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24The men were all weary because they had been on this special duty for 10 days alternating every 72 hours with other units. Half of the men would be on duty while the other half slept. They alternated this pattern every 4 hours during their 72 hours of on-duty regimen. These soldiers had been told the special duty was because the Russians and/or Warsaw Pact forces had been messing around trying out the Western Air defenses. This was a common tactic of both the NATO and Warsaw Pact alliances. Each would send aircraft into each others airspace to see how quickly the radar sites would come on, where they were located, and on what frequencies they were operating and how quickly the other side's fighter aircraft would intercept them. Usually the American forces would achieve missile and gun lockons on the hostile aircraft to scare them and armed American fighters would intercept the "hostiles" and give them the alternative of being escorted home or being shot down. Up until that point in the "Cold War", the Wester n response had always been to scare and turn around. But now there seemed to be a big difference as the urgency of the mission was impressed upon the men and the fact that they brought live ammunition for the cannons and live Chaparral Antiaircraft Missiles. In this eventful night, two Chaparral Missile emplacements were deployed in the valley not far from the whorehouse. The missile sites were linked by field telephones to observers on the mountainside. Lieutenant Cardeni gave orders to the crews of the Vulcan 20 Millimeter Cannons to load canisters of live high explosive phosphorus rounds into their cannons and to maintain a steady alert. These orders were given about midnight local time. The Vulcan Cannons had the capability of firing 2000 rounds a minute through their six rotating barrels at a kill and accuracy range of up to 6000 meters. On the north side of the pass at about the 1050 foot level the Vulcan Cannon emplacement was manned by Specialist Houston "Tex" Thomas from Indio, CA. "Tex" was a big, jovial black man. About 4000 meters south, the Vulcan Cannons across the pass at about the 850 foot level were manned by Private William Langdon from West Seneca, NY, the top gunner in the 4th Squad. Bill was of Quaker ancestry and was an enigma for not claiming "Conscientious Objector" status. About 12:45 AM, Lieutenant Cardeni gave orders that something hostile was incoming and that the gunners were to shoot down anything coming through the pass. He stated that no "friendlies" would be flying below 2700 feet and anything else was to be shot down. At that point, "Bill" Langdon suddenly came in to uch with his Quaker upbringing, left his cannon and went back to awaken his squad leader, Aaron Yonts, from the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Langdon refused to shoot down anything with someone in it. The Private said his piece and climbed into one of the auxiliary vehicles and went to sleep while Sgt. Yonts shook himself awake and climbed into the Vulcan Cannon and began adjusting his