Christmas was coming. The American Embassy had sent out its invitations for its Christmas party. Offices and villas were all decked out in traditional Christmas decorations. But there was no Christmas tree to display. It was about the second week of December that I had a mission to install a voice communications system near Sam Nuea in the northeastern part of Laos less than fifty miles from the North Vietnam border. That area has beautiful forests with towering pine trees which made it a particularly difficult mission for me. The greater the vegetation, the more difficult it is for a radio signal to travel. I called Air Operations for a flight and was informed I would be flying in the Ambassador's U-21 aircraft which is equipped with some eight to ten seats in the passenger area. Many thoughts crossed my mind, but I focused on getting my equipment and supplies to the airfield. The Army Attaché’s U-21 aircraft was used primarily for the Attaché’s business travels. It flew to Bangkok every Friday and returned on Monday. We were offered travel whenever there was space. Occasionally, it would also fly to Rangoon, Burma on occasion, and available seats were offered to us.
Fortunately, only one other Project 404 person and I were passengers on their Christmas tree harvest mission. "This was no place for non-essential persons to get in the way of my operations," I thought to myself. The plane landed on the outpost’s dirt strip. My mission was in a thinly populated area where a three-man team was setting up some type of operational mission. They had been flown in from Vietnam and desperately needed communications support. Once we landed an American from the onsite team pulled up in a topless jeep and helped me load my equipment and supplies onto the jeep. "Welcome to our abode," said the driver dressed in jungle fatigues and bearing no rank insignia, nametag or unit patches. "I really hope you can get us up and running cause we have a lot of radio traffic to send." I assured him it would be an easy fix since I had double-checked the radio equipment at my shop before packing it.
While we were loading onto the jeep, the two pilots and the other passenger began unloading handsaws, axes and other tools from the cargo area of the plane. "Are you folks planning on clearing the forest for me?" I asked.
"Nooooo," said the lead pilot. "It's almost Christmas, and the Ambassador still doesn't have his Christmas tree for the embassy ball. He wants us to find the best-looking tree in the forest."
It must have taken me some two hours to complete my mission, and another on-site American drove me back to the plane. The three folks harvesting the tree were getting ready to load the Ambassador's large Christmas tree into the cabin.
"We didn't want to put the tree in there until you got back and took a seat," said the pilot. "Soon as you load up your stuff, give us a hand, will you?"
The jeep driver and I were pitched in and helped them load the tree. The tree was nearly a quarter of the way into the passenger compartment when one of the pilots realized it would be easier to offload if we loaded it with the base of the tree first. We pulled the tree completely out and loaded it back with the base first. It was a massive struggle, and at one point we realized there would not be enough room for the pilots to squeeze by the tree to the cockpit. We pulled the tree out sufficiently allowing the pilots to reach the cockpit then proceeded to force the remainder of the tree into the compartment. The lead pilot said, "Okay, you two passengers can find a way to squeeze in, but be very careful with those branches. Ambassador’s gonna be pissed if we break off any more branches.”
The flight back to Vientiane took just over an hour. The passenger and I had minimum seating room since the tree branches dominated most of the passenger compartment, and for the duration of the flight, I held a protruding branch away from my face being careful not to break the Ambassador's Christmas tree.
I was invited to an Embassy Christmas function. I could not go, but a friend did. After the event, I asked him if he saw the Christmas tree. "Oh, yes, they had a huge Christmas tree standing there pompously and proud. I asked one of the hosts where the tree came from, and he replied that the Ambassador had it flown in from somewhere. He’s got connections, you know." I never revealed the struggle we had making the ambassador’s Christmas wish come true.
A Christmas tree, the perfect gift. The plant is already dead.- Jay Leno, comedian
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