"Qualifies for what?"
"When they give me a pass out of this place, it has to be in the company of a responsible person."
Dawkins looked at him a moment, shaking his head as if in disbelief.
"Captain McGowan," he said. "We have just had proof that this officer be-longs in the Neuro-Psychiatric Ward. No sane Marine major would say such a thing to a very senior officer such as myself. Even if he did on more than one occasion save my tail while we were off winning World War Two all by ourselves."
"Yes, sir," Captain McGowan said.
"You understood, Pick, that it was an order you are not to mention this Navy Cross business to anyone, right?"
"Yes, sir. Not a problem, sir. The only visitor I expect is my mother, and I wouldn't tell her something like that. And I don't expect any more visitors. The fewer people who know where I am, the better."
"Hey, you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about being in here. Despite what Billy Dunn said when his mouth ran away with him, I'm sure he is as proud of the way you evaded capture for so long as I am. And so are just about all of the pilots who know what you must have gone through. What you did-proving it can be done-is probably going to keep a lot of other shot-down pilots from giving up."
"The general's right, Major," Captain McGowan said.
"I'm always right, Art," Dawkins said. "I'm a general. Write that down."
Pick and McGowan chuckled.
Dawkins pushed himself out of the folding chair and extended his hand to Pick.
"Welcome home, Pick," he said. "We'll see you soon."
[TWO]
Headquarters X U.S. Corps
Wonsan, North Korea
O62O 3O October 195O
"Jade, Jade," Major Alex Donald said into his microphone. "How do you read?"
"Jade reads aircraft calling five by five," a metallic voice responded.
"Jade, this is Army four zero zero three."
"Go ahead, four zero zero three."
"Jade, four double zero three is approximately three miles from your field. Be advised four double zero three is a Sikorsky H-19 helicopter painted black in color. I say again, an H-19 painted black in color."
The control tower at Jade-the landing strip serving X Corps Headquarters- took a good thirty seconds to respond, and when it did there was a new voice on the radio.
"Four zero zero three, Jade reads a black H-19. Confirm."
"Four double zero three confirms. Please take necessary action to ensure strip defense does not engage. I say again, make sure no one shoots at us."
"Four zero zero three. Do not approach at this time. Action requested will take five or more minutes. Jade will advise when you may approach."
"Thank you, Jade," Donald said, looked at Major Kenneth R. McCoy in the copilot's seat, and released the microphone switch.
Major Donald was genuinely concerned about the strip defense. He had set it up himself. There had been virtually no enemy aerial attacks on American ground forces, or for that matter even enemy aerial observation of American po-sitions. But that didn't mean there were never going to be any.
He had, therefore, when he had been the Assistant X Corps Army Aviation Officer, spent a good deal of time thinking, planning, and setting up airfield defense. The basic weapons of the defense he had planned and set up were.50-caliber Browning machine guns, four of them, in a mount permitting simulta-neous fire by one man, on White half-tracked armored cars.
There were "multiple-fifties" located at each end of the strip. The other two were positioned, depending on where the strip was located, so that they could fire on attacking aircraft without firing into the rather extensive X Corps headquarters tents or buildings.
The multiple-fifties put out a lot of fire.
There were other machine guns positioned around the landing strip, but it was the multiple-fifties he was worried about. He had had a good deal of trou-ble getting them onto the Table of Authorized Equipment, and then talking the G-l into providing their crews. Each weapon had a four-man crew: the vehi-cle driver, the assistant vehicle driver, the gunner, and the assistant gunner. The assistant vehicle driver also functioned as an assistant gunner, which meant he kept a steady supply of loaded cans of.50-caliber ammunition moving from the ammunition trailer that the White towed, and helped the assistant gunner in other ways, including using an entrenchment tool to shovel red-hot fired car-tridge cases from the bed of the White.
A really astonishing number of them would accumulate whenever the four Brownings were fired.
One of the problems Major Donald had recognized and done what he could to, get around was that the crews of the multiple-fifties were aware that the enemy had yet to stage aerial attacks on an Army airstrip. That translated to mean that their assignment was bullshit. They just sat there in the hot sun (or, now, the getting-colder-by-the-day icy winds) and nothing happened.
Major Donald had done what he could to motivate them. He told them that if the enemy attacked from the air, they would be the first, and really only, de-fense the airstrip and indeed the entire X Corps Headquarters complex was going to have. He told them they had a great responsibility.
And he also arranged for them to have quickly removable canvas sun shields to protect them in the summer, and, preparing for the winter, to have oil-fired stoves called Cannon heaters specially rigged so they could be mounted in the bed of each of the Whites and keep the crews warm in the cold.
Thus, Donald had spent a lot of time and thought and effort establishing airstrip protection, and thought he had done a good job, especially in moti-vating the men. He was convinced they were on the alert, ready to instantly fill the skies over the airstrip with a steady stream of.50-caliber projectiles the mo-ment they thought the airstrip was being threatened.
Threatened, for example, by a rotary-wing aircraft of a type they had not seen before, and which was painted black and completely devoid of American markings.
Major Donald knew that the Killer wouldn't have ordered him to fly into the X Corps airstrip on the way back from dropping two stay-behind teams in the mountains unless there was a good reason, but wished that the Killer had elected to travel by some other means than in one of the Big Black Birds.
Major Donald thought there was a very good chance his careful planning and training for the defense of the X Corps airstrip was about to come around and bite him in the ass.
Major Donald had ten-not five-minutes to consider what the fire from a multiple-fifty would do to the delicate innards of an H-19A Sikorsky before the radio went off.
"Army four zero zero three, Jade."
"Go."
"You are cleared for an approach from the north and touchdown on the threshold of the active runway. You will hold, I say again, you will hold, on the threshold until further orders. Be advised there is light aircraft traffic in the area. Acknowledge."
"Four double zero three understand approach from the north and hold on the threshold after touchdown. Beginning approach at this time."
As he made the approach, Major Donald was able to clearly see-which sur-prised him not at all-the four large black barrels of the White-mounted multiple-fifty tracking his approach with care and what he thought might just be eagerness.
"Jade, I'm on the ground and holding on the threshold."
"Four zero zero three, I have you in sight. You will be met."
McCoy pointed out the cockpit window. Two jeeps, each with a pedestal-mounted.30-caliber air-cooled Browning, were racing down the runway to-ward them.
Both stopped twenty yards from the Big Black Bird. The.30s were now trained on the cockpit.
A lieutenant colonel got out of one of the jeeps, drew his pistol, and marched somewhat warily up to the helicopter.
Donald put his head and both of his arms out his window and waved.
"Sir, it's Donald," he called from the window.
The lieutenant colonel almost certainly couldn't hear over the roar of the engine, but he recognized the face.
Neither could Donald nor McCoy hear the lieutenant colonel mutter, in ei-ther disbelief or disgust, "Jesus H. Christ!"
But they saw him holster his pistol, make arm signals to both the machine-gunners in the jeeps and in the multiple-fifty half-track, telling them there was no hazard and to deflect their weapons. Then he made a. follow me gesture to the Big Black Bird and got in his jeep and started back down the runway.
Donald waited until the jeeps were halfway down the runway, then taxied the H-19 down it after them.
They stopped before an obviously hastily built corrugated tin building on which was a sign: Operations.
McCoy very carefully climbed down from the cockpit and went inside the fuselage. Donald climbed down far more agilely and went to the lieutenant colonel, who shook his hand and gestured unbelievingly at the Big Black Bird.
When McCoy came out of the fuselage, everybody saw that not only was he wearing what looked like black pajamas but that he was carrying a wire hanger over his shoulder. Its white paper wrapping read navy exchange ser-vice SASEBO.
"Colonel, this is Major McCoy," Donald said.
"That's an interesting uniform you're wearing, Major," the lieutenant colonel said. "And what is that, somebody's laundry?"
"Yes, sir. That's just what it is," McCoy said. "It belongs to Captain Haig. And I'd really like to get him on the phone as soon as I can."
"You want to tell me what's going on here?"
"Respectfully, sir, no, I don't," McCoy said. "May I use the phone, please, sir?"
"Of course," the lieutenant colonel said. He waved McCoy ahead of him into the tin building and handed him a field telephone, then cranked it for him. "Haig's number is Jade Seven," he said.
"Jade Seven," McCoy told the operator, and a moment later Al Haig's voice came over the line.
"Haig, this is McCoy. I'd really like to talk to the general."
"That can very easily be arranged, sir," Captain Haig said. "My last orders in that area were 'If that's who I think it is, get him up here. The airstrip'll give you a jeep.'"
"Thank you," McCoy said. He handed the telephone back to the lieutenant colonel. "Sir, could we get a ride to the CP?"
"I'll take you myself," the lieutenant colonel said.
The X Corps Command Post was a dirt-floored Quonset hut. Captain Al Haig was standing in front of it waiting for McCoy.
"I thought you were in the hospital," Haig said in greeting.
"I was," McCoy said, and handed him the hanger. "Your uniform. Thanks for the loan."
"You actually had this stuff dry-cleaned?" Haig said.
"It seemed like the thing to do," McCoy said.
"Well, thank you very much," Haig said. "The general is waiting for you. In his mess."
The Jade Room, the General's Mess, was another dirt-floored Quonset hut a few yards from the Command Post. One end of it was partitioned off to pro-vide privacy for the half-dozen general officers of Headquarters, X United States Corps.
Only one of them, the Corps Commander, was in the mess. He was sitting on a folding metal chair before a rough-appearing wooden table. There was a tablecloth, however, and white china.
"Hello, McCoy," Major General Edward M. Almond said. "Have you had breakfast?"
"Good morning, sir," McCoy replied. "No, sir, I have not."
"Sit down," Almond ordered, and then saw what Captain Haig had in his hand. "What's that, Al?"
"Major McCoy returned the uniform he borrowed, sir," Haig said.
Almond shook his head.
"There were some real eggs from the Mount McKinley" Almond said. "But they never got up here. I'm sure there's some left in the sergeant's mess, but what I can offer is powdered eggs with a lot of Tabasco."
"Anything is fine, sir," McCoy said.
"I watched your helicopter come in," Almond said. "Does that mean the secret is compromised?'
"We'll have to go on that premise, sir," McCoy said. "All we can do is hope they won't be able to figure out right away what we're doing with them."
"Which is?"
"We're leaving overnight observation teams where we hope they'll be able to learn something about the Chinese."
"Hence the black pajamas? I'm surprised you're up to doing something like that."
"I hadn't planned to stay overnight, sir. They're a precaution."
"How's the leg?"
"Getting better every day, thank you, sir."
"We've had an interesting development, McCoy," Almond said as he but-tered a piece of toast.
"Yes, sir?"
"The 3d ROK Division, which had been advancing toward-and was close to-the Chosin Reservoir, has encountered unusually strong resistance. They have, in fact, been turned, and are in a retrograde movement."
"I'm sorry to hear that, sir."
"They have reported they came under attack by what they estimate to be three regiments of the enemy, supported by artillery and tanks."
"That's a good deal more North Korean strength than I would have thought 'they had in that area, sir," McCoy replied.
"I was a little surprised myself, McCoy," Almond said. "The 3d ROK is tak-ing up-has taken up-a defensive position south of the reservoir. As soon as I finish my breakfast, I'm going to helicopter up there and have a personal look at the situation."
"Yes, sir."
"And one of the things I hope to do when I'm there is be able to put to rest a rumor circulating that this division-sized enemy force is not North Korean but rather Chinese."
"There's a rumor like that, sir?"
"Now, you and I both know that's highly unlikely, if not outright impossi-ble, don't we? General Willoughby has assured us there is virtually no chance of, and certainly no intelligence suggesting, Chinese intervention, hasn't he?"
"Yes, sir. He certainly has."
"I thought you might find that interesting, Major McCoy," General Almond said. "If I had a means to do so, I'd suggest you come along with me. But un-fortunately, I have only two operational helicopters, H-13s, and so there is room only for me and one of my Korean interpreters, who speaks Chinese. I can't even take Al Haig with me."
"General, I wonder how you and your interpreter and Captain Haig would feel about going with me in my Big Black Bird? The problem there is that it doesn't have any markings on it...."
"Major, I would think that would fall under what is known as 'an exigency of the military service.' It's regretful that you were unable to fully comply with the Rules of Land Warfare by applying the required identification markings to your helicopter, but I don't think that should keep us from using it, do you?"
"Sir, my concern was friendly fire from the 3d ROK. They've never seen a helicopter like this."
"Al," Almond ordered, "before we go, have someone get in touch with 3d ROK and tell them they are not, repeat not, to engage any aerial target until I personally give orders to the contrary. If necessary, send an L-19, and drop a written order."
"Yes, sir."
"On second thought, both communicate with and send an L-19," Almond ordered.
"I'll get right on it, sir," Captain Haig said.
"Al, could you call the airstrip and make sure Donald fuels the Big Black Bird?" McCoy asked.
"Done," Haig said.
Almond chuckled.
"You're speaking of Major Donald?" the general asked. "My former assis-tant Army Aviation officer? Now a member of your... organization?"
"Yes, sir."
"Have you got him wearing pajamas?"
"No, sir. He has more faith in his helo than I do."
" All things come to he who waits,' " Almond quoted. "I believe that."
"Sir?"
"The day General MacArthur ordered me to transfer those machines to you, and I told Major Donald, he was heartbroken that he would not be able to show me what a wonderful machine his new toy was. Now he can."
"Major Donald and the helicopters have been very useful, sir," McCoy replied.
"That's what he said, McCoy. He t
old me-and General MacArthur-that the helicopter was going to... What exactly did he say? Oh, yes: 'usher in a new era of battlefield mobility.' "
"I've heard the sales pitch, sir. Many times."
Almond chuckled, then looked at him thoughtfully.
"How are they going to function in the snow, McCoy? In twenty-, thirty-degrees-below-zero weather?"
W E B Griffin - Corp 10 - Retreat, Hell! Page 54
