Medal of Honor (Undaunted Valor 2)

“Sir, I don’t have an assistant Ops officer, so it would have to be me,” Curran said with a hanging question mark.

“Tell me at the fifteen-hundred meeting who you would like to have for this additional duty. We’ll be cutting back on operational missions, so another officer can pick this up and get moving on it. Pick someone who’ll do a good job. This is too important to pass off to some of these guys, and that’s between you and me. Not Captain Vargus. When we get up there, he’ll be the LNO again to the Vietnamese. Guy is worthless in the cockpit and on the ground.”

John felt the need to come to a fellow officer’s defense. “Hey, sir, he’s doing a good job as LNO with the Vietnamese. He keeps them happy and hasn’t dropped the ball on getting any missions to us. He’s doing good.”

The major stood to leave. “And that’s why I made him the LNO. He can keep the ARVNs happy, since they can walk all over him. See you at fifteen hundred,” Major Adams said, heading out the door. Pausing, he turned back to Captain Curran. “Round up Cory, Sinkey and Price and come to my office as soon as you can.”

At the 1500 meeting, Major Adams waited for everyone to grab a beer. This was going to be a long meeting, he figured. Throughout the day, he had seen key officers and NCOs involved in the move scurrying about. Whispered comments could be heard about a possible move up north. Nothing “possible,” it’s happening, the major thought.

“Okay, gentlemen, let’s get this started.” He paused to get everyone’s undivided attention. “First, for those of you who don’t know him, I would like to introduce and welcome Mr. Pitts, the installation property manager with the contract company, who will be signing for our installation property when we leave. Thanks for joining us, sir.”

Mr. Pitts was about fifty years old and was a retired Army warrant officer who served in Supply. This was a rather lucrative job for him, combined with his Army retirement check. He was the senior civilian contractor at Lai Khe but was housed on the opposite side of the airfield.

“Thank you for inviting me, sir. It’s going to make my job much easier. Most units up and leave, forgetting about the installation property, or hoping the Army will forget about it. It does not,” he said.

Continuing, Major Adams said, “It’s no secret that we’ve received the warning order to move from here to Camp Holloway up north. When exactly it’s going to happen, I don’t know, but I suspect very soon. The Robin Hoods received their movement order two weeks ago and were out of here in two days. Lobo also received a movement order and will be moving out shortly, like early next week assigned to the First of the Ninth as a Cav troop.”

Mr. Pitts started writing notes. He had not been aware of Lobo’s departure.

“What we need to do now is make sure our movement plans and load cards are in order and develop a plan for closing out Lai Khe while arriving in Camp Holloway and being combat-effective as soon as possible. So, let’s start at the bottom with the smallest piece and build to the largest to get out of here. Ops, you have the floor,” he finished, turning the meeting over to the new Operations officer, Captain Curran.

“Sir, after you and I spoke this morning, I got with Supply, Maintenance, and the First Sergeant to review our load cards. I’m happy to report we’re in pretty good shape. The cards were reviewed and revised as indicated. Currently we have a requirement for C-130 movement of two deuce-and-a-half trucks, one five-hundred-gallon fuel tanker, one ten-kilowatt generator, one water buffalo, two jeeps, one five-ton forklift, fifteen CONEXes and six 463L pallets, and fifty-eight personnel. We anticipate that eighty personnel will fly out on our twenty-one UH-1 aircraft.”

A bit surprised, Major Adams looked down the table at smiling faces. He recognized that the company was a good unit, but it was almost unbelievable that after two years in one location, they would have the load cards in such good shape. After some pointed questions about loads, he was convinced. “All right, then, let’s talk closeout plan. Captain Trejillo.”

Captain Trejillo was a new company executive officer, having only been in the company a month or so, replacing Captain Wehr, who had rotated home. In that time, he had dug into every aspect of the company and was partially responsible for the condition of the load cards.

“Sir, the rear detachment will consist of the Supply officer, Lieutenant Collard, who is PCSing almost as soon as we arrive at Camp Holloway, myself, the maintenance NCOIC and a couple of enlisted soldiers. We will follow the company in one of our aircraft. First elements to depart will be the advance party, which will consist of Captain Curran, the first sergeant, the Supply sergeant and assistant maintenance officer. Naturally a crew chief and door gunner will accompany them. They will be followed three days later, time permitting, by two flights of ten aircraft in the first flight and nine in the second flight, separated by two hours. This is so we don’t create any backlog at refuel points. This is approximately a five-hour flight, so there will be refuel stops along the way, the first being at Gia Nghia. We still have to work out a flight route and stopover plan, but going to Gia Nghia will make it the shortest route and keep us over South Vietnam. Once the aircraft are off, depending again on availability of air transport, we can load the rest of the company. Maintenance will have already torn down and uploaded before the aircraft are off, so we should be able to start loading shortly after they’re gone, again depending on when we can get C-130 support. Once everyone is gone, the rear detachment will close out hand receipts with Mr. Pitts and we will be out of here. What are your questions, sir?”

I got me a winner in this executive officer. Captain Wehr was good and I am blessed again, Major Adams thought. “When do you see me departing here?”

“Truthfully, sir, I would like you to lead that first flight of ten out of here. You need to be where the action is and protect us from piecemeal commitments when we arrive. There will be nothing back here for you,” Captain Trejillo said.

Major Adams turned to Mr. Pitts. “Sir, do you see a problem with our handover of installation property?”

“I do not. Looking at your hand receipts, you have seven metal desks, seven desk chairs, two stand-up wall freezers, one stand-up refrigerator, one steam table, forty folding six-man tables, one hundred and twenty folding metal chairs, and a few other assorted odds and ends, such as your beds and mattresses. When your Supply officer invited me to this meeting, I came early and did a walk-through, and I already found everything associated with the mess hall to be in order. My question is, what are you going to do with the tables and chairs in your officers’ club, which, I might add, I’m going to miss?” Mr. Pitts had been a frequent invited guest.

“XO, what’s the answer for that?” the major asked.

“Sir, we’re leaving them, I’m afraid. They were purchased last year with a fund from profits at the club. They aren’t Army property, so we can’t really put them on the load plans,” the XO said with a troubled look.

“Can the tables be disassembled?”

“I suppose so, sir,” the XO answered as the first sergeant looked under the table.

“Yes, sir, they can,” the first sergeant answered.

“Mr. Pitts, I see no tables but I see individual pallets for unit property. The chairs will be disassembled and load along with the ‘individual pallets’ on our aircraft and flown out,” the major decided.

“In that case, sir, I see no problems with your load-out,” Mr. Pitts said with a smile. “However, sir, the bunkers, wire and trenches must be removed and filled in. We are required to return the area to the owners in the condition that it was received except for the buildings and revetments. Sorry,” Mr. Pitts explained apologetically.

Turning to the first sergeant, the major asked, “Top, can you put a detail together and take care for it?”

“I got it, sir,” responded First Sergeant Miller.

“Does anyone have anything else?” the major asked. No one responded.

“Okay, one last thing. We are to send three aircraft to Dong Ha to be attached to the 223rd Combat Aviation Battalion and they will assign them to an assault helicopter company. They must be experienced aircraft commanders. They are to leave tomorrow morning. Lieutenant Cory, Mr. Sinkey and Mr. Price will be the three aircraft commanders with Lieutenant Cory as section and flight leader. I will have Lieutenant Cory select three copilots, and Maintenance will have three low-time aircraft ready for an oh-eight-hundred takeoff tomorrow.”