The loud buzzer sounded in Eddie’s ears followed by Purdy’s calm voice. “SAM-7.”
Eddie watched the first smoke trail leave the back of the convoy. “Another SAM-7,” he said as he watched the missile streaking up in front of them and pass over on their right. “Let’s get some flares out.”
Both the altimeter and the airspeed indicator were spinning, as they started their runs over the convoy. The convoy now flashed beneath them as the pilots released their bombs at half second intervals. At this very low altitude the drag fins on the bombs popped out and slowed them down, allowing the planes enough time to escape the blasts on impact. Looking ahead through the tracers, those white streaks reached into the sky for them and Eddie could see the explosions as Jake’s bombs hit the convoy. He quickly counted nine plumes from SAM launches rising into the air just behind Jake’s plane.
Eddie released his last bomb, rolled hard to the right and kept his nose down as he raced away from the convoy to the west. Pulling out of the turn, he saw Jake’s F-4 ahead of him on his right at about a quarter-mile. Time for one quick scan of the instruments before he pulled the nose up and pushed the throttles to the stops. The afterburners kicked in and he shot up into the clouds behind Jake.
UDORN RTAFB
At 8:00 Monday morning Eddie Donevant had his first hint that it was going to be a bad day. Two security policemen met him in the lobby of the Transit Officer Quarters as he was checking out.
“Lieutenant Donevant?” the staff sergeant asked.
“Yes.”
“May I see your ID, sir?”
Eddie pulled it out and the sergeant examined it. “You’ll have to come with me, Lieutenant,” he said, but did not hand the ID card back.
“Where’re we going and what’s this about?”
“Sorry, sir. I really don’t know.”
Eddie was taken to a jeep where he and his bags went in the back. He was taken to the terminal building and escorted inside.
A young captain wearing the insignia of a general’s aide met Eddie. Two other security policemen stood with Big Jake. The sergeant handed the captain Eddie’s ID card.
“Okay, gentlemen. Grab your bags and let’s go,” the captain said.
“What’s this all about, sir?” Eddie asked.
“Don’t ask. Whatever it is, General Speaker is so hot we could have used him for an engine on the way over here. He’s waiting at Ubon.”
Eddie’s stomach immediately went into knots when he heard General Speaker’s name. Major General Randell C. Speaker was the Commander of the Thirteenth Air Force, headquartered at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. He commanded all U.S. Air Force units in Southeast Asia.
Eddie and Jake were led out to General Speaker’s T-39 Sabre Liner for their meeting at Ubon.
UBON RTAFB
At 9:00 Eddie and Jake marched into the base commander’s office and reported to General Speaker.
General Speaker was an old fighter pilot who spent the last ten years mostly in combat command assignments in Viet Nam. He knew Southeast Asia, its history and geography, and its politics and people. He prided himself as being a tough old man. He was also retiring in January.
“Sit down,” he said and motioned to the conference table behind them. Hank Renwick was already there.
The general stepped around the desk, and said, “You damn near got away with it.” He put both hands on the table and leaned forward. “Who’s going to brief me?”
“Ah, I don’t understand, sir,” Jake answered.
The general shook his head. “Don’t deny it. Just let me brief you on how I found out.” He pulled three large photographs from an envelope and slid them down the table. “Dumb luck, really. PACAF wants to know what’s happening in Viet Nam. Those were taken from an SR-71 just before 1700 on Saturday. You’ll recognize the NVA armored column between Hué and Da Nang. A sixty-degree rollout, and we can read the tail number off your bird, Lieutenant.”
Eddie felt the sweat soaking his flight suit as he viewed the photos. The first pictured the 0-2 over the tank column. The second included both F-4’s with Eddie banked coming off the target. The last was a clear picture of the damage to the tank column.
“Impressive score, nonetheless. Nineteen vehicles and six tanks, according to these photos. Captain Renwick ran the FAC with smoke and you two ran the column.”
“Yes, sir,” Jake answered uncomfortably.
“Who thought up this unauthorized mission?”
“I did, sir,” Eddie answered weakly.
“Ah, a first john thinking like a second john. And he leads a captain and a major, plus two wizzo’s, into his own private fuck’en war with the Communists.” The general’s voice rose to a shout. “You pay rent on this equipment or something, Lieutenant?”
“No, sir.”
The general walked around the table pointing his finger at Eddie. “Remember William Calley? How about Billy Mitchell? He was a fuck’en general when they court-martialed his ass.”
“The circumstances were different, sir.”
“Holy mother of Moses, listen to you, Lieutenant.” The general seemed calmer now. “We lost the war and we’re going home. They’re going to take South Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia. Thailand is trying to act friendly so they don’t get eaten next and here you go launching a war on them from Thai soil. Don’t you even understand what you’ve done, son?”
“Sir, they were Communists hauling a large load of brick opium that was going to the States as heroin where it’s going into the arms of our citizens. We have an obligation to stop that stuff,” Eddie tried to explain.
“He isn’t pissed about the target. He’s pissed that we launched from Thailand. It involves them, too, now.”
“Thank you, Captain. You have great twenty-twenty hind sight,” the general said, happy one of them was beginning to understand.
The phone buzzed and the general answered it. “Yes, send him in.”
The door opened and Colonel Suwit entered. The three at the table stood. The colonel saluted the general, shook his hand, and then told the others to take their seats.
They discussed the unauthorized mission with Colonel Suwit, who said little other than to confirm the concern from Bangkok that the planes flew from Thailand. They would blame the attack on the Vietnamese, if it ever were brought up by anyone, they agreed.
“Lieutenant Donevant, you work for Ray Metson, don’t you?” Colonel Suwit asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know, sir. Haven’t seen him since Saturday.”
“Is he in on this, too?” the general demanded.
“No, sir. He knows nothing about this.”
“We may have another problem, General,” Colonel Suwit said. “Friday night local insurgents kidnapped three children from the orphanage. Metson and a local medical doctor went out there Saturday night and were told about it. I’m told he’s going after the kids.”
“What the hell for? Has he gone nuts, too?” the general exclaimed.
“Two of the children are Amerasians. Communists kidnap them to train as terrorists in North Viet Nam.”
“Any idea where he is and if he’s armed?”
“He’s not armed, but he’s taken one of the Air America planes and has Dr. Li with him.”
Eddie’s eyebrows raised. “She’s a Communist herself.”
“I don’t think so. They share a bungalow downtown. He’s probably in Laos working with the mountain people to catch the Communists moving the children,” the colonel answered.
“You have any assets over there?” the general asked.
“Yes, sir. I put the word out last night after I heard they left.”
“Great. Now I’ve got my intelligence people on the ground trying to wage a private war in Laos. If word of this gets back
to Washington, none of us will be collecting our retirement.”
CHAPTER TWO
UBON RTAFB
November 1974
A little after 1:00 p.m. Ray Metson landed back at Ubon. After refueling the plane, he went directly to the Projects Office. Mack Klevenger walked in right behind him. Eddie looked up from his desk and tossed Ray a can of cold Coke.
“You look like hell, Ray,” Mack said as he sat on Eddie’s desk.
Ray took a couple of gulps of Coke, made a face, and said, “We’ve been flying all over southern Laos since yesterday morning.”
“Yea, I heard. Colonel Suwit’s lending some support.”
“Well, at least we’ve got someone on our side.”
“Border Patrol Police are rounding up suspects in Vietnamese Village. Army troops from Warin are sweeping for weapons. Suwit took both our 113 tracks (armored personnel carriers) with an M-60 (machine gun) mounted on each as his part in the effort.”
“Great. I left Dr. Li in Laos with the local resistance. She may hear something.”
“She’s probably out with the Pathet Lao,” Eddie said.
Ray took another drink of Coke and gave Eddie a hard look. “Just what the fuck’s your problem, pal.”
“I hear she’s got some great Communist connections in that part of the world.”
“Yea, she does. Some of the best intel we get comes from her network. If anyone can find these kids, she can. Then we can move in and grab them back.”
“We could have a problem there,” Mack said.
“What problem?”
“General Speaker just left here about an hour ago. He’s not pleased with your efforts to get these kids back. In fact, he said it’s not our problem.”
“Hey, fuck Speaker. Who told him about this, anyway?”
“Colonel Suwit told him this morning. Speaker thinks you’re trying to start a ground war in Laos and wants you to shut it down.”
Ray jumped up and hissed, “Fuck’en Suwit. Thought he was on our side, and he calls Speaker over here to get me to back off this op.”
“Not quite. He was here over a sortie Eddie, Big Jake, and Hank flew over the weekend near Da Nang.”
Ray turned and glared at Eddie. “Just what the hell were y’all doing over there?”
“We hit an armored column moving brick opium south out of Hué on Highway One. It was a secret op, but Speaker found out about it. He’s pissed, but he’ll get over it,” Eddie explained.
“Oh. Because you had to go bomb shit in ‘Nam, Speaker gets involved and finds out about this. Now he wants to pull the plug on me. Is he gone, Mack?”
“Yea, he’s headed back to Clark.”
“Good. I’m not dropping this one. It’s a secret op, so I don’t want word of it leaving this room.”
“Your funeral, Ray,” Mack said, shaking his head. “Can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Intelligence learned from the sweep of Vietnamese Village that the children had been moved across the Mekong into Laos where they had been handed over to two NVA soldiers; a man and a woman.
Dr. Li learned that they were in the village of Athume. So Ray flew a small team of Pathet Lao into the area. The Pathet Lao learned that the NVA had been in the village, but had left hours earlier headed for the Ho Chi Minh trail. The Pathet Lao left on foot to track them. Ray flew Dr. Li back to Ubon.
When they landed, they were taken to a meeting with Colonel Suwit. Colonel Suwit informed them that he had teams of men in Laos gathering information, but the NVA also had teams of men in the same area. It was generally agreed that the two NVA soldiers would try to contact a convoy going north on the Ho Chi Minh trail, but they did not know how long that would take with the children. Ray would fly Dr. Li to Saravane, in Laos, to see what she could find out from the big hospital.
Saturday morning Colonel Suwit called Ray to his office for a conference on the kidnapping situation. Thai intelligence was reporting that Captain Trang Vong Dong of the NVA had the children and that he would be meeting a north-bound truck convoy on the Ho Chi Minh trail. That convoy would take them into North Viet Nam. Colonel Suwit said Thai military units would intercept the convoy somewhere north of Saravane in Laos. An Australian A-team in the area would assist in the rescue of the children.
PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL
DOWNTOWN, UBON
Sunday evening Eddie went downtown to the hospital. He stepped into the nurses’ station and looked down the fifty-bed open bay ward. Men and women were kept on the same ward, so privacy curtains were wheeled around the bed when the patient had to be uncovered. The ward was very quiet.
“Good evening, Mr. Eddie,” a voice said from behind him.
He turned and smiled. “Cun sa ba dee, Dr. Pinchon.”
“Sa ba dee, ka,” she answered.
Dr. Pinchon was in her mid-thirties and unattractive. In a land that produced some of the world’s most beautiful women, this one had certainly missed out, he thought. Still, she was typically polite, spoke excellent English, and was known as a good doctor who was dedicated to helping her people.
“Yesterday a Vietnamese woman was brought in by the Thai army. How is she?”
Dr. Pinchon pulled up her chart and read it over. “She was beaten by the soldiers. She has no serious injuries, but will need to stay in bed for a few days to allow the swelling and bruises to heal. What did she do?”
“She was with the man who kidnapped the children from the orphanage. She killed two Thai soldiers during the rescue yesterday. Has she been talking to anyone?”
“Some army officers came to talk to her, but she would tell them nothing.”
“Has she talked to you or any of the nurses?”
“Oh, yes. She is a nurse who trained with the Viet Cong. She said she used to work in the tunnels.”
“Very interesting. What does she do now?”
“She has taken very good care of the children, she said. Come. You can see her. She is not asleep.”
Dr. Pinchon led Eddie to the far end of the ward where the last bed had a curtain around it. A Thai Air Force security policeman armed with a .45 caliber automatic pistol sat in a chair just outside the curtain. She spoke to the policeman, and he immediately stood and walked to the nurses’ station at the far end of the ward.
“Just one moment, please,” she said. She stepped behind the curtain for a few seconds and then said, “Please, come in, Mr. Eddie.”
Eddie stepped behind the curtain and greeted the woman with a polite smile. The hatred in her eyes caught his attention immediately. Her whole body stiffened when she saw him. Dr. Pinchon spoke a few words in Vietnamese to her, but she continued to silently stare at Eddie.
Continuing his forced smile, Eddie asked how she was feeling and if she needed anything. Dr. Pinchon translated, but received no reply. He picked up her chart from the foot of the bed and read it over, understanding little of what was written even though it was in English.
“Bac si?” the woman asked.
“She asks if you are a doctor,” Dr. Pinchon said.
Eddie slowly nodded. It is my only hope of communicating with her, he thought.
She spoke again, and Dr. Pinchon said, “She asks if you are a soldier.”
Eddie shook his head no.
She then spoke to Dr. Pinchon, who replied to her question. Dr. Pinchon said to Eddie, “She asks if you are an American. I tell her you are a Canadian doctor here to visit our hospital.”
Eddie smiled. “Thank you.”
He saw a slight smile from the woman and then she spoke again. “She says she hates American soldiers. They kill her family in Viet Nam. She wants to kill Americans in their homes as her family was killed.”
“I’m sorry,” Eddie said. He stepped over next to her and lightly touched her bruised face. She pulled back in pain. “Did the Americans do t
his to you?”
“She say Thai soldier do this to her. She kill two of them.”
“How is that soldier doing they brought in?” Eddie asked.
“The Thai soldier died this afternoon.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Dr. Pinchon spoke to the woman for a few seconds in Vietnamese.
“Why did the Viet Cong take the children?” Eddie asked.
“Not Viet Cong, she says. North Viet Nam army. They take children the GI’s leave. Teach them to hate their GI fathers.”
“The little girl did not have a GI father.”
“CIA man wants to take her to America, but we will kill him. The little girl will not go to America.”
“They can’t kill the CIA people. Not here in Thailand.”
“She says they kill all CIA people in Thailand.”
“Doctor, don’t ask now, but can you find out from her when and how they will kill the CIA people? They probably plan on hitting the base since that’s where our planes are.”
Eddie forced a smile at the woman, put the chart back at the foot of her bed, and stepped out.
As they walked through the ward, Dr. Pinchon asked, “What will happen to her?”
Eddie glanced at her, looked down, and slowly shook his head. She understood what he could not say. And she knew that he disapproved.
They left the ward and walked down the dimly lit hallway to the staff lounge to get a cup of coffee.
Just after 10:00 Eddie and Dr. Pinchon returned to the nurses’ station and stood talking for a few minutes before he turned to leave. He stepped out into the hallway and noticed a man standing by the staircase. A movement to his left caused Eddie to look back at the ward door. A man and a woman were helping the Vietnamese woman walk out into the hallway. Eddie stepped toward them when the woman called out something in Vietnamese. It was then that Eddie noticed the automatic pistol stuffed in the man’s belt. Eddie slowly turned around and saw the man at the stairs had an AK-47 pointed at him. Eddie stepped over against the wall and allowed the three to walk to the stairs. The man with the AK said something and waved the rifle indicating that Eddie was to go back to the nurses’ station.
The Wrong Side of Honor Page 5
