Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [183]
Captain Johnson loved his troops, and he intended to get as many of them home alive as possible by giving them what they most needed: a hard taskmaster who allowed no bullshit. There was, for example, the incident with a trooper named George Dice who told his platoon leader, Sergeant Williams, that he'd been here long enough and didn't have to go on no listening post (LP). Johnson had previously court-martialed Dice for smoking marijuana during the company's incountry R and R, but he was not a bad kid, just young and scared like everybody else, looking forward to the day he could get the hell out. His individual grievance was having to fight the white man's war. So Johnson walked Dice alone to the center of the perimeter as the rest set up for the night. “George, you're in the United States Army. And the United States Army owns you. And they saw fit to send you to Vietnam, and now the commander over here owns you, and he saw fit to give you to the 1st Cav Division. And the 1st Cav Division owns you. They saw fit to send you to this battalion, and the battalion commander owns you, and he saw fit to give you to me. And now I own you, and I've given you to Sergeant Williams and he owns you. What I think you should do is go back and do whatever it is Sergeant Williams wants you do to.”
“Well, no, suh, doan think I kin do that.”
“Okay, that's fine, George, you give me all my equipment, and take your personal shit and get the fuck out of my perimeter. And if you try to come back in, I will personally kill you when you try to come back through my lines.”
“Yes, suh,” Dice said and walked away.
Later, Sergeant Williams approached Captain Johnson with a question, “What in the world did you say to George Dice?”
“I don't know, why?”
“Well, he's out on LP. He didn't say a word. He just passed me, got on his stuff, and went out and established the LP.”
There was a tough little bastard in Delta Company named Lidicutt, whom Johnson pulled out of his line platoon to hump a radio with the headquarters group. He didn't want the job and wouldn't even speak to Johnson, except for business, until the night he woke up the captain. Lidicutt said he wanted to talk. “All the guys out there hate you. And I did too. But I been here and I see what you go through with your decisions, and I see the reasons that you make the decisions that you make, and I just want you to know that I apologize.”
“Well, should we tell those guys about the things that I go through, and the decisions? Should we let them know what's going on?”
“Hell no, let 'em hate you and they'll do anything you tell 'em to do. They'll complain about it, but they'll do it.”
On 5 May 1970, Captain Johnson was instructed to move Delta Company to the nearest jungle LZ, from where it was lifted to a field beside the battalion's latest position on the border, FSB Marisa, which was so full with troops from the other companies that had been pulled in from the bush that the executive officer took Delta Company down to a tree line five hundred meters beyond the wire to set up for the night. Johnson's troops had been in the bush a long time and now they weren't even going to get the luxury of a good night's sleep inside a secure perimeter before moving out on a new operation, so he was already pissed when Ianni told him in the firebase TOC that D Company was to lead the next morning's CA into Cambodia. Johnson had recently had his first sergeant and a platoon leader killed in action, and he vented his anger: “…here we got to lead again. We got to take all the fucking heat. You've got a company here that ain't done shit, been in the rear all this time”–he was referring to C Company, which had been pulling palace guard–“and what the hell's wrong with them?!”
One of the things Johnson liked about Ianni