Surprised, she turned, then smiled when she saw Mennzinger. "Bob, what are you doing home so early?"
Getting out of his car, Mennzinger straightened out, wiped his sweaty palms on the side of his flight suit, then began to cross the street. "Betty, I need to talk to you."
Despite Mennzinger's hesitation and tone, Betty continued to smile. "Sure, Bob. Only let's go inside — the baby will catch a chill. And besides, I don't want the neighbors to see me conversing with a strange man in the middle of the day. You know how rumors get started — a wife with a husband overseas entertaining men in the middle of the day is sure to get a rise out of someone!"
Betty's attempt to joke with him wasn't making his task any easier. He had lost friends in combat in Iran, but that had been different. They had been at war, in a combat zone. And Mennzinger didn't have to face the families afterward. Most of the time he hadn't even seen the bodies. It had been so clean, so impersonal, so quick. This was entirely different. For a second, Mennzinger thought that facing antiaircraft fire had been easier. The dread of telling Betty was so overpowering that it all but crippled him. Death had come quickly for Jerry. He was beyond pain and suffering. But that thought was small comfort, for Betty's own pain was about to begin. Mennzinger continued to look at her, standing there with a quizzical look on her face as he struggled for the right way, any way, to tell her that she would never see her husband again.
The awkward silence was broken by the appearance of a military sedan pulling into the driveway behind Betty's car. She turned and looked at the sedan, watching while the unit's chaplain got out of the passenger side. The chaplain looked at Mennzinger, then at Betty. Assuming that she already knew, he simply said, "Betty, I'm sorry. Is there—"
A shrill "NO!" cut him off. Clutching her baby to her breast, her face contorted in horror, Betty yelled again, "No! No! It's not true. It can't be!"
Before either man could move, she turned and ran to the door of her house, fumbling with her keys as she tried to open the door. All the while she kept yelling over her shoulder, "Go away — go away!" When she finally managed to open the door, Betty dashed in and slammed it behind her, leaving Mennzinger and the chaplain standing where they had been, wondering what to do next.
The camera opened with a wide-angle shot of a studio decorated to look like the typical middle-American home, then slowly zoomed in on two people seated in overstuffed chairs. They appeared to be having a casual conversation, which continued until the camera had closed in on them. On cue, the two people, co-hosts of this morning show, nonchalantly turned to the camera and flashed big, toothy smiles. The woman, dressed in a radiant yellow-and-black dress, beamed a bright and cheery greeting: "Good morning to those of you just joining us."
The man's smiling face now changed, on cue, to a serious stare. "Two years after the shooting stopped," he began, "the debate over whether we should have become involved in the conflict in Iran rages on in the chambers of Congress. Defenders from the right claim that we had no choice but to intervene in the region militarily in order to protect our national interests. To have allowed the Soviets to gain control of the Strait of Hormuz would have been, in the words of Republican senator George Ryan of Maryland, 'tantamount to surrender.' Critics from the Left, on the other hand, contend that U.S. interests were never endangered, that the decision to send troops into Iran was a knee-jerk reaction that almost led to Armageddon.
"Today we have with us in our Washington studio one of the most vocal critics of that conflict. A veteran, Representative Ed Lewis was a battalion executive officer in a Tennessee National Guard unit at the time. His unit fought in the final campaign that stopped the Soviet push to the gulf and brought them to the negotiating tables. Today he continues to fight, not in Iran but in the chambers of Congress, and not against the Soviets but against the dangerous involvement of the United States in alliances and covert military operations." He turned to his left as the camera panned out, showing him facing a man of forty-two, in another overstuffed chair.
"Congressman Lewis, in a very short time you have become the spokesman for many antiwar and antimilitary groups in this country. To what do you credit this distinction?"
Turning to face the camera, Lewis canted his head before he spoke. "Well, for one thing, I have seen war and what it can do. Any sane and responsible person who has survived the horrors of war should, and must, do everything in their power to keep such a thing from happening again. My success, if you care to call it that, in leading the fight to reduce the size of our military and avoid unnecessary involvement in affairs that are not our country's concern is based on my belief that until someone takes a meaningful step in that direction, we will continue to live with a sword hanging over our heads."
The host asked his next question. "There are those who insist that the Soviet reductions that continued even after Iran are merely symbolic, that the Soviet Union retains forces far beyond its stated needs for self-defense."
Lewis smiled. "Someone has to make a first move, symbolic or not. America has yet to make a meaningful response of any kind. Until we do so, I can't blame the Soviets for not making real, substantial reductions in their forces."
"Congressman, the Pentagon claims that it is currently unable to contain any further expansion of the Soviet Union given its current troop levels and that any reductions would mean that somewhere, something would have to give. Your critics claim that your proposals are tantamount to unilateral disarmament, with no guarantee that the Soviets will reciprocate in kind. How do you propose to protect our national interests without a military capable of enforcing our policies overseas?"
Looking back to the camera, Lewis smirked. "You make it sound as if we are still at war. And that is precisely the kind of attitude that I am fighting to put an end to. The Pentagon has been a major player in determining our foreign policy for far too long. Additionally, the cost of maintaining a large military has resulted in a national debt that has been an incredible drain on our economy for years. Until the military is reduced to a manageable size commensurate to our nation's needs and budget, this nation will always be in danger of war. Strict control of the military and its budget, along with drastic reductions in troop strength, are the only means we have available to ensure that we maintain peace in our time and allow for the reduction of our national debt. Someone has to make the first move. The Soviets have on numerous occasions stated publicly that they would match our reductions man for man, weapon for weapon. We, the United States, must have the courage of our convictions, to take that step."
In reference to your message concerning the death of LTC Dedinger, I see no need to curtail current TWILIGHT operations. There was no compromise in either Egypt or the Sudan. Recovery of his and the helicopter's crew has been accomplished.
The necessity to replace Dedinger with a top-notch man at the earliest opportunity is not only critical to TWILIGHT but also to the upcoming BRIGHT STAR exercise. I have already submitted a list of possible replacements to Bill Neibert at PERSCOM. He promises fast action.
Of greater concern than the recent accident, as regrettable as it was, is the impact of further budget cuts on TWILIGHT operations; I see no way that we can continue to carry on at the current level of operations if those cuts are put into effect. I will not be able to continue to divert operational and training funds into TWILIGHT without seriously degrading operational readiness in other areas, in particular the Gulf, and, specifically BRIGHT STAR, as it is currently planned. As to your question concerning the value of TWILIGHT, I have read all the intelligence reports and analyses generated by my people here and your people in Washington and disagree with them. While TWILIGHT will not help the guerrilla forces we are supporting win, it is keeping the other people from winning and, equally important, from spreading conflicts across the borders. Like the South African STRIKER operations in Angola, TWILIGHT is causing the Soviets and their surrogates to commit personnel and resources to defensive operations, leaving them very little for cross-border agitation, support of Sudanese insurgents, and offensive operations. We must continue. The only question is at what level and what program will become the bill payer for TWILIGHT.