“Okay,” the President said, nodding. “I’m too smart to get into why they’re doing one skill and listed in another. Go.”
“He spent four years in the training school; his evaluations are mostly top of the list. Various advanced schools, good words from his commanders about his training ability and personal skills. Less… stellar comments about peripherals. If I may?” He picked up one of the sheets of paper and cleared his throat. “Quote: Petty Officer Harmon is an erect petty officer of excellent bearing whose skills as a trainer are beyond reproach. His technical skills in all areas of his primary specialty are of the highest class. He is well liked by peers and respected by his students. Petty Officer Harmon’s greatest weakness is perhaps his greatest strength, a blinding determination to do his duty and an inability to choose his battlefields. Petty Officer Harmon needs to work on his interpersonal and leadership skills. End quote. That was from one of his last evaluations as an instructor.”
“Can somebody translate that for me?” the President asked plaintively.
“He’s a great operator and a great instructor,” Brandeis replied. “And it sounds like he can’t play military politics worth a damn. The kind of guy that when he sees a brick wall, can only try to shove his head through it instead of going around.”
“Colonel?” the President asked. “Agreement?”
“Yes, Mr. President,” the colonel said, swallowing. “I’d concur in the secretary’s evaluation.” He paused for a moment and took a chance. “Even if he wasn’t my boss.”
There was a brief chuckle from the room and the President nodded. “Keep going.”
“He requested transfer back to an operational platoon near the end of his third enlistment,” Pierson said. “Anticipating the question, it’s hard to get promoted to chief if you’re not an LPO, leading petty officer, in an operational unit, and by that time the War on Terror had kicked into high gear. Guys he’d trained would have been coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq telling stories about kicking doors and wasting bad guys. Any SEAL worth the name wanted in on that. He transferred to SEAL Team Five, Alpha Platoon as an LPO. He completed retraining with the team and was evaluated. Again, there was a note about using his chain of command skills. Then, while they were actively deployed, he was relieved from the LPO slot and returned to the states. His subsequent evaluation stated that he had failed to demonstrate leadership skills of a level necessary to be an LPO at this time but that he had potential as a future leader. This, in effect, killed his career. He was transferred back to the local training detachment, but not as an active instructor and subsequently ended his service on terminal leave two years and three months ago. He has drawn fifty percent disability based upon widespread occupational damage, primarily to joints and back, and veteran’s educational benefits for attendance at the University of Georgia for the last two years. His grades were not immediately available.”
“What happened with the ‘leadership skills,’ ” the defense secretary asked.
“I did as much digging as I had time for, Mr. Secretary,” Pierson said. “There was an accidental discharge of a weapon and a wounding of one of the SEALs from the AD. In the report, Harmon stated that he had previously counseled the shooter about weapons safety on entries. From the… tone of some of the other statements, notably from the shooter and the chief, I would venture to guess that it was something like the following. Harmon was a trainer for years and he came back to a platoon that had been working together for some time. The shooter had been in the platoon for his entire career. There is no written counseling statement about his weapons control immediately available but having Harmon, some jerk trainer, tell a guy with lots of operational experience he was doing it all wrong, probably didn’t sit well. Especially since Harmon, apparently, has limited tact. When, in fact, the shooter turned out to be wrong, and Harmon right, the team leadership probably had to make the choice between removing the guilty party from the team or Harmon. They chose Harmon.”
“Politics,” the President said.
“At that level, I’m unwilling to judge, Mr. President,” Colonel Pierson replied. “I’m not going to say, from what I’ve seen, that they were, overall, wrong in their decision from the standpoint of the good of the team and of the military. Sometimes, just being right isn’t enough.”
“There’s that,” the defense secretary said. “I’ve seen it often enough in the Pentagon. A guy who’s right but such an asshole that nobody wants to listen to him. Sometimes I don’t but I know the information’s important, so I team him up with somebody that’s got some political skills. That wouldn’t work on a SEAL team. And it doesn’t matter to this brief.”
“No, sir,” Pierson admitted. “Petty Officer Harmon is a qualified instructor in close quarter combat, survival and evasion, clandestine insertion and extraction, unarmed combat, sniping, international small arms, land and underwater demolitions, Combat Diving including open and closed circuit equipment, airborne operations including military free-fall and static line. He is, from his evaluations, considered high level expert in each.”
“Well, that explains Athens,” the national security advisor said. “Those guys never stood a chance.”
“Agreed,” the President said. “So where is he? I want to shake his hand.”
“We obtained his home of record,” the FBI director said. “There was no one home when our agents went there and his personal vehicle was parked nearby. I’ve authorized a covert entry and search under national security guidelines but I think it’s a moot point. There was a vehicle, registered to the cover name of one of the terrorists, discovered at Athens Ben Epps airport. It had bloodstains on the seat, secondary it appeared, not from a bleeding person, and a magazine from an MP-5 was on the floor. There were prints matching Petty Officer Harmon on the SUV and on the magazine. It was concealed near the pad where the 727 was loaded. Petty Officer Harmon was not found in the area.”
“He’s on the plane,” the President said. “He got on the plane.”
“’Clandestine insertion,’ ” the defense secretary said, grinning. Then his face cleared. “Can he survive on the plane? Won’t he get cold? What about air?”
“Mr. Secretary?” Colonel Pierson said, clearing his throat. “I’m trained in HALO: an instructor for that matter. It depends upon how high they went and how fast they climbed. He would be subject to bends from rapid decompression in the climb and anoxia at altitude. Petty Officer Harmon would be aware of both issues and must have been willing to risk it. He may have entered the pressurized cargo bay for that matter. I don’t have a design on the aircraft available at this time.”
“The surviving terrorist has been cooperative,” the FBI director said. “He stated that, besides ammunition, the shooter picked up a satellite phone that had been used by the terrorist commander. I suspect we may be getting a call from him. Hopefully soon.”
“Now that is a conversation that I want to hear,” the President said, smiling faintly.
“Major Roberts, Command Duty Officer, U.S. Special Operations Command, how may I help you, sir?”