World War 1990: ANZACs

We mentioned last week how we learned to add character to characters with little details. Here's another example from World War 1990: ANZACs-

Captain Tran was the last to land at Cam Ranh Airbase. Hundreds of soldiers and aircrew lined the runway; a jumping, shouting, cheering mass of men. Many of them were old enough to know better than to cheer the folly of their nation’s leaders.Vietnam just entered World War Three. 

Tran taxied his MiG-21 down the big runway toward the American vintage-hardened bunkers, following the runway master till they were beneath the great concrete archway. Tran opened his MiG-21’s canopy and looked up at the bunker ceiling. He smiled at the irony. How many times had American pilots parked within this bunker after flying a mission over North Vietnam? He wondered what kind of aircraft had been housed within. An F-100, maybe. Perhaps an F-4 Phantom. He had watched many of them as a wide-eyed youth. 

Tran hopped out of the cockpit and climbed down to the ground. The crew chief shook his hand. 

‘You deployed all of your ordnance, Captain,’ said Sergeant Li.Tran thought back to the raid. As he watched one MiG after another attack the docks. Tran thought he hit something, at least. Other than that, his squadron did little more than kill a lot of fish. Judging by the lack of smoke plumes over the target, Tran suspected the other squadrons also performed badly. 

With his helmet resting on his hip, Tran walked out of the hardened bunker. The ground crew cheered. Beside them stood the pilots of his squadron; most of them looked grim. They were under no illusions as to their raid’s effectiveness. Vietnam had just delivered its best punch and the American bases across the South China Sea remained unscathed. The Americans would be angry. 

He recalled seeing that anger as a 12 year old boy, watching the mighty American air force hammer targets throughout North Vietnam. From the roof of his apartment building in Haiphong, Tran watched the Americans bomb the harbor and airport. He’d actually cheered-on the American jets as they soared in the sky, a trail of Vietnamese tracers following them. When Tran’s older brother realized he was cheering for the Americans, he gave him a good beating and told their father, who gave him another. A few years later the brother was killed during Tet. Tran went into the PLAAF the next year. 

Tran suspected that somewhere, his late brother was laughing at him.‘We shall see who laughs last, brother.’