From the aerial recon, I made a sand table of the camp and had many discussions with Binh and a few other volunteers about how things would play out. Binh suggested blowing up one of the legs on the guard tower so that it would fall on top of what I presumed was the guards’ sleeping quarters. I had planned to execute the raid about an hour before dawn so that we’d have the cover darkness on our side. We also wouldn’t have to wait long for there to be enough for the rescue choppers to see our smoke signal.
From the sand table, we built a full-scale mock-up to practice the raid. The assault team would be me, Binh, an M60 machine gunner, a radioman, and a medic. Truman had taken the liberty of sending medical supplies and a special forces medic to do some training during my absence. Truman is about as solid a man as I’ve ever met. The basic plan was I’d kill any guards milling around the prisoners’ barracks with a knife while Binh rigged up the explosives on the guard tower. The other three would hang back in reserve a bit outside the perimeter as a rapid response force of sorts. I also scrounged up some old WW2 era noise makers called crickets. It would be a way for us to single in the dark without speaking or otherwise attracting enemy attention. Cricket noise makers were used by airborne troops on D-Day. But I digress. Often.
Getting across the DMZ and close to the camp was the tricky part. Choppers are too noisy and slow and arranging for airstrikes on the enemy air defenses would require more authority than I or Trautman had. It was too far to walk so the only option left was static line jump at night. Getting Binh and the three other men on board, literally and figuratively, was tricky, but in the end they all did a practice static line jump. I explained to them that jumping out of a plane is not that big of a deal and that many American aviators did their first jump successfully in emergency conditions. When we got within a few miles of the camp, the pilot would cut the engines so we’d glide in silently, then do a static line jump from about 1,200 feet. That means we’d spend about a minute descending. That would keep us close together. We’d be taking a C-119, a twin-engine cargo plane. The same plane had been used by the French for airborne operations back in 1954. It earned the nickname of The Flying Boxcar as it was such a reliable transport.
The area around the POW camp was a field with some rice paddies. So the good news was we wouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck in any trees, just getting wet. In many Asian countries, rice is grown in flooded fields called paddies. Rice can grow underwater, but weeds can’t. It saves the farmers a lot of work since they don’t have to pull weeds every day. There’s a reason why people do things and often the solutions are clever.
All that was left was to wait for a new moon. You’d be surprised how much harder it is to see in the dark when there’s no moon visible in the night sky. I knew I had above average night vision and that the guards would likely be the opposite from slight malnutrition. In many countries, people don’t get enough vitamin A, which impairs night vision. And in worn-torn countries, malnutrition is much more common than in peacetime. In war, the smallest advantage can mean the difference between victory and defeat, and in combat, second place is first coffin.
At long last, the moment of truth was upon us. As Sun Tzu wrote in the Art of War, on the day of battle you may see some of your men weeping, not out of fear, but because they now know they must either do or die. I saw no tears, just determined faces. We boarded the C-119 a bit after midnight. No one spoke during the flight; we just silently doubled-checked all our weapons and gear. This kept us busy and soothed our nerves. In any dangerous undertaking, it is vital to remain focused on the present moment and to leave all other thoughts behind. The great Japanese swordsman Musashi wrote of this in The Book of Five Rings. His advice to be determined though calm is probably the most useful thing I’ve ever read.
I bent my legs right before landing. Once on the ground, I gathered my parachute, and stuffed it in a bag. Some villager was going to have a cool and useful souvenir later. I started using my cricket noise maker until I heard the others. It was sort of like a game of Marco Polo. As the clicks grew louder, we were able to rally in the dark. The POW camp had a few lights, and we moved toward them. When we reached the perimeter, I threw a thick blanket over the top of the concrete wall to protect myself from the broken glass embedded in it and crawled over the top. Broken glass is used in such a way in many countries. It’s the poor man’s barbed wire. Binh followed me over the top and headed for the guard tower. One of the others planted a C4 charge on the other side of the wall, ready to detonate it as soon as Binh blew up the guard tower.
I crept carefully toward the POW barracks. My gait was a slow crouch with my left hand out, fingers together and my thumb sticking out. I held my Ka-Bar knife with and overhand grip in my right hand. That is, the blade was on the same side of my hand as my thumb. This is the best posture for sneaking behind someone and killing them with a knife. There was a lone NVA guard in gray uniform with his rifle slung over his left shoulder, which made things easier. I covered his mouth with my left hand as I stabbed upward to pierce his brain stem. He gargled on some of his blood and went limp. I let him down gently so he wouldn’t make a thud. There was a simple padlock on the barracks door. I had some hair pins in my pocket that I had already bent into the right shape and used them to pick the lock. I opened the door and saw the prisoners in bed. With my cricket clicker in hand, I gently put my hand on the shoulder of a sleeping POW and made it sound. He woke, we made eye contact, and I pulled out my dog tags. The edges were encased in rubber so they wouldn’t make any jingles or jangles. With signs, I motioned for him to wake the others and wait for me to return.
I ran to the guard tower where Binh was and gave the sign to detonate the C4. We took cover and he hit the button. There was a sharp, loud bang followed by another back at the wall. We both ran back to the barracks and motioned the prisoners to follow. The stronger prisoners, Binh, and I helped the weaker ones along. At the hole in the wall, we linked up with the others and ran for the extraction point not far from where we landed. Dawn was just breaking when I popped a red smoke grenade and waved it in a slow circle over my head so the rescue choppers could see the big spiral it made. After a few tense minutes, we heard the whirring chopper blades and the roar of the engines. There was no time to lose. We scrambled in and took off. Once we reached the outpost, the now liberated POWs were transferred to other choppers and flown to the hospital in Da Nang.
In my youth when I was in the ‘inventing new super heroes, I’m so smart’ phase around 14, I created one called Plastique, who could form plastic explosives in his hands at will. The character design was pretty much stolen from Grifter. The WildC.A.T.S. cartoon was on at that time. I only steal The Best Most Classy artwork now.
Pull my finger. I’ll make an explosion.
Also hello.
I know there around around 100 active Glibs, based on viewer data, but the last episode only has 50 views. Are you one of the slackers not doing his fair share?
You expect me to actually hit play on a suspicious embedded video?
No, I expect you to drink diet Dew and peer down at short folks like a lumbering Ent. And possibly send your spy bees after me.
I watch all of your videos. Usually twice.
I am surprised there are 100 of us.
If at all possible, I never miss a SF article or your videos.
(I am not sure what that says about me.)
Why not 10 times? Slacker!
I often listen 3-4 times to understand the dialog. It’s a hearing thing or rather a non-hearing thing. I’m trying to remember to start wearing my hearing aids again but after living with Mrs F for 50 years I’ve pretty much heard all I need to hear.
There are lots of times I wish I could turn off my hearing when I visit my aunt that is your age, so I get it. The worst is when she uses the cordless speaker phone I bought her and puts it up to her ear for the entire phone call, so I can hear it all sitting on the other side of the room, then she proceeds to tell me all about the phone call I just heard after she gets off the phone.
Picasso said mediocre artists imitate and great artists steal.
The Rambo scene from which the theme illustration was taken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKxVVDd73dY
Also, there really was a green beret during the war who jumped:
***
William Dawson Waugh (December 1, 1929 – April 4, 2023) was a United States Army Special Forces soldier and Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operations officer who served more than 50 years between the United States Army’s Green Berets and the CIA’s Special Activities Division.
…
Prior to his retirement from U.S. Army Special Forces service, Waugh was senior NCO (non-commissioned officer) of MACV-SOG’s Command & Control North (CCN) based at Marble Mountain on the South China Sea shore a few miles south of Da Nang, Vietnam. Waugh held this Command Sergeant Major role during the covert unit’s transition and name change to Task Force One Advisory Element (TF1AE). Waugh conducted the first combat High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) jump,[5] a parachuting maneuver designed for rapid, undetected insertion into hostile territory. In October 1970, his team made a practice Combat Infiltration into the NVA-owned War Zone D, in South Vietnam, for reassembly training, etc.[5] Waugh also led the last combat special reconnaissance parachute insertion by American Army Special Forces HALO parachutists into denied territory which was occupied by communist North Vietnamese Army troops on June 22, 1971.[2]
***
The cricket device was not foolproof:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDLcKqV_WjA
Picasso was also a massive troll.
Yeah, the guy actually could draw and paint representational art but decided to push how crazy he could be instead.
Regardless, Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gOJoKNrRI0
I love you.
If you didnt do it, I was going to.
Picasso was one of the greatest artists of all time, representational or not.
I prefer his cubism to most artists.
And some people are obsessed with Comic Sans. Don’t make it right.
Rabbi Goose stands alone.
But he was never called an asshole while he drove his El Dorado…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc2iLAubras
My favorite Picasso stories:
He once said: give me a museum, and I will fill it!
Another time, he said his mom told him that if he joined the army, he’d be a general, and if he joined the church, he’d end up pope. As it turned out, he took up painting and became Picasso.
Dangit! Beat me by THIS much…
Did he tug on Superman’s cape?
In the early days of Iraq 2.0 there were a limited number of HALO and HAHO insertions as well.
And plenty of HoHo insertions, at least for the REMFs.
Hopefully no HANO jumps.
funny song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji89bfrtJJM
The worst part about getting older is nobody asks me what my favorite dinosaur is anymore. They just tell me to get a job.
You don’t talk to Clint enough then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQzO100MbFM
I know Clint has to make some money. But the first 2 1/2 minutes was a commercial for a wallet.
Yeah, just click ahead.
Stupid stuff is stupid. I watched a video recently about flying dinosaurs and was confused why there was no mention of Pteranodons or Pterodactyls. Turns out because they have retroactively narrowed the category of ‘Dinosaur’.
I don’t recall those two ever being officially dinos.
Well Swoop was a Dinobot; that’s cannon!
Grimlock, getcha noodle outta my face!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s3bUFN–0U
Vertical video is a sin against humanity.
Pteranodons and pterodactyls are pterosaurs, but not dinosaurs. It’s also amusing that plesiosaur isn’t either, and its name means “almost a lizard”.
Perhaps, we should just say saurs instead of dinos so as to be more inclusive of prehistoric reptiles.
Why does no one hear the pterodactyl in the bathroom? Because the p is silent.
But are they Dinosaucers?
Dinoriders remains the best of that genre.
Honorable mention to Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr2iQ96em2w
I have every episode of Dino Riders somewhere in the 30 TBs of hard drives I have. I never saw an episode of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, my little brother had a friend who talked about all the time when we were all in our 20s.
I have a copy of the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs video game here somewhere… Odd beat ’em up game.
Nothing about Film or Theatre majors…very telling.
Film is for nerds and dorks of audio and visual, and theater is strangely crammed with tons of homosexuals…
Now do figure skating.
Not a major, but let’s see what I can do…
Hockey is boxing as practiced by Canadians, and figure skating has been marred by Tonya Harding’s shenanigans.
Strangely, none of the theatre folx I knew were ‘out’, but we all knew and no one cared./ Theatre minor
If you don’t have the Hat do a Shakespeare soliloquy, then we are reduced to Comix sans.
“Alas, poor Yoric, I knew him well…”
The classic of that tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPq3SEteEJc
Though there was must truth in your version.
“The area around the POW camp was a field with some rice paddies.”
I know exactly where that is. I saw those places many times from the air and on the ground. I think you’re wrong about the geography though, it was in the Delta.
I remember the rice paddies.
I saw some rice paddies in Tanzania. Swahili has 3 words for rice: mpunga is rice in the field, mchele is uncooked rice, wali is cooked rice.
A tongue-twister: wacha wale, wale wali wao (let them eat their rice)
Bananas and corn were the staple foods where I lived, near Mt Kilimanjaro. Coffee is also grown. There’s a big coffee plantation near the school where I taught.
I really don’t get the difference between Twitter and Youtube shorts and Vines other than the random time constraints. I remember when Youtube videos were constrained to 2 minutes, and it was celebrated when that went to 10 minutes. Now it is unlimited.
QUIT DEAD NAMING ‘X’ YOU DIABOLICAL MAN!
YouTube Shorts, Vines, Twit Videos, and related too short ‘content’ is generally worthless as there’s no room for information.
In a roundabout way, Razorfirst asks the obvious question – what serious voting bloc do Biden’s handlers think they were pandering to with trans awareness day…and by putting it on Easter?
If you don’t watch it, at least skip to the end to where Biden finishes a talk and asks his own staff if he’s allowed to take any questions. The crowd laughs as if he’s joking before disembodied Karen is heard telling the press to please exit the room.
Disembodied Karen is basically the Biden admin’s official spirit animal.
He’s not considering the politics of it, he’s just acting on principle.
The point is to rub everyone’s nose in it good and hard after he bends Trump over at the polls in November. It will be fortified sham, everyone will know it is a sham, and team blue knows that people can’t and won’t do shit about it but grumble for 4 years until Kamala’s second term starts.
Behold the glory of international transgender day of visibility:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-SbDyijghc
The stutter that comes and goes is an interesting touch.
A block that was never, ever going to pull the lever for a not-Democrat so I don’t get it either, as anything other than a continuation of the demoralizing op that’s been going on for years. Always room for that, I guess.
Trans day is always March 31st apparently and this was the first time it coincided with Easter Sunday-they just made a calculated decision to make the proclamation in order to placate a favored demographic. The Christians will turn the other cheek after all but the transsexuals and identity confused never ever will and they don’t forget or forgive either.
Why must the lies be so obvious? We whacked Soleimani in Iraq; of course we’d help the Israelis kill Iranians in Syria. T
***
The U.S. told Iran that it “had no involvement” or advanced knowledge of an Israeli strike on a diplomatic compound in Syria that killed a senior Iranian general, according to a U.S. official.
The big picture: The rare message shows the Biden administration is deeply concerned that the Israeli strike could lead to a regional escalation and the resumption of attacks by pro-Iranian militias against U.S. forces.
***
[Kif sigh]
In other news, California fast food chains are firing workers en masse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DQwym9wJPQ
link
Wakey, wakey! Happy Tuesday.
No one won the powerball.
😕🌄
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dd9zJ3giqA8
Live, acoustic, and I like it. 🎶🎸
As if I could sleep through this thunderstorm. 😳🌩️⚡⛈️
And, of course, my odds of being struck by lightning are much better than my Powerball odds.
Good morning, Sean!
Once upon a time, thunderstorms were soothing sounds.
Now I have to pay for any damage to the house.
I actually (usually) rather like thunderstorms and have been known to go out to the back patio to watch them from the all-cotton-and-wood futon (under the aluminum patio roof.) I HAVE taken the precaution of unplugging my laptop this morning, but I’m really more concerned about the wind and the possibility of hail and the somewhat (but still existent) possibility of tornadoes.
Yeah, none of those are fun.
🙂
No one won the powerball.
Of the 3 combos I used to play I wouldn’t have hit a single number, so I won 9$ by not playing.
The only winning move.
https://www.nj.com/education/2024/04/11-rutgers-employees-will-earn-at-least-1m-in-2024-heres-the-list.html
Football sucks and those salaries are absurd.
This is too damn early to be awake. And I have to do it all damn week. Fuck.
Good morning, CPRM! Welcome to the pre-AM Lynx gang! 😃
Morning.
Good morning, U!
After washing the resin out of my eye, I managed to hurt the small toe on my foot which had not been injured.
Yesterday sucked.
I hope today is MUCH better!
🤞
Mornin’, reprobates!
Social Security just informned me that they miscalculated my benefits, and have now increased said benefit along with depositing a few bucks in my account to rectify past underpayments. I’d like to thank all you nice working folk for continuing to support poor old me in my retirement. Get to work!
.|.. ..|.
Just wait, next month they’ll be “Oh, sorry, we overpaid you – here’s a bill”
Bill? They’ll just debit my account, they’re the government so they’re allowed to do anything not specifically forbidden by the constitution, right?
Good morning, ‘patzie! It’s always great to see you, but I WILL remind you that you’re not my supervisor! In fact, if we’re the ones paying you, I think it’s rather the other way around! 😉
we’re the ones paying you
You’re not the only ones. Mrs. Patzer and #1 son are now paying me, and #2 son will start paying me in July. It’s about time! /ducks
I’m still going to want an accounting of your time.
You don’t seem to be producing any work product.
I’d get to work but I’m helping out another contractor this week and apparently he’ll melt if he gets wet. Guess I’ll stay home and clean up the shop.
Good morning!
First USPSA match of the season this weekend, and I have been missing some gun-dancing.
Good morning, NA!
Mornin’. May your aim be true.
GT, I think you’re the only other person that will find this amusing; I learned this weekend that Apple Maps pronounces Gratiot as “Gratchet”.
Did you just Ratio GT?
What you did there… 😏
That is a good one! 😄
Not to put a damper on that anecdote, but it happens that one of my college roomies was from Gratiot (pron. “gray shot,” for all you non-Buckeyes.) I had not really kept in touch with her, but she and I had gotten along well. On a commando raid into Facebook sometime last week, I learned it was her birthday…but she hadn’t posted any comments for some time. Some further digging revealed that she died last summer. 😢
I’m too young to have my college roommates start dying. 😳
My Garman does not recognize French abbreviations when I’m in Montreal.
Rue St. Antoine O becomes “Rue Street Antoine Oh.”
Usually depends on the language of the voice you select.
I haven’t used a dedicated GPS in years.
I was in an Uber and the drivers GPS told him to turn left on 14 Tee Aitch Street.
Mornin’ all!
Morning.
Mornin’!
Good morning, Beau! 😃