060 : take my share
After a while, Quyen Camp.
“Colonel! Colonel!”
An adjutant from Quy Nhon camp ran to the command post where Godel was. For some reason, he, who usually only did supply missions, jumped into the room with a map of operations.
“What is it?”
“CS! CS!”
“what? Why CS? Did you get any injuries? Where are you? Where are you now?”
Gothel raised his voice before the adjutant could finish his sentence.
“no. It’s not just an injury, you’ve done a great job. It has been a huge success.”
“A huge achievement? You’re not saying you’ve already done the dredging, are you? Didn’t you say that it would take at least a year?”
Gothel sent CS to Saigon and suffered a heartache alone.
So far, I’ve been on a winning streak with the help of CS, but without him, I had to be content with maintaining the status quo.
“Isn’t it a dredge… No, it’s nothing more than a dredge. They say they sent two LSTs upstream of the Mekong River.”
“What… what?”
It was absurd. Godel was also a US military camp, so they were aware of the strategic significance of the upper Mekong River.
“So… then… our forces are now able to conduct regular naval operations in the upper Mekong River, is that so?”
“Yes that’s right. Until now, at most, small patrol boats were all about riverside patrol activities, but from now on, naval gun support and amphibious operations are possible.”
“Not only that! Doesn’t that mean that we can directly hit the Ho Chi Minh route on the Cambodian border if we have to?”
“That’s right.”
Compared to aerial bombardment, naval gunfire is a constant and permanent attack. Unlike aerial bombing, which takes time to mobilize, naval gunfire strikes the enemy immediately in an emergency.
To be honest, it was the Vietnam Army and the Viet Cong, and there was no capability to directly confront the US Navy.
The problem is that there was no way to place warships in the area, but did you manage to do that?
“How about talking about that now!”
“It appears that the local commander intentionally sabotaged communications. South Korea’s Blue Dragon commander directly communicated…”
“Commander communicated…”
The lid was meant to be opened, but that wasn’t the point right now.
“… No, none of that matters right now. With this, the ally got a chance to win! Occupying the Mekong Delta will change the game of war! It completely changes!”
Gothel was so excited that his whole body tingled even as he spoke.
“Colonel, this is not the time. We must go and establish our fortifications in the Mekong Delta. All you have to do is dig a pit and plant a flag.”
The adjutant was right.
Establishing positions was tantamount to catering.
LST itself was serious. If a warship is standing in the middle of a river, neither the Viet Cong nor the North Vietnamese army can come across the river.
The Viet Cong inside the delta, cut off from the North Vietnamese army, will not be able to operate alone. As time goes by, you have no choice but to disintegrate yourself.
“Fierce tiger troops! We must go with the Fierce Tigers!”
Gothel immediately thought of the Fierce Tiger unit.
It had to be packaged as a joint operation with the South Korean military.
“Haven’t you already requested cooperation in the operation from the Fierce Tiger Unit? That’s it. It’s going to the dropship. The Colonel needs to go by helicopter now. You have to go to the site before the Saigon campsite.”
The adjutant was impatient.
Gothel, who was upset, was as good as his lieutenant.
I had to go 10 minutes earlier and turn what CS did into a regular operation at Quy Nhon camp.
What CS did was not simply construction of a base, but a tremendous achievement in acquiring control of the Mekong River Delta and its surroundings at once.
It was an event that completely changed the face of the Vietnam War.
The Mekong River Delta is home to 5 million farmers, nearly 35% of the Vietnamese population, and responsible for 50% of food production, and the border with Cambodia was the main route for the Vietnamese army to advance.
It didn’t matter at all who the LST that went up was. The fact that a private builder dispatched by the Quy Nhon camp occupied the strategic strategic point was important.
The person in charge of the plan had to be Colonel Gothel, himself.
“what are you doing! run! Where is the helicopter!”
“This is the yard in Area A. And, Colonel. There is a person who came to CS from Korea. If possible, together…”
Gothel jumped at whatever the adjutant said behind his back. I had never run so furiously except during recruit training.
When he arrived in front of the helicopter out of breath, he was dumbfounded as to why he hadn’t come by jeep.
“This is all the Quyonyon camp commander said! Everyone aboard! hurry!”
Inside the helicopter were a small number of troops in charge of security, a supply officer, and Sergeant Mark.
The remaining seats were filled with flags.
“I will depart with the Fierce Tiger unit. Go win! General!”
In the meantime, the man who said he would be called the operational adjutant ‘pretended’ outside the helicopter and saluted.
Already called Gothel a general.
Well, it was only natural for him to become a general if he ate this feat.
Completing Operation Southern Cross alone would be worthy of a star, but it was a much more direct feat than that.
“Let’s go!”
“I will depart. Fasten your seat belt.”
The helicopter took off at once.
“no no! What is the code name for Operation Mekong Occupation? Operation name! You should have decided that first!”
Gothel grabbed the door of the rising helicopter and shouted to the adjutant on the ground.
It would have to be decorated with an operation order, but at least he should have known the codename.
“Escalation! It is an escalation.”
“Escalation!!!!”
tu-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t.
Before I could ask what the name of the operation meant, a helicopter came to mind.
‘Escalation? Are you saying they even brought the LST upstream?’
Only then did Gothel realize that CS didn’t know exactly what it was doing.
I was excited about the fact that I had raised the LST upstream, so I didn’t even ask how to do it.
‘Ser… No way, is that possible?’
How did you lift the huge warship over the rapids that were like waterfalls? It’s not like there’s a Gulliver who picks up and carries a giant warship.
“Ah… ah… hello.”
“who are you?”
“Colonel, I am a special envoy from Korea. They say there is an urgent matter that needs to be conveyed to CS.”
“special envoy? Well, there must be a lot of things that need him in Korea too. It must be a lot.”
“Yes, yes. That’s right.”
Sambok suddenly said yes.
I never said that I was a special envoy, I only said that I had to convey confidential information, but I was treated like this.
Even if it was a misunderstanding, it felt good.
Flying over the Vietnamese jungle in a helicopter, I have something to be proud of for the rest of my life.
‘Wow, kill me, the rice paddies have no end!’
Sambok cheered madly inwardly.
It was said that the area around Quyenyeon was a jungle that was no different from a primeval forest. There was a vast rice field spread out so that the horizon could be seen.
****
Lower Mekong River,
“Scratch. continue!”
“Yes, boss.”
I didn’t even have time to enjoy the afterglow of breaking through the rapids.
No, my heart was beating so hard that I couldn’t stand up.
‘It’s definitely around here. There is.’
When the surrounding US forces were lost in this way, the engines of the Jamaica had to be salvaged.
Sooner or later, when the US military steps in and cleans up the site, the remnants of the Jamaica will be salvaged and the surplus materials disposed of as scrap metal.
Even if you don’t find the engine because it’s still a battlefield where bullets fly around, you’ll think that the engine must have been mixed with the scrap metal collected from other salvage teams.
rattle.
“Heh heh! president!”
“Why did you get something?”
A barge driver who was sweeping the riverbed with a hook urgently called me.
It’s the heaviest thing I’ve ever had.
The tail of the barge was submerged in water.
“Emergency! Emergency! Come on, surround me!”
As I shouted into the radio, the barge was quickly surrounded by two LSTs chasing it.
I operated the lift machine with my peripheral vision blocked, albeit sloppily.
“It took. It got it right.”
“come! Come on!”
A rattling sound was heard, and a heavy mass slowly began to rise.
“Wow, that’s big. It’s huge.”
“Hide! Put it right into the LST. Come on.”
A huge cylinder of iron! My heart felt like it would explode.
Even Marine Corps soldiers who did not know the value of this object were overwhelmed by the size of the salvaged engine and made a fuss about hanging the LST crane.
‘Great! oh my god! Invitation! It’s 8000 horsepower. It’s not 5000 horsepower, it’s 8000 horsepower.’
I jumped and jumped for joy.Read at noblemtl
Judging from the serial number ‘MAN8000-xxx’, it was clear that it was an 8000 horsepower engine from MAN, Germany.
I don’t know why a dredger had a luxury diesel engine, but the US Army engineer who ordered it really wanted to succeed in dredging.
In the 1960s, an engine like that had to be paid for at least $5 million… No, it wasn’t something you could buy at will.
It was a problem that I had to disassemble each one, remove the dirt and polish it before using it, but that’s somewhere. isn’t it free free!!!
“You haven’t seen anything. It’s a national asset. You know what I mean?”
“Yes!”
“Follow me. I didn’t see anything!”
“I didn’t see anything!”
“Fellow Armed Forces soldiers, please. It is a multimillion-dollar, no, treasure that money cannot buy.”
“Blue Dragon!”
The blue dragon unit hid the engine in a hangar at once.
The LST is an amphibious craft that carries tanks and combat troops.
Since it could not be moved to a barge with a clear deck, there was no alternative other than LST.
***
Fighting, fighting, fighting.
“uh?”
As soon as the MAN engine was hidden, the sound of a helicopter was heard from somewhere.
It was not a dragonfly helicopter that you often see, but a rather nice helicopter with twin wings.
After circling the sky for a while, it landed on an iron plate yard built on a riverside hill.
Soon after, American soldiers jumped out of the helicopter.
As I watched, I ran frantically to the entrance of the delta and started planting the Stars and Stripes and the Qunyeon camp flag at random.
“It’s the Qunyeon camp flag. Aha, hahahahaha. Gothel! Gothel is here!”
Gothel can’t be this happy.
Due to unexpected rain during the dry season, we could not contact them and started the operation, but Gothel did not miss this opportunity and ran.
I wasn’t stupid either.
“Hey, let’s go to the helicopter. Come on.”
“Yes, boss.”
I rode a barge tugboat across the river.
“Colonel.”
“Ouch, CS! Were you safe!”
As soon as I landed on the riverside, Gothel strode over and hugged me.
What is it, why is it a musical atmosphere from the beginning?
Colonel Gothel grabbed all the poop and hugged me and looked at me over and over again.
I was so moved that I pretended to be speechless and waited for my lines.
“Current unemployment CS Woo! We report that the transfer of LSTs has been completed according to the order of Quy Nhon Camp.”
“okay! okay! That’s it! Isn’t that what Operation Escalation is?”
‘Escalation? nice.’
I must have been impatient, but it was a very good code name to express my strategy.
“It was possible because the Colonel’s instructions were perfect.”
“To do a difficult job so perfectly!”
Apparently, I didn’t even know how I got the LST upstream.
“Sorry for not contacting you earlier. It was already raining, so we had to burst the water dam. This is because we had to go up the river when the water level rose momentarily.”
“Yeah! You are also quick to grasp the situation. It would have been daunting to carry out military operations as a civilian, but you did a great job. Well done! Well done!”
“Even though I am just a construction contractor, I only thought of work with trust in the colonel.”
“You mean that?”
“I trusted the colonel to resolve all procedural issues, if necessary to complete the order. Where are the soldiers and civilians in Vietnam’s defense of freedom!”
I clenched my fists in front of him.
“That’s right! Freedom protection is our top priority!”
As if waiting for those words, Gothel looked around and shouted along with the protection of freedom.
As if Gothel’s excited voice was a signal, the public relations officer pressed the shutter of the camera.
Yes, this is how light is sold.
If Smith were the commander here, my job would be nothing more than a dredging operation, but with Gothel bringing troops like this, it becomes a military operation.
“Establish a camp position in Kwi Nyeon! there! there!”
“Build!”
Sergeant Mark winked at me and scattered his troops in all directions. Each person carried several flags and ran.
Yes, just planting the flag here was like completing the construction of the camp.
‘Did the ROK-US allied forces ever occupy the Mekong Delta in history?’
It didn’t seem like a bad direction to know.
Godel will have Korean troops stationed here to claim merit here.
Since the Blue Dragon unit’s LST has gone up, it should be nominally a joint operation.
Our military is a nation that knows the value of rice fields, so it will do much better than the US Army.
“Sir! Camp Saigon, this is Major Smith. Welcome to Operation Mekong Delta.”
Major Smith, who must have seen the helicopter, hurriedly ran up and saluted Colonel Gothel.
“What bullshit? Operation Mekong Delta?”
Gothel frowned.
