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WELCOME TO HELL
When you send us to Hell, don't expect us to act like angels, Two-Eight is thinking as the door of the C-123 starts to lower, letting in the blinding sunlight. He knows that he will be exposed to horrific atrocities over the next year, if he lives that long. He hopes that he does not kill anyone and that this war does not transform him into a perverse entity devoid of all caring and decency.
It is midday and he has just arrived at Tam Byet Dit Airbase in Vietnam after two days of in-country orientation. When the deafening sound of the hydraulic system opening the door stops, he picks up his duffel bag and follows the rest of the soldiers down the ramp and onto the tarmac where a jeep is waiting to take him to the headquarters building.
Two-Eight is a 20-year-old warrant officer pilot who has just completed a rigorous Army maintenance officer's course, AMOC. He requested this assignment because his two best friends from flight school are assigned to this regiment and are flying scouts. One classmate, Butler, is here in B Company. The other classmate, Hapless, is in E Company at a base 20 miles to the north.
Standing outside the headquarters building, feeling nervous and anxious, Two-Eight suppresses his thoughts of a secret he carries. He takes a deep breath and walks in. Inside, the room is heavy with cigarette smoke and abuzz with activity from several soldiers seated behind desks. He can hear the clatter of typewriters and the murmur of voices. Lieutenant Myron Dringle motions to him to come over to his desk.
Lieutenant Myron Dringle is a typical paper-pusher. He is short with a slight build, wearing black thick-rimmed glasses and freshly pressed jungle fatigues. He has a clean-shaven face and his hair is neatly combed.
Two-Eight sits in the chair alongside Lieutenant Dringle's desk. "I want to fly scouts."
The Lieutenant turns his head around and announces, "What is it with these new guys coming in here wanting to fly scouts?" He turns back and looks at Two-Eight. "Don't you know how dangerous that is?"
He hears the fear for him in the Lieutenant's voice and thinks, This is the type of guy who is going to go home and brag about how tough it was being in combat, when the only action he sees is the underside of his desk when a truck backfires. "That's where the war is."
"You are our new AMOC officer. You cannot fly scouts. You will be in charge of the maintenance hangar when Captain Kareless, our current maintenance officer, leaves next week. You have spent the last three months undergoing intensive training, learning how to run a maintenance operation, and that's what the Army wants you to do."
Two-Eight thinks, If this guy speaks for the Army, we're all in trouble. "I want to fly."
"Did you know that you are one of the youngest officers to complete that course?"
Two-Eight perceives a hint of jealousy in the Lieutenant's voice. "I would prefer to fly scouts."
"Not going to happen." He then points to a gauge on his desk. "A quick test for you. If you have a reading of zero on this gauge, what should you do?"
He recognizes it as a gauge from a light observation helicopter, commonly referred to as a Loach. "You put it on the ground immediately. A lot of pilots are not aware that this gauge is tied to the transmission oil. And if it is reading zero, you don't have transmission oil pressure, probably due to a loss of transmission oil. If you don't get on the ground and shut it down, your rotor will seize up and you will fall out of the sky and die."
"We just had that happen to one of our pilots. The helicopter got shot up during a scout mission and as he was flying back to base, he said that the reading on the gauge went to zero, but he continued to fly. He was told to put it on the ground immediately, but he refused. The rotor seized and the aircraft fell from the sky.
"This pilot was hardheaded and wouldn't listen to anybody. He was only here for a little over three months and not only did he kill himself, but also the observer and the gunner."
Two-Eight gets a sick feeling in his stomach. "Was that pilot Warrant Officer Butler?" Yeah, he was hardheaded.
"Yes. How did you know?"
"Because he is, I mean, he was a very good friend of mine. We were in flight school together and he's part of the reason I requested to be assigned here." Damn. I'm not even in-country for three days and I learn that a good friend was killed.
"I'm sorry about your friend, but his stubbornness cost two other people their lives."
The Lieutenant signals Two-Eight to follow him to a window where he points to two hootches across the quadrangle. "Go there, find a room, and get unpacked. Then go to the maintenance hangar and report to Captain Kareless. The CO, Major Dunmore, will meet with you later in his office."
Two-Eight walks to the hootches and meets Darby, a classmate from flight school. After a brief chat, Darby offers to give Two-Eight a tour. They walk through one hootch looking at the rooms. They then head toward the showers.
They exit the hootch where they see a monkey with a collar around its neck tethered with a long line. The monkey is sitting on the sandbags scratching himself and watching them. The monkey lets Darby walk by, but then jumps on Two-Eight, starts screaming, grabbing his hat and grabbing at his pockets, trying to remove anything in them. Two-Eight, arms flailing, tries not to hurt the monkey as he fights him off. Darby, having witnessed this many times before, just starts to laugh.
Darby grabs the line that the monkey is tied to and yanks it. The monkey falls to the ground, shaking his head. Still holding Two-Eight's hat, the monkey climbs back up on the sandbags and starts to chew on the bill. Darby snatches the hat away. The monkey gets angry, hair standing on end as he hisses and bares his teeth. Darby pushes the side of the monkey's head, causing the monkey to fall over. "Confee, you forget who you're dealing with?" The monkey sits back up and immediately becomes calm and submissive.
Darby hands the hat to Two-Eight. "This is Confee, one of the pilot's pets. He likes to attack new guys because he knows they will not fight back. Be firm with him and he will not give you any trouble. Come on, the showers are over here."
They walk to a wooden building with a wooden floor and no door. "This is our four-man shower. There is no privacy over here. The water is not heated, but is somewhat warm from being in the sun all day. You open the valve and a straight stream of water will come out from the barrels on the roof-nothing fancy. You get wet, turn the valve off, and then soap up. Then you turn the valve on and rinse off. We try to conserve water because they only fill the barrels once in the morning. The valves are high to keep Mama-san from washing her feet.
"Don't expect to have a shower every night because by the time you go to take a shower, there's usually no water. The officers from headquarters company, who sit behind desks in air-conditioning all day, take long showers early and then go to the officers club. By the time we get back in from flying in this hot, muggy, stinking steam bath of a country, there is no water left for us. So, don't be surprised if you hear swearing and see a naked guy running around covered in soap. We have no way to tell when we will run out of water."
They start to walk toward another hootch. "We have two choices." Darby points to the roof of the hootch. "When it rains, we grab our soap and shower in the rainwater that comes off the corrugated tin roof. You have to be careful with that because the roof has been in the hot sun all day and when the rainwater first comes off the roof, it is hot enough to scald you. The second choice is to shower by wiping yourself down using moist towelettes. Sometimes you can get them at the PX, or have somebody from home mail them to you. I've got it down to where I can get comfortable using only four."
They continue the tour with Darby showing him the six-hole latrine. "Like I said, no privacy."
They enter the hootch and go into the first room on the left. It is a two-man room with both of the bunks enclosed by rocket boxes filled with dirt for protection from rocket and mortar attacks.
"You can have this bunk. It's the only one available." Darby points to the empty bunk. "Your roommate will be Lieutenant Stanley. We call him Sloth.. You heard about Butler?"
"Yes."
"I know you were close to him."
"He, Hapless, and I were tight in flight school. Is this his bunk?"
"Sorry, but it is the only bunk available. Will that be a problem?"
"I'm okay with it." This is the start of Two-Eight disengaging from and suppressing his emotions and feelings.
Darby leaves as Two-Eight makes his bunk and unpacks his duffel bag. He then goes to the maintenance hangar and meets Captain Kareless. "Are you my...
