"He's gone," Smith said. "Or will be as soon as I can order him home. And he will not be sniping at you from the rear. What about his replacement?"
"Off the top of my head, I have no idea," Pickering admitted.
"I thought I was going to hear two names," Smith said. "Major K. R. McCoy and Colonel Edward Banning. I don't think McCoy has the experience, but what's wrong with Banning?"
"Absolutely nothing is wrong with Colonel Banning," Pickering said quickly and firmly.
"Why have you got him sitting around Camp Pendleton doing a job that could be done by a lot of far more junior people who don't have a tenth of his experi-ence as an intelligence officer?" When Pickering didn't immediately reply, Smith added: "I know that he worked for you in the Second War, and what he did."
"I guess the truth, General," Pickering said, "is that while I often thought how much I need Ed Banning in Tokyo, I didn't have the balls to make waves. Either about getting rid of the Tokyo station chief or about asking Admiral Hillencoetter to name Banning in his place."
"It usually helps, if you're going to make waves, to be sure of your author-ity," Smith said. "Now that that question has been resolved, I take it if I named Colonel Banning as Tokyo station chief, I would have your concurrence?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'll issue the necessary orders tomorrow, as my first order of business. Or maybe even tonight. I thought I would drop by there tonight, unannounced, just to see what I could see. How soon do you want Banning in Tokyo?"
"As soon as possible, sir."
[THREE]
Office of the Chief of Staff
Headquarters X U.S. Corps
Seoul, South Korea
O825 11 October 195O
There were three full colonels sitting on folding chairs facing the folding desk of the chief of staff, who was also a full colonel.
A somewhat irreverent thought occurred to Colonel T. Howard Kennedy, the X Corps Transportation Officer: It's like Orwell said. Some pigs are more equal than other pigs.
"The general does not want any delays when we go aboard the ships," the chief of staff-the most equal of all the pigs-said. "Comments, please."
T. Howard Kennedy had another irreverent thought: That's a nice thought, but it's like hoping for a white Christmas. Nice if you can get it, but unlikely.
There were going to be delays in loading X Corps aboard the ships that would constitute the invasion fleet for the Woman landing. That was a given. There were always delays.
This maneuver was probably going to have more delays than the general was going to like, which was going to be a problem for everybody in the chief of staff's office. Major General Edward M. Almond expected his orders to be obeyed as he wanted them to be obeyed, which was sometimes impossible to accomplish, and when that happened, Almond's temper was legendary.
The chief of staff was looking at Colonel Kennedy, which told Kennedy that the chief of staff considered this meeting a conference, which was different from just being summoned by the chief of staff to receive orders. In a confer-ence, comments were solicited before orders were issued. And conferees pre-sented their comments in reverse order of rank, most junior first. This ensured that whatever the junior officer had to say was not influenced by the com-ments of the officers senior to him.
The pecking order here placed Kennedy at the bottom. The Transportation Office wasn't even a G-Section, but rather a subsection of the Office of the As-sistant Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations, G-3. The G-3 and the G-4 (Sup-ply) were supposed to be more or less equal, but the G-3 called the shots.
"There are six truck companies available," Kennedy said. "Four-two with the Marines and two with the 7th Division-are operational, and will of course be available to move people and gear to Inchon when the orders are issued. Two are in reserve, and I have given operational control of one of them to the G-4 so that he can start moving whatever he wants to move to Inchon whenever he wants to move it. Similarly, I have given operational control of half of the re-maining truck company to the Headquarters Commandant here for the same purpose. The other half remains in reserve.
"The only unit over which I exercise staff control is the vehicle exchange company, the 8023d. Five days ago, I started to move it to the wharfs in In-chon for on-loading."
"Howard," the G-4 said, "I hope you're not going to tell me they're already on-loaded?"
"No. They are probably in the process by now, but, no, they're not on-loaded. I was going to go down there this morning and see how things are going."
"I'm a little confused," the G-3 said. "You said you told them to move five days ago. And they're only 'probably' in the process of on-loading? How long does it take them to move from one side of Inchon to the other?"
The chief of staff snorted.
"Bob, there are almost six hundred vehicles in the 8023d-" Kennedy started to reply.
"Almost?" the G-4 interrupted.
"Five hundred seventy-nine, Gerry," Kennedy finished.
"And their condition?"
"I sent you a report, Gerry," Kennedy said. "There are five hundred seventy-nine ready for issue, plus seven beyond the company's ability to repair. They have exchanged far fewer vehicles than was anticipated, somewhere around twenty, mostly jeeps and six-by-sixes."
"I must not have gotten your report," the G-4 said, and wrote in a wire-bound notebook.
"Okay," the G-3 said. "Six hundred, give or take, vehicles. And it's taken this long to move from one side of Inchon to the other?"
"They were set up for exchange, Bob," Kennedy explained patiently. "The CO did a very good job. But we're talking here about (a) on-loading all the ve-hicles, and (b) doing so according to that loading sequence schedule you sent me. That takes time."
"Time spent here will save time when we get on Wonsan," the G-3 said. "Last on/first off makes sense. A lot of thought has gone into that loading se-quence schedule."
"All I'm saying, Bob, is that it takes some time to accomplish. This is not like driving these vehicles to the Battery and right onto the Staten Island Ferry. They have to be sorted at the wharf according to what goes on first."
"I can do without the sarcasm, thank you very much, Howard," the G-3 said coldly.
"I didn't think Howard was being sarcastic, Bob," the chief of staff said.
Colonel Kennedy thought: That either got me off the hook or sunk me deeper in the deep shit.
"We're going to need those vehicles at Inchon," the G-4 said. "It seems pretty obvious to me that a replacement of only twenty vehicles means that a good deal more are on the edge of needing replacement, and even more will be needing replacement after we get them ashore at Wonsan. I'd really like to see these vehicles moved up-as far up as possible-on the off-loading schedule."
"Gerry's got a point, Bob," the chief of staff said.
"I'll see what I can do."
"The general would be very unhappy if our dash for the Chinese border was delayed by broken-down trucks," the chief of staff said. "I don't want that to happen."
"I'll review the off-loading schedule and get you my suggested changes," the G-3 said.
"Great! And, just to satisfy my general curiosity, Howard, how is this vehi-cle exchange company fixed for tank retrievers and wreckers?"
"I believe there are twenty wreckers and fifteen tank retrievers," Kenn-edy said.
"Bob, make sure that when you review your on-/off-loading schedule that some wreckers-a half a dozen, anyway-and, say, five tank retrievers are near the head of the line," the chief of staff ordered.
"Even if that means off-loading them if they've already been on-loaded?"
Kennedy asked.
The chief of staff thought that over for ten seconds.
"Yeah, Howard, even if it comes down to that. And come see me, please, after you've had a chance to see how things are going down there."
"Right," Colonel Kennedy said.
[FOUR]
Wharf 3
Inchon, South Korea
&nbs
p; 113O 11 October 1950
The Waterman Steamship Line freighter Captain J. C. Buffett was tied up to Wharf 3 when Colonel Kennedy drove up to the wharf. In bumper-to-bumper lines parallel to the ship were the vehicles of the 8023d Transportation Com-pany (Depot, Forward) waiting to be loaded.
Halfway down the lines, Kennedy touched the arm of his jeep driver and ordered, "Stop here, Tom."
He got out of the jeep and walked down the line of vehicles, looking care-fully at each one. He was pleased with what he saw and the few truck tires he kicked. All the vehicles seemed ready for duty.
But when he got close to the end of the line, and the ship itself, he saw some-thing that pleased him not at all.
A squat, ruddy-faced, middle-aged sailor was standing on the wharf. He held both hands extended before him, palms up.
Kennedy knew what he was doing, signaling the operators of the crane and winch operators on the ship as they prepared to load a vehicle aboard. Two things annoyed Colonel Kennedy: first, that an ordinary seaman, rather than an officer, was supervising the operation, and second, that the vehicle about to be loaded aboard the Captain J. C. Buffett was a heavy-duty wrecker.
He didn't have the revised on-/off-loading schedule yet, but the chief of staff had made it very clear that the first vehicles he wanted unloaded at Wonsan were heavy-duty wreckers and tank retriever vehicles. That meant they would have to be loaded last, so they could be unloaded first.
He walked up to the seaman on the wharf who was directing the boom and winch operators.
"Excuse me," he said.
"Not now, buddy. Can't you see I'm working?"
With slow and gentle, even graceful, movements the seaman signaled the winch operators on the deck of the Captain J.C. Buffett to begin to very slowly haul aboard what the White Manufacturing Company called a Wrecker, Spe-cial, Heavy Duty and the U.S. Army called a Vehicle, Heavy Vehicle Recovery 6x6 Mark III A2.
The Army and the White Manufacturing Company were agreed that the truck was heavy. It had been heavy when built for civilian use, designed to be able to pick up a broken-down tractor for eighteen-wheeler rigs. The Army had demanded a number of modifications to the basic design. The front (steering) wheels of the basic model had not been powered. The Army demanded that their version have all-wheel drive. The frame and body had been reinforced to take both the weight of the more powerful lifting arm and the additional weight it was intended to lift. And there were lifting hooks welded to the frame in places determined to be the best places to put them so the weight would be evenly distributed when it had to be loaded aboard a ship.
There was the whining hum of an electric motor and the limp cables at-tached to the lifting hooks on the front of the wrecker grew taut, and then the hum of another electric motor and the cables attached three quarters of the way down the frame began to draw taut.
Well, screw you, Colonel Kennedy thought, just as soon as you get that wrecker loaded aboard, at least just as soon as I can have a word with the captain, you'll just have to take it back off.
Kennedy saw Captain Francis P. MacNamara, commanding officer of the 8023d Transportation Company (Depot, Forward), standing by his jeep on the other side of the seaman supervising the loading and walked over to him. MacNamara saluted. "Good afternoon, sir," he said. "How are you, MacNamara?" Kennedy replied.
"We've just started to load, sir," MacNamara said. "I thought it best to arrange the vehicles so they could be loaded according to the last on/first off schedule before we actually started the procedure."
"Good thinking, MacNamara," Kennedy said. "There's been some changes to that schedule. I'll want to talk to you about them, but I think we might as well wait until we can talk to the captain at the same time." "Yes, sir."
There was a screeching sound of unknown origin, which lasted about fif-teen seconds, then the sound of the seaman's voice.
"Jesus H. Fucking Christ!"
He sounded disgusted, or frustrated, or both.
The Vehicle, Heavy Vehicle Recovery 6x6 Mark III A2 was now sus-pended five feet in the air, swinging slowly back and forth.
"I said slowly, you dumb sonofabitch!" the seaman called to someone on deck. His voice did not need amplification.
The seaman then made very small, very gentle upward movements of his hands. There was another electric motor hum, and, just perceptibly, the Vehi-cle, Heavy Vehicle Recovery 6x6 Mark III A2 began to inch upward again.
Then there was another screeching noise, this time lasting no more than ten seconds.
The wrecker continued to rise very slowly until it was about level with the deck.
The seaman made a cutting motion across his throat.
The wrecker stopped rising and swung back and forth on the cables.
Very slowly the seaman, the palms of his hands now vertical, made a push-ing motion with his left hand. There was the sound of an electric motor, and very slowly the boom holding the rear of the wrecker moved inward. When the wrecker was perpendicular to the wharf, the seaman made a cutting motion with his left hand and then a pushing motion with his right. The boom holding the cables attached to the front of the wrecker began to swing inward. After thirty seconds-which seemed longer-the truck was completely inboard and again aligned with the keel of the Captain ]. C. Buffett.
"Okay!" the seaman shouted. "For the love of Christ, don't let that heavy sonofabitch get away from you! Slowly, fucking slowly"
Very slowly, the wrecker began to descend into a hold of the Captain J. C. Buffett. In thirty seconds or so it was out of sight, but the seaman continued to stand on the wharf, his hands on his hips, looking upward until the hum of the electric motors died.
A moment after that there was another electrical hum, a lesser sound this time. And then one of the booms swung outward.
Colonel Kennedy and Captain MacNamara were both surprised to see an-other seaman standing on the hook at the end of the cable being lowered to the wharf. The seaman stepped casually off the hook, then engaged in a short con-versation with the seaman in charge of the operation.
Both shook their heads, and then the seaman who had ridden down on the hook shrugged, as the seaman who'd been on the wharf threw up his hands in a gesture of resignation, or frustration, or both.
The seaman who had been on the hook stepped back onto it, made a take me up gesture with his hand, and immediately began to rise into the air.
It reminded Colonel Kennedy of how a circus high-wire performer rises to the high wire.
The seaman walked over to Colonel Kennedy and Captain MacNamara. He addressed Captain MacNamara.
"That's it, pal," he announced. "That's the last of the big fuckers I'm going to try to take aboard."
"I beg your pardon?" Colonel Kennedy said.
"I said that's the last of those heavy fucking trucks that goes aboard the Cap-tain J.C. Buffett."
"That's simply not acceptable," Colonel Kennedy said.
" Acceptable'?" the seaman parroted. "Who the fuck are you to tell me what goes aboard the Captain J.C. Buffet?"
"I think I had better discuss this with one of the ship's officers," Kennedy said. "Preferably with her captain. Presumably I can find him aboard?"
"You are discussing this with her captain," the seaman said. "Who the fuck did you think you were talking to?"
"You're the captain?"
"Captain John F. X. Moran at your service, Colonel."
"Captain, obviously I owe you an apology-"
"Not yet," Captain Moran interrupted.
"Thank you," Kennedy said. "Captain, the vehicles we're trying to load aboard your ship are essential to an operation...."
"Putting the X Corps ashore at Wonsan," Moran offered helpfully.
Colonel Kennedy found that helpfulness disturbing. For one thing, that the invasion force was headed for Wonsan was classified Top Secret. Colonel Kennedy wasn't at all sure that Captain Moran had that kind of a security clearance, much less the Need to Know, at this point, the destination. He was sure that h
e was not supposed to casually introduce it into conversation the way he had.
"Wonsan?" Kennedy asked. "Who said anything about Wonsan?"
"Jesus Christ!" Moran said disgustedly. "If you really don't know about Wonsan, Colonel, what's going on here is the reloading of X Corps, which will then be transported around to the other side of the Korean Peninsula and landed at Wonsan."
Colonel Kennedy decided not to respond directly.
"The X Corps Operations Officer sent me here to see that the heavy vehicles, such as the wrecker you just loaded aboard, were loaded aboard last, so they may be unloaded first when you reach your destination."
W E B Griffin - Corp 10 - Retreat, Hell! Page 30