by Dennis Foley
“Oh? Just who made that decision?”
“You are making it now,” Hollister replied.
“Get out of my room, and report to my office at midday. I have had just about enough from you. Consider yourself relieved of duties.”
“Shut up and pack,” Hollister said.
“Do you realize the consequences of your actions, Captain?”
“Yes. Do you?” Hollister held up the thick packet of paperwork. “If you push it, I’ll forward a complete report of your deplorable and dangerous behavior as a commander up the pipe. I’ve got chapter and verse on you, and General Stone won’t have a problem seeing what a big mistake he made sending you here.”
“Just your word against mine, Mister!”
Hollister pulled the tape from his pocket. “We’ve also taped all of your radio traffic.”
The color drained from Fowler’s flushed face. “You can’t do that. Those transmissions are out of context. No one could understand the pressures of the situation. A commander has to be firm.”
Hollister shrugged. “If you’re right, they’ll figure that out in an investigation. You ready to face the heat?”
“What choice do I have?”
“You can find a way to quit or I’m blowing the fucking whistle on you.”
“You can be court-martialed for this,” Fowler said.
“But I won’t go down alone. Not much choice here. If I don’t do this, you’ll have some dead LRPs on your hands. But they seem to have quit on you anyhow. They’ll refuse to go out as long as you’re here.” Hollister pointed to the window. “Look for yourself. You’ve lost them with your pompous little emperor act.”
Fowler looked out the window. The sight of the stacked rifles made him collapse into a chair, speechless.
“You’ve got till noon tomorrow to do whatever you’re going to do. Then I’m going to General Stone,” Hollister said as he turned and walked out of Fowler’s room, slamming the door behind him.
Every officer in the company was standing in the hallway. They all applauded as Hollister walked out the nearby exit and crossed the compound to tell Vance what he had done.
He felt uncomfortable with having instigated the entire showdown and for having lied. He knew he had crossed a line that he never, ever thought he’d even approach. He also knew that if it backfired he would be the one under charges.
Hollister drank Scotch as Vance nursed a cooling cup of mess-hall coffee. “What do you think?” Hollister asked.
“I called Carey at Two Field, and he said Fowler hasn’t turned up there. He’s been gone long enough to drive over there and back twice,” Vance said.
“Well, it’s his call.”
T.T. took Hollister’s empty glass without asking.
“No, I’ve had enough,” Hollister said as she tried to pour him another Scotch. She stopped, but pushed a glass with less than a quarter shot in it toward Hollister as if it would be a waste to throw it away.
He accepted the short drink and smiled at her. “You see Bui today?”
“Yes. He siddup.”
“He what?”
She made a squatting, sitting gesture. “He sid. You know, sid.”
“Oh, he sat up?”
“That what T.T. say.”
Hollister laughed at her English. “You’re right. That is what you said. I’m happy to hear he’s feeling better. He ought to be back for duty in a few weeks. Yes?”
“Yes—but he no go wid patrol?”
Hollister turned to Vance and put on a serious face. “What do you say? Bui going to the field again?”
“Nope,” Vance said, killing his drink and waving T.T. over for another. “I need him to do too much training of the new guys.”
T.T. smiled and poured much too much Scotch in a glass for Vance. “Oh, sorry, Dai Uy.”
“How’s anyone supposed to drink that? It’s filled to the damn rim.
“You can sip,” she said.
“How come you can say ‘sip’ but not ‘sit’?” Hollister asked.
She made a face at Hollister for poking fun at her.
“You better be nice to Dai Uy Jim. He’s going to the land of the big PX soon,” Vance kidded her.
“No. You no go.”
“Got to. Getting short.”
“When’s your DEROS date?” Vance asked.
“Forty-two days and a wake-up.”
“That’s an estimate, huh?”
Hollister raised his arm and looked at his watch. “You want it in hours, minutes, and seconds?”
“No. But I’m starting to worry about what the hell I’m going to do around here with The Ghost locked up in his bunker and a new Operations officer.”
“You’ll be okay,” Hollister said.
“Yeah. Right.”
It was almost dark when the field phone rang in the club. T.T. answered it and handed the receiver to Vance. “For you, Dai Uy.” Hollister was sitting at a table at the far end of the room finishing a letter to Susan. He put his pen down, lit a cigarette, and listened to Vance’s side of the conversation. It was nothing more than a series of “yessirs” and “right away, sirs.” He hung up and turned to Hollister and four other officers in the room. “Don’t ask me. I don’t know what’s going on. But General Stone and Colonel Schneider want me at Two Field, ten minutes ago.”
Hollister and Vance were alone in the Orderly Room.
“He went over to the Field Hospital and convinced some doctor that he had seriously hurt his back and that he’s in constant pain,” Vance said.
“What happened then?”
“Seems that the doctor took pity on him and put him on a limited-duty profile for six months. He took that to Colonel Schneider and cried the blues about how disappointed he was that he couldn’t carry out the duties as Juliet Company commander.”
“And?”
“And Schneider went to General Stone, and they both decided to replace Fowler with a new CO,” Vance said.
“Great! So what happens to Fowler?”
“Fowler’s been put on bed rest in a BOQ at Long Binh Post for a week and will be reassigned as a special projects officer in the G-5 Shop. But he’s out of the way and won’t get anybody hurt again.
“And then he dropped the bomb.”
“What? You’re making this tough,” Hollister said.
“He told me to assume command of Juliet Company and continue the mission.”
Hollister broke out in a wide grin. “Beautiful!” But Vance wasn’t smiling. “Okay, what?”
“You can tell me no, and I’ll understand.”
“What are you getting at?” Hollister asked.
“I can’t be CO, XO, and Operations officer all at once. Hell, I can’t even take over and break in a new XO and a new S-3 at the same time—if I had ’em.”
Hollister could feel it coming. He pulled out a cigarette and tapped it on the face of his watch.
“Jim, I gotta ask you to extend,” Vance said.
“Oh shit, Peter! You really know how to lay it on,” Hollister said.
“You understand the bind I’m in. What we need around here is stability. We play fucking musical chairs with the top three players and it’s gonna spook the troops worse than they already are.”
Hollister raised his hand. “Listen, you’re preachin’ to the choir. I know what you mean, and I understand it. But I’m scheduled for the Career Course just after New Year’s and … and …” He threw the cigarette at a trash can across the room and missed. He looked at Vance again and took a deep breath. “Okay. How long do you need me, and when do you need to know?”
“Four more months. Just give me that much time to get this company back on its feet.”
The letter to Susan was the most difficult one Hollister had ever written her. How could he explain what was happening and why he had to stay the extra months? She didn’t understand the delicate balance of confidence that creates teamwork and keeps LRPs alive in the bush.
He started the letter th
ree times and tore each one up, only to start again. He had another Scotch and then another and still another while he wrestled with his explanation. She had been so patient with him, and the news would just set them back.
He knew she was waiting for him to come home and tell her he was ready to get out of the army. He wondered if she would be more angry or just more disappointed. Would she see it as just another postponement of his decision?
And what if he did stay the extra months? It would be almost another half year before he would be able to see her. He made a note on the corner of a piece of scrap paper to suggest that they meet halfway on his way home. They could have a second honeymoon; maybe in Hong Kong or Paris. It smelled like a bribe to him—he scratched it out.
He decided that the only thing to do was to tell her everything and make her understand how important his extension would be to so many people. He would just have to ask her to trust his judgment and be patient.
He loved her very much. But the ache in his gut over the decision to extend wouldn’t go away. He remembered First Sergeant Easy’s words: “You’re in this now. Don’t walk away.” Words from a man who gave his leg to save a fellow LRP.
The letter took him all night to write.
Glossary
AC—AIRCRAFT commander.
ACL—Allowable cargo load.
Advanced Course—The second level of training for infantry officers after the basic course. Also called the Career Course, conducted at Fort Benning.
Alpha—The first letter in the military phonetic alphabet to reduce the chance of misunderstanding the letter alone. When used with a radio call sign it indicates the assistant, i.e., Rattler Three Alpha would be the assistant operations officer.
AO—Area of Operations. The geographical area assigned to a unit by specific boundaries.
APCs—Army abbreviation for aspirin.
APL—Assistant patrol leader.
arty—Shorthand for artillery. Indirect fires provided by howitzers and cannons.
ARVN—Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The South Vietnamese army.
ASA—Army Security Agency.
AWOL bag—A small, zippered, canvas bag used by soldiers to carry the essentials for a short trip away from a unit or station: shaving gear, underwear, and socks. For sale at just about every post exchange. The term AWOL became attached to it out of the assumption that anyone going absent without leave would only take what he needed, not everything he owned.
BDA—Bomb-damage assessment.
belly man—An experienced LRP or Ranger who flew to an insert or extraction landing zone in the chase helicopter to be of assistance to anyone needing help getting into the chopper. The other members of the chopper crew already had duties that would not allow them to assist.
Big Red One—Nickname for the First Infantry Division.
BOQ—Bachelor officers quarters.
briefback—Having received an order, subordinate leaders analyze the mission and verbally give the order back to higher headquarters to insure understanding.
C&C—Command and Control. Term applied to a field commander’s headquarters or his helicopter.
cammies—Camouflage fatigue uniforms.
CG—Commanding General.
chalk—One aircraft load of passengers.
CIB—Combat Infantryman’s Badge. A blue enameled badge with a rifle on it, surrounded by a silver wreath. The badge is only awarded to infantrymen who have served in combat and under enemy fire. During Vietnam the duration had to be at least thirty days.
CINCPAC—Commander in Chief, Pacific, headquartered in Hawaii.
claymore—Directional, command-detonated antipersonnel mine. Set up above the ground.
commo—Short for communications.
CONUS—Continental United States.
cross talk—Listening to cross talk is hearing two or more conversing stations or parties on a radio or telephone network.
DEROS—Date of estimated return from overseas.
dai uy—The Vietnamese term for captain.
DR—Delinquency report.
Dust-Off—Original call sign for all medevac choppers.
E&E—Escape and evade.
ETS—Estimated time of separation (from the army).
FAC—Air Force Forward Air Controller. Controls tactical air support.
FO—Forward observer. Adjusts indirect fires.
FOB—Forward operating base.
G-l—The designation for the administration and personnel section of a division headquarters or higher.
G-2—Intelligence section of division and higher-level headquarters.
G-3—The designation for the operations section of a division headquarters or higher.
G-5—The designation for the civic affairs section of a division headquarters or higher.
H&I—Harassing and interdicting fires.
HE—High-explosive ordnance.
Hoi Chanh—North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers who surrendered under the Chieu Hoi (Open Arms) Program were called Hoi Chanhs.
IFFV—First Field Force, Vietnam.
jumpmaster—NCO or officer in charge of parachutists and the execution of a parachute jump.
KIA—Killed in action.
klicks—Kilometers—map/ground measurement.
leg—A derogatory term used by parachute-qualified soldiers to refer to nonqualified ones.
LZ—Helicopter landing zone.
mad minute—Fort Benning’s traditional VIP live fire demonstration of the lethality of combined arms weapons firing simultaneously. It is usually reserved for VIPs because it is an expensive and dangerous display.
MARS—Military Affiliate Radio Station.
medevac—Chopper evacuation of a casualty for medical attention. Sometimes applied liberally to any mode of transportation to more comprehensive medical facilities.
mikes—Meters or minutes, depending on the context.
MTO&E—Modified Table of Organization and Equipment.
NVA—North Vietnamese Army.
OCS—Officer Candidate School.
OER—Officer Efficiency Report.
OJT—On-the-job training.
old man—Affectionate term used to refer to the commanding officer. Never used in his presence.
Operations—The staff/headquarters section responsible for the tactical employment and planning of maneuver units (S-3, G-3).
papa zulu—Helicopter pickup zone.
PCS—Permanent change of station.
peter pilot—Helicopter copilot.
point—The lead man in a combat patrol is called the point man, and the position in the file is known as point.
pork chop—A radio microphone separate from the receiver. Similar in function to a police-car microphone.
POV—Privately owned vehicle.
prick 77—Slang for AN/PRC 77, squad FM radio.
profile—Medical condition limiting types of duty.
prop blast—The violent turbulence behind airplane props and even jet engine turbines. Also parties to celebrate first parachute jumps in an Airborne unit.
PT—Physical training.
push—Slang for frequency.
PZ—Helicopter pickup zone.
redleg—Nickname for the artillery.
REMF—Rear echelon motherfucker.
Republican—Communist Vietnamese term for the South Vietnamese.
RF/PF—Regional Forces/Popular Forces. The local military militia established by the ARVN. Similar, but not nearly as well equipped or trained, as the American National Guard and Reserves.
RFO—Request for orders.
RON—Remain overnight
RTO—Radio telephone operator.
S-2—Staff section at Battalion or Brigade that handles all battlefield intelligence.
sapper—Specially trained VC soldiers who conducted infiltration, obstacle breaching, and demolition operations.
SITREP—Situation report. A scheduled or spontaneous report of the tactical situation sent or tra
nsmitted to the next higher headquarters.
slicks—Troop- and cargo-carrying helicopters.
SOI—Signal operating instructions, code words, and frequencies—classified information.
SOP—Standard operating procedure.
sortie—One aircraft flight of a takeoff and return.
spoons—Cooks.
Starlight—Night vision scope that uses ambient light.
the Cav—The First Cavalry Division (Airmobile).
the World—The United States, from the term “the real world.”
TOC—Tactical Operations Center.
turtle—A soldier’s replacement—because he takes so long to get there.
Two Field—Slang for II Field Force, Vietnam.
URC-10—Small survival radio that emits a signal and can be used for voice transmission.
USARV—United States Army, Vietnam. The headquarters in Vietnam that directed all U.S. Army operations and organizational matters. As distinguished from the MACV—Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, which controlled all advisory efforts.
Victor Romeo—Phonetic for visual reconnaissance.
warning order—Early operations order issued, minus all the details, so planning and preparation can start.
WD-1—Double-strand communications wire.
web gear—Term applied to the load-bearing equipment carried by the combat soldier. His ammo pouches, canteens, grenades, first-aid packet, and the like would be attached to his web gear—belt and shoulder harness.
XO—Executive officer. The second ranking officer in most units.
Turn the page to continue reading from the Jim Hollister Trilogy
Dedicated to
Joe T. Stroud
who would fly anywhere, anytime—
to help a Ranger in harm’s way.
PROLOGUE
1993—THE PENTAGON
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General T. P. Terry stood at the window in his Pentagon office. Rain fell in sheets on the northern Virginia countryside.
“General, I’m just the wrong guy for this job.”
Terry turned and looked at Lieutenant General Grady Michaelson. “Guess it won’t be the first time you and the chain of command have differed on the best place to put you.”