“You know you scared the living shit out of us back there. I was ready to blow your ass off if you hadn’t spoken English,” Hufham said.
The young man smiled. “That’s why I was hiding behind the door sill when I spoke,” he said.
Hufham smiled. “You said something about stocking up?”
The young man walked to a closet and pulled back the curtain. There were cans of food on shelves and dried meat hanging from the ceiling. He looked at Ricks. “There is a wooden crate on the floor. If you can fill the thing up, we can get another couple of cans for more gas.”
“Hold on, partner,” said Hufham. “What’s the deal?”
Lee smiled. “The deal is I come with you. It won’t take long before these cretins find out I was a sergeant in the Army up until a month ago. When they do, my life won’t be worth a pile of dog shit, and you know it. So I am going to collect some things and we are going to get the hell out,” he said lifting the lid on a footlocker. There was his uniform, and an old M-1 with several boxes of ammunition. “It’s my dad’s rifle, and my uniform.”
Hufham held out his hand and Lee handed over the rifle. It was well oiled and could have passed even his inspection. Hufham smiled and tossed the rifle back to the man. “Get dressed quick, sergeant. We will need to be about 20 klicks away before these guys find out you’re gone.
Lee quickly donned his uniform as Ricks packed up the crate with the food and some water bottles. Then the light was turned out and the men silently left the building. Walking quickly, they loaded the Jeep and filled the tank, then went back to refill the cans again. This time, they also brought back two additional cans of gas and put them in the floor of the Jeep.
Hufham turned to Lee. “Okay, now which way should we go?”
Lee glanced down the road. “Can’t go that way, but I know a couple of dirt paths we could use. The word I get is our lines are about 10 miles to the southeast. But I don’t have any idea what’s between here and there.”
“Where are these paths?”
“Let’s go. I’ll show you,” he said getting into the passenger side.
The Jeep started smoothly and pulled back into the road. About 100 yards up, they turned down a narrow alleyway to the left between two houses. At the end of the way, they charged through the bushes, up a narrow path, and out of sight.
Admiral Perry Johnson couldn’t believe the course of events that landed him the position of Chief of Naval Operations. He always tried to do the best he could in any job and had made a reputation of being a good leader. But he thought only the politicians could make it to the exalted rank of Chief of Naval Operations. Now he was ensconced in the Washington Navy Yard at his new quarters. The President had told him to get the Navy ready for war. The first day had mostly been briefings and meetings with departments trying to get him up to speed and to make their own plays for things. Yet despite it all he felt like something was missing.
Now General Black was sitting in an easy chair opposite him. Black had been made Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, so technically he was outranked, but Black had called personally to “have a couple of drinks.” They had known each other for a while and worked together a few times. As a result, a little while was spent swapping sea stories and experiences. After a few laughs the atmosphere turned a little more serious.
“Tell me Perry, have you figured this out yet?” Black asked.
“Are you kidding? I can barely believe I got the call. If the President hadn’t told me personally I would have said it was a joke,” Johnson said. “But nobody has had the gump to tell me what really happened and what is really wanted. Most of these guys today have their own agenda,” he said seriously. Johnson’s eyes fixed on Black’s and began boring into him.
Black didn’t flinch. Now was the time to shoot straight. His eyebrows shot up. “Well, Perry, you deserve the straight poop and that’s what I’m here for.” Both men sat forward slightly. “Your esteemed predecessor was too afraid of thinking out of the box. He saw this tragedy as a way to further his own ideas and not what was needed to get the job done. The President told us all to find ways to get assets online fast and be ready to fight this war. I believe he told you the same thing?” he asked.
Johnson nodded. “Yesterday morning.”
“Thought so. Well, the rest of us are making do with assets we can scrape together that will get the job done, while the Army and Navy chiefs kept screaming for new equipment and lots of time. They were saying they would not send their men into any situation where they had distinct superiority in equipment, planning, and people. Your predecessor told the President he wouldn’t have anything ready for more than a year.”
“Shit. No wonder he was relieved,” Johnson said with a frown. He had watched fair weather admirals make the decisions for years. Now when the country needed leadership, they were waffling. After a moment, he looked back up at General Black. His face had changed and Black had never seen such determination on a face in his life. “Well, that kind of crap won’t happen on my watch, Howie. Our country needs us and we don’t need to screw this up. I think you can count on some changes as of tomorrow morning. My only question is, how many can I fire, and how many can I promote? That’s the problem with a peacetime force; too many bad apples end up in the pie. If we’re going to do this, I want people I can count on.” He paused a second. “By the way, whose idea was it to bring those battleships back?”
Black laughed. “You’d probably like him. A black shoe named Hammond. He was the one that went down to Newport News with Granger just before he got the axe. He and Shranski wheeled and dealed. Of course you know I like the idea. I want those big guns behind me when I go ashore,” he said.
“It wasn’t bad thinking either,” said Johnson. “Power projection at its finest. You know, somebody once told me something about those things that made a lot of sense to me. They said you can send a carrier in, and people wonder at how big it is and all the airplanes it carries. But you can’t tell if it can hurt you. You send one of those battleships off a beach and everybody knows what a gun will do. And by god, those are the biggest guns we ever put on a ship. I also found out Shranski threw in an 8-inch cruiser and a pot full of old destroyers. Howie, with that combination, we can protect your guys hitting the beach and we can keep a 20-mile corridor open around the whole peninsula,” Johnson said with enthusiasm. “In case you hadn’t heard, I talked to the Air Force today. Davis-Monthan is revamping me six squadrons of F-14s and A-6s. When I heard about the battleships, I thought about a couple of other ships that might help out. So they are being fast tracked as well. They should round things out very nicely.”
“Which ships?” Black asked, his curiosity piqued.
‘The Saratoga and the Constellation,” he said. “Yea, I know we have carriers, but these are conventional, not nuclear. I won’t have to worry about these things getting stopped by more EMP or anything else for that matter. I can put these older squadrons onboard and keep the war going until the rest gets back online.”
Black grinned. “You told the President yet?”
Johnson shook his head. “Not yet, do you think he’ll mind?”
That got a chuckle. “He may just kiss you,” Black said taking another sip from his drink. “As far as the hirings and firings, you’re the CNO right?”
That got a nod.
“Then the only one that will say stop is the President himself.”
“It may get his tail feathers burned. Some of these guys have friends on the Hill.”
“He likes a little vinegar in his greens. I’d say put your people in the key places and assign the others where they can’t do any harm. If they complain, you can say it was the rotation that met the needs of the service.” Black got up out of his chair. It was late and he already knew Perry Johnson would kick ass and take names.