Ortega looked observingly at the map and ascertained it was Laos.
They were going to send them to Laos.
After Trautman and Garner gave him a brief description of the zone they went on to explain, in rather hushed tones, the investigative nature of the mission.
Ortega counted the map's quadrants and understood the reason for Trautman and Garner's choice of tone and when he did, he swallowed.
The problem wasn’t the investigation per se, but was presented by the distance itself, and exactly how much of it had to be covered.
The landing zone was correct – nice and far from any potential dangers – but the objective as such was too far to reach on foot. It was too fucking far away for anybody, whomever they may be and, so much so, that initially Ortega thought he had miscalculated the distances. When he was absolutely certain about not having made any miscalculations, he was equally as confident in his knowledge that no SOG team before him had ever hit that far.
“The target is twenty clicks beyond the point of no return,” Ortega said in a gloomy voice.
The term 'point of no return’ was the maximum range of operation for SOG teams.
Just like planes or cars, SOG teams had their maximum range mainly based on their food and water carrying capacity but also on terrain and stamina as well.
Once you passed that point, the team would have faced food and water shortage on their way back home not to mention extreme fatigue.
Ortega had never heard of anyone who tried to get beyond the point of no return especially on enemy terrain.
Doing it like that, on a whim – so to say – as Trautman and Garner suggested, was pure insanity.
Had it been an imminent life or death situation, Ortega would never have thought twice about giving it a try. Being asked like that however, while he was safe and sound inside the MacV main office in Saigon and sitting comfortably made it unthinkable. Asking him under these circumstances pushed him to make the most logical decision which meant refusing and telling them that the mission was in all reality, nothing but a suicide attempt.
It was obvious however, that Ortega didn’t refuse outright.
He didn’t reply immediately, but reconsidered the giant map in front of him carefully and recalculated the possible routes, distances in days, in nights, and the necessary food and water rations.
The only way to reduce water and food consumption was to reduce the length of the mission itself.
This could only be done by marching fast like they used to do during the death marches back in Fort Bragg. Yet, those were nothing but muscle training exercises and had as a main objective exhausting the candidate to death.
Other plausible ways to keep mission length at a minimum was to allow very little sleep time, or none at all, probably an average of an hour a night.
Thus, if one considered the elevated marching rhythm, extreme fatigue, moderate fasting and sleep deprivation, they would not only lose about 3 kilos each, but would also have had to hunt at least twice on their way back. Under that kind of stress the chances of making a mistake would havesky rocketed because that's how human nature works. In situations like those, it doesn't matter how hard you’ve trained or for how long, you can only decrease the chances of screwing up, but never eliminate them entirely.
After all, they were only human.
Fighting under such premises was just an added danger and going into
Enemy territory under such a premise was absolutely insane.
If that wasn’t enough however, there was the whole invisibility issue. All things considered, it didn’t correspond to the elevated rhythm of march required on that kind of mission, in the least.
The Baker Team had to make sure the enemy didn’t identify them in Laos.
They wouldn’t be able to engage the enemy for any reason in the world because engaging behind enemy lines usually meant eight shooting against a hundred. Great.
The statistics clearly spoke for themselves because when the SOG teams engaged the enemy along the Ho Chi Minh trail it was always a suicide attempt.
Anyone and everyone participating risked a death sentence in every sense of the word.
Furthermore, a mission like that required Ortega and the others to not only be fast, but invisible as well, and the two didn’t always go hand in hand.
Quite the contrary actually, they general worked as opposites.
You have to be very careful if you don’t want to remain unseen, but being careful is problematic when you’re moving fast. Speed and stealth neutralize each other not only in the jungle but on any other terrain for that matter.
At the end of the game therefore, there were all the necessary suppositions for a mission like that to turn into a tragedy before even reaching its objective.
Nevertheless Ortega went on to imagine the mission itself once they essentially reached the objective. Naturally when doing so, he would have to take the fatigued state they’d be in into account as well, and things basically got even more complicated.
At that point, they would have had to get into and look around the objective structure all without being seen. Moreover, being an investigative type mission, they wouldn’t even have the slightest idea regarding what may really be in there. Would a Vietcong team be waiting? Was it capable of holding an entire regiment perhaps? Did they have any guard dogs? Or external towers?
They didn’t know a single thing about it, and didn’t have an answer to any of these questions, not one.
“The main problem is the distance,” Garner said clearly interrupting Ortega's thoughts.
“We have been thinking about it for the last three hours, racking our brains over it. No matter what we contemplated however, there was no way of getting you and the team any closer to the target than that”
Truth be told, what worried Ortega most of all wasn’t the target whatsoever but the journey itself there, and above all the one they’d have to make back.
“Now it's up to you Ortega,” said Trautman.
“You have to tell us if this mission is possible or just plain suicidal”
“No, it's not,” said Ortega as he analysed the map once more and continued with his calculations. Still observing the map, he added:
“It all comes down to this target’s priority level. What I’m saying is that even though physically speaking its incredibly demanding, that alone doesn’t qualify it as impossible, and I believe we can make it, so it is not exactly what I would define a suicide mission. If I was a bookie however, I wouldn’t necessarily bet on me straightaway. I mean, betting on a team, any team, surviving a mission like this can’t have high odds.”
There was at that point a long awkward silence which ensued. Even Ortega himself was self-conscious of having said what he really believed so directly, and a loud. They were all uncomfortable, everyone except for Trautman that is, because unlike the other teams, he was used to asking his men to run nonsensical risks to reach menacing targets.
“Go on Skorpio” Trautman said.
Ortega tilted his head while he looked at them not unlike dogs do when they don’t understand what they are being told.
“Twenty clicks,” he said.
“It's exactly twenty clicks beyond our maximum food and water range. That first setback doesn’t bear in mind fatigue, which happens to be the very by-product of our marching speed. Moreover, that marching speed isn’t a variable we can change since we have no choice but to maintain it”
Ortega became quiet again while he reassessed the altitude curves, the roads and the distances thereby working out the necessary food and water consumption for the umpteenth time.
We’ll have a lot of alternative routes available, so even if the target is under heavy surveillance, we can still get there without making any contact with the enemy.
When it comes to fatigue levels or mistakes owing to marching speed, it’s just a matter of sucking it up.
The belief that it’s just a matter of ‘sucking it up’ is rather an understatement, when you really think about what needs to be done.
Jesus.
This time we’ll be counting the minutes till it’s over.
Anyways, as far as he was concerned, the mission was, technically speaking, was possible.
It may not have been for most of the other SOG teams but for Baker team B it was.
After they’d spent two years putting their limits to the test, Ortega knew exactly what they were capable of doing, so he was more than certain.
Despite their capabilities however, that mission was going to be nothing but hell from start to finish.
With that in mind he thought it through even further before eventually agreeing to accept.
After a short pause, he sighed.
They risked being identified and captured or killed, particularly on the march back when they’d be the most vulnerable mostly because of exhaustion. They may even vanish into thin air like so many other SOG teams missing in action had done before them. Oh yeah, right, let’s not leave those ones out.
It had to be an especially important target if Trautman was willing to put his prizemen on the line for something as crazy as this promised to be.
Ortega was still absorbed in thought while his eyes remained fixated on the map when he noticed yet another problem. In case someone felt there hadn’t been enough problems cited already, that is.
“High Eagle (the closest radio relay site) is too far. We’ll be out of radio communication range as well, or won’t we?”
“That’s affirmative”
“So how are we supposed to report our findings then?”
“There’ll be a radio-air plane in flight over Laos specifically for your mission. We are however talking about Air America, so consequently there’ll have to be several limitations on using it. In fact, the time window won't last more than half an hour twice a day and it’ll have to take place at a pre-established hour”
With so little radio communication at their disposal, they would have been even more isolated than he’d initially foreseen. Besides not being able to communicate on demand therefore, they wouldn’t even have any kind of air support from helicopters or planes. Moreover, if all that wasn’t enough, the timing on everything would be of the utmost importance for the entirety of the mission.
Ortega shifted his look to Garner in hopes of hearing his views as well.
“If you want to put an end to it right here, no one will have anything else to say about it” Trautman’s colleague said.
“Well, at least we’ll have this radio-airplane” Ortega replied.
“Yes, but we have no idea what is actually down there” answered Trautman.
“Furthermore, should our radio plane ever be shot down where it shouldn’t be, we may end up having CIA radio equipment all over the cover of the TIMES”
Ortega nodded understandingly as he stood arms crossed without making a sound as Trautman moved closer to him and the map.
“We haven’t even gotten into the target itself yet. From what we know, it is some kind of Vietcong logistics infrastructure such as a central command or communication centre. It may however be nothing more than a construction site for a bridge or road for that matter. It’s of interest because it is one of the three possible locations where Vuong may be”
“Vuong” Ortega repeated to himself.
“Vuong is the junction ring between what happens on the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail and the Southern insurgents” Trautman said.
“He is the one that makes things work for real in Saigon. SOG’s main objective has always been to turn the guerrilla warfare into a conventional war. We want to fight against an enemy wearing a uniform not against civilians wielding war weapons. Vuong fits into all this because he is one of the few men that can truly turn innocent civilians into perfect terrorists. He is one of the key men along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Tri-border zone.
Thanks to a tip-off, we know three locations where Vuong might be on 'X' day, and we are going to hit all three of them. Consequently, there is only a one in three chance that Vuong will be inside the target zone but if he is, you can bet we’re going to order you to kill him. Moreover, if you succeed, replacing someone like him would be very problematic for the Vietminh, perhaps even impossible. They may never recover from that kind of loss again”
Ortega nodded and then got up out of his chair.
He walked to the table below the map and turned some aerial photos of the area towards him.
There was definitely something going on down there. The Vietcong were good at using vegetation to hide it, but they were definitely building something. At any rate, there was no way anybody could say what they were doing without actually going there and having a look.
Accordingly, Trautman added:
“Maybe it's an ammo deposit, in which case you make contact, we authorize a blow up job and that's that. Notwithstanding whatever there might be down there, or what you find, you’ve got to relay that Intel to us because it’s essential we be the ones deciding what to do, not you. The behind the scenes for this mission are complicated”
“Here – Garner said as he pointed to the map on the wall – that's the point of maximum risk for the Air America flight. We’ve tried to find additional viable flying routes as possible alternatives but we haven’t come up with any others. That’s primarily why we’ve only managed to provide a radio-link which lasts half an hour but not a minute more”
“We’ll make sure it’s enough” Ortega said to all of them.
Garner took a step back from the map and said:
“Then that's everything. Now the decision rests with your Scorpio”
Ortega contemplated it a while longer as Garner and Trautman stayed silent and waited patiently behind him.
The routes were there, as were its alternatives and subsequently that objective was in their reach.
There was no question at all that it would have been an excruciating mission, but if Ortega's team pulled off a mission like that, they would be setting a new record for furthest range in enemy owned territory. Furthermore, it would unquestionably achieve both prosperous and acclaimed results that until now have been unprecedented for Trautman's experimental program.
It would give tenfold importance to the colonel's tactical views regarding the war at the very least.
Consequently, that alone, regardless even of the outcome of the mission itself, would have benefitted Vietnam as a whole and a positive result overall on the damn war itself. Everything was going wrong, and the only one really trying to fix things up was Trautman.
So, it was for this reason in particular, in the end, Ortega accepted.
For Trautman’s sake.
“Yes” he said.
Trautman looked carefully into Ortega's eyes almost to ensure that he was certain of his choice.
“We accept the mission”
“Okay then” said the colonel.
“Operation 'Point of no return'' is the code name. Your mission objectives are to reach the target, identify then evaluate enemy forces, determine the success rate of a potential attack and relay it back by radio. Is that clear?”
Trautman and Garner both turned to face Ortega, who nodded.
“Presidential authorization should take no longer than a few hours”
“Nixon is currently at Camp David”, Garner emphasized.
Ortega swallowed.
“This is an H-1 objective, Scorpio of the highest level. Remember that you are on a reconnaissance mission. It must be clear as of now that under no circumstances will you attack in the presence of a base, red-site training grounds or anything else like that, hosting the enemy. I don’t care about the upshot from operation Black Spot, how skilled or experienced you think you are or any of that. This time you are an investigative team, not an offensive one. Is that clear?”
“Yessir”