I spent the rest of the day loading the jeep with comm wire, a DR-4 wire reel, a set of ankle hooks, and a EE8 telephone test set. My Thompson submachine gun was already in the jeep, as was an AN-PRC9 radio for contact with the battery. I visited with some of my buddies, and joined them for evening chow. At least I'd be eating hot food tonight instead of C rations. Chow was pretty good: macaroni and cheese along with some kind of "mystery meat." We even had canned peaches for desert. What a treat!
I spent the night in the Comm tent, sleepng well knowing that I was in the rear, pretty much out of harm's way. The following morning at reveille I headed immediately for the chow hall. I told the cook I was on a mission for the gunny, and needed some chow to take with me. He made me a couple of fried-egg sandwiches while I filled my canteen with real coffee, not the C-rats stuff.
That accomplished, I jumped in my jeep and headed for the Great Beyond.
Roadside hazards
Driving down the dusty road toward my destination, I came upon an area where both sides of the road had been cordoned off with wire and minefield tape. I recognized it as a place where butterfly bombs were strewn about in the dirt. Those evil little bombs were about the size and shape of a small coffee can with little propellers on either end. When dropped from a plane, its props rotate as the bomb falls. When the props reach the set amount of rotations, the bomb explodes.
They were quite deadly as some would explode as air bursts while others would do so after hitting the ground. However, many of the bombs never achieved the required amount of prop turns, so they lay there waiting for a breeze to complete the arming function, when they would detonate, creating havoc. Nasty little things! I held my breath as I passed, hoping one of them wouldn't decide that it was its turn to ignite. Fortunately it was a calm day, and I passed unscathed.
I continued on, driving past bombed-out villages and former battlefields. Finally I spotted my destination and the two recently placed poles adjacent to a large rice paddy that filled the area on both sides of the road. God those poles were skinny little things!
I pulled the jeep up on the lee of a small hill and parked it facing back in the direction in which I'd approached. I unloaded my supplies from the jeep and went to work.
I tapped into the cable one pair at a time and rang back to both ends, advising them that I'd be cutting them off temporarily while I spliced in the slack cable required to relocate the circuits up onto the poles. After completing the splicing of all of the pairs, I again rang back to each location, advising that they were back in service. Now came the fun part. Yeah right!
