Retreat, Hell! Part 21

Captain Paul R. Jernigan, who would command Trans-Global Airways Flight 908-City of Los Angeles-Lockheed Constellation Service from Tokyo to San Francisco with fuel stops at Wake Island and Honolulu, had no idea at all that he would be carrying Fleming Pickering until he looked out the window and saw him approaching the aircraft.

He pushed himself out of the seat, told his copilot and the flight engineer that "Jesus Christ, Pickering himself is getting on!" and then left the c.o.c.kpit so that he could personally welcome aboard the man who owned the airline.

"Welcome aboard, sir," he said. "My name is Jernigan."

"Thank you, Captain," Pickering said, offering his hand. "This is another kind of captain, George Hart. My name is Pickering."

"Yes, sir. I know. It's a pleasure to have you aboard, gentlemen."

The senior stewardess who had been counting heads in the rear of the airplane saw the captain standing by the door and came quickly forward and saw who it was.

"We heard you were coming with us, Commodore," she said. "Welcome aboard. We have you in 1A, the window seat, and 1B."

Never thought to tell me, huh, you airhead! Captain Jernigan thought rather unkindly. He had been known to comment that if he had his choice between flying B-17s over Berlin, which he had done, or flying Connies with six stewardesses aboard, as he was doing now, he would take Berlin anytime. Captain Jernigan thought rather unkindly. He had been known to comment that if he had his choice between flying B-17s over Berlin, which he had done, or flying Connies with six stewardesses aboard, as he was doing now, he would take Berlin anytime.

"Thank you," Pickering said, and found his seat.

"You want the window, George?" he asked.

"Up to you, boss. I don't care either way."

Pickering slid into the window seat.

"Once we're in the air, please feel free to come to the c.o.c.kpit, Commodore," Captain Jernigan said. He had picked up on the t.i.tle, and heard it was what they called the senior of a group of s.h.i.+p captains.

"Thank you," Pickering said.

"Commodore," the senior stewardess asked, "can I get you anything? Coffee? Something stronger? While we're waiting for our clearance?"

"No. Thank you very much," Pickering said, and then, a moment later: "Hold on. Bring me a b.l.o.o.d.y Mary, please. Better make it a double."

George Hart looked at him in surprise. Pickering rarely drank at this time of day. Then he saw the silvered cast-aluminum plaque attached to the bulkhead before them, where they would see it all the way across the Pacific.

THIS TRANS-GLOBAL LOCKHEED.

CONSTELLATION.

"CITY OF LOS ANGELES"

ON JUNE 1, 1950.

SET THE CURRENT SPEED RECORD.

FOR COMMERCIAL.

AIR TRAVEL BETWEEN SAN FRANCISCO.

AND TOKYO.

CAPTAIN MALCOLM S. PICKERING.

CHIEF PILOT OF TRANS-GLOBAL AIRWAYS.

WAS IN COMMAND.

Pickering saw Hart looking at him.

Hart turned to the stewardess.

"Make it two of those, please," he said.

VI.

[ONE].

8023 RD TRANSPORTATION COMPANY (DEPOT, FORWARD) INCHON, SOUTH KOREA 0935 30 SEPTEMBER 1950.

Captain Francis P. MacNamara, Transportation Corps, his attention caught by the fluckata-fluckata-fluckata fluckata-fluckata-fluckata sound of rotor blades, stepped outside his office-a canvas fly-and looked skyward. sound of rotor blades, stepped outside his office-a canvas fly-and looked skyward.

MacNamara, a stocky, redheaded thirty-five-year-old Irishman from South Boston, had earned a commission in World War II, risen to captain, decided he liked the Army, and elected to remain in service when the war was over. In 1946, while a.s.signed to the Army of Occupation in Germany, he had been told that he was about to be RIF'd.

RIF'd was an unofficial but universally understood and used acronym. The Army didn't need as many Transportation Corps officers as it had during the war, and there was consequently a Reduction In Force program involuntarily releasing from active duty those officers it no longer needed. Those selected to be released were said to be RIF'd.

He had also been told that he could enlist as a master sergeant. He had been a PFC when he had gone to OCS. There was a lot to be said for being a master sergeant, and he had also learned that he could retire from the service after twenty years of service at fifty percent of his basic pay, and further that he could retire at the highest grade held in wartime-in other words, as a captain. He reenlisted.

First Sergeant Francis P. MacNamara, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, the Transportation Corps School, Fort Eustis, Virginia (Captain, TC, Reserve), had been recalled to active duty five days after the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel.

His first a.s.signment had been at the Anniston, Alabama, Ordnance Depot, where he had been responsible for the acceptance by the Transportation Corps of wheeled vehicles stored by the Ordnance Corps, and then seeing them moved to the port of Mobile, Alabama, for s.h.i.+pment to the Far East. During this period, the 9th Transportation Company (Provisional) was activated, and he was given command.

The five officers and 145 enlisted men of the 9th Transportation Company, and 608 wheeled vehicles ranging from jeeps to tank transporters, sailed from Mobile to Yokohama, j.a.pan, aboard the Captain J.C. Buffett, Captain J.C. Buffett, a Waterman Steams.h.i.+p Line freighter pressed into service. On arrival in Yokohama, the 9th Transportation Company (Provisional) was redesignated the 8023d Transportation Company (Depot, Forward) and Captain MacNamara was told that it would shortly sail aboard the a Waterman Steams.h.i.+p Line freighter pressed into service. On arrival in Yokohama, the 9th Transportation Company (Provisional) was redesignated the 8023d Transportation Company (Depot, Forward) and Captain MacNamara was told that it would shortly sail aboard the Captain J.C. Buffett Captain J.C. Buffett for Pusan for service with the Eighth U.S. Army. for Pusan for service with the Eighth U.S. Army.

That didn't happen. The Captain J.C. Buffett Captain J.C. Buffett lay anch.o.r.ed in Yokohama Harbor until 10 September, when it weighed anchor and joined the fleet of vessels bound for the Inchon Invasion. lay anch.o.r.ed in Yokohama Harbor until 10 September, when it weighed anchor and joined the fleet of vessels bound for the Inchon Invasion.

On 14 September, the Captain J.C. Buffett Captain J.C. Buffett dropped anchor just outside the Flying Fish Channel leading to Inchon, from which position the next morning they could see the wars.h.i.+ps and attack transports sail into the channel for the invasion. dropped anchor just outside the Flying Fish Channel leading to Inchon, from which position the next morning they could see the wars.h.i.+ps and attack transports sail into the channel for the invasion.

Commencing 20 September-once Inchon was secure-the 8023d and its 608 vehicles began to debark. This took some time, because of the tides at Inchon, which saw the Captain J.C. Buffett Captain J.C. Buffett forced to hoist anchor, sail into Inchon, and off-load as many vehicles as possible before the receding tides made it necessary for her to go back down the Flying Fish Channel, drop anchor again, and wait for the next high tide. The off-loading procedure was further hampered by the shortage of equipment in Inchon capable of lifting the tank transporters, heavy wreckers, and other outsized wheeled vehicles. forced to hoist anchor, sail into Inchon, and off-load as many vehicles as possible before the receding tides made it necessary for her to go back down the Flying Fish Channel, drop anchor again, and wait for the next high tide. The off-loading procedure was further hampered by the shortage of equipment in Inchon capable of lifting the tank transporters, heavy wreckers, and other outsized wheeled vehicles.

But finally everything and everybody was off-loaded, and Captain MacNamara set about setting up the company. Its purpose was to exchange new vehicles for vehicles that had either been damaged in combat or had otherwise failed, and then to make an effort to repair the damaged vehicles that had been turned in, so they could be reissued.

MacNamara had done much the same sort of thing in France during World War II, and most of his men were skilled in performing "third-echelon maintenance" on wheeled vehicles. All he had had to do was get everything running. He felt that he was ahead of schedule. He had found a building in which, once the Engineers got him some decent electrical power, he could perform the duty a.s.signed to the 8023d.

The first thing to do was get what he thought of as "the pool"-the vehicles he had shepherded all the way from Anniston, Alabama-up and running. Actually, that was the second thing he had to do. The first was to lay barbed wire around the pool and set up guard shacks.

There were two things Captain MacNamara had learned in France. One was that an unguarded pool of vehicles would disappear overnight, and the other was that if you listened to some bulls.h.i.+t pull-at-your-heartstrings story of why some guy really needed a vehicle, and why he didn't have a vehicle to exchange for one from the pool, the pool would disappear almost as quickly.

MacNamara believed-after some painful experiences in France-that the Army knew what it was doing when it set the policy, the very simple policy, of "something happens to the vehicle you've been issued, take it to an Ordnance or Transportation Depot, turn it in, and they'll issue you a serviceable one."

Unspoken was: "No vehicle to turn in, no new vehicle."

The reason for that was pretty obvious. If you didn't have to turn a vehicle in, every sonofab.i.t.c.h and his brother would show up and take a vehicle. And the problem with that was that some colonel would show up with a half-dozen wrecked or shot-up jeeps and expect to get half a dozen replacements, and when you didn't have half a dozen jeeps to give him-you'd given every vehicle to every sonofab.i.t.c.h who'd shown up with a hard-luck story-he would ask, "What the h.e.l.l happened to your pool?"

That had happened to MacNamara in France. They'd as much as accused him of selling vehicles on the black market, and he'd had the MPs' Criminal Investigation Division following him around for months, and he'd gotten a letter of reprimand.

He often thought that letter of reprimand was the reason he had been RIF'd. Now that he was a captain again, because they needed him, he was determined not to f.u.c.k up again. Being a captain was better than being a master sergeant, and maybe, if he didn't f.u.c.k up again by pa.s.sing out the Army's vehicles to people who weren't supposed to have them, they'd let him stay on as a captain when this war was over. He might even make major if he didn't f.u.c.k up.

Captain MacNamara had spent a good deal of time on the way from the States writing a Standing Operating Procedure for the company that would make it absolutely impossible for anyone who didn't have a busted-up vehicle to turn in to get one from his pool.

He was looking over the SOP when he heard the fluckata-fluckata-fluckata fluckata-fluckata-fluckata of rotor blades. of rotor blades.

He had heard the fluckata-fluckata-fluckata fluckata-fluckata-fluckata the day before, and had gone outside and seen two enormous helicopters-he didn't know they made them that big-flying over Inchon headed for Seoul. the day before, and had gone outside and seen two enormous helicopters-he didn't know they made them that big-flying over Inchon headed for Seoul.

He had wondered what the h.e.l.l they were yesterday, and he wondered what the h.e.l.l they were now.

And then he was more than a little surprised to see first that they seemed to be heading for the 8023d, and then even more surprised when the first of them, and the second, stopped fifty feet over the open area where he was going to store the turned-in vehicles, and then fluttered to the ground.

The sound of their engines died, and the rotors seemed to be slowing.

Captain MacNamara marched toward the machines, his experience telling him that the pa.s.sengers on something like this were almost certainly going to be heavy bra.s.s.

He got, instead, a somewhat rumpled-looking major of the Transportation Corps.

"Good morning, sir," MacNamara said as he saluted.

"Good morning, Captain."

Then he got two more majors, who climbed down from the c.o.c.kpit-one of them an Army major and the other a Marine. MacNamara saluted again.

"Captain MacNamara," he reported. "Commanding 8023d TC Company."

"You're the senior officer?" the Marine asked him.

"Yes, sir."

The major took a leather wallet from his pocket, unfolded it, and extended it for MacNamara to read. It identified the major as a field officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. It was Captain MacNamara's first contact with the CIA.

"Yes, sir?" he asked.

"Read this, please, Captain," Major McCoy said, extending a business-size envelope to him.

"Yes, sir," MacNamara said, opened the envelope, and took out a single sheet of paper. He read it.

THE WHITE HOUSE WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C.JULY 8TH, 1950TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:BRIGADIER GENERAL FLEMING PICKERING, USMCR, IN CONNECTION WITH HIS MISSION FOR ME, WILL TRAVEL TO SUCH PLACES AT SUCH TIMES AS HE FEELS APPROPRIATE, ACCOMPANIED BY SUCH STAFF AS HE DESIRES.GENERAL PICKERING IS GRANTED HEREWITH A TOP-SECRET/WHITE HOUSE CLEARANCE, AND MAY, AT HIS OPTION, GRANT SUCH CLEARANCE TO HIS STAFF.U.S. MILITARY AND GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES ARE DIRECTED TO PROVIDE GENERAL PICKERING AND HIS STAFF WITH WHATEVER SUPPORT THEY MAY REQUIRE.

Harry S Truman HARRY S TRUMAN.

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES1ST INDORs.e.m.e.nT INDORs.e.m.e.nT1 SEPTEMBER 1950THE UNDERSIGNED DESIGNATES THE FOLLOWING MEMBERS OF MY STAFF AS FOLLOWS, WITH THE ATTENDANT SECURITY CLEARANCES AND AUTHORITY TO ACT IN MY BEHALF.KENNETH R. MCCOY: EXECUTIVE OFFICERERNEST W. ZIMMERMAN: DEPUTY EXECUTIVE OFFICERGEORGE F. HART, CAPT, USMCR: ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER.

Fleming Pickering FLEMING PICKERING.

BRIGADIER GENERAL, USMCR.

"Jesus H. Christ!" Captain MacNamara said.

"We're going to need some vehicles," McCoy said. "And right now. Is that going to cause any problems?"

Captain MacNamara looked at the lines of vehicles in his pool, then at the signature of the President of the United States, then back at the lines of vehicles in his pool, and then at Major McCoy.

He came to attention, licked his lips, and said, "Not with orders like those. No, sir."

"Good. May I have the orders back, please? And I won't have to tell you, will I, that you are not to reveal anything connected with this?"

"No, sir," MacNamara said, and then had a second thought. "But, sir, somebody will have to sign for the vehicles. "

"That's what I'm here for, Captain," Dunston said.

"Sir, could I ask you for some identification?"

"Sure," Dunston said, and handed him an Army Adjutant General's Office photo identifying him as a major, Transportation Corps.

"Thank you, sir."

[TWO].

DETACHMENT A 8119TH QUARTERMASTER COMPANY (FORWARD) INCHON, SOUTH KOREA 1020 30 SEPTEMBER 1950.

Major Kenneth R. McCoy, USMCR, who was sitting beside Major Alex Donald, USA, and Major William Dunston, USA, on the floor of the cargo compartment of one of the H-19s watching Master Gunner Zimmerman supervise the loading of rations, and other items, into a GMC 6 6, turned to Major Dunston and asked, "Do you think we'd be pus.h.i.+ng our luck to try to get something from over there?"

He pointed across the Quartermaster Supply Point to an eight-man squad tent, before which was a corporal with a rifle sitting on a folding chair and a small wooden sign reading, "Cla.s.s VI."

Cla.s.s VI supplies are supposed to have-but usually don't have-the lowest priority for s.h.i.+pment to a combat area. The highest priority goes to medical supplies, followed by ammunition, rations, and so on, based on the military's best judgment of what is most essential.

Cla.s.s VI supplies are bottled intoxicants, such as whiskey, gin, and rum. They are not issued, but purchased with "nonappropriated funds" intended for resale to officer and noncommissioned officer clubs. They are not subject to alcohol taxes of any kind. Their sale is rigidly controlled and only to "authorized ent.i.ties."

"Why not?" Major Dunston replied. "We seem to be on a roll."

Captain MacNamara had given them every vehicle they had asked for, including a tanker truck and five tank trailers, as well as enough trucks, weapons carriers, and jeeps to make both Baker Company, 5th Marines, "the aviation detachment," and the station fully mobile on the ground.

The officer in charge of the Quartermaster Supply Point had been even more dazzled than Captain MacNamara when three field-grade officers bearing orders personally signed by the President of the United States descended upon his unit in machines he had never heard of.

The men-the Marines and the Army Aviation people-in the bullet- and shrapnel-riddled hangar would that night have a hot meal prepared on field stoves, and everyone would sleep that night on a cot in a sleeping bag. The only thing they would not have was cold beer-a means of refrigeration was not available-but as Mr. Zimmerman pointed out, warm beer was far better than no beer at all.