At the MacV head office in Saigon, Garner and Trautman had been deliberating about the map for the last three hours.
After yet another pause in silent reflection, Trautman finally spoke up and said:
“That's enough”
He picked up the papers in front of him, piled them up and patted them on the table a couple of times to tidy them better.
“Let's call Skorpio,” he said.
-
In order to get to the oval room, Ortega had to walk through the Special Forces’ main command room. It was Ortega’s first time there, and when he saw it, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
It was full of desks, documents and people who were coming and going. What stood out the most in Ortega’s opinion however, was the enormous notice board which towered above everything else. Truthfully speaking, it was only a blackboard which displayed a great deal of nameplates, but its size was daunting and there was a man incessantly moving all those nameplates around with a long stick.
The blackboard showed dates, times and places so that command knew exactly where every team was at all times. The nameplates with team names moved constantly, but Ortega noticed that some of those names were written by hand, in chalk.
It didn’t take Ortega long at all to recognize the handwritten names because they were all SOG teams.
He tried to reflect momentarily over why that might be.
“Hey” Ortega said to the first guy who walked past him.
“Why don’t the SOG teams get a nameplate just like everybody else does?”
The guy eyed Ortega suspiciously, looking him up and down before deciding to answer.
“Baker team B, Team Leader”
“Okay man. You SOG guys don't have a nameplate because it would be absolutely pointless. We’d have to keep making them constantly”
Ortega swallowed.
We’d have to keep making them – a voice repeated in his head.
He turned his attention back up at the blackboard again.
Meaning we drop like flies and the majority of us, on our first mission.
“Would that be a problem for you Skorpio?” Trautman asked from the other side of the room.
Ortega turned to see Trautman standing in the doorway that led into the next room. Apparently, he’d been waiting for him.
“No sir”
“Very well then, let's go”