the Last Run (1987)

by Leonard B Scott

  Le Can smiled. "Yes, I know you have seen many governments, and all have brought promises; but this time, I bring more than words. I bring truth. Is it not true the puppets claim this a strategic hamlet? Where are the puppets? Do they help you? They cower in their base, miles from here. I am here and will bring medical support and a teacher. These are truths.

  "The New Provisional Revolutionary Government is already victorious. The Yankees have ceased their search-and-destroy operations and now stay in defensive positions. The North is no longer being bombed, and the PRG sits in Paris at a conference as the genuine representative of the people.

  "I come to consolidate the government's power. We must show the world we are powerful and hold most of the country in the liberated zone."

  The old man shook his head. "Politics mean nothing to me. All I have are my water buffalo and my grandchildren. You come to take our rice and sweet potatoes to support your government."

  Le Can sighed and lowered his head. "It is not my government, old one. It is your government, and we ask for nothing but that your hamlet proclaim its liberation. I am here-what more truth do you ask? I am now assigned to this province from the District Committee. Your hamlet will hold elections and elect a Peasant Liberation Committee and establish your own priorities so that we may help you with them. What do the puppets offer?"

  The old man said nothing, but Nguyen Thi Thanch rose to her feet beside him. She was frail and her hair was closely cropped. "Old Bao has lost his sons to the struggle, as all of us have. We are tired of this war and only want to plant our rice in peace. Bao has lost hope; but what you say is true. The puppets do not help. Promise you will not take our children, and we will join with you again."

  Le Can stood and bowed to the woman with respect. "We need your . Youth to stay here and help you. I promise they will not be asked to volunteer. Your decision to help us will be received with great joy. I will return to your hamlet in two days with a teacher and medical team to demonstrate our help. Tell the people this and receive us with open arms and hearts, for it is the new beginning for An Chon."

  Le Can stood in the darkness with the hamlet chief as the old ones returned to their huts. "You did well, Comrade Huu. Your mother spoke with authority."

  The chief stared at the closest hut. "Yes, she understands the needs of our home; but your promise not to take the youth must not be broken. They are all we have left."

  Le Can turned to his two men, who were escorting him. "Tell Comrade Huu what they call me."

  The closest soldier stepped closer. "Le Can is known as Thach Sanh'- the peasant knight. He speaks die truth and keeps his word."

  Le Can put on his French Legionnaire's hat and placed his arm around Huu's shoulder. "You will be rewarded for your efforts. When I return in two days, introduce me as Thach Sanh. Have the whole hamlet waiting for us. Young and old must take away a lasting impression. It will help the cause and give them hope to have a hero address them."

  Huu knew Le Can was indeed a hero of the Liberation Army. He had been awarded the Valiant Fighter Award, Third Class. The French hat was a symbol of his past exploits.

  "A hero does not impress those who are tired of war," Huu said. "The medical team and teacher are what they need and should be introduced with great words."

  Le Can squeezed the chief's shoulder tightly. "You are wise, Huu. I hear what you say. So it will be. I will bring a red banner for you and ensure you are elected to the hamlet committee. Good night, my friend. In two days, you will be a hero yourself."

  Chapter 12

  23 September

  Fire base Mustang was shrouded in the red dust cloud kicked up by the departing deuce-and-a-half trucks. Childs stepped out of the tactical operations center and hollered out to the assembling Ranger teams, "Team sergeants report to me! Assistant team leaders move your people to the tents across the road!"

  Childs and the communications platoon had come out earlier to the ARVN camp and set up the TOC.

  Childs walked into the laige underground bunker, followed by the team sergeants. He had a map hanging from the thick- timbered wall. You received your team area of operations before coming out, right?"

  The sergeants all nodded and took out their maps.

  You've got the rest of the day to plan your routes and coordinate them with me. You'll be going out at dusk at staggered times so we don't have anybody running into each other. This is different than you've been trained, because you're not being infilled by chopper, and you'll be moving at night. When you drove up you saw that this fire base looks like a big tit. To the west is rice paddies and in the other directions are open rolling hills leading to the mountains. You'll cross the open areas and reach the mountains tonight so you won't be seen. Tomorrow afternoon, after resting up, you'll establish ambushes. The whole idea is training. You'll get used to each other and have time to work out the glitches. But remember, there are dinks out there! Follow the rules we taught you. Don't be half steppin' or Charlie is gonna light your ass. The ARVNs haven't been too active, so Charlie thinks he can walk around with no problem. You're here to convince him he done fucked up thinking it was over. Stay alert, and kill me some dinksl Sergeant Wade, you stay a minute. The rest of you start planning your routes."

  Wade moved closer to the map as the men filed out. Childs waited till they departed and motioned to a chair.

  "Sit down, Wade. You have a village in your AO, so take it easy and don't blow away any civilians."

  Wade didn't like the mission and let out a sigh. "Sarge, I've never worked in such an open area before, and I sure as hell haven't been around any villages."

  "I know that," retorted Childs, "but you got more experience than the others. That's why I picked your team. Just skirt around the village tonight and set up your bush in the foothills past the rice paddies. Anything that moves at night is bad guys, so grease em.

  Wade shook his head. "It's a long hump tonight, at least eight klicks. Hell, we don't move at night in the mountains!"

  Childs studied the young sergeant's face for a moment. "It ain't like you to complain. Whatsa matter?"

  Wade lowered his head a few seconds before looking up. "I'm good in mountains. I know what's got to be done up there, but this open stuff is new to me. Here I am, supposed to be training new men and now I'm just as cherry as they are. Not a very good example, huh?"

  Childs, realizing his sergeant wasn't feeling his usual confidence, leaned back in his chair. "Wade, you'll do fine, believe me. I was with the Cav my first tour and this is all we did. I wish I'd had your experience when I first got here. Look, it's no different. Instead of jungle you got the night to protect you. Once you get past the vill, it's like a regular mission."

  Wade felt a little better from telling his sergeant how he felt. He looked at the map more closely and smiled. "Well, Sarge, the village of An Chon better not have any sleepwalkers 'cause they gonna pay big-time if they do."

  Wade spat a brown stream of tobacco juice into a Coke can as his team studied the map he'd spread out on a foodocker. "I marked the route. Does anyone have any suggestions?"

  Rose looked up. "Yeah, forget it. It's all rice paddy, man. I ain't got duck feet."

  Woodpecker ran his finger along the line Wade had drawn and tapped the village location. "It's gonna depend on wind direction if we're gonna get that close to the village before we go around."

  Wade was surprised how the redhead had spoken so knowl- edgeably and leaned over the map. "Why?"

  "I was with the Second Battalion, 503rd for awhile before going to the Aviation Battalion, and worked an area with lots of vills. The dinks have dogs and water buffs that'll smell us a klick away."

  "Water buffs?" asked Thumper, smiling.

  "Yeah, their buffalo can smell a GI bucoo far away and then goes dinky dau. The dinks put their buff pens on the outskirts of a vill and when the buffs start snortin' and stompin' around, the dinks know they got GIs coming. The dogs are inside the hootches and when they get wind of us, the
y'll start howling, lettin' everybody know, too."

  Wade patted the redhead's thin back. "I knew you were good for somethin'."

  Rose leaned back, mumbling. "The dude is full of shit, man. We gonna have to hump farther to get around the vill now."

  The sun had just disappeared below the horizon when the first six teams passed through the perimeter gate. Wade's team 3-1 was the first out and headed due west toward the rice paddies.

  Woodpecker had experience negotiating the narrow dikes and moved easily while the others slipped and fell in the rice paddy's two feet of muck. Initially they moved slowly, but by the time the darkness came, the rest of the team had gotten the hang of it. The paddies were interspersed with islands of high ground thickly vegetated with soaring bamboo thickets and other growth. The half-full moon reflected off the water, silhouetting the team and making them perfect targets.

  After moving for an hour, Wade halted the team alongside one of the islands to regain his composure. He'd been in some hairy situations, but he'd never felt as nervous as he did right now. The team, walking along the dikes in the moonlight, would be powerless if they were ambushed, with no place to go and no cover. A Ranger team lived on stealth and depended on its senses, especially those of sight and sound. The night stole the team's sight, and the crickets, frogs, and damnable creaking and moaning of the bamboo took away their hearing. They walked along the dikes with only one hope-good luck, and luck was a nonfactor to a professional.

  Wade knew they were getting close to the village. He took several deep breaths to control his shaking and upset stomach, then licked his finger and held it up. The wind was out of the east. At least they were downwind and wouldn't have to walk so far to skirt around. He took another deep breath, praying their luck would hold for another hour, and began walking again.

  Le Xuan Can sat by the firelight and, with a smile, set down his diary. The peasants of the local villages here had done exacdy what those in Binh Dinh Province had done; they complained of the hardships of the struggle and begged that the youth not be taken. He always promised the peasants not to take their young, but he knew what would really happen. The old teacher would fill the young hearts with the fiery words of Ho Chi Minh. Soon they would overcome their parents' fears, and they would beg to serve in the struggle. They would become a youth regiment in the People's Army; the peasants would then work harder to feed their children and their comrades. He had seen the phenomenon too often not to know the eventual outcome. Only time was needed, time and patience. The puppets and Yankees had left the peasants alone to hold their roads and cities, while the liberators of the true government held the people's hearts. Tomorrow, he, the Thach Sanh-peasant knight, would begin his slow march to victory, and the children of An Chon would soon . . . very soon, be marching along with him.

  Matt Wade put down the radio handset and brought his CAR-15 to his lap. They had reached the foothills an hour before and found enough dense vegetation to laager in the standard wheel formation-sitting back on their packs shoulder-to-shoulder and facing out in a circle. One at a time, each man would watch for an hour and hold the radio to make periodic commo checks. The radioman at Mustang had just called him, and he'd replied by pushing the side bar twice. Two squelch breaks was the code for "all is well, no change in situation."

  Wade was about to wake Thumper, but hesitated and looked up at the stars. The air had a twinge of dampness that only the night could bring, and the chirping crickets reminded him of the evenings on which he had sat with his granddad on Buggy Creek Bridge.

  They often turned the dogs loose in the creek bed and let them run coons to the draw just below the bridge. His granddad would sit on the tailgate of the old Chevy pickup and chew tobacco, hardly ever speaking, and Wade would sit with him, always wondering what his granddad was thinking in his silence. One night, when he was sixteen, Wade finally had the courage to ask: "Granddad, what do ya think about when sitting out here?"

  His granddad had stood and walked to the edge of the old wooden bridge and spat into the darkness.

  "Me and Elma used to sit here for hours listenin' to the dogs and crickets. I come out here to be with her again."

  He had walked back and sat down beside his grandson and looked up at the stars. "The night is special time, Matt. It's got a life of its own . . . and it holds a lot of good memories."

  Wade cleared his thoughts and lifted the heavy medallion from his chest, thinking of the auburn-haired woman. "Memories," he said to himself, and tapped Thumper.

  24 September

  Le Xuan Can reached out and turned up the wick of the kerosene lamp, basking the earthen walls in a golden hue. The wooden slats creaked as he sat up and placed his feet on the slanted, clay- packed floor and looked around. The room had changed litde in the seventeen years since he'd been there last. That time he had been wounded in the legs by a French mine. The old underground complex had been a hospital; now it was used as a headquarters and supply base for the People's Liberation Armed Forces. The tunnel complex, known as The House, was dug into the side of the hill. It had three large rooms connected by tunnels. A bamboo thicket hid the main entrance, and the escape tunnel was on the far slope near a boulder. Three cell members used The House as a permanent base and received the coded radio messages over the AM transistor radio from Hanoi. From here the struggle had been coordinated and planned for the district in the past years. The House was only three kilometers from An Chon, yet few knew of its existence.

  He slept in the first room nearest the entrance, where the others still slept in hammocks supported by huge teak support timbers. His was the only wood-slat bed, a place of honor.

  Le Can rose to the sound of a faint whisding. Above him were the bamboo ventilation tubes that passed through the earth ceiling to the outside. He walked through the small, narrow tunnel to the second room that served as the headquarters and radio room. A young soldier of sixteen sat at a desk monitoring Hanoi Liberation radio.

  "Any news, comrade?"

  The boy turned with a smile to Thach Sanh and held up a notepad. "The fighters have taken a puppet base in Binh Dinh province, and the Province Commissar asks for an update from all districts in two weeks."

  Le Can nodded. When he went to Kim Suu to transmit his report, the leaders would be pleased.

  Returning to the sleeping room, he pushed open the clay- and root-matted door and climbed the cut-out earthen steps. Gray, early morning light greeted him as he stepped out of the entrance and closed the door. He stood in a small open area which, except for a narrow exit leading to a leveled spot alongside the hill, was completely enclosed by thick bamboo. He stepped out of the thicket to where three of his men lay on ground sheets and a fourth stirred the embers of a small fire. The old man stirring the embers, gave him a casual glance. "We will eat soon if you bring wood."

  Le Can, putting on his French hat, smiled at the old man's lack of respect. It was the teacher, Doan Ty, a contrary old man, but a master both of words and of cooking. Le Can picked up several sticks and set them down by his friend, who wore tattered khaki shorts and a black peasant shirt.

  "We eat, then I go with the others to An Due and talk to the hamlet chief. I will return this afternoon and we go to An Chon, where you will begin teaching."

  Doan Ty placed a blackened tin pot partially filled with water on the coals and cocked an eyebrow.

  "You call it teaching. I say it is preaching. It is no matter. The result is the same. Is the medical team going with us?"

  "Yes, but they go with me to An Due first. The hamlet is in need of them. It will not take us long. The puppets and Yankees have given this area up. They only hold on to their precious road.''

  "How long before you strike their outposts?"

  "Not for another four months, when we have enough support. In another month we will begin mining the road to show the people we are fighting."

  "How many children does An Chon have?"

  "Nine that will be old enough. An Dat has twelve, but is
close to the road. I will talk to the chief today and have the children go to An Chon." Le Can smiled and patted Doan TV's back. "It will save your old legs many steps, yes?"

  Rose halted the team and motioned Wade forward. They had gotten up at first light and climbed the first small hills to get deep into the forest. They planned to move a kilometer into the foothills, then head west toward a trail that led to the mountains and set up their ambush.

  Rose whispered faintly, "Somebody's got a fire."

  Wade sniffed the air and caught the faint but distinct odor of burning bamboo. It was coming from the south. "Let's check it out, but stay on the high ground and parallel this slope we're on."

  Rose patted his M-16 affectionately. "We gonna get some, I can feel it."

  Wade motioned the others up and told them about the change in plans, then nodded at Rose to move out. They stalked along the face of the hill, weaving their way through scrub trees and thick thorn bushes for fifty meters until the land suddenly sloped away into a small valley. They could see a small, dissipating cloud of smoke drifting up from the trees below.