Matt and I were on a mission to Savannakhet to install a complete communications site in a newly constructed block building. On our first day there, we set up all the radios and long wire antennas required, but the fifty foot pole that had been planned for our UHF and VHF antenna tower had not yet been erected. The Laotian workers assigned to dig the hole were working with picks, axes and posthole diggers and had been barely able to dig about a foot deep hole. The ground was rocky and terribly hard to dig. Matt suggested to the workers that they wet the area to make it easier. There was no bucket to carry water. There was a huge clay pot of some five gallon capacity which the workers were using for drinking water and to periodically cool themselves in the heat. I suggested they use the clay pot to carry water from the nearby well.
They would fill the foot deep hole with water, and the water would just sit there very slowly seeping into the ground. Time was of the essence. Matt and I didn’t want to stay there overnight. On one of the trips from the well to the hole, the two Laotians carrying the clay pot dropped it breaking it into smatterings. The five Laotians lost sight of their project and began a shouting match. Matt asked one of the workers what the problem was and learned they had borrowed the clay pot from one of the local villagers. Nobody wanted to pay for the clay pot. Matt and I always carried Laotian Kip pocket money for emergencies and gave the lead worker some five dollars to cover the cost of the pot. The lead worker was ecstatic since that would probably pay for several clay pots.
An American who was coordinating setup of the site mentioned there was a Special Forces team in the village and probably had an explosives and demolition person on the team. Perhaps he could apply explosives to dig the hole. Matt and I thought it would be a good idea and suggested he contact the Special Forces team. The American drove to find the Special Forces team while Matt and I went inside the newly constructed building to eat our field rations. The American returned with two Special Forces in military uniforms with no rank, markings or unit designation. They spent a few minutes digging small holes where the pole was to be erected then warned everyone to vacate the building and stand a secure distance from the area. Matt and I warned them that our whole communications set was just on the other side of the window facing the explosion area. An overly charged blast could take out our whole communication set. “Not to worry,” the American said. “These folks are experts at this. They know what they’re doing.” Both Special Forces men smiled and said nothing.
We were sufficiently distanced from the explosion site when the explosives man activated the charge. The explosive charge had been misjudged and took out all four windows on the side of the building. Rocks and debris were scattered all over the roof and inside the building through the broken windows. The hole was no deeper but much wider than initially. Matt and I ran inside the building to find our equipment intact save for bits of rock and debris all over our equipment. “Well, I need to redirect the charge and use less C-4,” Special Forces expert noted.
It was obvious there was no easy way to dig the hole, so I suggested to the American that he release the Special Forces men and just forget about the pole. Matt and I secured the UHF and VHF antennas at the peak of the roof. The fifty foot pole was someone else’s illogical thinking. They had never considered the condition of the ground surface or the fact that roof height was sufficient for our antennas. Not only was the hole not needed, but it was not in the right place to begin with.
We cleaned up our radio room, made complete communications checks with Tiny Tim then packed up our empty suitcases to return back to our Porter STOL waiting for us at the airstrip. Prior to leaving we boarded up the broken window with a sheet of plywood laying against a wall of the unfinished building. As Matt was customarily blessing the communication site, I asked the American to keep the Special Forces folks out of our communications site. “Well, you may not have been aware of this, but these are the folks for whom we built this site,” he replied. “I see now I’m gonna have to keep an eye on them.”
We never again heard about that communications site. The Special Forces team may have moved on to another project. In the interest of security, no one would be notified of their movements. If they left a working site, they would just blow up the equipment rendering it totally unusable and move on. We would never ask about our equipment once we set up a working site. We didn’t have a need to know.
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