and severely punish those who are found to be responsible; and
2. Accede to the request of Captain Pantoja and provide the necessary funds to increase its operational corps from twenty to thirty specialists.
[Signed]
GEN. FELIPE COLLAZOS
Chief of Administration, Supply and Logistics
Lima, 10 October 1957
Confidential communiqué from Rear Adm. Pedro G. Carrillo, PN,
Chief of the River Forces of the Amazon, to Gen. Roger Scavino,
PA, Commander in Chief of Region V (Amazon)
Santa Clotilde Base, 2 October 1957
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:
I have the honor of informing you that expressions of surprise and dissatisfaction in regard to the Hymn of the Special Service have reached me from the different bases that the Navy has spread throughout the Amazon Basin—as many from sailors as from their officers. The men who wear the spotless uniform of the Navy regret that the author of the lyrics of said Hymn has not found it necessary to mention, even once, the Peruvian Navy and its sailors, as if this institution were not also a supporter of the Service, to which (is it necessary to remind you?) we contributed with a transport boat and its respective crew as well as with an equitable percentage of the maintenance costs, having paid until the present with flawless punctuality the fees that have been set for us for the required services.
Convinced that this omission is exclusively owing to carelessness and chance and that there was no intention to offend the Navy nor to foment among the sailors a feeling of being passed over by their comrades in the Army, I am sending this communiqué to you, along with my greetings and the petition to remedy, if it is in your hands, the omission of which I inform you, since although minor and banal, it could be the cause of irritation and touchiness that should never trouble the relations between the sister institutions.
God bless you.
[Signed]
REAR ADM. PEDRO G. CARRILLO, PN
Chief of the River Forces of the Amazon
NOTE: Inform Capt. Pantoja of the content of the preceding communiqué, reprimand him for the inexcusable lack of tact displayed by the SSGFRI in the matter in question and order him to give due and quick satisfaction to Rear Adm. Pedro G. Carrillo and to his comrades in the national Navy.
[Signed]
GEN. ROGER SCAVINO
Commander in Chief of Region V (Amazon)
Iquitos, 4 October 1957
Requena, 20two Oktobor, 1950seven
Braive Sinshi:
Herd yor program aginst injustis on Amazon Radeeo witch all of us hear hurd and we aplawd you, cause the salors of Santa Ysabelita Base bring there hores hear from Iquitos in a wale of a bote named Eve and they take here baths with purfumed water an dont let nobuddy tutch them and they get rid of them with out us, the progreshive yooth of Requena, doin nuthin to them. Is that fare Braive Sinshi? We alreddy formed a comity of men from the town, with our own mayor Teófilo Morey at the hed, to protest to the cheef of Santa Ysabelita Base but that coword deenyed evrything saying how Im gona permit you bois of Requena to marry the speshalists if the speshalists dont eggsist, this hairitick swaring on the boy mardir. As if we dont have ises or eers, Sinshi, what dya think? Why salors yes and us no? Dont we have prix? Tell em this on yor program Braive Sinshi makem shake an nock em ded.
Yor lisners,
ARTIDORO SOMA
NEPUMUCENO QUILCA
CAIFÁS SANCHO
With this ledder we sent you a gif of a pairit that has a gold beek like you Sinshi.
S S G F R I
Dispatch Number Twenty-six
GENERAL SUBJECT: Special Service for Garrisons, Frontier and Related Installations
SPECIFIC SUBJECT: Explanations of the intentions and confusion in the Hymn of the Special Service
CLASSIFICATION: Top Secret
PLACE AND DATE: Iquitos, 16 October 1957
The undersigned, Capt. (Quartermaster) Pantaleón Pantoja, PA, Chief of the Special Service for Garrisons, Frontier and Related Installations, respectfully presents himself to Rear Adm. Pedro G. Carrillo, PN, Chief of the River Forces of the Amazon, salutes him and reports:
1. (a) That he profoundl
y deplores the unpardonable carelessness by which the lyrics of the Hymn of the Special Service do not make explicit mention of our nation’s glorious Navy and of the valiant sailors who belong to it. (b) That not as a justification, but merely as an informative quotient, he wishes to inform you that this hymn was not commissioned by the leadership of the SSGFRI, but instead was a spontaneous creation of its personnel and that it was adopted in an unpremeditated and somewhat hasty manner, without submitting it to previous critical evaluation of its form and content. (c) That in any case, if not in its lyrics, then in the spirit of said Hymn, as in the minds and in the hearts of those of us who labor in the SSGFRI, are always present the Navy bases and their sailors, for whom all of us in the Service profess the greatest love and the highest respect.
2. That we have proceeded to correct the shortcomings of the Hymn by enriching it with the following changes:
(a) The chorus or refrain, sung five times between the stanzas, will be sung three times (first, third and fifth in its original form, that is:
Always serving and serving and serving
In the Army all over our Country,
Always serving and serving and serving
With devotion and pride for a fee.
The second and fourth times, the chorus or refrain will be sung with its second line revised in this way:
Always serving and serving and serving
In the Navy all over our Country
Always serving and serving and serving
With devotion and pride for a fee.
(b) The first stanza of the Hymn will definitely be modified, striking the third line, which said: “And our sergeants and our corporals” and replacing it in the following manner:
All we want is to keep our men smiling,
Come along let us join in the serving;
All the sailors and officers pleasing
That’s our duty: to love and beguile.
God bless you.
[Signed]
CAPT. (QUARTERMASTER) PANTALEÓN PANTOJA, PA
cc: Gen. Felipe Collazos, Chief of Administration, Supply and Logistics of the Army, Gen. Roger Scavino, Commander in Chief of Region V (Amazon)
Statistical Report
Col. Máximo Dávila, PA, is pleased to submit to the SSGFRI the following condensed report of the visit that its Convoy No. 32 made to the Barranca Garrison on the Marañón River:
DATE OF THE VISIT OF CONVOY NO. 32: 3 November 1957 MEANS OF TRANSPORT AND PERSONNEL: The boat Eve. Chief of convoy: Chino Porfirio. Specialists: Coca, Knockers, Lolita, Sandra, Iris, Juana, Loreta, Brazilian, Roberta and Eduviges
LENGTH OF STAY IN GARRISON: Six (6) hours, from 1400 to 2000 hours
NUMBER OF USERS AND DISTRIBUTION OF SERVICES: One hundred ninety-two (192) users, divided and serviced in the following way: a group of ten (10) men, assigned to the Brazilian (despite her being the most aspired to by the men in the regiment, the SSGFRI’s order to assign to this specialist only the minimum number of users was obeyed); a group of twenty-two (22) men, assigned to Specialist Knockers (because she was the second most popular with the regiment) and eight groups of twenty (20) men each, assigned to the remaining specialists. This distribution was effected after the unforeseen cancellation that is explained below. Because it was necessary for the Eve to weigh anchor before dusk due to the quickness with which night falls at this time of year in Barranca, the users’ maximum stay in the location was reduced from twenty to fifteen minutes, so that the entire operation could be ended before sundown, which was happily achieved.
EVALUATION: The services were fully agreeable to the users, some of whom only lamented the cut in time due to the reason stated above, and the conduct of Convoy No. 32 was completely proper, as has been that of all the convoys of the SSGFRI that we have had the pleasure of receiving in the Barranca Garrison.
UNFORESEEN OCCURRENCES: Traveling in Convoy No. 32, a stowaway deceitfully dressed as a woman was discovered by this unit’s Health Service clinic. When handed over to the MP and interrogated, this individual turned out to be Adrián Antúnez (a.k.a. Chameleon), the same man, it was later disclosed, who is the protector and pimp of the specialist named Knockers. The stowaway confessed to having been brought aboard the Eve by the woman he protects and to having obtained by threats the consent of the chief of convoy and the silence of the other specialists in order to carry out his wild intention. Disguised in women’s clothes, he lied to the crew, saying that he was a new specialist named Adriana. The hoax was discovered when, upon arriving in Barranca, the supposed Adriana invented an illness in front of his first client, Pvt. Rogelio Simonsa, so as not to offer service in the proper place, proposing instead to execute it in a sodomite or unnatural way. Beginning to have his suspicions, Pvt. Simonsa reported the incident and the false Adriana was forcibly examined by the male nurse of the guard, his real sex being made clear. The stowaway at first insisted that he had thought up this pantomime to control more closely the earnings of specialist Knockers (of which he received 75 percent) since he suspected that she was giving him doctored-up figures in order to reduce his share. But later, in the face of his interrogators’ incredulity, he confessed that having been a passive invert for many years, his true intention had been to practice his vice with the troops in order to show himself that he was more than able to take the place of a woman in her duties as a specialist. All of which was corroborated by Knockers, the woman he lives with. Because it is not within the jurisdiction of this unit to make a decision in this matter, the individual Adrián Antúnez (a.k.a. Chameleon) is being returned handcuffed and in custody on the Eve to the logistics center, so that the command of the SSGFRI may adopt the most convenient measures.
RECOMMENDATION: That the possibility be studied of sending the convoys of the SSGFRI to the utilization centers more frequently, because of the good effect the services have on the troops.
[Signed]
COL. MÁXIMO DÁVILA, PA
Chief, Barranca Garrison (Marañón River)
Herewith: List of users with name, surname, number of service file and discount ticket and stowaway Adrián Antúnez (a.k.a. Chameleon)
Iquitos, 1 November 1957
Worthy Missis Pantoja:
Many times I’ve gone up to your door to knock, but, repenting, every time I’ve gone back to my cousin Rosita’s house, crying, because hasn’t your husband threatened us saying you’ll go to hell before you come close to my house. But I’m desperate and already living in hell, Missis, take pity on me today, which is the day of our beloved dead ones. From here I’m going straight to the church of Pachana to pray for all your dead loved ones, Missis Pantoja, I know how to be good, I know who you are, I’ve seen how pretty your little girl is, with such a saintly face like the boy martyr of Moronacocha. I’ll tell you when your little daughter was born we were all so happy in Pantiland, we threw a party for your husband and we got him drunk so he’d be happier with the baby, she must be like a little angel with a pure soul come from heaven we said to ourselves. So it must be, I just know it, my heart whispers it to me. You know me, once you saw me about a year or more ago, that “washerwoman” who you had come into your house by mistake, thinking I was going to wash your clothes. That was me, Missis. Help me, be good to poor Maclovia, I’m dying of hunger and poor Teófilo there in Borja, they’ve got him a prisoner in jail, on bread and water he tells me in a letter that one of his friends brought me, the poor guy, his only sin is loving me, do something for me, I’ll be thankful till the day I die. How then do you want me to live, Missis, if your husband kicked me out of Pantiland? Saying that I had behaved myself badly up there in Borja, that I had put the idea in Teófilo’s head to escape with me. It wasn’t me, it was him, he told me, let’s run off to Nieva, that he pardoned me for being a whore, that he’d seen me arrive in Borja and his heart told him: “The woman you’ve been looking for your whole life just appeared.”
I have a roof over my head thanks to the kind-heartedness of my cousin Rosita, but she�
�s poor too and can’t keep me, Missis, she’s writing you this letter for me because I don’t know how. Have pity on me and God will reward you in heaven and the same for your little daughter, I’ve seen her being taken for a walk and I’ve thought her an angel child, what eyes. I have to go back to Pantiland, talk to your husband so he’ll pardon me and hire me again. Haven’t I always been a good worker? What trouble have I given him since I’m with him? None, only this one, only one little one in a year isn’t so much. Don’t I have the right to love a man? Doesn’t he drool when the Brazilian does her tricks for him? Watch out, Missis, that woman is bad, she lived in Manaos and the whores there are bandits, she must be putting something in your husband’s food to keep him bewitched and right in the palm of her hand. Besides two men have already killed themselves over her, a saintly gringo, they say, and the other one a student. Isn’t Mister Pan-Pan already getting what he wants? Be careful, that woman can take him away from you and you’d suffer, Missis. I’ll pray it doesn’t happen to you.
Talk to him, plead with him, Missis Pantoja. They’re going to keep my Teófilo a prisoner for many months and I want to go see him, because, what’s funny, in the nights I cry in my sleep thinking about him. Before God, he’s my husband, Missis, an old priest there in Nieva married us. And in the Ark there they nailed up a chicken as a token of love and fidelity. He wasn’t a “brother,” but me yes, ever since Brother Francisco came to Iquitos. God bless him, I went to hear him and he converted me. I converted Teófilo, and he became a “brother” when he saw how the “brothers” helped us there in Nieva. Those poor people, for giving us food and lending us a hammock they had to go to the mountain, leaving their houses and their animals and everything they had. Is it fair to chase good people who believe in God and do good like that?