"Roger, Bugle Boy. We are commencing our first run now. And I also think you're lost, but I never saw such a great target. We were told to follow your orders. We thank you for your assistance. Out."
They could see nothing through the jungle that surrounded them, but as they returned to their boats they could hear the multiple explosions well above the roar of the mighty jet engines. As the five boats slowly pulled out onto the brown water they were greeted with an earthshaking explosion in the distance. It was followed by billowing clouds of black smoke, then Continuous, thundering explosions.
After the Phantoms had made the last of many runs at the unseen target, and were climbing for their return home, the same voice came back on channel 17 again, "Bugle Boy, this is Playboy. We thank you. That goes down in the books as one of our best targets. That lovely cloud of smoke you see probably represents both a fuel and an ammo dump. They were up to something big. Hope you see it when our film is developed. Have a safe trip home. Out."
The court of inquiry was said to be an informal one, but David noticed there were more stars than he had seen in one room in Vietnam for a long time. The reason for the announced informality was to make sure none of the correspondents appeared. The less they knew about the purpose of the inquiry, the better for all involved as far as the Navy was concerned.
The films taken from the Phantoms had shown not only the largest staging area they had come upon in a long time, but they also confirmed the fact that it was in Cambodia. The inquiry was to determine how such an error could have been made. It centered on Lieutenant David Charles, who had called for the air strike after inflicting heavy casualties on what apparently had been an effective water route for one of the largest VC forces in the area. The five petty officers in charge of David's remaining boats each indicated that their acting commanding officer had checked his charts earlier but had no time afterward to pinpoint his location because of severe enemy fire. As a matter of fact, they stated, only by his taking the enemy under fire at full speed and sinking the remainder of their riverine force, had they been able to pinpoint the location of the VC forces that were finally destroyed.
The findings of the court of inquiry were not made public. However, for the sake of form, the court found Lieutenant Charles guilty of negligence in going over the border. On the other hand, they recommended only an official reprimand be placed in his service record since his personal efforts were responsible for destroying an exceptionally large enemy force. They further decided among themselves that the Admiral also ensure that a commendation be placed in his service jacket for individual initiative. They felt that they could not award him a medal since that could become public acknowledgement. Lieutenant Commander Mezey received the Silver Star, the five petty officers each were awarded the Navy Cross, their crews the Navy and Marine Corps medal, and the entire squadron received a unit citation. The final recommendation was that Lieutenant Charles be transferred back to the States. They intended to make it as difficult as possible for the press to learn about his special day in Vietnam.
Lieutenant Charles was sent to Treasure Island on temporary duty to await orders to his next billet. Upon arriving in San Francisco, he got in touch with his old friend at Supers and asked if they could arrange to send him to Monterey to Russian language school. Ken Kehs was glad to cooperate, especially since the stories had already reached Washington. The senior officers were more than happy to have the young man in Monterey, a quiet, out-of-the-way place where he would be far away from the cocktail circuit stories of his Cambodian escapade.
Captain Kehs was also happy to inform him that a special board had recommended him for lieutenant commander, an early promotion.
At his wetting-down party at the Officers Club, he also met Maria Springer, whose husband had never returned to his carrier from a mission over Hanoi. The other pilots in his Phantom squadron reported.that a missile had sheared off his left wing. No parachute had been seen. He was declared officially dead, and Maria had said to herself that she would never again go out with a military man. But the Navy takes care of its own, and her friends had stayed close to her. They wanted her to get out and socialize.
She hadn't intended to go to anyone's wetting-down party, especially with the noise coming from that lounge. But one of the people in her group had been a classmate of David's and insisted they should join the party. Before they had gone in, the friend had told everyone of the rumors that were preceding the young man. The next thing she knew she was being introduced to the officer who had supposedly performed the daring feats. She wanted to hear nothing of Vietnam and found that he had nothing to say about it.
She assumed he must be quite drunk at his own party, and she made a point of not smiling. The new Lieutenant Commander Charles was having a good time, but he was not too drunk to look twice at the pretty girl he was introduced to. She was quite tall for a woman, probably only two inches shorter than he was, but he reasoned that he was fairly short for a man. Her figure was obviously full, even with the conservative clothes she still chose to wear, and her high cheekbones and green eyes were set off by long dark hair.
David decided she would be even more attractive when she smiled. Having had enough to drink to remember old jokes that could be told in front of women, he finally made her laugh and found that he was absolutely right. Her green eyes sparkled when she decided he wasn't so bad after all, and crinkled around the edges, staying that way even after she had stopped laughing. She accepted' the drink she had at first refused. She also found his conversation interesting, even when she realized he had adeptly sidestepped her polite questions about him and had her talking about her own Midwestern background. Maria stayed until the party broke up and then accepted a ride home.
David Charles called her the next day and asked her to dinner, and that was the beginning of her new life. In less than a month, even before he was scheduled to arrive in Monterey, he had asked her to marry him. After arguments with herself about propriety and another Navy husband, she agreed, and the Navy allowed him to take an extra few days for a honeymoon. They had both begun a new life that neither had been looking for.
I think I know exactly when I decided that my life would be the Navy. It was when we realized those bastards were hiding over the border and using Cambodia as a staging area for killing Americans. I never thought much of the war one way or the other and kind of thought that we were wasting our time in Vietnam, but as long as there was an American being shot at, I always thought we ought to stand up for ourselves. When I decided to send those planes in, I made a commitment to myself to stay in the service. Perhaps I decided there has to be someone around to make up their mind when American servicemen are being killed. I have no doubt our government is going to get me and a lot of others in the same position again, and I want to be sure someone like me is going to be there to protect the troops. That sure looks a bit foolish on paper, but I had to get it down so I'd know why when I start asking myself what the hell I'm doing in the Navy six months or six years or sixteen years from now.
If I had the guts, I'd fly back to Washington right now to talk this over with Sam Carter. But he might say I'm wrong, and I'm not ready for that yet. He is a strong believer in maintaining the separation between the civilian and the military, regardless of the way the politicians keep committing lives without giving the poor grunt the opportunity of all the protection the country has to offer. There's a question of objectivity there that Sam and I could argue about, but perhaps all my ideas aren't ready to be punctured quite yet.