Vietnam Ground Zero 13 Red Dust by Eric Helm

Author:Eric Helm
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

ONCE THE EQUIPMENT list was written up, they requisitioned the necessary items from Blauveldt, who delivered it a short while later. Then the team busied themselves with dividing up the twelve SIDs, the claymores and the radio gear among the rucksacks. Off to one side of his men, Gerber sat on the floor, stripping the adhesive tape off a black cardboard tube. That done, he took off its top, pulled out an M-26 hand grenade and hung it on his webgear. He did the same to another tube, but before hanging the grenade on his belt, he held it for a moment in the palm of his hand.

He sat with his legs crossed, studying the squat green body and the pin with the pulling ring that started the five-second delay fuse burning its way clear to the detonating charge. Staring at the olive drab grenade in his hand, Gerber found himself wondering how he came to be in the company of men who felt so much at home amid the heat of battle.

In preparation for the covert action mission, Bocker was the first to take his turn reading the United States Army Area Handbook for Vietnam. It was standard operating procedure for any A-team to assemble an area study before infiltrating the operational area. Bocker knew how important it was to understand the big picture, including geographic characteristics of the region as well as the population, the indigenous language and the customs.

Once he finished with the book he went on to read a recent CIA report on the province. Halfway into it, Bocker gave a low whistle, "Found some interesting stuff here. Local militia major named Bao Dai. Bad fucker. Our assets in the North report that he likes to capture downed American pilots and do nasty things to them. Boy, if we have the opportunity, I'd like to off this son of a bitch." He handed the report to Gerber and showed him where to begin reading. Halfway through the page he stiffened and looked up at Bocker. Bocker nodded.

"We may just have to find the time to drop in for tea," said Gerber. "This guy is begging for special attention."

"Speaking of assets and double agents and other intrigues, is there a safehouse we should know about?" asked Dirty Shirt.

Gerber grimaced. "'Fraid not. We're having a hell of a time keeping indigenous agents alive in the North. The only logistical support we'll have will be what we carry in on our backs. Naturally we can radio the SFOB and requisition items for airdrop. But if we do have to resort to that we'll run the attendant risks of detection when we key the transmitter. Their intercept operators might pick up our broadcast on a routine frequency sweep. We wouldn't want that."

Bocker joined in on the conversation. "Well, we've got to have commo with the SFOB to coordinate extraction. We're bringing a CW burst device, that will cut down on the length of our transmission time. Odds are good to middling they'll never even hear us on the air, much less have enough time to run a DF on us.

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