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 don’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 1130 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?”
With slow and gentle, even graceful, movements the seaman signaled the winch operators on the deck of the Captain J.C. Buffett to begin to very slowly haul aboard what the White Manufacturing Company called a Wrecker, Special, Heavy Duty and the U.S. Army called a Vehicle, Heavy Vehicle Recovery 6 × 6 Mark III A2.
The Army and the White Manufacturing Company were agreed that the truck was heavy. It had been heavy when built for civilian use, designed to be able to pick up a broken-down tractor for eighteen-wheeler rigs. The Army had demanded a number of modifications to the basic design. The front (steering) wheels of the basic model had not been powered. The Army demanded that their version have all-wheel drive. The frame