Vietnam II: A War Novel Episode 3 (V2) Read Online Free Page B
Author: C.R. Ryder
coalition forces, expatriates and recovered POWs as well as enemy prisoners of war (EPWs) and refugees.
While the fleet hospitals worked ashore, Navy hospital ships operated in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin and the South Pacific. Among the first ships there were the largest hospital ships in the world, the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) and USNS Mercy (T-AH 19). These ships were a 1,000 bed floating hospitals and each was equipped with 50 trauma stations for casualty receiving, 12 operating rooms, a 20-bed recovery room, 80 intensive care beds and 16 light- and intermediate-care wards.
We were prepared to receive POWs and tend casualties as the Operation Jungle Storm evolved.
Major Leonard Armstrong
KC-135 Aircraft Commander
Off the coast of Vietnam
“UNKNOWN AIRCRAFT…UNKNOWN AIRCRAFT…You have entered the People’s Republic of Vietnam airspace without authorization. Turn to a heading of zero nine zero immediately.” The Vietnamese air traffic controller said on the radio in better English than I spoke.
“HANOI this is FUELR 31. We are maneuvering for weather. Unable to comply.” Fields, the copilot, told him on the UHF.
This was all a game. We might as well have written up a script and sent it to the Vietnamese so that they had their lines. They knew exactly what kind of aircraft we were. Conversely we knew exactly where we were.
I kept the plane skirting the border of their ADIZ. I could see water underneath us, but the coast was not far and we were miles into their airspace and not in a North Korean kind of way. We were well inside what the international community considered their airspace.
“Turn to zero nine zero immediately!” The controller said sounding flustered. I wondered what kind of brass he had standing over his shoulder.
“Unable to comply. There is a typhoon out here.” Fields said. He looked at me for strength.
I nodded. He was doing well.
The weather was bad however the worst of it was Far East. We could turn now without issue. Still we pressed on a northwest heading.
“AMERICAN AIRCRAFT…AMERICAN AIRCRAFT…DO YOU COPY?” A different voice now hailed us. I was guessing this was the boss man. Probably the head controller and he no doubt had his own superiors either in the room or on the phone. I had been to plenty of these foreign air traffic control centers to know it was just a bunch of guys smoking cigarettes and reading papers waiting for their hour or so on the scope. I could bet tonight everyone was at their consoles busting their humps or at least looking that way.
“HANOI this is FUELR go ahead.” Fields responded.
“TURN EAST NOW OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON.”
The copilot reached for his switch on the yoke and I waived him off.
“HANOI..FUELR 31 turning east now.” I told them as I turned the plane to a zero nine zero heading and pushed up the throttles. We had pushed our luck about as far as I felt comfortable. We would have to jink back to the north eventually to miss the worse of the typhoon, but we could deal with that when we were well clear of Vietnamese airspace. Right now I wanted to get the hell out of there.
“Wow those guys can’t take a joke. You’d think they didn’t know there was a storm going on.”
The copilot nodded. He looked relieved that this part of the mission was over.
“Boom…Pilot”
“Pilot, Boom go ahead.”
“We have to retrograde. Did those guys in back get what they needed?”
I peaked back at the ten electronic warfare guys in the back of the aircraft. They had brought a dozen boxed with them containing gear I didn’t recognize that was unpacked and strung up in various configurations around my cargo compartment.
“They look happy. Let me check.” The boom was off for a moment. “I’m getting a thumbs up.”
“Let’s go home.”
We were part of a three ship out of Kadena. The other two went to do some air refueling with fighters
While the fleet hospitals worked ashore, Navy hospital ships operated in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin and the South Pacific. Among the first ships there were the largest hospital ships in the world, the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) and USNS Mercy (T-AH 19). These ships were a 1,000 bed floating hospitals and each was equipped with 50 trauma stations for casualty receiving, 12 operating rooms, a 20-bed recovery room, 80 intensive care beds and 16 light- and intermediate-care wards.
We were prepared to receive POWs and tend casualties as the Operation Jungle Storm evolved.
Major Leonard Armstrong
KC-135 Aircraft Commander
Off the coast of Vietnam
“UNKNOWN AIRCRAFT…UNKNOWN AIRCRAFT…You have entered the People’s Republic of Vietnam airspace without authorization. Turn to a heading of zero nine zero immediately.” The Vietnamese air traffic controller said on the radio in better English than I spoke.
“HANOI this is FUELR 31. We are maneuvering for weather. Unable to comply.” Fields, the copilot, told him on the UHF.
This was all a game. We might as well have written up a script and sent it to the Vietnamese so that they had their lines. They knew exactly what kind of aircraft we were. Conversely we knew exactly where we were.
I kept the plane skirting the border of their ADIZ. I could see water underneath us, but the coast was not far and we were miles into their airspace and not in a North Korean kind of way. We were well inside what the international community considered their airspace.
“Turn to zero nine zero immediately!” The controller said sounding flustered. I wondered what kind of brass he had standing over his shoulder.
“Unable to comply. There is a typhoon out here.” Fields said. He looked at me for strength.
I nodded. He was doing well.
The weather was bad however the worst of it was Far East. We could turn now without issue. Still we pressed on a northwest heading.
“AMERICAN AIRCRAFT…AMERICAN AIRCRAFT…DO YOU COPY?” A different voice now hailed us. I was guessing this was the boss man. Probably the head controller and he no doubt had his own superiors either in the room or on the phone. I had been to plenty of these foreign air traffic control centers to know it was just a bunch of guys smoking cigarettes and reading papers waiting for their hour or so on the scope. I could bet tonight everyone was at their consoles busting their humps or at least looking that way.
“HANOI this is FUELR go ahead.” Fields responded.
“TURN EAST NOW OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON.”
The copilot reached for his switch on the yoke and I waived him off.
“HANOI..FUELR 31 turning east now.” I told them as I turned the plane to a zero nine zero heading and pushed up the throttles. We had pushed our luck about as far as I felt comfortable. We would have to jink back to the north eventually to miss the worse of the typhoon, but we could deal with that when we were well clear of Vietnamese airspace. Right now I wanted to get the hell out of there.
“Wow those guys can’t take a joke. You’d think they didn’t know there was a storm going on.”
The copilot nodded. He looked relieved that this part of the mission was over.
“Boom…Pilot”
“Pilot, Boom go ahead.”
“We have to retrograde. Did those guys in back get what they needed?”
I peaked back at the ten electronic warfare guys in the back of the aircraft. They had brought a dozen boxed with them containing gear I didn’t recognize that was unpacked and strung up in various configurations around my cargo compartment.
“They look happy. Let me check.” The boom was off for a moment. “I’m getting a thumbs up.”
“Let’s go home.”
We were part of a three ship out of Kadena. The other two went to do some air refueling with fighters
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