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3 Behind Enemy Lines on Nan-do “ A      . It’s about time that they sent us a combat replacement.” This was his greeting from Captain “Cassidy,” adjutant for the th Infantry Division Replacement Company, when Colt arrived in Korea for his second tour on October , .1 For weeks the th Infantry Division had been attacking a Chinesecontrolled hill and getting nowhere. Cassidy knew that Colt had earned his Combat Infantryman Badge on his first tour to Korea, which proved that he knew how to fight. He was just what the captain needed. Colt responded, “No disrespect, sir, but I didn’t volunteer to come here as a platoon leader. I’m here because I volunteered for a special assignment for Lt. Col. William C. Westmoreland.”2 Cassidy did not believe him and said that he would send a telex to General Headquarters (GHQ) to confirm his story. The captain added that, if headquarters did not know what he was talking about, the sergeant would be missing a stripe. He told Colt to come back in two hours. As a career soldier, this threat greatly concerned Colt and for good reason . He had worked hard to attain the rank of master sergeant and did not want to lose it. And he knew how the army could easily have lost track of him and his assignment. As he left the captain’s office, he worried that the person who received the telex at GHQ would not know about the secret mission and would send Cassidy a negative response. As he did in other crisis situations, Colt took immediate action. He went across the street from the captain’s office and knocked on the door of the communications van parked there. A fellow master sergeant named “Hefflin” opened the door and invited him in. Colt explained the situation. They hit it off right away. Colt asked Hefflin, “Can you put me through to Lieutenant Colonel Westmoreland?” After giving Colt a good look up and down, Hefflin told him: “Go to the phone on the telephone post in front of the trailer. When it rings, pick it up.     -  I’ll be leaving for coffee. If you get caught, I wasn’t here.” Colt thanked him and walked to the pole and waited. When the phone rang, he found himself talking directly to Lieutenant Colonel Westmoreland. Colt identified himself, and, to his amazement, Westmoreland remembered him from a minor encounter three years earlier: as a corporal back in late , he had repaired an intercom box in the office of the lieutenant colonel, when he was a major, at the d Airborne Division Headquarters at Fort Bragg.3 Colt reminded him that he had just transferred from the th Regimental Combat Team in Japan to volunteer for his secret mission but could not say any more on an open line. Westmoreland instructed him to say no more, that he knew what he meant, and asked him where he was. Colt explained his problem with the th Replacement adjutant and where that officer was located. The adjutant would receive the appropriate orders, Westmoreland said, and an aircraft would be down to pick up Colt that afternoon. Before he hung up, the colonel thanked Colt for volunteering for the mission and congratulated him on his promotion to master sergeant. Colt never ran across the communications sergeant again—to thank him. When Colt reported to the adjutant at the appointed time, the captain had a new attitude. He told Colt that a jeep was waiting outside to take him to a nearby airfield and that an airplane would be there to pick him up in an hour. Colt saluted and thanked him. Within the hour the adjutant’s driver dropped off the sergeant at a makeshift airfield that had steel matting for a runway—the type laid down by the navy’s Seabees (construction battalion). In full combat uniform, including his pack and rifle, Colt sat down alone to wait. Before long, a C- landed and taxied up. The C- is a very large aircraft . A captain welcomed Colt on board—as the only passenger and cargo. The army had sent a C-, the workhorse of World War II, hundreds of miles to pick up a single sergeant, which today would be akin to sending a Boeing  to pick up one passenger.4 The pilot had been told to ask no questions , just pick him up. This demonstrated to Colt the significance of...

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