The final phase, the desert phase, was held in Fort Bliss Texas. Carl and his classmates were taken to the airport and put on a charter flight. This was his first time flying and he could not have enjoyed it more. At Fort Bliss he passed with flying colors and gradated earning his Ranger Tab, he was seventeen years old. Carl’s expertise with weapons and tactics had not gone unnoticed. Carl was sent to the Army Sniper School at Fort Benning. He aced the five week course and again graduated first in his class.
By now Cletus had become Carl. He had destroyed the hunting license and had a military ID with photo and the name Carl Rome. He had started to think of himself as Carl Rome. He occasionally thought of his mother, but knew he could never return. He immersed himself in his new life as Carl.
On January 23rd 1967 17 year old Carl Rome was shipped to Vietnam. Carl was assigned to the Long Range Recon Patrol Company of the 20th Infantry Regiment. Carl’s skills in any terrain became evident. During his first few month he was assigned to small unit patrols, but it was soon realized he was better and quieter moving alone or with one spotter. Carl became the go to person when a difficult and dangerous assignment was available. Carl returned to the States following his first tour and quickly volunteered for another. One month later he was back in Vietnam.
On February 25th 1968 Carl and a spotter were air lifted onto a small hill in the Arizona Territory. Their assignment was to identify a choke point on a trail known to be used by the VC to move equipment. They were to mark the spot and time of enemy movement and clear out the area. The B-52s would take care of the rest. After a quiet night they were moving into a better overlook position when they stumbled into a patrol. On the initial contact his spotter was wounded and Carl dragged him to cover in some rocks. They had no idea they had stumbled into a NVA Company. For the next three hours Carl held the NVA at bay with two M-16s and one M-24.
A gunship and troopship finally arrived and with suppressing fire from the gunship the troop ship hovered long enough for Carl to carry his spotter and jump onboard. He had never met the pilots or crewman before but became friends with the gunship pilot Shelby Wilson that night. Carl had never had friends before, even during training he kept to himself, but for some reason these two hit it off. He felt he could trust him. One night, while drinking with Shelby he confessed his personal story to him. Shelby was astonished but told Carl never to repeat it to anyone.
Shelby rotated home with the promise to keep in touch. Carl was assigned a new spotter, Jessie Carr, they became fast friends. Jessie was the only other person Carl ever told his personal story to. They served together for the better part of two tours and seemed to be able to read each other’s thoughts.
Carl went on to do a fourth tour in Vietnam before it came to an end. He served in several other hotspots during the next twenty years and retired from the Army in 1986. He had no desire to go back to Arkansas and wanted to be left alone. He picked a secluded location in Idaho and kept to himself for the next fifteen years.
Chapter 37
Shelby and I headed to the address the clerk had given us. We drove without seeing another house. Apparently Carl lived in the woods. We found a small dirt road with a mail box and the name Rome on it. About three hundred yards down the road we came to a trailer. It was old and run down. We got out and approached. A man came out the door with a rifle in his hand and told us to turn around and get out, we were trespassing. The guy hadn’t shaved in ages and looked a hundred years old. We told him we were looking for Carl, he told us to get the fuck off his property.
As we were turning to leave I turned and said, “Tell Cletus that Jessie Carr and Shelby Wilson was out here looking for him.” Recognition suddenly hit him and he lowered the rifle. He couldn’t believe his eyes, he hadn’t seen either one of us in almost twenty years, but he still recognized us. His question was “What the fuck are you doing here.” We walked to the porch and shook hands.
He looked old and dirty but he still had the eyes I remembered from Vietnam. They were cold blue and it looked like he could see deep in your soul. The sparkle was still there. He put down the rifle and offered us a beer. We all sat on the porch and waited for someone to break the silence. Carl’s curiosity got the best of him “OK, nobody just shows up way out here, what are you two doing here?” There was no sense in bullshitting him, “Truthfully Carl, I’m here to talk a little business. First though, what have you been up to for the last twenty years?” He just stared and then had to laugh. “Truthfully, my life has been a cluster fuck. I did another tour and stayed in till my twenty was up. I got their little chicken shit pension. Bought this dump and here I am. I never had a job. I do a little from time to time. Clean up or work the fields, nothing for very long. As you can see, I don’t have a whole lot. I grow some crops, hunt my game. That’s pretty much my life. You two look good, must be successful. What have you two been up to?”
I dodged the question for the time being. We made small talk and I weighted the possibility of approaching him with our story. He didn’t look much like the old Carl we had known, but then again, we probably didn’t look the same to him. I glanced over at the rifle he had been carrying. I could see it was a Remington 700 and it was equipped with a scope. I asked him about it. A huge smile came on his face. He explained it was a Remington 700 BDL in 308 Winchester. The scope was a Nikon 6-24SF with a drop compensator. He spoke of the rifle with pride as if it was an old friend. He had hunted for years with it, almost every day. It was sighted for three hundred yards. That told me a lot about Carl. He apparently still had shooting skills and could move in the woods quickly and quietly. I figured it was time I broached the reason we were there.
“Alright Carl, what have we been up to. Let me ask you a question first. What do you know about the drug business?” He looked puzzled, “I don’t really know anything. I don’t have contact with anyone out here. I got no TV, I got a radio but just to listen to ballgames I only go to town occasionally for a job or to pick up a few supplies.”
I told him my story, leaving nothing out. He sat there and listened with no expression change at all. I didn’t tell him we were there to recruit him, but I was hoping he would figure that out for himself. He took a long swig and finished his beer. He asked if we wanted another. We did, and he walked into this trailer to get them. Shelby and I looked at each other and he just shrugged. I had no idea what was on Carl’s mind at that point. For all we knew he could be inside calling the police.
Carl returned with three beers and passed them out. After a swig he asked “OK, so let me cut to the chase here. You here to recruit me?” It was time to lay it on the table. “That about covers it. Shelby and I no longer run drugs. But we have a new assignment. An importer in the northeast runs a lot of drugs. He needs security. That’s where we come, he offered a cut of the action. We never touch the drugs, just provide security for the transportation. Probably a few days a month at most. We will be heavily armed. We hope not to need weapons, but there is a good chance we might. These shipments are worth millions, so lots of people would love to get their hands on them. Before you say anything keep in mind, we could end up dead or in jail.”
He rocked back on his chair, took another swig, and asked “When would you want to leave?” I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly. “Jessie, I got nothing holding me here. I’m ready to leave today.” I wanted to make sure he understood the dangers of doing this. He had four tours in Vietnam, and worked alone most of the time, there was nothing we could tell him about danger that he didn’t already know. He said he needed an hour to clean up, lock up, and pack up. One hour to put your entire life together.
We told him we would wait till the next day to fly out, he asked about his rifle. I knew it meant a lot to him so I told him to break it down and we would ship it to my house. That made him happy; we shook hands and left him standing on the porch. We told him we would pick him up the next day at 7am and the flight was for noon.
On the way back to town Shelby and I discussed our
situation. We had gotten lucky with Carl. He had nothing and no one. Some of the men we had contacted had families and I didn’t want to temp them with big money or adventure. There was also the possibility that one of them would turn us in. Maybe someone in his family had a drug problem. I thought we had pushed it as far as we could. Three of us would have to be it. Twenty years ago Carl had been absolutely fearless. He operated alone in the most hostile territory in Vietnam and hunted the enemy. I hoped he still had some of that in him. We wouldn’t know until it hit the fan. Then it could be too late. Now we were committed and only time would tell.
The next morning we picked up Carl. He had his rifle and one small bag. Not much to show for fifty years on this earth. We bought boxes and packing material, dissembled the rifle and shipped it. Carl had shaved and put on what passed for his best clothes. He still didn’t look like the Carl of old, but did look better than the day before. Before boarding the plane I asked one more time if he was positive he wanted to join us. He looked insulted that I even had to ask. We boarded the plane and headed for home.
Chapter 38
We flew home and introduced Carl to Rachael and Jasmine, he looked at Shelby and smiled, obviously impressed that and old fart like him could get such a beautiful young woman. We all went to dinner and talked of old times, and old friends. The women took to Carl and made him feel like family, which he truly was. He moved into my office for the time being, sleeping on a folding bed. He wanted to get an apartment but I wanted him close for the time being, we had planning to do.
We settled in and began acquiring our gear. Perroni had given us the name of his hardware supplier, but we preferred to use our own method. The less people that knew us the better.
Gun shows proved to be just the ticket. We needed everything replaced since we had dumped it all in New Jersey. Two weekends, a little travel time, and twenty thousand dollars we had all new gear. We disassembled everything and filed down all the identification. A couple of quick trips to the woods to test fire and we were good to go. Carl hadn’t seemed to lose any of his previous skill. His eyesight was better than either one of us, and he could locate and drop a target at long distance.
We decided to use a different vehicle for this run, something that wouldn’t stick out. I found a late model four door sedan in the newspaper. Paying two thousand dollars more than it was worth and using fake id, I convinced the owner I would change all the titles in a week or so. I signed a bill of sale with a fake name and he never checked. The extra money always made deals like that easier.
A package was delivered from someone in New Jersey. It turned out to be voice encryption hardware. It attached to our cell phones and supposedly made it impossible to monitor our calls. I had no idea how it worked but had no reason to think it wouldn’t.
I contacted Perroni and told him all was ready. He told me he would contact me back in about a week.
We spent the next week enjoying the company. We traveled to the Gulf Coast and spent a fortune at a few casinos. We spent the nights in luxury penthouses. It almost made me forget how we had gotten here in the first place. Carl was adapting to his new life, and he was enjoying it.
The call came the following Thursday. A shipment was coming in two weeks to a port in Camden, and word on the street was it was going to be hijacked. Ninety million dollars worth of drugs was apparently too tempting a target. The theory was if we could prevent a hijack word would spread that Perroni’s product was not to be messed with. We had no idea what we might be up against. Perroni said the word was it was a Hispanic street gang. Not very sophisticated but very violent. They were known to control much of the action in the Chicago area. We had to approach this much as we had with the Calliope gang, fast and violent.
We needed time to survey the area and plan our strategy. We had to arrive at least four days early. The night before we left I made sure Rachael had all the account number and safety deposit box information she needed. I knew this was frightening to her, the thought that she might need this just in case I didn’t return. She proved to be a strong woman, no tears as we made love that last night. We packed our new car with all our gear and six days before the shipment, headed for New Jersey.
Chapter 39
The shipment was to arrive on a ship early on Friday morning. It was to be containerized freight in a shipment of cereal. The container would be moved to a storage warehouse across the dock by a forklift. The docks would be crowded during this move and no problems were expected. It would be stored with other containers and Perroni’s men would pick it up at 2AM. The guards on the dock had been paid to look the other way. Four days before the shipment we arrived in Camden and checked into a motel. That night we scouted the location from the outside, but needed to get inside for a better view. We found a local waterfront bar and mixed with the longshoreman trying to get any information we could without being too obvious. We didn’t get much information but Shelby managed to score two IDs he lifted from a couple of drunks. This was hopefully our way in.
Trying to enter at night would be too suspicious, so we came the next morning around 7 AM. Carl waited in the car while Shelby and I entered the main gate. It proved to be no problem, with all the men and trucks going in and out we didn’t get a second glance. We both carried small digital cameras and constantly and discretely took pictures of the facility. We walked for an hour and completely circled the interior of the docks. Our final destination was the storage warehouse where our container would be stored. I didn’t want anything to do with the container itself, our job was to make sure Perroni’s men could pick it up and transport it to another location. There it would be repackaged and made ready for shipment around the country. Once we secured the repackaging facility our job was over. It was twenty five miles from the docks to the secure facility, we drove it several time to make sure we had the route down pat.
The shipment warehouse on the dock was a huge building with doors only in the front. It had a large door for trucks to enter and exit and one single door for personnel. There was no side or rear doors and no windows. Any attempt to steal the cargo here would have to come from the front. I thought if I was setting this up I would probably try and highjack the truck somewhere on the road, but we had to prepare for any scenario. The warehouse was the last one in a long line located the greatest distance from the main gate. The pickup truck would have to enter and exit through the main gate.
The fence line completely surrounded the facility and the fence was reinforced steel wire with two rows of concertina wire on top. Someone might be able to drive through the fence but more than likely would stall on the fence. Securing the warehouse would be a breeze. Since it was on the end, anyone approaching it would have to come from the main entrance and drive straight down the main road. If anyone tried to hit us here it would be suicide. After two hours of scouting and taking pictures we headed for the gate. We did notice several cameras located around the fence line, but nothing in the interior. We walked out of the gate and met with Carl. He had watched a constant flow of trucks in and out. We were hoping this wouldn’t be the case at night. We drove the route the pickup truck would use and made notes and photos of potential problem areas. Our plan was to return to the docks after dark and check on the amount of activity. We wanted to get inside at night but didn’t want draw any attention to ourselves. We would play that by ear.
That night, dressed in dark clothing and carrying only our night vision gear, we drove back to the wharf. The night vision gear proved to be unnecessary. The place was lit up like an airport. Sneaking in the main entrance under the cover of darkness wasn’t possible. At least there was no activity on the dock. It seemed to be completely shut down with the gates secure.
I was tempted to write the dock off as a possible highjack point, but thought better of it. Better to put in a little extra work and be prepared. The guards would need to let anyone in at night if they wanted to enter with a vehicle. I didn’t want us exposed to the guards or pickup men, so we had to
come up with an alternative. We parked some distance away from the wharf and, staying just out of the light, walked the fence line. Several shipping companies backed up to the facility and about one hundred yards from our warehouse we found an area between the facility fence and a private fence where there was minimal light.
This looked like the best spot to enter. Now we needed to find out if the fence had any other security measures. We were all familiar with motion and vibration sensors and we began our search. Thankfully, there were none. The fence was fairly heavy gauge chain link so we would need to purchase a heavy duty pair of wire cutters. We hid in the dark and watched the area of the fence we had selected to make sure no roving patrols passed here. After three hours we headed back convinced we would risk minimal exposure at that location.
Now we had to establish a plan that made the most of our limited manpower. Before we even began I received a call from Perroni. His inside man had passed information to him that the hijack would come at the warehouse facility. If this were true it would make our job easier and our exposure considerably less. He said his man on the inside of the gang was one hundred percent certain it would be there. Apparently they had also gotten to the guards and would be let inside. He didn’t know how many men would be used but they would have ample firepower. With this information we could set up on the pickup location and not spend as much effort on the road. If this were true it made our job easier and there’s much more dangerous. But if the hit didn’t come at the docks, we still needed to be able to get to our car in order to cover the pickup route.
We double and triple checked all our equipment. Then killed time waiting for Friday night. We called home frequently just to let them know we were OK and thinking of them. We removed everything from our hotel rooms and wiped down anything we might have touched. We had paid up through the following Tuesday, put the do not disturb signs on our doors, and headed out. At 11 PM we parked a block from the fence and eased our way to our entrance spot. We kept our face and heads concealed in hoods as much as possible just in case a camera would record our movement. Moving slowly and carefully we cut a hole in the fence big enough to crawl through. Once inside we moved in the shadows to our positions inside the facility. We had decided to use an ‘L’ shaped ambush. There were only three of us but if we strategically placed ourselves we could bring maximum firepower on the hijackers. We had to make some assumptions concerning their route to our warehouse. That can be dangerous but with our limited manpower it was necessary. I assumed they would drive through the gate and straight to the warehouse. This would be the fastest way to approach. If they tried to approach on foot the pickup men would have ample warning to take up defensive positions.