8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Apr 1980)

1/2

the

Pershing

able

56th Field Anillery Brigade

Aprll

1980

Vol. 16,

No.•

Supporting lhe l-4lst, l•Blst. :i.ut• Field Artlllffies aad Ille

Utb

Infantry

ershing

goes mphibious

Abo,.) 11,e powtr test statioa (PT S) nd

bantry co,,trol «nlff of Alpha Bltttty,

l i t

8attallo11, 81st f'ltld Artilkry ,xii a

po

loon bridge INI ferried 1ht eqwpmmt

•••

off-load

a

8/17/2019 The Pershing Cable (Apr 1980)

2/2

Aprll

1980

Pershing Cable

Pagel

Something to ponder

EDITOR'S NOTE:

This

1.rtkle

. .

wrille•

by Sgt.

W. Wayne Barette, HHB,

Isl

Ball•lion.

41st

Field

Artllltry.

It

was

submllltcl

H a letter to

lhe

editor.

You probably

wonder why I'm still alive

after all that has happened, and I suppose

it

is

quite

a story.

I'd been

living and train•

ing

with the exiles

for

two years

before

the

attempted

coup, knowing

as we all

knew

the penally

for failure.

There

were months

of hand-to-hand combat and

paratrooper

training

and

even some explosives

practice

before

we

were

ready

for

the

big

day,

the

day

we

r•

eturncd

to Carmel.

I'd

lived

the 5

years of

my life in the

cities

and townsand

jungle

villages

of

Car·

mel . It

was

my country, worth fighting for,

every

inch of it. We left with the

coming of

General Paulson,

but

now we were going

back

. We would drop from the skies by

night. join the

anti-Paulson military,

and

enter the capital city in

triumph

.

That was

the plan. Somdlow

It

didn't

work out that way. mili•

ti ') ' changed

their

minds about It

aacl we jump«

from

our

planes Into

a withering crossfire

from

General

PaulSCNl's forces. More

tban

lwf

of

our libtratlon

force

of

6S

were

dtad

btfore . . reached the ground, and

Ille olhers were o,errun quickly. By

nightfall we

found ow-selves prison•

ers

of

the

army

in

the great old

fortress o,erlooklng Point Bay.

There were 23

of

us taken prisoner that

day, and there was one

man

- Thomas -

who had a bod wound in his side.

We

were

crowded into

a

single cell at the fortress

and left

to

await

our

fate.

It

was hot in

there, w

ith

the

sweat of

bodies and musti

ness of air

that

caught at my throat and

threatened 10 choke

me.

r

wanted

10

re•

move my black

beret

and

shirt

and

stretch

out

on

1:tte

hard stone

Ooor, but I

did not.

Instead.

I bore it in silence and waited

with the

others

.

A certain

custom

has existed in the

country, a custom which

has

been ob

served in revolutions for

hundreds of

years.

• tways faced with the problem of the de-

.led foe , governments had traditionally

•ent down the order: Kill every fifth man

and

release

the others. It was a

system

of

justice tempered

with

a large degree of

mercy, and acted as a

deterrent

while still

allowing something of on opposition party

to exist within the co

untry

. Of course, the

eighty

percent

who we

re

released

often

regrouped

to revolt again. but the threat

that h~ng

over them was sometimes

enough

to pacify their activities.

Thi