Trautman was looking at the oversized map when they informed him his men had were almost done getting ready and would be available for debriefing shortly.
Trautman was thinking about how suspicious the VC presence in the rice field was and wondered if they hadn't somehow found out about the HALO jump beforehand.
Jesus Christ, let’s hope not – he thought.
The only other alternative however, was much, much worse.
The alternative was somebody tipped them off.
That was a terrible assumption to make, but plausible.
That theory implied that Central Command in Saigon had a mole. Given the possibility of a diplomatic fallout, prior to the attack, various departments received updates regarding the attack itself. That theory however, no matter how remote, was an eventuality that made the Colonel uncomfortable even if it had briefly crossed his mind.
A mole in Saigon? In the MacV? Jesus Christ – he thought.
Let’s hope it's just me being suspicious.
“Colonel, most of them are in there now and we’re almost ready for debriefing,” Garner informed him.
Being ready as well, Trautman therefore made his way out of Central Command without Garner, who stopped to pick up some documents first.
*
Trautman walked past some trenches where fluorescent cigarette cherries were floating around in the dark right before going into the tent complex that housed teams returning from their missions.