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commander.”
    “Sergeant! I’m not going to take much more of your bullshit attitude!” Reed exercised his officership. “I’m doing the
best
that I can do! Someone has to fill out the
paperwork
, and you haven’t seen me volunteering for it!”
    The officer did have a point. He was young and was trying. “Sorry about that, Lieutenant…. You’re right… you’re trying to
     do your best.”
    “All right… let’s drop it.” Reed’s face had turned red. “The mission to the A Shau is going to be quick. We’ll be briefed
     this afternoon, and the insertion is planned for first light in the morning. The plan is simple: Your team will be inserted
     under a heavy escort of gunships, both Hueys and fast movers. You’re to locate the sensors and destroy them.”
    “Destroy?”
Arnason fought back his anger.
    “Yes. The sensors have an antitilt device in them, so it’s just a matter of locating them and jiggling them a little with
     an entrenching tool….”
    “Simple as that?” Amason lit his third Kool. “Don’t forget,
sir
… we
camouflaged
them, so finding the
exact
spot where each one of them is buried is going to be difficult, not simple.”
    “Sergeant, I was briefed by the brigade commander,
personally
! There’s much more to this mission than meets the eye. I’ve told you all that you need to know. Believe me, it’s very important
     that the NVA doesn’t locate the sensors first.”
    “My team is sort of new.” Amason made the statement to remind the lieutenant that his team hadn’t been tested even with a
     short patrol. “Sinclair is still in the hospital, and it looks as if he’s going to be sent back to the States…. I’ve been
     loaned Simpson, but he’s fighting like hell to get off a recon team and stay back in the rear to run his drug ring….”
    “You’re not being fair, Arnason!” Reed flexed his jaws. “There’s no
proof
Simpson is selling drugs!”
    Amason answered the lieutenant with his eyes. He wasn’t going to honor the officer’s totally ignorant statement with words.
     The lieutenant knew as well as he did that Private Tousaint Simpson was
the
drug dealer in the An Khe base camp. Lieutenant Reed averted his eyes, and Amason continued talking. “And this new man… Lee
     San Ko… looks promising, but he’s going to have to be shaken out first.”
    “This will be a good mission for him.” Reed felt that the subject had turned in his favor. He had personally assigned the
     new man to Arnason’s team. Sergeant Lee San Ko was a full-blooded Chinese American who had come from Hong Kong with his family
     as a small child. The man was a martial arts expert and had trained in reconnaissance back in the States and Panama. He was
     very promising and was being groomed as a team leader to replace Sergeant Fitzpatrick, who had been killed in the A Shau Valley.
    “You say this is a hot mission?” Arnason’s professional side took control as he stuffed his personal emotions away somewhere
     deep where they wouldn’t get in the way.
    “Very.” Reed acted sure of himself.
    “Are you coming along?”
    “Not this time.” The recon platoon leader had seen bloodshed on his first mission and wasn’t thrilled anymore with the idea
     of going out on long-range recon patrols. He could find plenty to do to keep himself busy back in the brigade base area, and
     there would be enough missions for him leading combined teams.
    Arnason nodded his head in agreement. He saluted the officer and started walking away. “We’ll be ready in the morning.”
    The smell of fried rice filled the indigenous commando mess hall where Master Sergeant McDonald took most of his meals. He
     sat by himself in deep thought and played with each forkful of food before putting it in his mouth. He was very hungry, but
     his mind was occupied reviewing the message the Recondo School had received the night before. He had spent the whole night
     over at the Special Forces headquarters G-3 office