049 : Fantasy Rhombus
Quy Nhon Camp, Area B Warehouse.
Area B’s warehouse is my treasure house.
Reinforcing bars, H-beams, and steel pipes were piled up.
Originally, the materials brought by the US military to build the port, but when I applied the caisson method, they were classified as surplus materials.
I spent more than half of the money I earned in Vietnam on these surplus items.
Since I bought it at half the market price, it is like making a lot of money if I bring it into Korea.
“Hey, it’s very reassuring to have the helicopter engine loaded.”
Of course, now I’m using it as a wall to hide the engine.
“I never thought I would get my hands on a gas turbine engine. I said I wouldn’t do it again because it was dirty and mean.”
A helicopter engine is not a jet engine that produces thrust with exhaust gas, but an engine that turns rotor blades, so it should be called a turboshaft engine, but in a broad sense, it is just a gas turbine engine.
Gas turbine technology is highly versatile.
It is a technology that can be applied to power plants, airplanes, helicopters, ships, and even tanks and car turbochargers, so if you work for a heavy industry company like Daese Group, you will dip your toes into the project at least once.
Of course, Daese Group was disbanded with only the money being taken out of the excitement of collaborating with Siemens in Germany.
It is such a difficult technology that only in 2019 did Korea become the fifth country in the world to develop a gas turbine engine.
This is because gas turbines have a similar driving principle to jet engines, so only the countries that produced fighter engines during World War II monopolized the technology.
In the free world in the 1960s, only four countries had original technology: GE of the United States, Siemens of Germany, MHPS of Japan (a joint venture between Mitsubishi and Hitachi), and Ansaldo of Italy.
The history of gas turbine technology development in Korea is very colorful. It tried to acquire Ansaldo, Italy, but was frustrated by the opposition of the Italian parliament, Japan’s MHPS persuaded it to increase parts orders if it gave up its own development, Siemens filed a lawsuit for technology leakage, and GE was a country that could not make aircraft engines. They openly urged them to give up, saying that development could not be successful.
Despite being a national strategic technology due to direct and indirect sabotage, it was a difficult and difficult road that took more than 20 years to develop.
Of course I know a much faster and more efficient way.
It just takes money and timing.
We have to wait for the right time while conducting basic material development and design research.
I touched the lovely engine once again.
If you repeat tearing and assembling this guy, you will see the road, and the time will come.
clap.
I hid the engine well and opened the warehouse door and went out.
“Mark, what’s up?”
When I opened the door and went out, Mark was nearby and looked around. It seemed to be looking for me.
“CS! what were you doing here? You’ve been looking for it for a long time.”
He looked up at the sound of my call and ran away in a hurry.
“You found me? why?”
“Another accident happened. It’s Anke this time.”
“What, an accident? Could it be… it wasn’t a fatal accident?”
“Fortunately, it was not a fatal accident. But, this time the numbers are a bit high. Five people were injured.”
“What? Five people?”
“A grenade exploded near the truck and caught fire. I got shrapnel wounds and burns.”
“shit!”
I hurriedly ran to duty.
This is already the 16th accident.
It’s only been a month since the transport operation started, but if it continues like this, it’s only a matter of time before the funeral service is held.
“Where are our employees?”
“Follow me, CS.”
The military surgeon took me personally.
“Ugh…”
“The other four patients have some broken ribs and shrapnel, so they will recover as long as they rest. But, this patient is the problem. I must have been in the driver’s seat.”
Shit, among our staff, it was Shim Jae-hong who competed for the top spot with diligence.
He is an employee who works really hard to finance his younger sister’s marriage.
It looks like he has been burned by bandages all over his body.
“Is it a burn?”
“Fortunately, I was burned along the left side. Wearing clothes will cover the scars. By the way…”
“By the way…”
“I wore shrapnel together. I was wearing body armor, but unfortunately the shrapnel completely severed my Achilles tendon and shoulder tendon. I had no choice but to give up suture surgery because of the burns.”
Damn, I broke my Achilles tendon. at this age.
“Tell me easily. Can you walk or not?”
“I can walk, but I can’t run or exert myself. The same goes for the left arm.”
Damn it, it’s over for artisans.
“Ugh… Boss… I can do it.”
“I know. No, don’t worry.”
“I’ll… get up soon. Subtract today’s wages.”
“Jaehong, why are you talking about daily wages?”
“I… I… I need to make money. president.”
“You can’t get up.”
When Jaehong tried to stand up, the surgeon was startled.
“Jae Hong, don’t worry. Because it will make you money. I just focus on recovering.”
“president…”
“You know I’m not lying, right? Stop using it and lie down.”
“Ugh…”
To think that a nobleman who was in pain at the slightest help to lie down was trying to get up. You can send it to Jinhae to manage the timber warehouse, or send it to the Busan branch to help import and export.
“Others never cut it, so please lie down. Come on.”
“Yes, yes. president.”
The four people who had been in the accident were also hesitating, and when I said something, they lay down on the bed.
I can’t. I’m going to buy this
“Mark, I need to see Lieutenant Colonel Gothel.”
“What are you going to do when we meet?”
I got lucky with Sergeant Mark, who was hanging around at the entrance of the medical unit.
“Look, I’m going to buy this. We need to add more troops to escort the transport.”
“Even Colonel Gothel would be in trouble. It’s not that I don’t want to do it.”
“What’s troubling you? It wasn’t like this in the beginning. There were enough escort troops. The helicopter reconnaissance was also good. The more you go, the more the escorts suck!”
I vomited out the words I had been holding back for so long.
Quy Nhon Camp is not a combat-oriented force formation, but what if transport escort operations are gradually neglected?
We need to protect those of us who help Quy Nhon camp.
“Basically, the transport escort is not the Quy Nhon camp, but the operational instructions are issued from the Saigon headquarters.”
“Then we can’t work. Quy Nhon is the logistics base, so does it make sense that Lieutenant Colonel Gothel has no decision-making power over logistics transportation?”
“CS!”
Mark blushed, but today he couldn’t stand it.
“Mark! Wake. This is how our employees really die. We are people too! Moreover, they are civilians!”
If civilians are killed in military operations, the U.S. military will not benefit either.
“What shall we do? Is there a way?”
“We have to find a way. That’s why you’re going to talk to Gothel.”
Gothel, who was always welcome, is avoiding me these days.
Today, I have to meet Mark even if it means brushing it off.
“… I don’t know. CS was recklessly attacking the lieutenant colonel. you are responsible Okay?”
“okay. Okay, so what about the guards?”
I pushed Mark on the back and went to the beach.
It was obvious where Colonel Gothel was.
Mark got the guard out of the way with a hook, and I went inside the barbed wire on the beach in Area A.
**
“Lieutenant Colonel Gothel.”
“What is it?”
“Did you see and hear?”
“I heard you. When did you come?”
yeah, there’s no way you wouldn’t know
There was no way the sergeant had not reported.
“There are already 16 injured.”
“It would be better to raise the transportation cost.”
“It’s not about money. If you continue like this, you’ll really die. Do you want to tell the radio that civilians are dying in military operations?”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Even if I don’t inform, the lieutenant colonel’s competitor will. Even if you don’t know Saigon, you will definitely know Da Nang or Cam Ranh campgrounds. The lieutenant colonel has swept all the prizes so far.”
Of course I won an award.
Not only did it subdue the Viet Cong in one of the logistics bases, but it also started operating the port at an unexpectedly early time.
“Damn it… what about me. Originally, the South Vietnamese army was supposed to escort the transport, but they can’t do that. Besides, helicopter reconnaissance is not easy in the jungle. CS You are also fiercely opposed to the spraying of defoliant.”
They absolutely opposed the spraying of defoliant because it meant that everyone should die together.
Logging is the answer, but as I took the staff out for transportation, the speed of logging was slow.
To the port, to the repair base, to the logistical transport… It was really hard to come to my senses. Things that were going well one after another suddenly became overloaded.
When it came to logging, it was difficult to transport the cut trees. It had to be moved to Route 19 or Route 1, but there was not enough time and manpower to do that.
“Please deploy US troops directly at Quy Nhon Camp. Honestly, wouldn’t it be much safer to only place it around the intersection of Route 19 and Route 1?”
“no.”
“Why not?”
“If you can’t, then you can’t.”
“If I know why it doesn’t work, then I will either quit or not. Why not?”
“……”
Whether Colonel Gothel glared at me or not, I did my job. I cut the head of a cigar neatly, put it in his mouth, and lit it.
I filled the glass with tonic water from the ice bucket. “Tell me why,” he said with his eyes.
“… Shit, I can’t stop talking about this. I’m frustrated too. It’s frustrating. Even if you ask for troops, they won’t come. They’re taking out our troops.”
“Are you taking out troops?”
“okay. All combat forces from Quy Nhon camp were sucked into Pleiku, An Khe and Tuy Hoa. Even if you request combat troops, that side takes precedence, and here at camp, only the Corps of Engineers and Supply Corps remain.”
It was absurd.
If you estimate by logistics and transportation, there are 50,000 troops on the front, even if it is not enough.
With such a large army, Quy Nhon’s fighting forces were taken away?
“Damn it, if you take out all the troops, you have to protect it with transport. Why are the Viet Cong so infested with transport routes?”
“The purpose of the garrison is to cut off the Ho Chi Minh route. It is the most important operation. We have to make a massive push and destroy the frontlines.”
There was nothing to be frustrated about.
It was said that the US military considered large-scale scorched-earth operations effective in the early days of the Vietnam War, and it was true.
This war never ends in a short fight.
The priority is to secure supply routes.
“No matter how large-scale an operation is, supply routes are vital to the military. Shouldn’t we split up some troops to protect the road?”
“Are you talking about an operation called a company tactical base used by the Korean military? If you divide your troops into small pieces like that, the Viet Cong will destroy them individually.”
not.
I heard from veterans that the ROK Army’s tactics were very effective, albeit at the company level.
In terms of game, it was like advancing while driving bunkers and turrets, so it was invincible in guerrilla warfare, and the outcome of the Vietnam War would have been different if the US Army followed suit.
In the end, the US Army later recognized the value of the tactic and adopted it as a formal tactical doctrine under the name of ‘Fire Base’, but the Vietnam War was already over.
To be honest, it would have been difficult for the strongest U.S. Army to follow the borderline military strategy while conducting the Vietnam War.
“Isn’t it a matter of building a defensive position? It means discussing the operation with the Fierce Tiger Unit.”
“Sounds useless. I don’t know if we can bombard the three areas from time to time, but if we disperse our troops, supply and attack power will drop significantly.”
for a moment. for a moment. it’s bombing
Gothel can operate a bomber?
“Wait. Can you order the bombing? Isn’t the bombing an operation order from the Saigon headquarters?”
“Are you kidding? What do you think is the reason for that garrison? It exists to bomb the Ho Chi Minh route. If there were only airfields nearby where the bombers would be loaded with bombs, they would bomb the Ho Chi Minh route as well as around the transport route. Does anyone know that the Viet Cong are hiding all over the transport routes?”
Listening to it, Godel had some truth.
It seemed that Gothel would have the authority to request a bombardment of the jungle near the convoy, if the bombers could afford it.
It was because it was the exclusive authority of Gotel, the commanding officer of the supply base, to ensure the safety of the transport routes.
“Are you saying that it was difficult to supply bombs to the bombers so they couldn’t drop them on the transport routes?”
“The bombers are flying from Saigon. We have to bomb a 120km front line with the bombs we’ve been carrying. It’s impossible to cover the transportation route.”
I came to protest and found out something great.
Well, the US military couldn’t bomb because they didn’t have money.
It was physically difficult to supply bombs.
If an airfield was built in Quy Nhon to attract bombers, it seemed that the authority of the Quy Nhon camp would be further expanded as well as solving the situation.
I needed confirmation.
“Gothel. If we lay down a runway and build a control tower, can we operate bombers in Quy Nhon camp?”
“If you ask me to make it, would you like to make it for me?”
“Gothel! No kidding, can you really do it!”
“……”
Gothel was taken aback when I pushed in with a firm expression. I pulled out the cigar he was holding in his mouth and put it out in the ashtray.
“CS, are you really trying to build an airfield?”
Technical problems can be solved by me.
Money won’t be a problem either. The cost of the port assigned to Quy Nhon camp was cut in half, and the cost of defoliant was all left over.
The question was whether Gothel could really operate a bomber.
“The important thing is whether you really have the authority to operate a bomber. hurry.”
“I have the authority to request, but I do not have the authority to operate. Not yet.”
“What do you mean, still?”
“Sounds like it could be done with a star.”
“Maybe I can put a star on it?”
At my question, Gothel jumped up from the beach bed she was lying on.
“It would be possible if we made Quy Nhon the Hong Kong of Southeast Asia.”
“The Hong Kong of Southeast Asia?”
“They said it came from the US Senate Armed Services Committee. Quy Nhon is more strategically important than Saigon. That makes my rivals want to kill me even more. I didn’t do anything.”
Hong Kong in Southeast Asia… It’s not impossible.
In the end, it is enough to protect Quy Nhon and steal Singapore’s role.
Could it be that the message I informed the Blue House secretary reached to the United States?
Or, did Van Fleet happen to have the same idea as me? He seemed to know the value of Qunyeon.
“Hey, that sounds funny. How can you build an airfield in a jungle that is no different from a bog? I can’t even get asphalt.”
“Godel, I’ll borrow the Corps of Engineers at Quy Nhon Camp for a while.”
“What?”
“I’ll build you an airfield, so put a star on the Saigon headquarters.”
“star? What a star!!!”
If history is going to change, the main character should be me.
If someone has to wear a star, you Gothel should wear it.
“The blueprint is replaced with this one.”
I drew a diamond on the beach sand connecting Quy Nhon, Pleiku, An Khe, and Tuy Hoa.
Road 1 and Road 19 intersected in the middle, and it was as if a cross was drawn in a diamond.
If you want, bombers can take off and land anytime, anywhere, and each base, including Quy Nhon, can supply bombs at any time.
Isn’t that an airfield?
“CS, can you really do it? uh?”
Gothel got excited and yelled at me behind my back.
I just raised my hand and made a fist.
I really didn’t want to do it, but this one is an exception.
As long as I can hit the bombing, my staff will be safe. Also my picture…
The uniform exploded.
I’m sorry, but I felt like I had to pull some of Mark’s engineering corps, as well as the college student he pushed into the repair base.
