Rolling Thunder
Page 22
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
0600 Hours Local, 26 January 1966
531st Tactical Fighter Squadron
Bien Hoa Air Base, Republic of Vietnam
That the 531st was designated the action squadron to cover developing events in War Zone C, almost caused Sergeant First Class James P. Monaghan to blow Ramrod's head off. No one remembered to tell him that ten feet of inquisitive snake periodically hung from the rafters to check out visitors to the 531st squadron building. When the startled sergeant jumped sideways and swung his M-16 into position, Court Bannister barely had time to yell and grab the gun barrel. White faced, Monaghan cursed, then laughed. Ramrod retracted himself back up, and silently went about his business cruising the rafters.
"It was on safety," Monaghan said, looking at his M-16. Fresh blood started to seep from under the bandages on his right arm.
"Oh hell, Jim," Bannister said, "I'm sorry. You want to go over to Long Binh and have someone look at that?"
"Nah," Monaghan said, "let's get on with it. Captain Myers and his guys are in deep kimchi. Are the radios all set up?"
"Yeah," Bannister said, leading him past the operations counter to the map room where a Mark 128 radio pallet was set up on half of the big plywood plotting table. Power cables ran through the window to a generator on a small trailer attached to a Mark 151 commo jeep provided by Base Communications.
"Not bad," Monaghan said. "Considering you only had a few hours to get ready." Monaghan himself had just been rousted out of the 3rd Surge at Long Binh by the C Team commander and jeeped over to Bien Hoa Air Base.
The new Ops Officer of the 531st, Bob Derham, had gotten Court out of bed at 5 in the morning saying there was an ops emergency involving the Mike Force up in War Zone C and as their contact he'd better shag ass to the squadron and set up Contingency Plan War Zone Charley Three.
War Zone Charley Three was part of a new concept whereby each F-100 squadron had several Special Forces camps and areas assigned to them for special protection. The pilots were required to familiarize themselves with each camp from the air and, if feasible, on the ground. Which was precisely why Bannister had gone on patrol with the Mike Force. The object was to gain intimate knowledge of the camp and the surrounding terrain enabling the strike pilots to provide air support under adverse conditions such as bad weather and/or loss of radio contact. If radio contact was lost, the SF men would light off a series of greasy rags stuffed in cans nailed to a ten-foot arrow set to swivel on a three-foot pole. They would point the flaming arrow at the heaviest enemy concentration. The F-100 pilots were trained to obliterate anything 100 meters beyond the camp in the direction the flaming arrow pointed. Because Bannister had run in the woods with the Mike Force, Rawson made him project officer as an extra duty thinking the whole scheme a waste of time. The new regime saw no reason to change his orders.