W.E.B. Griffin - Retreat, Hell!

"The general does not want any delays when we go aboard the ships," the chief of staff—the most equal of all the pigs—said. "Comments, please."

T. Howard Kennedy had another irreverent thought: That's a nice thought, but it's like hoping for a white Christmas. Nice if you can get it, but unlikely.

There were going to be delays in loading X Corps aboard the ships that would constitute the invasion fleet for the Woman landing. That was a given. There were always delays.

This maneuver was probably going to have more delays than the general was going to like, which was going to be a problem for everybody in the chief of staff's office. Major General Edward M. Almond expected his orders to be obeyed as he wanted them to be obeyed, which was sometimes impossible to accomplish, and when that happened, Almond's temper was legendary.

The chief of staff was looking at Colonel Kennedy, which told Kennedy that the chief of staff considered this meeting a conference, which was different from just being summoned by the chief of staff to receive orders. In a confer­ence, comments were solicited before orders were issued. And conferees pre­sented their comments in reverse order of rank, most junior first. This ensured that whatever the junior officer had to say was not influenced by the com­ments of the officers senior to him.

The pecking order here placed Kennedy at the bottom. The Transportation Office wasn't even a G-Section, but rather a subsection of the Office of the As­sistant Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations, G-3. The G-3 and the G-4 (Sup­ply) were supposed to be more or less equal, but the G-3 called the shots.

"There are six truck companies available," Kennedy said. "Four—two with the Marines and two with the 7th Division—are operational, and will of course be available to move people and gear to Inchon when the orders are issued. Two are in reserve, and I have given operational control of one of them to the G-4 so that he can start moving whatever he wants to move to Inchon whenever he wants to move it. Similarly, I have given operational control of half of the re­maining truck company to the Headquarters Commandant here for the same purpose. The other half remains in reserve.

"The only unit over which I exercise staff control is the vehicle exchange company, the 8023d. Five days ago, I started to move it to the wharfs in In­chon for on-loading."

"Howard," the G-4 said, "I hope you're not going to tell me they're already on-loaded?"

"No. They are probably in the process by now, but, no, they're not on-loaded. I was going to go down there this morning and see how things are going."

"I'm a little confused," the G-3 said. "You said you told them to move five days ago. And they're only 'probably' in the process of on-loading? How long does it take them to move from one side of Inchon to the other?"

The chief of staff snorted.

"Bob, there are almost six hundred vehicles in the 8023d—" Kennedy started to reply.

"Almost?" the G-4 interrupted.

"Five hundred seventy-nine, Gerry," Kennedy finished.

"And their condition?"

"I sent you a report, Gerry," Kennedy said. "There are five hundred seventy-nine ready for issue, plus seven beyond the company's ability to repair. They have exchanged far fewer vehicles than was anticipated, somewhere around twenty, mostly jeeps and six-by-sixes."

"I must not have gotten your report," the G-4 said, and wrote in a wire-bound notebook.

"Okay," the G-3 said. "Six hundred, give or take, vehicles. And it's taken this long to move from one side of Inchon to the other?"

"They were set up for exchange, Bob," Kennedy explained patiently. "The CO did a very good job. But we're talking here about (a) on-loading all the ve­hicles, and (b) doing so according to that loading sequence schedule you sent me. That takes time."

"Time spent here will save time when we get on Wonsan," the G-3 said. "Last on/first off makes sense. A lot of thought has gone into that loading se­quence schedule."

"All I'm saying, Bob, is that it takes some time to accomplish. This is not like driving these vehicles to the Battery and right onto the Staten Island Ferry. They have to be sorted at the wharf according to what goes on first."

"I can do without the sarcasm, thank you very much, Howard," the G-3 said coldly.

"I didn't think Howard was being sarcastic, Bob," the chief of staff said.

Colonel Kennedy thought: That either got me off the hook or sunk me deeper in the deep shit.

"We're going to need those vehicles at Inchon," the G-4 said. "It seems pretty obvious to me that a replacement of only twenty vehicles means that a good deal more are on the edge of needing replacement, and even more will be needing replacement after we get them ashore at Wonsan. I'd really like to see these vehicles moved up—as far up as possible—on the off-loading schedule."

"Gerry's got a point, Bob," the chief of staff said.

"I'll see what I can do."

"The general would be very unhappy if our dash for the Chinese border was delayed by broken-down trucks," the chief of staff said. "I don't want that to happen."

"I'll review the off-loading schedule and get you my suggested changes," the G-3 said.

"Great! And, just to satisfy my general curiosity, Howard, how is this vehi­cle exchange company fixed for tank retrievers and wreckers?"

"I believe there are twenty wreckers and fifteen tank retrievers," Kenn­edy said.

"Bob, make sure that when you review your on-/off-loading schedule that some wreckers—a half a dozen, anyway—and, say, five tank retrievers are near the head of the line," the chief of staff ordered.

"Even if that means off-loading them if they've already been on-loaded?"

Kennedy asked.

The chief of staff thought that over for ten seconds.

"Yeah, Howard, even if it comes down to that. And come see me, please, after you've had a chance to see how things are going down there."

"Right," Colonel Kennedy said.

[FOUR]

Wharf 3

Inchon, South Korea

113O 11 October 1950

The Waterman Steamship Line freighter Captain J. C. Buffett was tied up to Wharf 3 when Colonel Kennedy drove up to the wharf. In bumper-to-bumper lines parallel to the ship were the vehicles of the 8023d Transportation Com­pany (Depot, Forward) waiting to be loaded.

Halfway down the lines, Kennedy touched the arm of his jeep driver and ordered, "Stop here, Tom."

He got out of the jeep and walked down the line of vehicles, looking care­fully at each one. He was pleased with what he saw and the few truck tires he kicked. All the vehicles seemed ready for duty.

But when he got close to the end of the line, and the ship itself, he saw some­thing that pleased him not at all.

A squat, ruddy-faced, middle-aged sailor was standing on the wharf. He held both hands extended before him, palms up.

Kennedy knew what he was doing, signaling the operators of the crane and winch operators on the ship as they prepared to load a vehicle aboard. Two things annoyed Colonel Kennedy: first, that an ordinary seaman, rather than an officer, was supervising the operation, and second, that the vehicle about to be loaded aboard the Captain J. C. Buffett was a heavy-duty wrecker.

He didn't have the revised on-/off-loading schedule yet, but the chief of staff had made it very clear that the first vehicles he wanted unloaded at Wonsan were heavy-duty wreckers and tank retriever vehicles. That meant they would have to be loaded last, so they could be unloaded first.

He walked up to the seaman on the wharf who was directing the boom and winch operators.

"Excuse me," he said.

"Not now, buddy. Can't you see I'm working?"