Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [222]
The game was played other ways. The Triple Deuce was still operating around Krek when Alpha took a twilight mortar attack from a rubber tree grove. At daybreak, Vail arrived with the Scout Platoon and, since the captain had reported a body count of ten only minutes before, he asked to see them. The captain gave a shrug, and Vail pressed, “Why did you report ten?”
“There's heavy blood trails, sir.”
“Where are they?”
“Oh, they've gone.”
“Why did you report them as KIA? Killed in action. Enemy KIA, if you understand what I'm asking.”
“Well, yes, sir, but this is the way we report.”
“Captain, I want to tell you something. In this battalion, when you render a report it is totally accurate. I make decisions based on those reports and if they're false reports then I make low-quality decisions. You can tell me until you're blue in the face that everybody's doing it, but that's not the way we do it in the Triple Deuce. Now get back on the ops net and render a corrected report.”
Vail was not overly impressed with Lechner of Alpha Company, thinking the man preoccupied with his career. A few days out of Cambodia when Lechner rotated out, Vail was happy to welcome aboard Capt. Jim Schmidt, a quiet, mature, competent veteran of a previous tour. Schmidt made it a point to introduce himself to each man in the company. This tall, red-haired captain won his grunts' respect by being completely involved with them, asking their opinions and explaining why he did what he did, so Alpha Company–which in all fairness had done well under Lechner–continued under Schmidt to be the company Vail could always count on to come through.
Bravo Company continued to have problems, which Vail blamed on the CO, a man he judged as flighty, emotional, and tactically unsound. Assigned to clear a road in War Zone C shortly after retiring from Cambodia, the captain was personally told by Vail to make sure the batteries in his minesweepers had not died because intelligence suspected the road was mined. Vail was in his C&C when Bravo pushed out, and he witnessed first one APC and then another lift several feet in the air as mines exploded under their treads. The captain requested medevacs for two stunned and scraped crews, and Vail had his Huey touch down. While the wounded were helped aboard, Vail talked quickly with the captain, who said he had elected to go down the road even though his minesweepers had proven inoperative. Bravo closed into the battalion laager that evening, and still having his doubts, Vail and his sergeant major trooped the line around two in the morning. They started with Bravo and found not a single man alert. Given the laager's proximity to the Cambodian border, Vail had put the laager on fifty-percent alert, and, as always, he expected each squad to dig in behind their track. Digging in after pushing bush all day was even more unpopular than Vail's other directives about short hair, shaving, and keeping shirts on at all times.
Vail woke up the CO of Bravo and told the captain to put his company on a hundred-percent alert, then to report to his CP several hundred meters away. When Vail told the captain what he had found, the captain said his men were being worn ragged. Vail answered, “Better tired than dead.”
The captain said it was not that simple.
“I understand that, but you know my policy.”
“Yes, I do, but, Colonel, you don't understand.”
“Tell me more.”
“If you keep this up, they'll frag you.”
“I want to tell you something, Captain, my commission means something different to me than it means to you. You've undoubtedly lost sight of the fact that those men are your responsibility, and looking out for their welfare doesn't mean indulgence. I'm going to tell you right now that I have no further use for you as a commander. You are relieved as of this moment. Your second-in-command will take charge of that company until I install a company commander. I want you to relocate to this command post and we will return you to brigade for reassignment. I'm not going to tolerate this sort of irresponsibility under these conditions of