My New Job

First Tour

The next morning after breakfast I met the other commuters and we went to the truck together. Only the driver knew where it was because he often took it out at night. I never got to know him or to learn where he went, but the truck was often in a different place in the morning than we had left it the night before. Apparently, he worked at some other place on the airbase as did many others of the commuters. I never even found out what his job was.

I was very surprised when we approached the truck. The others in the group started carefully inspecting the truck, even crawling underneath. Someone checked to see that the lock was still on the gas tank and that it was still the same lock. On the way to work, they told me that it was quite common for the VC to put bombs on trucks. One favorite trick was to activate a hand grenade and the hold the lever down with elastic bands. This would then be dropped into the gas tank where the elastic would eventually dissolve and the grenade would explode, making it very unhealthy to be in the truck at the time. We had to be careful, even when there was a lock, because they would cut off the one that was there and replace it with a new one.

After about 20 minutes we arrived at the Combined Intelligence Center. I was told that my job was going to be the editor for their products. I would organize jobs that were spread around to different people, proofread and edit, all the text, make sure that everything necessary was completed, and finally to send the products to the printers. I had to laugh because the US Army had spent two years training me and then put me in a job that had absolutely nothing to do with that training.

Our main products were based on the standard 1:50,000 scale maps that the military used. We started with the basic map and then developed overlays that gave additional information. For example, we had overlays that showed all enemy installations, right down to foxholes, the vegetation in more detail, the ease of movement on foot, on wheeled vehicles, and on tracked vehicles, all sightings of enemy troops, likely routes for enemy movement, and much more. Each overlay was supplemented by written material explaining the content and its implications. These sets of overlays were redone every few months to keep the information on them as up to date as possible. If there was enough lead time, we would revise the sets in preparation for some specific operation.

The Center also produced WET (Weather, Enemy, and Terrain) studies on demand. These concerned specific subjects that were of interest to the commanders in the field. For example, we did studies of rice growing practices so that the troops in the field would be able to tell what was real and what was not. The unreal often being a tipoff that there was a trap or ambush waiting. During the second half of this tour, I produced many reports myself and I will discuss them in more detail in later posts.