“He comes over the wire. He knows that it’s here and clears it without rattling a beer can.”
“But it’s three coils wide and three tall. That is one mean jump.”
“I hope he shows up one night when you’re with me. Then you can judge for yourself.”
“I don’t doubt you, Doc. I’m just amazed as how and why he does it.”
“I think he’s just curious. And maybe he’s looking for an easy meal. This may have been his old hunting ground as well as smelling the cooked meat we eat.”
It was quiet from shortly after 2320 when Sherman and Clark left except for the sounds of the jungle drifting softly into the bunker. Small peeps of what could be restless birds and almost human squeals and yelps that Doc identified as monkeys.
Around 0200 Doc’s almost undetectable snores had been regular for quite a while and Dan was listening to the multitude of jungle sounds, enjoying the pure sounds of nature.
A heavy, but soft double thump disrupted his listening. Dan’s hunting and wilderness camping experience labeled the new sound as that of a large animal jumping and landing on soft ground such as the ground surrounding the bunker. All traces of drowsiness left him as he became alert wondering and curious to what had made the noise. Not even thinking about Doc’s tiger Dan moved quietly inside the bunker looking out the firing ports trying identify any movement. He felt his hands grow damp as he tightened his grip on the M16.
Straining to hear any strange or foreign sounds from outside he was overlooking what he thought was Doc’s sleeping sounds until he realized that the deep breathing was more like shallow panting and it had move from along side the bunker towards the front.
“I think that we have company, Dan.” Doc stated the obvious in a very low key whisper.
“I thought you were asleep?”
“I heard him jump the wire. He’s really close. Closer than the other two times he visited.”
“I don’t see him. Think he’ll try to come in?” Dan asked and moved around Doc a little bit so he had a clear shot of the opening in the back of the bunker that was almost invisible in the pitch black of the moonless night. The star filled sky was bright enough to provided a bit of light that they could pick out an occasional flash of star light on the beer cans hanging on the wire.
“There he is!” Doc whispered from where he was peering through a front firing port.
Dan turned from the rear entrance to look through the same firing port as Doc was.
“I only see black.”
“That black is him. I could see the reflections of the stars on the beer cans when all of a sudden all I could see is black when he moved up in front of me.
He’s turning towards us! Shhh.”
Dan watched over Doc’s shoulder as the huge cat took a couple of steps towards the front of the bunker. The cat’s soft pants became louder since he was not only facing them, but had taken several steps closer. His strong, slightly putrid cat breath started to permeate the air in the bunker and both men could feel the heat of his breathe each time he exhaled. The cat was still just a blob of black but Dan sensed rather than saw him bunch and spring up on top of the bunker. The star studded beer cans came back into view as a heavy thump echoed softly inside the bunker followed by a shower of sand that filtered down between the aluminum runway panels used to construct the roof of the bunker. There was already several hundred pounds of sand bags forming the roof and Dan couldn’t help but wonder what the additional weight of the tiger was doing to it. Wonder what he weighs? I couldn’t see enough of him to know if he really is a ‘he’ or not. Or how big it is. I do wonder what 300 pounds or so on the bunker’s roof will do except scare the shit out of me.
“I think we should do something to get rid of it.” Dan said quietly “Any suggestions?” He finished just as the cat quietly stepped off the bunker’s roof and started to nose around the bunker’s entrance.
Dan slipped the safety off on his M16 and slowly raised the rifle and pointed it towards the sound of the cat sniffing and snuffling around the bunker’s entrance. On second thought he slipped the lever another notch to full auto.
“Maybe holler for help?” Doc said with a snicker.
“Toss an illumination grenade out the side port near him.” No longer trying to be quiet Dan spoke in a normal voice. Still holding his rifle in one hand he pointed his flashlight at the bunker’s entrance. “Look at the size of those claws” He said when he caught the cat’s huge front paw in the flashlight’s bright beam.
“Toss the grenade Doc and don’t forget to pull the pin!”
“Really?” Doc had a bit of a quiver in his voice. “Here goes nothing.” He said as he jerked the pin from the illumination grenade and tossed it through the firing port.
A pop followed by a flash of light as the grenade opened and started to burn.
They both saw the cat jump back away from the bunker, swirl around in a graceful motion before covering the 50 feet from the bunker to the wire in two easy bounds. The third bound taken without hesitation let the cat clear the wire easily to land about 15 feet on the outside of the wire. One more bound and he was out of the glow from the grenade and into the deep dark of the jungle.
“Was he really that big, Dan”
Dan answered with a quiver of excitement in his voice. “I’m not sure, but it was the prettiest thing I’ve seen in this country.”
“You mean next to the girls don’t you?”
“You have a one track mind Doc.”
Shortly after the illumination grenade burned itself out, the two Seabees crawled out of their bunker and were leaning against it’s sandbagged side. A soft man made whistle broke the night barely audible above the subtle sounds of the jungle drifting across the treeless field of fire that had been created around the camp.
Doc answered with a soft whistle of his own.
“Who is that?” Dan asked him.
“Probably Chief Wiz. He’s a light sleeper and that grenade popping and our talking probably woke him up.”
“Yeah, it’s me. What’s all the excitement?”
“This time I have a witness to what I’m hallucinating.” Doc said with a quiet laugh.
“Huh?” The chief responded obviously confused and not quite in tune with the corpsman’s sense of humor.
“We had a visitor, Chief. About three hundred pounds of tiger came to visit.”
“Inside the wire?”
In answer Dan flashed his light onto a wet spot next to the bunker and lit up a big and clear paw print of the big cat.
That was all it took to make a believer out of the EO chief.
Another soft whistle came from the direction of the front gate bunker. After Wiz answered, Richie and another of the Seabees approached the group standing next to the rear most bunker.
“What are you guys doing up?” Wiz asked.
“We’re Dan and Doc’s reliefs. Heard you talking so we came out early. Brought out some coffee for them.” Richie answered handing the two men each a mug of steaming black coffee.
The eastern horizon was starting to show a faint pink glow outlining the low mountains that stood between the A Shau Valley and the South China Sea.
“It will start getting light soon.” Doc remarked and our visitor will be staying out of sight.”
“What visitor?” The Seabee with Richie asked with more than a little trepidation in his voice.
“The tiger paid us another visit.” Doc answered. “This time two of us saw him.”
“And he left a big, huge paw print.” The Chief added turning and starting back towards his hooch. “I’m going back to bed, I don’t know about you two.” He said addressing Doc and Dan.
At breakfast the main topic of the rock crusher crew was their visiting tiger. They had taken it as one of their own. One of them. They had also dubbed it a ‘him’. It had immediately become what ?
??He’ had done the night before.
On Friday night Doc an Dan volunteered to man the back perimeter bunker again from 2300 to 0300 hours in hopes that the cat would pay the camp another visit. Doc was armed with an additional weapon. His 35mm camera, with a flash that would normally be used to take photos at a family dinner or of a bunch of drunken Seabees at a house party.
“He was close enough last night. If I had sense enough to bring the camera I could have taken some great pictures.
Truthfully, I forgot all about my camera. It was in my seabag with only one 36 exposure roll of slide film.”
“You’ll probably never see him again. That illumination grenade could have scared him away for good. Anyway, I’ll send you a couple of rolls of slide film from ship’s stores by the next people who come out this way.”
“Thanks Dan. I’ll share any pictures I get of him with you.”
The watch passed uneventful. There were no strange guests and except for a few brief moments at around 0235 when some monkeys were raising a rumpus in the jungle next to the clear area, they heard nothing throughout the rest of their watch.
I’ll bet that was the cat stirring up those monkeys.” Dan said when he and the corpsman left the bunker after Richie and another EO relieved them a while before 0300.
“I think those guys came on early in hopes of being the ones to see the tiger this morning.” Doc thought out loud as they walked towards sickbay and their waiting bunks.
Breakfast was from 0600 to 0800 on Saturday morning so Dan was in no hurry to wake up knowing a canteen cup of hot black coffee and a C-ration pecan roll would hold him for the trip back into Gia Le.
“I’ll drive back if you want Richie” Dan offered when they stood next to the idling crane waiting for the engine to warm up in the cool mountain air. Both Seabees had on their foul weather jackets, mostly to cover their arms in their short sleeve fatigue blouses, from the cool air.
Dan tossed the dregs of the coffee from the canteen cup and was touched by the first bit of sunshine that was burning through the early morning mist.
“That feels good.
Yeah, I’ll let you drive this beast back to Gia Le, Dan. But you have to stop whenever I need to swing the boom. None of your tricks of doing it on the go.”
“I’m sure Petty Officer Davis wouldn’t do such a thing.”
“Hi, Chief.” Richie greeted him. He had watched the chief approach and had timed his demand after the chief was within hearing.
“Payback is hell, Richie. Just wait.” Dan said with a smile.
“Need anything else before we head out Wiz?” Dan asked.
“No. We’re good for now Dan. You guys did a good job for us, Thanks.”
“We’re off then. See ya.” Dan offered as he climbed up into the truck’s cab looking across the compound towards an open hillside to the west. The sun had just burned the mist away and was playing across the half mile wide valley that separated the level ridge were the rock crusher was and the sun lit hillside.
“Look over there guys.” Dan said as he settled himself in the driver’s seat and pointed towards the distant hillside.
Grazing amongst the grassy and brushy jungle growth was a herd of ten or twelve Asian elephants.
“I’ll be damn.” Chief Wiz said an awe struck tone in his voice.
“You aren’t kidding. Have you ever seen them before?” Dan asked.
“Never.” Answered Doc Barnes. “The villagers talk about them. But we’ve never seen them before.
I have to get me camera.”
“Make sure everybody knows they are there, Doc.”
“Ok, Chief.” Doc answered as he ran towards sickbay.
“You guys can come back anytime. You’re good luck obviously.” Wiz said as he offered them each a hand.
THIRTY-ONE
After several weeks of mundane crane jobs around the battalion operating area, Dan had to admit he was getting bored and unchallenged.
“Sandy needs a cat skinner to go out in Indian Country to pickup an old D6 cat for the Chaplin. You interested, Dan?” Chief Jerry Connery asked when Dan entered the heavy shop before quarters on the first Monday in September. No one was taking notice that it was in fact Labor Day in the States.
“Sure. Where is it?”
I’m not sure. From what I understand the Chaplin’s assistant has all the info and he’s been there so he will go with you. I do know it’s in the same vicinity as if you were going to the rock crusher. I told Sandy that you’d probably want to do it. So check in with him.”
“Gotcha.
I’m assuming they want to do it today.”
“To the best of my knowledge. I think Sandy has several jobs that you can do for him so plan on working for him the next week or so.
Crane work is slow and Richie can handle it. I realize that you’re going a bit stir crazy doing small jobs here and there around the cantonment.”
“I’m out of here. Thanks Jerry.” Dan said over his shoulder as he went out the door and headed across the Alpha Company compound heading for the motor pool dispatch.
Dan had seen Parker the Chaplin’s assistant around the battalion and had passed the time of day with him in the chow hall on a couple of occasions so they weren’t strangers. “What kind of condition is the bulldozer in Parker, do you have any idea?”
“It’s really quite old. All rusty and in need of a paint job. But it seemed to be running good and we never had any problems with it. Being a yeoman I don’t know much about heavy equipment except what I picked up around construction sites as a civilian. When the Chaplin and I got involved in the project the Army had been doing it and a PFC had been running it. I watched him one day and he seemed to know what he was doing.”
Just what were you doing for the village?”
“Improving the access road into and through the village. We also were leveling a spot for a new multi-use school/meeting house combination. The whole village is on a flat plain that gets muddy, or rather stays muddy most of the time. They had been spreading gravel and rock in the worst places whenever they could get some or some entity like us or the Army would give them some.”
“Will we have any trouble starting it or loading it? Did you see a loading ramp, such as a pile of dirt or rocks?”
“No, but can’t you build one?”
“Sure.
Let’s go by the motor pool and pick up some engine oil and gasoline as well as a Jerry can of diesel fuel. I’d hate to drive all the way out there and be short of any essential fluid.”
“Why gasoline? It’s a diesel isn’t it?”
“If it’s as old as you say, then it has a pony engine that runs on gas to start the diesel engine.
Did you hear an engine that was started first and went ‘pop-pop’ like a motorcycle without a muffler?”
“Yeah. I think so. I really didn’t pay any attention since it was so noisy anyway.”
“Yeah, your right. No sweat, we’ll take some gas along to be sure.
“You really think that’s necessary? I think we should get going so we’ll be back in before dark.”
It took less than another 15 minutes to gather up what Dan thought they might need and as he climbed up on the running board he reached in and took out his flak jacket and slipped it on. “You can do what you want. You can always put your’s on as we travel but I don’t want to stop to have to put it on when we turn off Highway One.” Dan stated as he put a full magazine into his M16 before laying the weapon across his lap.
“Turn off the highway at the next left. Right by the bicycle repair shop. That’s the road to the rock crusher.”
“Okay. Been there. How far up this road?” Dan asked as he maneuvered the long flat bed trailer into the narrow entrance to the road.
‘It’s about 4 miles to the turn off to the rock crusher. We’ll go right at that fork. A straight shot into the village from there. About two more mil
es. We start getting into real Indian Country just before the crusher turn off but all the intel according to Command Post this morning is that it’s quiet and all right to go to this village but they suggested not going beyond Nam Hoa where the bulldozer is.”
“The jungle is really starting to close in now.” Dan commented when they passed the turnoff to the crusher. With his right hand he lifted his M16 and laid it into the cradle of his left elbow. He checked that the safety was on before pulling back the slide and let a round enter the chamber.
Parker gave him a questioning look then followed suit chambering a round in his M16. “Never argue with experience my father always told me.”
“When in doubt, act on the side of self preservation. A quote by Dan Lee Davis.” Dan stated with a smile when he laid the forearm of the M16 in the open window so the barrel was pointed at the roadside jungle. He caught fourth gear to let the tractor and trailer pickup a bit more speed.
“Spooky ain’t it?” Parker announced with a smile as the road got narrower. “This part of the trip always gave me the heebie-jeebies. The Chaplin said I was being paranoid but I like your philosophy better.” He said as he raised his M16, checked the safety again before pointing it out his open window.
The narrow road was turning muddier and Dan grabbed two lower gears in the tractor’s transmission slowing them down before he pulled the transfer case lever engaging the drive on all wheels.
The first hooches were typical Vietnamese. Fragile wooden frames and siding with thick thatched roofs. Just a very short distance, less than a city block and they entered the center of the village.
“Pull up here.” Parker told him. “That tile roofed hooch is the Mayor’s/Village Chief’s, whatever, house. The other on its right is the old community building that they want to replace.”
Dan saw the very old hydraulic blade bulldozer parked in between these two buildings. “They must have greased the blade arms to get that dozer in between those hooches. Really a tight fit. Be fun to get it out without knocking one of them down.”