B004L2LMEG EBOK (10 page)

At 1715 hours the command to begin was given. It is fitting to state beforehand that, as a whole, the pilot operation was carried out with complete success, more or less within the predicted time periods and with a minimum of mishaps. In regard to the visiting time with a specialist permitted to each user (which Capt. Pantoja had feared would be too short for a satisfactory and complete servicing), it turned out to be excessive. For example, these are the times employed by the five users of Sandra’s group, which the undersigned timed: the first, 8 minutes; the second, 12; the third, 16; the fourth, 10; and the fifth, who set the record, 3 minutes. The men in the other groups registered similar times. In any case, Capt. Pantoja noted that these scores were only relatively valid as a general indication since, due to the isolation of Horcones and to the men’s having been quartered here for such long periods (six months for some), they tend to be abnormally fast in being serviced. Taking into account that between one servicing and the next there was a waiting period of some minutes, so that the aforementioned Freckle and Chuchupe could change the water in the containers at each location, it can be concluded that the operation lasted less than two hours from start to finish. Certain incidents arose in the course of the pilot project, but none of a serious nature, some even being amusing and useful in somewhat relaxing the nervous tension of the men who were waiting on line. Thus, for example, due to the carelessness of the post’s radio operator, who tunes in daily to Radio Amazon of Iquitos to listen to the program
The Voice of Sinchi
, which we play over the loudspeaker at 1800 hours, the speaker’s voice tempestuously broke out over Horcones because the transmitter was on automatic, provoking boisterous laughter and cheerfulness from the men, most of all when they saw the specialist Sandra and First Sgt. Esteban Sandora appear in their underwear, having been very alarmed when the noise broke forth since she was servicing him in the radio post. Another brief incident arose when, making the most of the fact that Knockers and Lalita were operating in neighboring rooms of the provisions storehouse, Pvt. Amelio Sifuentes, in the latter’s line of users, maliciously attempted to enter the location of the so-called Knockers, who, as the command will have perceived, was the one who conquered the most affection among the men of Horcones. Capt. Pantoja caught Sifuentes off guard in his rash attempt and severely reprimanded him. In the same provisions storehouse another mishap occurred, which was only discovered by the undersigned after the SSGFRI convoy had departed. During the time devoted to the servicing—or sometime before it—while the women were gathered there, someone took advantage of the situation to open a case of food and take out seven cans of tuna, four boxes of water biscuits and two sodas, without our yet having been able to identify the guilty party or parties. To summarize: with only the exception of these minor incidents, the operation had ended by 1900 hours with complete success and there reigned in the post a feeling of great satisfaction, peace and happiness among the noncommissioned officers and soldiers. The undersigned neglected to indicate that after being serviced, various users inquired whether it was possible to line up again (in the same or in a different line) to receive a second service. The request was refused by Capt. Pantoja, who explained that the possibility of authorizing a repeat service would be studied when the SSGFRI has reached maximum operational volume.

With the pilot project scarcely finished, the four specialists and their civilian collaborators, Freckle, Chuchupe and Porfirio Wong, embarked on the
Eve
to return to the logistics center on the Itaya River, while Capt. Pantoja left on the
Delilah
. No matter how much the pilot assured the so-called Chuchupe that he would fly the apparatus the way it should be flown and that the incidents of the previous day would not be repeated, she refused to return by plane. Before leaving Horcones, amidst the clapping and the grateful gestures of the noncommissioned officers and soldiers, Capt. Pantoja thanked the undersigned for the facilities put at the disposal of the SSGFRI and for his contribution to its success. Capt. Pantoja indicated to him that this very profitable experience had allowed him to perfect and to outline in complete detail the system of work, control and transfer of the Special Service.

Along with this report, which hopefully will be useful, it only remains to submit for the consideration of the command the request signed by the four lower officers of the Horcones Post that the intermediate command be allowed to be users of the SSGFRI. Due to the good psychological and physical effect that the experience is proving to have had on the noncommissioned officers and soldiers, this petition carries the favorable recommendation of the undersigned.

Department of Administration,
Supply and Logistics of the Army

Accounting and Finance Section

Confidential Ruling No. 069

The chief officers of the Quartermaster Unit or the subordinate officers placed in charge of said function in the districts, encampments and posts of Military Region V (Amazon) are authorized as of today, 14 September 1956, to deduct from the payrolls of the soldiers’ allowances and the noncommissioned officers’ wages the remuneration corresponding to the services rendered them by the Special Service for Garrisons, Frontier and Related Installations (SSGFRI). Said deductions must strictly adhere to the following regulations:

1. The rates per service, fixed by the SSGFRI with the approval of its commanding officers, will be of only two types, in all cases and circumstances, namely:

2. The maximum number of permissible monthly services will be eight (8), with no minimum number indicated.

3. The deducted sum will be directed by the commanding officer or the subordinate officer in charge to the SSGFRI, the organization that will remunerate the specialists on a monthly basis in accordance with the number of services they will have performed.

4. For the verification and control of the system, the following procedure will be followed: The commanding officer or the subordinate officer in charge will receive with this Ruling an appropriate number of cardboard coupons of two types, each in one of the symbolic colors of the SSGFRI and with no written markings. Those in red are designated for the soldiers and consequently each will be worth twenty (20) soles, and those in green for the noncommissioned officers and therefore each will represent thirty (30) soles. On the first day of each month there will be distributed to each noncommissioned officer and soldier of the unit the number of coupons equal to the maximum number of services to which he is entitled, which is to say eight (8). A coupon will be given to the specialist by the user each time he has benefit of service. On the last day of the month the noncommissioned officer or soldier will return the unused coupons to the command, which will at that time make the deduction corresponding to the number of coupons not returned (in case of misplacement or loss of coupons, damages will be indemnified by the specialist, not by the SSGFRI.)

5. Since it is indispensable for reasons of decorum and morality to maintain the maximum discretion regarding the nature of this accounting operation, the deduction for the services of the SSGFRI will appear camouflaged by means of countersigns in the books of the district, encampment or post. For this purpose, the officer or the subordinate officer may use any of the following formulae:

This Ruling No. 069 will not be posted in the units nor communicated in dispatches or in the orders of the day. The commanding officer or his subordinate in charge will verbally communicate its contents to the soldiers and noncommissioned officers of his unit, instructing them at the same time to maintain the greatest reserve on the subject since it is capable of impugning the reputation or attracting injurious criticism of the military.

Approved and distributed:

Gen. Felipe Collazos

Lima, 14 September 1956

Letter from Capt. Avencio P. Rojas, CMC, Chaplain of the Alfonso
Ugarte Cavalry Unit No. 7 of Contamana, to Headquarters of
the Corps of Military Chaplains of Region V (Amazon)

Contamana, 23 November 1956

Commander Godofredo Beltrán Calila, CMC

Iquitos, Loreto

My Commander and Dear Friend:

I am fulfilling my duty in informing you that on two consecutive occasions in the space of the present month my unit has been visited by groups of prostitutes—natives of Iquitos—who came here by boat, were lodged in the barracks and were able to engage in carnal commerce with the troops in full view and with the complete approval of the officers. I understand that on both occasions the corps of prostitutes was led by a deformed and dwarfish individual who, it is said, is known by the alias of Chupo or Pupo in the brothels of Iquitos. I cannot give you more details concerning this event, which I know about only through hearsay, since on both occasions I was ordered away beforehand by Major Zegarra Avalos. The first time, without even taking into consideration that I was still convalescing from the hepatitis that did so much damage to my body, as you know only too well, he sent me to administer the last rites to a supplier of the unit, a fisherman who was supposedly dying, who lives an eight-hour march from here by means of a trail through pestilent quagmires, and whom I found drunk and with an almost petty wound on his arm caused by the bite of a shimbillo monkey. The second time, the major sent me to bless a field tent—a refuge for explorers—fourteen hours upstream on the Huallaga, which was an absolutely absurd mission, as you will comprehend, since never in its entire history has the Army been in the habit of blessing similar installations of such uncertain existence. Both orders were obviously pretexts to prevent my witnessing the conversion of Cavalry Unit No. 7 into a brothel. However, I can assure you that no matter how painful that spectacle would have been for me, it would not have caused me the physical fatigue and psychological frustration that this pair of useless expeditions meant for me.

Once again, I allow myself to beseech you, my dear and respected commander, to be kind enough to support, with all the power of influence that your great prestige has deservedly given you, my request for a transfer to a more tolerable unit where I can execute my mission as a man of God and a shepherd of souls with greater spiritual benefit. At the risk of tiring you, I repeat that there can be no moral fortress or nervous system that bears the unending sneers and constant mockery that I am subject to here, as much from the officers as from the troops. Everyone is apparently convinced that the chaplain is the unit’s entertainment and laughingstock, and not a day goes by that they do not make me the victim of some vile trick: at times as irreverent as discovering a mouse in place of the wafers in the ciborium while I am in the middle of celebrating mass; or being the cause of general mockery because an obscene picture has been stuck to my back without my noticing it; or inviting me to drink beer, which then turns out to be urine; and other, even more humiliating things, offensive and even dangerous to my health. My suspicion that Major Zegarra Avalos himself instigates and stirs up these insults against me has already become a certainty.

I place these facts before you, begging you to be kind enough to indicate to me whether a report about the arrival of the prostitutes should not be sent up to the Command of Region V or if it would be convenient for you to take the matter into your own hands; or if, for the sake of higher interests, it is advisable to maintain devout silence on the subject.

Awaiting your eminent advice and offering prayers for your good health and better spirits, an affectionate salute from your subordinate and friend,

Letter of Commander Godofredo Beltrán Calila, CMC, Chief
of the Corps of Military Chaplains of Region V (Amazon),
to Captain Avencio P. Rojas, Chaplain of the Alfonso Ugarte
Cavalry Unit No. 7, Contamana

Iquitos, 2 December 1956

Captain Avencio P. Rojas, CMC

Contamana, Loreto

Captain:

Once again I must regret your living in such a forsaken spot as Paita. The female delegations that visited the Alfonso Ugarte Cavalry Unit No. 7 belong to the Special Service for Garrisons, Frontier and Related Installations (SSGFRI), an organization created and administered by the Army and about which you and all the chaplains under my command were informed by me through Circular (CMC) No. 04606. The existence of the SSGFRI does not wholly please the Corps of Military Chaplains and it pleases me even less, but I do not need to remind you that in our institution where the general gives orders, the private does not. Consequently, there is nothing to be done but to close your eyes and to beg God to enlighten our superiors so that they will rectify what, in the light of the Catholic religion and military ethics, can only be considered a grave error.

In regard to the complaints that fill the rest of your letter, I must reprimand you severely. Major Zegarra Avalos is your superior and it is up to him, not you, to judge the usefulness or the uselessness of the missions entrusted to you. Your obligation is to carry them out with the greatest speed and efficiency possible. With respect to the jokes of which you are the object, and which, of course, I deplore, I feel that your lack of character is as much to blame, and perhaps even more so, as the evil instincts of others. Must I remind you that before anyone else, it is incumbent upon you to see that you are treated with the great deference demanded by your dual position as a priest and a soldier? Only once during these past fifteen years in my life as a chaplain has the respect due to me been lacking, and I assure you that the indecent fool must still be rubbing his face. To wear a cassock is not to wear skirts, Captain Rojas, and in the Army we do not tolerate chaplains with womanish inclinations.