Part 66 (1/2)

”Finding out when the Chinese are coming in,” McCoy said. ”The 1st MarDiv landed at Wonsan yesterday-”

”Only part of them, McCoy,” Howe interrupted. ”The 1st Marine Air Wing is ash.o.r.e and operating out of Wonsan-and Bob Hope and a USO troupe have entertained them there. Even I was there. But there are still elements of the division sailing around in circles waiting for the mines at Wonsan to be cleared. When I saw General Almond- when he told me what had happened to you-he had just had himself flown off the Mount McKinley Mount McKinley on a helicopter. I guess by tonight-certainly by tomorrow-everybody should be ash.o.r.e. The Marines, I mean. They're not going to even try to land the 7th Infantry Division at Wonsan; they're going to land at Iwon.” on a helicopter. I guess by tonight-certainly by tomorrow-everybody should be ash.o.r.e. The Marines, I mean. They're not going to even try to land the 7th Infantry Division at Wonsan; they're going to land at Iwon.”

”That's a hundred sixty, seventy miles north of Wonsan, ” McCoy said. ”When's that supposed to happen?”

”Tomorrow,” Howe said.

”Pyongyang has fallen,” McCoy said. ”Which means there is no need for X Corps to start back across the peninsula. Which means that pretty soon they'll be ordered to move north instead-”

”They already have been,” Howe interrupted again. He looked at Pickering. ”I was in Wonsan last night and this morning. I used the L-19.” Pickering nodded. ”Almond already has his orders. The Capital ROK Division will continue advancing up the coastline toward the Russian border. The ROK 3rd Division is going to go north from Hamhung to the Chosin Reservoir, and then up to the Manchurian border. When the 1st MarDiv gets organized ash.o.r.e, they will follow the 3rd ROK, and-I don't think the 3rd ROK has been told this-pa.s.s through their lines, probably near the reservoir, and beat them to the Manchurian border to make sure our Koreans don't cross it. The 7th Division, once it's ash.o.r.e at Iwon, will attack north straight for the Manchurian border.”

”I didn't hear any of this in Tokyo,” Pickering said, more than a little bitterly.

”Did you talk to MacArthur?” Howe asked.

Pickering shook his head no.

”Almond told me he got his orders via officer courier,” Howe went on. ”They're probably known only to the Bataan Gang in the Dai Ichi Building, and they wouldn't tell you unless MacArthur specifically ordered them to. . . .”

”And I didn't ask,” Pickering said. ”They wouldn't have lied to me if I asked, but I didn't ask.”

”Okay. Well, that's it,” Howe said. ”That's all I know.”

”Sir, in these circ.u.mstances,” McCoy said, ”our obvious priority is to get as early a warning of the Chinese intervention as possible, especially since no one else thinks it will happen.”

”I think General Almond does,” Howe said. ”He didn't come right out and say so, but I had the feeling he won't be terribly surprised to encounter the Chinese Red Army.”

”How do you propose to get 'as early a warning as possible'? ” Pickering asked.

”Well, that opens a new can of worms,” McCoy said.

”Let's have it,” Pickering said.

”Well, while Colonel Van and I were looking for General Dean and Pick-”

”One final question about that,” Howe interrupted. ”What about General Dean? I know the President will ask.”

”I'm afraid all indications are that he's in China, sir,” Vandenburg said.

”Okay. You did your best, and I'll make sure the President knows that,” Howe said. ”Go on, McCoy. Sorry for the interruption.”

”When we were looking for the General and Pick, we also trained the men-the Marines we have on loan-as overnight stay-behinds. By that I mean, we dropped them off and went back the next day and got them.”

”Using the Sikorsky helicopters, you mean?” Pickering asked.

”Yes, sir.”

”And using-what was the term you used-'overnight stay-behinds'?”

”That's my term, sir. It's not in any book.”

”Very little of anything you've ever done since I've known you has been in any book,” Pickering said.

”What they do, General,” Vandenburg said, ”is find someplace where they won't be seen-where n.o.body would expect them to be-and then they just listen. The last thing they want to do is get in a firefight. There's no way they could win.”

”How do you know where to put them?” Pickering said.

”We fly over in the daytime in one of the L-19s,” McCoy said. ”Zimmerman or I go along in the backseat. We point out to the pilot where we would like to leave them- usually on some hilltop-and the pilot-who will fly the Big Black Bird-decides if he can go in there or not.”

”You're landing helicopters on mountaintops?” Pickering demanded of Major Alex Donald.

”Most of the time we just hover, sir,” Donald said. ”A couple of feet off the ground. There's no place to touch the wheels down.”

”You've been making these flights?” Pickering asked.

”Most of them,” McCoy answered for him.

”And this works?”

”Not all the time. But it's all we've got,” McCoy said.

”Did you know about this?” Pickering asked Howe.

Howe shook his head no. ”This is not my area of expertise, ” he said.

”What did you mean, Ken, when you said 'a new can of worms'?” Pickering asked.

”Well, sir, when we did it north of the line, Zimmerman and I and some of the original Marines from the Flying Fish Channel operation, plus, of course, our Koreans, did it. We never did it with the Marines we borrowed from the 5th Marines.”

”Why not?”

”Our Marines are volunteers, sir. The guys we borrowed from the 5th Marines didn't volunteer for anything. I don't think we should send people to do something like this if they're not volunteers.”

”Why not?” Howe said. ”I don't remember anybody saying 'volunteers take one step forward' when the 5th Marines were ordered to land at Inchon.”

”If our guys are discovered, sir, that's just about it for them. That's not like Inchon. We can't go get them.”

”And you don't think they'd volunteer if they were asked?”

”I think they probably would, sir, but . . .”

”But what?”

”We borrowed them, sir. The 5th Marines expect them back. What do we say if we can't return them? That they're missing on a mission we can't talk about?”

”Why not?” Howe asked.

”The Marines don't leave people behind, sir. There would be a lot of questions asked we couldn't answer. But people would keep asking them. Pretty soon, a lot of eyes-angry eyes-would be looking at us, looking d.a.m.ned close at us, and we just can't afford that.”

”There wouldn't be that problem, would there, if the men from the 5th Marines were no longer a.s.signed to the 5th Marines?” Howe asked.