"Mr. Kerry,"
"Do you know where you're going? Where we're going?"
You, Lt. Kerry, are the new guy. True, you've been around boats since you were a kid, which explains some of why you were selected for PCF training; yet being around boats, you know that at night, in territory that you do not know, you do not muck about except very carefully, other than in an emergency, especially when the hazards to mariners include more than Cape Cod area inlet shoals and Long Island currents, that is, namely: hostile, heavy calibre, not merely small arms, fire.
This night, you are not sneaking up the Essex River in Connecticut. (Though we are given to understand that your psyche is "conflicted" at every moment and movement by the Vietnam environment - always reminding you, shockingly, or boringly, that it is not Connecticut, nor Kansas anymore.)
You have how many hours on this boat? How many hours accumlated, total?
You have forgotten that the U.S. Navy keeps track of your hours, and it keeps track of your engines' hours (see the engine clocks?). (Indeed, see the maintenance logs and records of repairs to the taxpayers' boat.)
Your hours on stretches of river and water ways, indicate your experience with those ways and their many secrets, which on the job training ("OJT") time must accumulate, before you are trusted with more daring do.
Training, as it is in military aviation, given the hazardous nature of early missions, generally, and actually in your case, often on the particulars for night time and / or special operations behind enemy lines as it were --- it's a given that experienced hands shall, did, accompany you and your boat(s) as you navigated said river and water ways.
Either these old hands were on other boats nearby, "on you," or, these old hands were assigned to your boat; observing your actions and upon debriefing, telling your tale.
Because, for you to proceed up to the border of Cambodia, would mean that you were either accompanied by an experienced boat, or you had aboard, a man who had traveled to the border (and probably beyond).
So that your commanders would have specific knowledge, that you are familiar with the routes to which they would assign you on some (any) mission; "you're the man for the job;" especially "five miles" into Cambodia, on Christmas, in January, in February, or in March (or whenever it was that you say you sallied forth).
It is not likely at all, that you would forget the instructions from the scout who showed you the way, your first trip into Cambodia (and back), because first, you do not know where you are going, and second, your knowing that, is going to "sear" into your mind, your teacher's struggle to keep you from messing up your career plans on this night.
On the night of the mission into Cambodia, the S.E.A.L. Team Leader is not going to be entertained by your otherwise not having a clue except for some map that "headquarters just sent over." No, the S.E.A.L.'s will not think it funny at all, because they wish to be entirely unremarkable, in their arrival (and departure), which silent insertion is commonly regarded by the old hands, as being at odds with a boat commander who does not really know about, where he is taking everybody.
So, said the Team Leader:
"Mr. Kerry,"
"Do you know where you're going? Where we're going?"
Thanks for filling in what was unsaid in the article.