by G. E. Nolly
“Where’s David?” he whispered as he approached her.
Suddenly, pain shot up his right arm as a folding metal chair came sailing through the air from behind the door and struck him. His pistol was knocked from f his grip and sent flying across the room. He looked up at his assailant and immediately recognized the face glaring back at him. It was the same face plastered on the APB he had just sent out. It was Steve Winklar, also known as Kevin Walters. Also known as Triad.
As Triad lifted the chair for another blow, Guns rushed him. Triad was at least two inches taller than Guns and had a good fifty pounds on him but Guns was a fighter, and a dirty one at that. Guns landed a few good punches, gouged him in the eye twice and kicked him in the balls. For a time, it looked like Guns was going to take him. But in the end youth and weight won out. Within moments, Triad had knocked Guns onto his back and climbed on top of him. Hovering over him, Triad had wrapped both hands around his neck and began wringing the life out of him.
This was the scene presented to David as he entered his quarters. He instantly took it all in: Kelly tied to the chair, the pistol on the floor, his uncle about to die. David dove for the pistol, put his middle finger into the trigger guard, turned, and fired at Triad, center-mass.
Triad fell over. His body lay motionless.
David ran over to Kelly and loosened her knots. She removed the gag covering her mouth and looked over at Guns.
“Check on Colonel Navarone!”.
“I’ll take care of him,” David said, “You go get help!”
Kelly rushed out to summon the Air Police. David went over to Guns, who was weakly attempting to stand.
“I’ve got you, Uncle John,” David said as he lifted Guns to his feet. He slid the revolver back into Guns’s survival vest. Guns put his arm around David and they slowly hobbled toward the door.
From sixteen years of combat experience, Guns knew what it meant when the hair on the back of his neck stood up. It meant his gut was telling him there was danger. He spun around, dragging David with him, in time to see Triad wielding the folding chair again. The leg of the chair caught David directly in his forehead, knocking him unconscious. As he went down, he pulled Guns with him. They collapsed in a heap onto the floor and Triad lifted the chair for a final blow.
Part of the training a combat pilot receives is the ability to draw and fire the service weapon from any position, under any conditions. And Guns was a combat pilot. With lightning speed he drew his pistol and fired off the five remaining rounds at Triad. One round caught Triad between his eyes, and the remaining four were clustered over his heart.
20
May 31, 1969
DaNang Air Base, South Vietnam
David slowly opened his eyes and stirred. Colonel Navarone, who was sleeping in a stiff plastic chair alongside the hospital bed, woke with a start as soon as he heard David moving. David made eye contact with Guns, and then looked around the room. Kelly was sitting at the other side of the bed, holding his hand.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” she smiled, “Did you have a nice rest?”
“I wouldn't exactly call it nice. My head feels like it's about to explode.”
Kelly reached over to the side table and retrieved a small paper cup with two capsules.
“Here,” she said, handing the capsules and a glass of water to David, “This should help.”
“You know,” Guns said, “Kelly personally treated your injuries.”
“That's right,” she said, “and, in my professional opinion, you're both going to have matching scars on your foreheads.” She smiled at David.
David gave a weak smile and squeezed her hand.
“You know,” Kelly said, “Colonel Navarone has been here all night. I’ll let you two talk and I’ll get you something to drink.”
As she left the room, David looked over at Guns.
“I owe you my life. And you also saved Kelly. I wasn’t sure if I would get to her in time. You know, there was a moment when I was at the amphitheater and I wanted to go looking for Kelly, but I knew I had to complete the mission. Uncle John, I think I'm ready to hear the rest of the story of my dad's last mission.”
“Okay, Donny.” Guns drew a deep breath. “Two years ago, on August 11th, I hand-picked your dad to fly downtown on my wing for a high priority mission -”
He was interrupted by the brick radio.
“Gunfighter Two, this is Gunfighter One,” the radio crackled, “You're needed in the Command Post ASAP.”
Guns walked over to the nightstand, picked up the brick radio, looked at it for about two seconds, switched the power to OFF, and returned to his chair.
Epilogue
25 December 1969
DaNang Air Base, Vietnam
Kelly waited for Donald Navarone in the lounge at the DOOM Club. It took a bit of effort to now call him Donny instead of David. The magazines scattered on the coffee table – Time, Life, Look – all had cover stories detailing the horrific details that had just been revealed about the My Lai massacre. It was Christmas, and Kelly was finally going to be with Donny after a long absence. She should have been happy, but the news of My Lai cast a pall on the season.
Donny entered, quickly looked around, saw they were alone, and gave her a long kiss. Then he held her at arm’s length and looked at her.
“God, I missed you so much!”
“I missed you, too,” she responded, “and I was so worried about you. Especially because you couldn’t tell me where you were.”
“The project I was working on was very high level, and very hush-hush. But it will be the headline in the Stars & Stripes tomorrow, so I can tell you about it now.”
“When we ran Triad’s prints,” he continued, “it turned out he was an Air Force Sergeant named Walters. He’d been reported missing, presumed dead, more than a year ago. He had a girlfriend at My Lai, and was reportedly there when the attack took place. Somehow he escaped, and began conducting sabotage against Americans all over Vietnam. He always left a small Vietnamese doll as his trademark.”
“How horrible,” Kelly said, “And sad.”
“Here’s the worst part, the part you’ll read about tomorrow. The attack on My Lai was set up by an American covert operation called Phoenix. I’ve been spending the last six months finding, and apprehending, the members of Phoenix.”
Kelly hugged him tightly.
“I’m so proud of you, David. I mean, Donny.”
“Enough about me. We have a date, and we’re not going to miss the USO Show this time. Bob Hope, Neil Armstrong, lots of other celebrities. It’s going to be great. And we need to leave right now if we want to get good seats.”
They left the DOOM Club holding hands. The Life magazine Kelly had been reading lay on the coffee table where she had left it. The page remained open to a grisly photograph of the casualties at My Lai. The bodies lay in a tangled tableau of mass murder, open eyes staring blankly toward the sky with faces twisted in the rictus of death. Bodies were strewn in ditches, in fields, in streams. One photo was nothing but children's bodies, stacked upon each other like so much cord-wood. A child's arm was sticking out of the pile. On the wrist was a red band.
Glossary of Terms
AO – Area of Operations
BDA – Bomb Damage Assessment
Below the zone – Promotion earlier than normal sequence
BOQ – Bachelor Officer’s Quarters
CBU – Cluster Bomb Unit
DEROS – Date Eligible for Return from OverSeas
DOS – Date of Separation
ETA – Estimated Time of Arrival
FAC – Forward Air Controller
Fingertip – Close formation flying, 3-foot wingtip spacing
FNG – Fucking New Guy
Frag – An attack on an American by another American
Frag Order – Fragmentary Order with combat instructions for a unit
Gomer – Guy On Motorable Enemy Route (an enemy)
Initial – The firs
t portion of a visual overhead landing pattern
IP – Instructor Pilot
M-1 maneuver – grunting to increase thoracic pressure
Mark 82 – A 500-pound bomb
MiG – Russian fighter jet, Mikoyan and Gurevich
Mike-mike - millimeter
MPC – Military Personnel Center
Nape - Napalm
OER – Officer Effectiveness Report
PCS – Permanent Change of Station
PDA – Public Display of Affection
Piddle pack – Portable urinal
RNO – Results Not Observed
SAM – Surface to Air Missile
Short-timer – Someone nearing DEROS
Slicks – Bombs with no high-drag metal parachute fins
Snake – Bombs with metal parachute fins
TDY – Temporary Duty
TOT – Time Over Target
URC-64 – Portable Survival Radio
VOQ – Visiting Officer’s Quarters
Willie Pete – White phosphorous rocket
Afterword
This is a novel, a work of fiction. But it was inspired by actual events. All of the events, other than that depicted in the final attack, happened somewhere, at some time, although not all of them happened on the dates or in the exact manner described in the story. Johnson and McNamara actually did micromanage targets and strike times during Rolling Thunder. The event at the chow hall really occurred, at DaNang, but it was on Thanksgiving, 1969. The bomb dump explosion took place on April 27, 1969, at DaNang, as depicted. Many years later, I was waiting for takeoff at Osan Air Base behind another aircraft when his engines quit, the result of the type of fuel contamination depicted in the story. Fragging happened in Vietnam, much too often. I took a bit of liberty in ascribing nefarious intent to some of the events that may have simply been accidents, but this is, after all, fiction.
I need to publicly thank several people who helped me with this book. First, my patient wife, June, was a constant source of inspiration and a great sounding-board who never shrank from pointing out shortcomings in any proposed storyline. My editor, Jacqueline Nolly, Editor-in-Chief of Nolly Publishing, LLC, performed exceptionally as a copy editor, story editor and line editor. The story line changed immensely between the first draft and the final version, and it was all due to the efforts of Jackie.
I received excellent technical expertise from the late Colonel Jack Broughton regarding fighter tactics early in the war against North Vietnam. His book, Going Downtown, should be required reading for every Air Force officer.
Gary Green, a former classmate and roommate at the Academy, was a valuable source of information about Office of Special Investigations (OSI) procedures. Don't worry – he didn't disclose any military secrets to me. And Gary provided me with an outstanding photograph of an OSI badge. John Pratt was my beta reader, and found numerous errors early on, before Jacqueline started her magic. He could get a job any day of the week as an editor in his own right.
If you like this book, the foregoing people deserve much of the credit. And if you don't, well, it is my novel, after all, and I must ultimately rise or fall on it's success or lack thereof.
Most of all, I hope this novel will serve as an homage to the men and women who served in the Air Force in Vietnam, in all capacities. Along with their comrades from the other services, they deserve our understanding, recognition, and thanks.
G. E. Nolly
Castle Rock, CO
November 11, 2014
Veteran's Day
About the Author
George Nolly served as a pilot in the United States Air Force, flying 315 combat missions on two successive tours of duty in Vietnam, earning 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 24 Air Medals, flying O-2A and F-4 aircraft. He was the last Air Force pilot to complete 100 missions over North Vietnam. While in the Air Force, George received the Tactical Air Command Instructor Pilot of the Year Award. Following his Air Force duty, he hired on with United Airlines and rose to the position of B-777 Check Captain. He also served as a Federal Flight Deck Officer (armed pilot). After his retirement from United, George accepted a position as a B-777 Captain with Jet Airways, operating throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In 2000, George was selected as a Champion in the Body-for-LIFE Transformation Challenge, and is a Certified Fitness Trainer and self-defense expert with more than 30 years' experience in combative arts. George received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the United States Air Force Academy and received a Master of Science Degree, in Systems Management, from the University of Southern California. He completed all of the required studies for a second Master of Science Degree, in Education, at the University of Southern California, and received his Doctor of Business Administration Degree, specializing in Security, from Northcentral University. He now flight instructs in the B777 and B787.
