Chapter 13

Bush trips and Holidays...

I may give the impression to readers that I was a bit of a slack and social soldier but in many ways I took my job very seriously – I studied hard and got really good pass marks for the courses I did ... My biggest concern from when I was promoted to L/Cpl (E2) was that I would lead and protect the guys with me – I got a bit anal about it at some stages but I think that the guys under me appreciated my style and guidance – One of the results of this was the Boss detaching me all over the country on funny jobs that he knew he could rely on me for ... I always seamed to disappear with half the Troop (Platoon) into some funny situations with not an officer in sight ... This Loose semi detachment sent me to some really nice places and some real shitholes ... I suppose you had to take the good and the bad – We weren't totally mad but damn close to it – CSM was a little worried when the guys appeared in camp leading their pet rocks around on leashes ... I mean, you have to have had one pet rock in your life – didn't you??

I had just had a really stressful bush trip where I had nearly come to blows with my boss, if you can imagine a Sgt and Maj standing nose to nose getting very heated when CSM grabbed me by my shirt and physically dragged me out of the Ops room, sat me down in the mess tent and shoved a stiff Brandy and coke in to my hand – shit I was steaming – To give my Boss his due, a few minutes later he sat down next to me, took the tea (Branty – Brandy & coke) away from me, as he knew I hated the stuff, and shoved a Castle in my hand ... We had a long discussion quietly over a few Castles and he saw my point of view and I realized what pressure he was under when he related to me the events of the previous day – we both agreed in hindsight that I was correct and he was wrong but as a commander you have to make some tough decisions ... The whole argument was about the previous days Fire Force call out – it was a complete lemon as we went through the village the was nothing – in doing a 360 I picked up tracks that started as 2 then after a couple of km's ended up as 6 – they had bombshelled when they heard the choppers and run ... I told the Boss on the radio that I was on confirmed tracks and was running on them – he informed me he was moving to another call out but was to stay on tracks as long as possible and that I was to revert to my standard call sign and that PRAW (Police reserve air wing) would be up and relay for me ... I changed channel to Ops frequency and the PRAW guy was right there ... We ran on those tracks for nearly 5 hours and must have covered about 30kms of distance up in to the mountains ... The PRAW guy must have been triangulating me as he we talked as he was always in the distance circling the area – when I asked him if he had any idea of where the hell I was he told me not to worry as he had me pinpointed pretty well ... We were really close behind the Gooks – I had just found a cigarette that was still smoldering – when the boss called and told me he was pulling me out and replacing me with a PATU stick and Tracker Dogs ... I told him that I would be in contact within minutes but he insisted I pulled back and got out of there ... I pulled back down to a flattish DZ and talked the choppers in – I spent a few minutes with the Dog guys, showed them the Spoor and off they went ... The choppers started up and we lifted off and started heading home when all hell broke loose on the ground ... the chopper noise had alerted the Gooks and they ambushed the poor police guys injuring one and killing another ... The choppers turned around and dropped us back above the Gook position and the 4 of us hit those Gooks hard from behind –I was really pissed off ... We loaded the wounded Cop and the poor PATU guy in one chopper and we flew back leaving the poor cops to sort the mess out ... they sent APC's in and saturated the area that night and picked up a few more Gooks but the Cops were not taking prisoners after loosing one of their own ... What pissed me off about the whole scene was that I hadn't been listened to about the info on the ground – "If" is mighty fine in hindsight and there are always questions to be asked and answered – as the Boss pointed out to me, make a decision and stick to it, if is the wrong decision, learn from it and move on ... Fine words of advice that have stayed with me for years...

We went back to camp for R&R and as we were cleaning up I was called in to the Boss's office – O dear here we go again!!!! – He actually asked me to sit down and asked me if I was prepared to volunteer for a 6 to 8 week bush trip ... I gave him a really dirty look but was curious as he had a slight smile on his face ... There was a hook in here some where & my curiosity was aroused ... I had really been under a lot of pressure for some time now, I was the youngest Sgt in the Battalion (not even 20 yet) & I had taken a lot of flak from older NCO's that thought I was not worthy of the promotion – My friend Bob had also been promoted on the same day and he was also taking strain ... We had both had a couple of rough bush trips as we were issued with new Troop Officers and we had spent all our time training them ... I must admit that my Officer was just about as whacked out mind wise as I was – Lt Joe had a wicked sense of humour and from the beginning took a lot of strain off my shoulders ... Unfortunately he was KIA a few years later in a Chopper crash that hurt us all...

Any way back to the Boss – he was sitting with that LOOK ... Shrugging my shoulders I told him that I would take anything on and I and my guys would try our hardest ... It was again a semi detachment and Lt Joe & Sgt Dutch would remain with ½ the guys while the rest of my troop, under me, would be attached to a new Phsy Ops unit in the North ... I was to get my Order package the next day and have a private briefing with the guy that would command us for the next couple of months ... I was told to ask for volunteers and to split our troop and have them on stand by before they disappeared for R&R...

I went out to where the guys were cleaning kit and asked for volunteers to go straight out on another trip – there was a big groan from them and Lt Joe asked me what was going on ... I filled him and Sgt Dutch in on the Boss's talk and they also said they smelt some thing fishy ... We spit the troop up with me taking 3 sticks in total (12 Guys) ... We liberated a Croc (APC mounted on a 7 ton Toyota Truck Chasis) and a Mog mainly because we could cruise at 100km/hr with that set up ... KP our MT rep swiped a Diesel trailer for us and we took one equipment trailer ... I told the guys to report in at 08:00 the next morning and everyone took off ... First night home for the city of Salibury was the usual Mayhem ... We had a good party that evening and forgot to go to bed so that by 07:00 the next morning we all looked as though we had been run over by a bus ... At 08:00 I managed to get to the Boss's office but I wasn't a clever little bunny at all ... There was an elderly guy with him who was dressed in Civies & he had a bit of a grin on his Face ... He told us to load up and Phsy Ops had foreseen the hangover problem and that they were sending a Vehicle and would lend us 2 drivers for the initial journey ... I poured my guys in to the trucks and before we were past the main gate the guys were all out cold ... I woke up hours later when the little convoy stopped for a piss break just outside Gwelo ... Strange, very Strange ... I asked the Coloured chap if he wanted a driver change, he looked around at my guys leaning up against the trucks and just shook his head ... He told me to tell the guys to go back to sleep ... we loaded up and we all went back to sleep – I woke up again and it was dark and quiet with a lot of banging going on nearby – I looked out and we were in an MT (Motor Transport) yard somewhere – I found my trusty Goffel (Coloured) driver and he told me we were in Bulawayo but had run out of Spare wheels and his boss was organizing some ... We filled the truck tyres with water to cut down on landmine damage but you ended up every trip with dry tyres due to blow outs ... The MT staff were not to happy with us at all and were grumbling like anything ... I woke all my guys up and I must admit everyone was looking and feeling good – Packing 10 days R&R in to one night was not the cleverest of ideas ... We were all starving and many of the guys had already piled into the Rations ... I asked my guys to take over the wheel changes & told the Brady Barrack MT guys to f•©k off out of my sight and learn some manners ... We got on to the job with our 2 Guides and started working hard with our Batman outside the Gate grilling mear that we had liberated from some where ... Fresh bread and Juicy steak – Yum Yum ... The very pissed off MT Sgt returned about ½ an hour later with a bunch of MP's who threatened to arrest us... 2 of my guys who were standing guard at the gate(well some one has to watch the meat cook) cocked their weapons and levelled them at the MP' sand told them that for their health they had better piss off and not be seen again – My new boos appeared a few minutes later and the Little old man was now wearing Lt Col tabs and old cammo ... the poor Goffel went over to him and described what had happened and the old man nearly blew a gasket ... He called out to the prick who we had thrown out of the work shop and within minutes we had a very willing team working on our trucks while we had a magic Braaivleis (Barbaque) outside ... We on got rolling again at 2 the next morning having left our Goffels behind and headed out on the Vic Falls road with directions to get to a Camp at Dekka, the top of Lake Kariba where the Zambezi flows in ... We were pretty rested when we drove in to the camp late the Next day and were greeted by an engineer that I had done a dems (demolition) course with the previous year ... He was anxious to get going as he was supposed to have left the week before ... All was made clear to me over the following hours of briefing on our tasks and responsibilities for the next couple of months ... We had a full kitchen at our disposal and Phsy Ops were generous with their ration supply ... Our orders were pretty simple – to make it appear as if a full battalion was based up between the Lake and Vic Falls ... To do this we could make as much noise as we liked, cause as much mayhem as we liked and we were given full permission to shoot the shit out of anything that moved on the other side of the border ... Apparently the Fat mans troops were massing for a massive crossing and all our troops were on externals in the NE and SE of the country and we were the only guys available ... I must admit that Charly left us with some really good kit when he left 2 days later ... That first day I told the guys to load up as much ammo as they wanted and had them dropped off near the river above Dekka – instructions – to walk up the river and to shoot the shit out of the other side ... Charly, the Col and I spent the rest of that day briefing and going through kit and ammo ... When I checked the ammo supplies I found we had 2 cases of ammo per guy with instructions to order more when required ... The explosives that were there were mind blowing – Some one had gone to a lot of trouble to make up dummy contact packs – these were arranged to go off at preset delays to simulate a major contact – I wont go in to the details on how they were made but they were very clever ... I had PE (plastic Explosive) Bricks of TNT., Drums of Cordex (detonating cord), Fuse delays, Fuses – in fact you name it, it was there ... My eyes were alight and I could foresee some serious fun to be had...