and body had been reinforced to take both the weight of the more powerful lifting arm and the additional weight it was intended to lift. And there were lifting hooks welded to the frame in places determined to be the best places to put them so the weight would be evenly distributed when it had to be loaded aboard a ship.
There was the whining hum of an electric motor and the limp cables attached to the lifting hooks on the front of the wrecker grew taut, and then the hum of another electric motor and the cables attached three quarters of the way down the frame began to draw taut.
Well, screw you, Colonel Kennedy thought, just as soon as you get that wrecker loaded aboard, at least just as soon as I can have a word with the captain, you’ll just have to take it back off.
Kennedy saw Captain Francis P. MacNamara, commanding officer of the 8023d Transportation Company (Depot, Forward), standing by his jeep on the other side of the seaman supervising the loading and walked over to him.
MacNamara saluted.
“Good afternoon, sir,” he said.
“How are you, MacNamara?” Kennedy replied.
“We’ve just started to load, sir,” MacNamara said. “I thought it best to arrange the vehicles so they could be loaded according to the last on/first off schedule before we actually started the procedure.”
“Good thinking, MacNamara,” Kennedy said. “There’s been some changes to that schedule. I’ll want to talk to you about them, but I think we might as well wait until we can talk to the captain at the same time.”
“Yes, sir.”
There was a screeching sound of unknown origin, which lasted about fifteen seconds, then the sound of the seaman’s voice.
“Jesus H. Fucking Christ!”
He sounded disgusted, or frustrated, or both.
The Vehicle, Heavy Vehicle Recovery 6 × 6 Mark III A2 was now suspended five feet in the air, swinging slowly back and forth.
“I said slowly, you dumb sonofabitch!” the seaman called to someone on deck. His voice did not need amplification.
The seaman then made very small, very gentle upward movements of his hands. There was another electric motor hum, and, just perceptibly, the Vehicle, Heavy Vehicle Recovery 6 × 6 Mark III A2 began to inch upward again.
Then there was another screeching noise, this time lasting no more than ten seconds.
The wrecker continued to rise very slowly until it was about level with the deck.
The seaman made a cutting motion across his throat.
The wrecker stopped rising and swung back and forth on the cables.
Very slowly the seaman, the palms of his hands now vertical, made a pushing motion with his left hand. There was the sound of an electric motor, and very slowly the boom holding the rear of the wrecker moved inward. When the wrecker was perpendicular to the wharf, the seaman made a cutting motion with his left hand and then a pushing motion with his right. The boom holding the cables attached to the front of the wrecker began to swing inward. After thirty seconds—which seemed longer—the truck was completely inboard and again aligned with the keel of the Captain J.C. Buffett.
“Okay!” the seaman shouted. “For the love of Christ, don’t let that heavy sonofabitch get away from you! Slowly, fucking slowly!”
Very slowly, the wrecker began to descend into a hold of the Captain J.C. Buffett. In thirty seconds or so it was out of sight, but the seaman continued to stand on the wharf, his hands on his hips, looking upward until the hum of the electric motors died.
A moment after that there was another electrical hum, a lesser sound this time. And then one of the booms swung outward.
Colonel Kennedy and Captain MacNamara were both surprised to see another seaman standing on the hook at the end of the cable being lowered to the wharf. The seaman stepped casually off the hook, then engaged in a short conversation with the seaman in charge of the operation.
Both shook their heads, and then the seaman who had ridden down on the hook shrugged, as the seaman who’d been on the wharf threw up his hands in a gesture of resignation, or frustration, or both.
The seaman who had been on the hook stepped back onto it, made a take me up gesture with his hand, and immediately began to rise into the air.
It reminded Colonel Kennedy of how a circus high-wire performer rises to the high wire.
The seaman walked over to Colonel Kennedy and Captain MacNamara. He addressed Captain MacNamara.
“That’s it, pal,” he announced. “That’s the last of