See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism by Robert Baer Read Free Book Online Page A

was at an ‘A’ camp on the border of Laos,’ a crusty sergeant said as the waitress brought us our third round of beers. ‘We were surrounded, and Charlie was about to overrun us. We were out of everything except bullshit excuses why we couldn’t be re-supplied. We maybe had a day or two of ammunition left. Charlie was too close for a chopper to come in. But the captain thought a fixed-wing coming in low and fast could make it. The air force told us to stuff it because it was too dangerous.
    ‘But then, son of a bitch if not two hours later, we heard an airplane. It was a Caribou, and it came right in at tree level, so low it clipped the tops of the trees. Branches and leaves flew everywhere. A goddamn flying lawn mower. It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw. And when it taxied up to us, we could see it was packed with ammo.’
    The sergeant stopped for a swig of beer, indicating the best part of the story was yet to come.
    ‘But you know what that crazy fucking pilot did then?’ the sergeant asked, looking around at us.
    No one said anything.
    ‘He jumped out of that damn Caribou, and without saying a word, he reached behind his seat and pulled out two new props to replace the ones he had chipped to pieces flying in. Then he shouted at us,’ Hurry up and unload this sucker because I’m coming back again - today.’
    ‘As soon as the Caribou was unloaded, he took off, missing the tops of the trees by an inch. Sure enough, he came back that afternoon. New props and all. He did that for a whole week until we got regular supplies. Craziest fucker I ever met over there,’ the sergeant said, shaking his head.
    When Alan quietly mentioned the name of the camp, the sergeant . stared at him in stunned silence. The only way Alan could have known the name of the camp was if he was the crazy fucking pilot who had supplied it.
    Peter was next in command. A Berkeley graduate, Peter spent a few years in the blue-water navy, including a tour in Vietnam, until he was forced to resign after carelessly signing an antiwar petition while on shore leave in San Francisco. For the navy, there were no second chances, but as my own case showed, the CIA was willing to forgive a few youthful indiscretions. Peter was in fantastic shape, running five to six miles a day. He was also an obsessive fisherman. Years later I would run into him again in West Africa, where he was chief in a small country. He’d managed to persuade the CIA to buy a Boston Whaler and spent his free time fishing for barracuda.
    Curt, a former marine captain who had been passed over for promotion, left the service to sell computers for IBM but soon got bored and joined the CIA to fight in the cold war. Every once in a while I’d catch him with a mad-dog grin that said he really believed he’d be dropped behind the Iron Curtain one day on some commando operation. Not surprisingly, Curt lasted only a few years in the CIA.
    And then there was Eric. Like me, he’d never served in the military. Before he joined the CIA, he was an English professor at a small East Coast liberal arts college. With his thick glasses and somewhat pompous manner, he still looked and acted like he belonged in front of a classroom. At the drop of a hat he would recite some obscure passage from Milton.
    One day when we were waiting in a mess line at Fort Bragg, Eric had a run-in with an 82nd Airborne Division colonel. Although Eric had a mandatory buzz cut and wore standard army camouflage like everyone else at Fort Bragg, he didn’t see the point of adapting completely to military etiquette - he refused to give up his pipe. As soon as the colonel caught sight of Eric and his unlit pipe, he marched across the mess with murder in his eyes. Planting his nose about an inch from Eric’s, the colonel growled: ‘Goddammit, soldier, get that dildo out of your mouth.’ We could see ‘Fuck you’ forming on Eric’s lips just as our escort, a special forces captain, stepped between Eric and the