Lost Patrol

By William Snead



It was cold.

As I stepped across the dust-choked road between CC#1 and Yoxg JI GOI.  Military Police Station, I felt a chill up the back of my spine.

Jake Fragosi sat smiling coyishly in an M1 U.S. Army jeep alongside a ROV scout, and to his rear was KNP.

He said, “Hop in, I’ll take you north.”

I bumped my knee as I clamored up into the jeep to sit next to the Korean cop.  His name was Too Yoo, a legend among the civilian Korean police system.  He smiled and I smiled back.

The hum of the jeep almost sounded musical as it pushed on from Yongigal to Pajuri.

We made a right turn to go north to North Camp.  To turn left would have taken us south to Kum Chon .

As I exited the jeep to enter North Camp gate, Jake called me back to half High-ball me and then gave me the tightest grip of a handshake I’ve ever had.

As the jeep headed toward Munson and Slicky Bay Corner, I went up the big hill to my barracks at North Camp.

In the meantime, Fragosi and his companions headed north and sped past the chopper base as they looked out at Charlie Block, which loomed to the northwest.

Four hours later I was at North Camp and I heard the news about Fragosi and his companions.  An empty overturned U.S. M1 jeep was discovered near Panmunjon.  No dead, injured or blood was found in or around the jeep.

Perhaps Fragosi and his companions flew the coup.  Who can say and who knows?

It’s a lost patrol.  And by chance were they, as the overturned jeep suggests, captured???