P. O. W. Read Online Free

bars.
    Barnett looked over at Colonel Garibaldi’s cage as soon as the morning light was bright enough to see by and saw that the
     colonel had also been up all night. “Sir… I don’t think that I can handle it… if… if they…”
    “Me neither, Spencer… me neither…”
    The Air Force colonel couldn’t take his eyes off the dead South Vietnamese soldier.

CHAPTER TWO
Project Cherry
    Sergeant Amason could see Woods sitting on top of the bunker. Searching through his pockets for his lighter, he took his time
     lighting the Kool hanging from his lower lip. Even from where he was standing, he could feel the agony coming from Woods without
     seeing the man’s face. It had been weeks since they had returned from the reconnaissance patrol in the A Shau Valley and the
     decimation of two of their recon teams.
    “Watching the dust, Sergeant?” Lieutenant Reed had exited the bunker from the rear entrance and saw his NCO standing there
     smoking.
    “There’s enough of it, isn’t there.” Amason looked over at the lieutenant. “The bigger this base camp becomes, the more red
     dust…. That shit is everywhere!”
    “It makes you want to go to the field, doesn’t it?” Reed tried leaning against the burlap wall in the narrow strip of shade
     the early-afternoon sun provided.
    “Yeah…” Amason kept watching Woods.
    “How would you like to go back to the A Shau for a short mission?” Reed tried rushing over the name of the NVA stronghold.
    Amason slowly turned his head away from Woods and looked the lieutenant directly in the eyes. He could feel the fear enter
     his bowels and felt like defecating, but his face didn’t reveal any emotion. “The A Shau?”
    “Yes. Brigade has received a highly classified message that concerns us.” Lieutenant Reed looked around to see if there was
     anyone near who could eavesdrop on their conversation before continuing. “One of the CIA listening posts in Laos has monitored
     a telephone conversation between a POW camp commander and a high-ranking NVA intelligence officer.” Reed checked the area
     around him again for people. “Do you remember the seismic-intrusion detectors we planted?”
    “How can I forget?” Arnason looked back over to where Woods was sitting. The soldier hadn’t changed his position.
    “It seems that the NVA have found six of them, but they can’t locate the second set… the set your team planted.”
    “Thanks… We did try to hide them.” Arnason was trying to be sarcastic.
    “I hope you didn’t camouflage them
too
good, because they want you to go back and retrieve them.”
    It took a couple of seconds for what the lieutenant had said to sink into Amason’s mind and take precedence in his thoughts.
     His voice thickened, and the words came out in a jumble. “Are yuh… you trying to tell me those motherfuckingstaffbastards…
     after I lost five men dead and two still in the hospital… James and Barnett missing… Are you telling me they now want me to
     go back there and
retrieve
those fucking electronic boxes?” Arnason could feel that he was about to lose his temper and fought within himself to regain
     control. “Three weeks ago—
three weeks!
—those supersecret boxes were
so
damned important! Now they want them back!” Amason lit another Kool with shaking hands. “Fuck them!”
    “Sergeant! I was in
command
of those teams…. Don’t you think that I feel the loss too?”
    “Look at what it did to him!” Amason nodded in the direction of the distant Woods.
    “Who?” Reed couldn’t see the soldier sitting on the perimeter bunker.
    Arnason curled his lip in contempt. “Woods… Have you been to the hospital yet, Lieutenant?”
    “I’m going to try and make it there this week…. I’ve been real busy with after-action reports and the debriefings.”
    “Yeah… Tell Kirkpatrick and Sinclair that….” Arnason turned to walk away before he did something stupid. “You were in
command
in the A Shau… so
act
like a