Drowning in Her Eyes (34 page)

About twenty minutes later, they heard the aircraft. Jack tossed a yellow smoke grenade down on the enemy position and scuttled back to his men. Four F4 Phantoms dropped like vultures from the sky and laid their napalm eggs along the riverbank. They made a further two passes, raking the area with cannon fire. There was little resistance from the ground after the first pass. The pilots banked their aircraft and passed over Jack and his troops. The leader called them up.
“This is Cobra Red. Your little friends seem all burnt up about something. Suggest you apply some of your usual treatment
…out.
”

They climbed the ridge again to see a scene of destruction. The boat and most of the jetty had disappeared. There were a few stunned soldiers wandering around. Jack gave his orders. M60 fire rained down on the remnants of the enemy, the two gunners sweeping from side to side until there was no visible movement from below.
“Cease fire,
” ordered Jack,
“Let
's have a look. Sergeant Ruiz, leave your gun crew and two riflemen up here to cover us. Make sure someone keeps an eye on the opposite bank. The rest of you form
an
extended line and sweep the area.
”

Carefully, they moved through the carnage caused by the napalm. There were burned bodies in profusion, little blackened and shrunken caricatures of men. There was an occasional live prisoner, rounded up and left under guard, most of them burnt or badly wounded; they offered no resistance.

“Sir,
” said Sergeant Ruiz,
“there are several caves up there we should look at. They seem to be untouched. The napalm didn
't burn up that far.
”

“Right, let
's take it very carefully. There may be someone in residence. Lead off in two
's, move in bounds and cover each other.
” They moved off up the slope. Halfway up, there was a burst of fire from one of the caves. Jack saw a man fall and go rolling down the hill where he lay motionless.

“Put some suppressing fire on that hole,
” he shouted. As soon as the gunfire started, Jack ran zigzagging up the hill. He reached the cave opening and pressed himself against the hill alongside it. His foot felt as though it was wet. He looked down. There was blood on his calf, running down to fill up his boot. He felt no pain and thought; it must have gone straight through.
Okay
, he said to himself,
let
's finish this
. He lobbed a grenade into the cave entrance. There was a muffled explosion and a strangled cry of pain. Then there was a second burst of fire from the cave, wild and misdirected.
Right
, thought Jack,
try this for size
. He tossed in a WP grenade. There followed another explosion and then the demented scream of a badly hurt man. A smoking form rushed out of the cave and fell down the slope. One of the riflemen finished him off.

Jack carefully entered the cave. An AK47 lay on the ground. Alongside it was a dead officer, a smoking hole in his side. The cave was empty of men. In one corner sat a makeshift table piled with maps and papers. The other caves were unoccupied, but contained crates of grenades, ammunition and RPG rounds. There were large quantities of rice and medical supplies. They had struck the mother lode. This had been a major command post, and the papers and maps they discovered would prove to be a source of much valuable information, soon to be verified.

The American casualty had taken three rounds in his shoulder and upper chest; the medic had done what he could for him, but it would be a near thing. Jack called in the action an
d asked for a priority medivac.

Then he took his men back over the ridge and down to a level area at the foot of the hill. The medivac chopper arrived quickly and took away the wounded. Soon after, a fleet of Hueys arrived. Major Klein was among the reinforcements, along with an ARVN officer, who pronounced the papers to be genuine and valuable intelligence.

“Right, Lieutenant, get your men into a couple of those birds and make for home.
We
'
ll take over here. I will be interested to read your action report as soon as I can get it. You have done very well.
”

Jack
's leg was beginning to hurt. He took off his boot to inspect his lower leg. The major suddenly noticed the wound.
“Get a medic here, quickly.
” He called. The medic cleaned up the leg. A bullet had plowed a deep furrow
across the calf muscle. It wasn
'
t serious, but Jack could not believe how much it had bled. The medic gave him a painkiller and roughly stitched the wound before bandaging it tightly.

Back at Fire Base Romeo, Jack debriefed his troops. They needed no convincing of the merits of small covert patrolling. Had they made their usual patrol in company strength, they would have achieved nothing. Jack promoted this shamelessly in his report. However, the main emphasis of the report was on the tightly knit squads of Ruiz and Moses and their effectiveness. Each man in these squads knew his job, knew the jobs of his squad mates, was adaptable and used his own initiative. He recommended both Sergeants for consideration for promotion and assignment as trainers to spread the good word about Jack
's hobbyhorse
—
bottom up organization.

* * *
*

Jack
flew back to the HQ at Bien Hoa after his two weeks at Fire Base Romeo and reported to Major Wood. The Major looked a little annoyed when Jack entered his office.
“Major Klein tells me you almost took over his command,
” he said.
“What the hell do you think you were doing?
”

Jack said,
“Sir, I was following my brief to find out as much as I could about US field operations. This was authorised by your HQ. Have you received a copy of my report?
”

“I have it, and I will read it in due course. I am inclined to think this exercise was a waste of time. You Aussies have caused us a good deal of trouble. You may go, Lieutenant.
”

Jack took his leave.
I hope you don
't pigeonhole my report
, he thought. Right now,
we
are causing the VC a good deal of trouble as well. Three weeks later, they flew out of Bien Hoa. They had enough material for a
five hundred page
report. Allen had sold his cap badge to a PFC for
one hundred dollars.
“Lost in combat,
” he said.

Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
—1967

In June, right after he graduated from high school, Jimbo Baker left home. He said goodbye to his sisters, left a note for his mother, and jumped a train to San Francisco.

Marci was furious with him. He was no longer under her control and that irked her more than anything
else
.
Meanwhile,
Jimbo
worked his way through ten different States
. He did
odd jobs, wash
ed
dishes, mow
ed
lawns, and flipp
ed
hamburgers
until h
e arrived in Cheyenne in early fall and looked up
his brother-
in-
law John Starr.

John w
as pleased to see him. John hadn
'
t set eyes on him since moving to Wyoming. He invited him to stay for a while.

After a pleasant holiday, Jimbo
—
acting on the assumption that he should be doing exactly what Marci did not want him to do
—
walked into the recruiting office in Denver and joined the army. Ten days later, he marched through the gates of Fort Benning and began the hardest weeks of his life. Infantry were needed badly in Indochina, so it was no surprise that, in due course, PFC James Baker found himself on the way to South Vietnam. There, he was plunged into a green hell of stinking jungle, mantraps, mortar bombs, RPGs, and chattering AK47s. Lots of little Asian men (and women) were trying to kill him.

He survived four months of that and took some R&R in Sydney. After sampling the ladies of the night several times, drinking most of the bourbon in the city, and picking up a fresh supply of weed, he remembered the old days in Armidale. He wondered about Jack Riordan, Susan
's old boyfriend who had made her pregnant and abandoned her. His sister had never gotten over that. Buoyed by his reefers, his Jack Daniels, and his opinion that he was one of the meanest sons of bitches in the US Army, he decided, that if he met that bastard Riordan again, he would beat the shit out of him. Happily, for James Baker
's military career
and
his health, he did not meet Jack Riordan. Not then.

Jimbo returned to Vietnam to find most of his squad killed or wounded in an ambush. His CO transferred him to a helicopter unit, where he became a door gunner.

* *
*
*

It had been almost three years since Susan had been spirited away from Jack by her scheming mother. She sustained herself with her unfailing belief that Jack would one day find her. Jacqui Susan was now more than two years old. She was a clever and articulate child, and since Susan spent so much time with her, she learned so much, so quickly. Susan began drawing pictures for her,
of
Ballinrobe
homestead, the thinking place with its parrots, and an idealised picture of Jack, all dark hair and green eyes.
“Daddy,
” she would say,
“Daddy.
” Susan took care that Marci never saw the drawings or heard the child.

Marci had been upset in March. The Marine Corps advised that Aunt Sophie
's son Karl was missing in action in Vietnam. The members of his final patrol claimed to have no knowledge of exactly what had happened to Karl. Susan did not give a damn. She remembered Karl with distaste, a braggart and a bully who had tried to seduce her and Sarah, and give them drugs.

Every now and then, she felt the goose bumps and the thrill in the pit of her stomach. Jack was at the thinking place. Jacqui felt it too. She could sense it now. She called it the
finking place
and she would run to Susan and climb on her lap.
“Daddy, Daddy,
” she would say and cast her brown eyes on Susan
's eyes, eyes brimming with tears on those occasions. However, lately, there had been no vibes from the thinking place. Susan could not understand. Jack should be through with College by now and at
Ballinrobe
most of the time. Her memory of him did not fade. At night, he came to her, smiling, green eyes full of love. She could almost feel his gentle touch, and she always shivered in anticipation, touching herself in the dark. Oh Jack, Jack my darling, how I long for you. Come to me
,
my love
,
and make me whole again.

Sarah had reverted to type. Free of her husband, she cast her eyes around for suitable beaus while Marci looked after the twins. Most of these men just wanted a short and uncomplicated affair. Sometimes Sarah wanted more. Then there would be tantrums and tears. She began to drink heavily. She had tried to patch something up with John Starr, but he had told her he would rather bed down with a skunk than with her. He changed his phone number and ignored any letters she sent him. His lawyers dealt with anything to do with the twins.

Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia
—1967