try to cause trouble in the Congo. And we’re going to stop him.”
“I don’t think I like the sound of that,” Marjorie said. “You’re going back over there? When?”
“Now you’re going to be told stuff I was expressly ordered not to tell anyone,” Jack said. “Father Lunsford—the guy who went to the Immoquateur in Stanleyville to try to help my stepmother—”
“I know who he is,” Marjorie interrupted.
“—is putting together a team of black Green Berets to go to the Congo to screw up Guevara. I’m going to help him do that, teach them about the Congo, try to teach them how to pass themselves off as Congolese, that sort of thing.”
“You’re not going to the Congo?”
“I’ll probably go over there with them when they’re ready, to introduce them to people who can help them, but if the question is ‘Are you going to be involved in their operation,’ no, I don’t think so. Too many questions would be asked. Felter is determined that our operation there be invisible.”
“So we’ll be at Bragg together for a while?”
“Yeah, I think so. Did I tell you that Father found us an apartment? ”
“No. But why should you tell me? What could be less important than where we’re going to live?”
“Father said the lieutenant’s family quarters at Bragg are pretty crummy, so, if I can afford it, he can get me permission to live off post, in an apartment complex, where he lives—and where Johnny Oliver is going to live with him. So I told him, ‘Yes, please, I can afford it.’ ”
“Write this down, husband,” Marjorie said. “What you should have said was ‘Thank you very much, Major. I’ll ask Marjorie and get back to you.’ ”
“Honey, I didn’t think. You don’t like the idea?”
“I don’t like the idea that you didn’t ask me,” she said.
“Hey, baby. This is all new to me.”
“I’m trying to remember that.”
“Look, unless you’ve got your heart set on Ocean Reef, we could go from here to Bragg, you could look the apartment over. . . .”
“No, that would hurt Craig’s feelings,” she said. “We have to go to Ocean Reef.”
“Up to you,” he said.
“Now you’re learning,” she said.
She got out of bed and walked naked to the bathroom.
“I’m for a shower,” she said. “And then we’ll get on the road.”
“Leave the water running,” he said.
“Better yet, how about you wash mine, and I’ll wash yours?”
[ SIX ]
Office of the Army Attaché
United States Embassy
Sarmiento 663
Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1445 24 December 1964
Colonel Richard J. Harris, Jr., Infantry, the tall, slim, forty-two-year old army attaché of the United States Embassy, looked up from his desk and inquired of Master Sergeant Douglas Wilson, his thirty-six-year-old rather chubby chief clerk (who as a courtesy was referred to as the “sergeant major”):
“What have you got, Doug?”
Both were in civilian clothing, Harris in a well-cut poplin suit, and Wilson in a seersucker jacket and khaki—civilian khaki— trousers. Perón was gone, but there was still a good deal of leftover anti-American feeling in the Argentine capital, and uniforms were worn only when they were necessary. And poplin and seersucker because December in Argentina is the beginning of summer.
“This just came in,” Wilson said, “and if I’m reading this right, boss, Santa Claus is being very good to us this year.”
He handed a sheet of teletype paper to Colonel Harris.
HQ DEPT OF THE ARMY WASH DC 1305 22 DEC 1964
ROUTINE
CONFIDENTIAL
TO: ASSISTANT CHIEF OF STAFF FOR PERSONNEL, HQ DEPT OF THE ARMY
ASSISTANT CHIEF OF STAFF FOR LOGISTICS, HQ DEPT OF THE ARMY
INFO: US ARMY ATTACHÉ US EMBASSY BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA
REFERENCE IS MADE TO “SPECIAL TABLE OF ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT, OFFICE OF ARMY ATTACHÉ US EMBASSY, BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA” AS APPROVED 15 SEPTEMBER 1964.
1. REFERENCED TO&E IS AMENDED AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 13A COMMISSIONED AND WARRANT OFFICERS IS AMENDED TO ADD 1 (ONE) CAPT OR LT BRANCH IMMATERIAL MULTI-ENGINE FIXED-WING INSTRUMENT QUALIFIED ARMY AVIATOR AND 1 (ONE) WARRANT OFFICER GRADE IMMATERIAL MULTI-ENGINE FIXED WING INSTRUMENT QUALIFIED ARMY AVIATOR.
SECTION 13B ENLISTED PERSONNEL IS AMENDED TO ADD ONE MASTER SERGEANT OR SERGEANT FIRST CLASS QUALIFIED AS CREW CHIEF L-23 SERIES AIRCRAFT; ONE SERGEANT FIRST CLASS OR STAFF SERGEANT QUALIFIED AS AIRCRAFT AND ENGINE MECHANIC L-23 SERIES AIRCRAFT AND ONE SERGEANT FIRST CLASS OR STAFF SERGEANT QUALIFIED AS DEPOT LEVEL AVIONICS TECHNICIAN.
SECTION 19 SPECIAL EQUIPMENT IS AMENDED TO ADD 1 (ONE) L-23 SERIES AIRCRAFT.
1. DCSLOG AND DCSPERS WILL EXPEDITE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AMENDED TO&E. PRIORITY AAAA-1 IS ASSIGNED. DIRECT COMMUNICATION WITH US ARMY ATTACHÉ BUENOS AIRES IS AUTHORIZED TO DETERMINE AND PROVIDE