The Last Hookers
by
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Chapter Forty Three October 1971 Men with secrets tend to be drawn to each other, Don DeLillo (b. 1926), U.S. author. Walter Everett, Jr., in Libra, pt. 1, "17 April" (1988) Lanny Briscoe was correct. The USSR supplied the encryption method in use by North Viet Nam. The VENONA project was the key. After World War II, Susan Fillers, cryptography expert, suggested NSA begin trying to decode Soviet messages intercepted during the war. On the surface, the messages appeared to be routine transmissions of little worth. However, Fillers suspected otherwise. NSA chief, Erwin Bruenwylor, approved an initial investigation and assigned Fillers to the project. For two years, she worked alone. When she made a breakthrough, that changed. Bruenwylor received funding to continue the project. He assigned four other cryptographers to work with Fillers. He gave NSA’s highest priority to their work and code-named their effort VENONA. It was tedious work, which required immense patience. Mundane messages received intense scrutiny. It was three years before their team decoded their first, one paragraph message. However, it provided a foundation for future efforts. The most significant of which began at Harvard in 1968. A Harvard University group tried to send digital messages over standard telephone lines. MIT, with Dr. Jenkins heading the effort, joined Harvard to help. The thrust of the work was to reduce messages to minute parts. They would send these digital parts across the country to USC at Berkley. Upon receipt, data processors would reassemble the messages into their original digital forms. After this, they converted the message to a text file for printing. Jenkins received Briscoe’s request for analysis of digital data recordings. The VENONA group applied their digital processing techniques to recordings supplied by Briscoe. They disassembled them and applied their decryption algorithms. Only digital data processors could achieve success. The messages often used over 1,000 characters to represent one letter of the alphabet. The result was a printed copy of the decoded transmission. The next chore was to translate the message into English. This was the easiest part of the process. NSA assigned Briscoe to MACV headquarters in Saigon to oversee decryption of North Vietnamese messages. He arrived in Saigon in early October 1971. It was necessary that he work with various collection agencies to assure recordings at a particular frequency and type. The code was so immense and fast that it could easily escape detection. The primary collection agency was an Army aviation unit stationed at Long Thanh North near Ben Hoa. The cover for the unit was the 224th Aviation Battalion (Radio Research). Briscoe checked with MACV operations to determine who commanded the unit. Operations advised him that the current commander was Major Daryl Scott.
not because they want to share what they know
but because they need the company
of the like-minded, the fellow afflicted.
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The Last Hookers
It starts at Muong Valley in deep western North Viet Nam. Nguyen Van Vinh, a North Vietnamese youth, is fighting the French at Dien Bien Phu, which is his home. He controls artillery attacks against invading French Legionnaires in General Navarre’s flawed Operation Castor.
At Dien Bien Phu, a former French resistance fighter against Hitler, Legionnaire Lieutenant Jean Danjou is on a covert operation. His mission is to place navigational beacons to guide American B-29s to deliver nuclear weapons against the Viet Minh. President Eisenhower’s approved Operation Vulture is underway. After bombing the Viet Minh, subsequent atomic attacks will take place against Communist China and the Soviet Union.
Across the border in Laos, Central Intelligence Agency controlled Air America, fights a secret war against the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao is the Communist equivalent of North Viet Nam’s Viet Minh. Frederick Earling, a fighter pilot during the Battle of Great Britain, flies clandestine missions to help destroy Communist forces.
Unknown to the American public, their nation’s first casualties in the Viet Nam war take place at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Ironically, the United States is supporting Ho Chi Minh’s Communist efforts while also paying 80 percent of France’s costs in this dirty little war. This takes place as American soldiers die in Korea for lack of vitally needed supplies. Ho Chi Minh is using them in North Viet Nam. The United States supplies them to him.
In Washington, D.C., Lanny Briscoe, a member of the newly formed, super-secret National Security Agency (NSA) learns of Eisenhower’s planned atomic attack. As Eisenhower’s former Office of Strategic Services (OSS) adviser during World War II, he helped decode Germany’s innermost secrets by using information from Hitler’s enigma device. Briscoe becomes embroiled in a Central Intelligence Agency double agent’s plot to deprive the United States of its most sensitive technological secrets. His efforts, as a NSA operative, take him into a cauldron of intrigue in Southeast Asia.
In South Carolina, Nguyen Van Vinh’s counterpart, Dale Zane lives the life of a typical American youth, while attending high school and college. He enters the United States Army and becomes an Army aviator. He commands the last Chinook (Hook) helicopter unit in Viet Nam during the most intense battle of that war, the spring invasion of 1972.
North Viet Nam’s hero, General Giap, attacks to capture Saigon with over 120,000 infantry and 1,200 armored vehicles. His intent is to take the small town of An Loc, 65 miles from Saigon, and establish a provisional, Communist capital in the south. After securing An Loc, his forces will attack Saigon. The battle lasts over three months. Dale Zane is one of few remaining Americans in Viet Nam and pits his aviation unit against invading Communist forces.
The author, Lieutenant Colonel Carle E. Dunn, USA-Ret., after a three year research effort, entwines lives into a fabric of lies, deceit, courage, and romance that spans the globe. Prepare for a literary taste of a gourmet dinner served up over half a century.
About the Author
Lieutenant Colonel Carle E. Dunn began his lifelong odyssey from humble beginnings as the son of an Arkansas tenant farmer. Too old for World War II, his father left farming to work in industry. Excelling in his field, his employer made his father a traveling troubleshooter. Colonel Dunn, a lad of six, traveled with him, attending 13 schools before graduating from high school. While working his way through college, he enlisted in the South Carolina National Guard. For two years, he went to weekly meetings and attended two-week summer training camps. He served as a field artillery specialist in survey. Furthermore, he served in the Army Reserve during his training in advanced Reserve Officer Training Corps at college. The honorary fraternal order of Scabbard and Blade inducted him his senior year. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the field artillery, he attended the Field Artillery Officers Basic Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Department of the Army canceled his orders to Korea in order for him to remain at Fort Sill. He stayed at Fort Sill to teach gunnery in the school from which he graduated. He was the first second lieutenant in history to teach gunnery at the Field Artillery School. Fascinated with flying, Colonel Dunn went to helicopter flight school in 1962 and fixed wing school in 1965. Upon graduation, he served as an aviator in Korea. Ultimately, he served two aviation assignments in Korea and two in Viet Nam. Between Asian tours, he trained flight school students in the tenets of aerial artillery adjustment. In addition, he served as a flight instructor for the UH-1 "Huey" and CH-47 Chinook. Later he served as Chief of Flight Standardization and trained combat veterans to be instructors. During two years commanding aviation units in Viet Nam, he received numerous decorations for valor and exceptional achievement. The President of the United States awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross. In addition, he received the Air Medal with V Device for valor. He also received 15 more Air Medals, 2 Bronze Stars, 3 Meritorious Service Medals, 2 Army Commendation Medals, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Viet Nam Service Medal, and more. Boeing Vertol Corporation issued a "Rescue Citation" to Colonel Dunn for bravery during the rescue of Army aviators whose ship went down due to hostile fire. He recovered sixteen downed ships in one day. For three years, Colonel Dunn worked as a Research and Development Project Officer. His technological expertise dealt with positioning systems, satellites, and other highly classified projects. The Adjutant General of Korea awarded Colonel Dunn honorary membership in Korea’s War Veteran’s Association. Subsequently, the prestigious Distinguished Flying Cross Society inducted Colonel Dunn. Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart are awardees of the Distinguished Flying Cross. Colonel Dunn is a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College. He retired from military service after the effects of Agent Orange caused him to lose his flight status. As a magazine writer and photographer, his work appeared in publications nationwide. He also did criminal investigative journalism for different newspapers. He now lives in South Carolina. This is his first, full-length novel.