(03 Nov. 87) I was just about to catch up on some overdue sleep when the phone rang. The captain notified me that a general recall was in effect and I had to round up everyone in the building and meet at HQ wearing island gear and weapons belt.
Over the next fifteen minutes a dozen of us made it to the station where the Chief briefed us.
“Early this morning an officer on Carlos island spotted an armed Caucasion with a long gun on Gea. We sent a squad out and they made contact with the subject before he escaped into the thick brush. He was dressed in brown pants and dark shirt.”
Gea is the next island north of Carlos, only two hundred yards away. This is where all ships enter into Kwajalein Lagoon and Brand X often lays off the coast here.
“You’ll join them shortly and make a sweep of the island. I don’t know what we’ve got so be careful out there. You have permission to use deadly force but only in self-defense. You’ll be going out on the Q-60 (a converted Miami drug boat). The van’s out back. Good luck.”
There was a lot of nervous chatter and joking as the boat pulled out for the trip across the lagoon. We all thought about the consequences. The swells on the lagoon were high but nothing like the Pacific once we crossed over into open water. An inflatable, which brought us to shore, bounced along in the Q-60s wake. I went ashore on the second run, landing on a sandbar just south of Gea. Our base camp was on the southwest corner of the island under some coconut and pandanus trees. On the north side is Gea Pass. Carlos is only a short walk south on the reef at low tide. Gea is maybe 600 yards long and 125 yards wide. The vegetation, though, is very dense.
On 02 February 1944, a small battle took place here as the American invasion of Kwajalein began. According to one report, a U.S. “landing team hit the southwest end of Gea at 0620. It headed north toward the lookout tower, where a single Japanese sentry was slain, and then combed south again. It then encountered and overcame about 20 Japanese in hand-to-hand fighting.”
Our operation was led by Lieutenant Billy Waugh, head of special ops. He’s the man to my left in photo. I’m wearing a headband. Even at fifty-eight, he remains in excellent physical condition but more under control now. He is listed in an article as one of SOGs bravest warriors of the Vietnam conflict. According to the article, “It is doubtful that any man in SOG fought more battles, served on more assignments, and tempted fate more often than Sergeant Major William ‘Billy’ Waugh.”
We received our briefing, loaded our sidearms, checked our radios and drank some water in the heat and humidity of the dense undergrowth and waited nervously for the sweep to begin. We had a 12 gauge pump as a backup. Too many people lived within a few hundred yards of the operation and rifles can carry a long way.
The radios crackled. “OK. Let’s move out slowly. Maintain the formation. Make a lot of noise.”
We hit the tree line at 1105. The perspiration increased dramatically in the stillness of the dense jungle undergrowth. That, plus the vines and fallen, decaying trees hampered progress. The line didn’t stay straight very long. A couple of radios went dead. Communication was passed across island from man to man. My jumpsuit became soaked and salty sweat poured over my eyes.
The subject’s camp was about seventy-five yards in, on the ocean side. It consisted of a cold campfire, some nylon rope, a pile of husked coconuts and a homemade husker constructed from a sharpened log and a forked tree branch.
We continued on, checking the undergrowth and in the tops of trees, making as much noise as possible, trying to flush the prey out. Three hours later we reached Gea Pass. There were no footprints on the sand, no evidence that anyone had been here. My guess is that he had a chance to make it to the pass and escape before the sweep began and it could be closed off. There was access to the water on the east side without leaving a trail. JD, who ran the quarter mile in high school told me that when he confronted the armed man, he took off for the trees and left him behind.
After a thirty minute break, we made another quick sweep south with the same results. We were dragging by then and I had lost eight pounds. When the operation began, we were psyched. But the ending was a disappointment. It was a good workout, though, and we all made it back.
Note: The data for this entry was lost until today. The date of the event listed above, (03 Nov. 87) is correct.
Filed under: Almost Paradise Volume 2
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