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  Chapter Three – Then

  Mike drove to the back end of the parking lot. He hopped out of the truck, grabbed his bag, locked it, and walked over to the front gate. Everett and Mickey were both standing outside the turnstile, in front of the window where the guard was.

  “Hey guys, do we have a ride over to the flight line?” Mike asked.

  Everett nodded, a cup of coffee in his hand, and his travel bag at his feet, “Yeah, the staff duty driver is going to take us over there.”

  They stood around for a few more minutes and the duty driver came out, apologizing for the wait. Mike, Everett, and Mickey followed him over to the SUV, and got in. The driver started down the road, and ten minutes later they were at the gate to Peterson Air Force Base. Had they waited until later, there would have been a problem getting through the traffic in Colorado Springs to the Air Force base in time for the flight. Mike rounded up their military IDs and passed them to the duty driver.

  The duty driver pulled up to the gate and handed the IDs to the young Air Force military policeman. He took a look at each of the IDs and then matched them individually to the people in the car. He asked where they were going. The duty driver told him that they were going to the PAX terminal. The MP nodded and let them through the gate.

  They arrived at the passenger terminal and Rob and Tom were there to meet them. Tom’s wife was also there with a fast food bag holding sausage biscuits.

  “Hi, Barbara, how have you been?” Mike asked.

  Tom’s wife was a petite blond with smiling, blue eyes. She looked tired, “I’m doing okay. My sister’s in town, so it gave me a chance to bring Tom some breakfast before you guys leave.”

  Barbara was a sweet woman, but God help you if she thought you were being disrespectful to her husband or children. That last bit was a dig at him because Tom had to be out here in the morning for guard duty on the pallet. Mike took it in stride. He knew she didn’t mean any harm.

  “When can Jo and I get you and Tom out to the house for dinner?” he asked.

  She brightened at the idea, “Well, I still have two kids down with chicken pox, but I hope that they’re better by the time ya’ll get back.” Her Tennessee twang became more pronounced as she relaxed with the conversation.

  “Maybe you can give Jo a call, and you two ladies can figure something out.”

  Barbara agreed, and then turned her attention back to Tom.

  Rob approached them, “Hey stragglers, you need to show your IDs so that they can verify that you’re on the manifest.”

  Mike nodded, and then said, “I’ll be in, in a moment.”

  The guys set off with Barbara in tow to go inside the passenger terminal.

  Mike was lucky that the light rain had stopped and the clouds were clearing in the east. He loved this one thing about Colorado Springs more than anything else. In fact, he would often get up early just to see it as it happened. It was great in the winter time when the sun came up later in the morning. Slowly the twilight would lighten. Then, the sun hit the high peaks of the mountains, just west of Colorado Springs. As the sun illuminated the mountains, they blazed a luminous rosy glow. Mike watched, sipping coffee as the sun lit up the day. Finally, Mike could put it off no more. He slipped inside the passenger terminal.

  He walked over to the counter and showed his orders and ID to the airman behind the counter. She checked, and verified that he was manifested on the flight. Mike walked to the waiting area, to the seats that the team had appropriated. Tom gave Barbara a kiss, then she said goodbye to everybody, and left Tom with the team. The team started pulling out E-readers, E-media players, and personal tablets to keep busy.

  “How was your weekend?” Everett asked.

  “Well, we took the pups to get them spayed. They were drugged and unhappy all weekend. But they’re getting better,” he replied.

  “If you cut off my lady bits, I’d be pretty upset,” Mickey chipped in.

  Everett replied, “The last time I saw your lady bits was the twenty mile hike we did in June.”

  “It was just chafing, not as bad as you guys made it out to be.”

  “Yeah, well you may want to lay off of all the damn squats. When your thighs start rubbing together, there’s a problem.”

  Mickey decreased the body building supplements after that misadventure. Now, while he concentrated on strength training, he did a lot of running and hiking to ensure that never happened again.

  “How did your weekend go?” Mike asked Everett.

  “It was good. I like to spend time with Becky and Sam. It’s not like I get to spend a whole lot of time with them.”

  Becky and Sam, or Rebecca and Samantha, were Everett’s twin girls. He had them with his second wife, Vicky. They were going to be heart breakers. They were twelve years old heading directly for thirty-six.

  “We had a good time. But they’re starting to talk about boys, and that doesn’t sit too well with me.”

  Mike nodded, “Around here, I agree. If you don’t watch it, they’ll be married to a Private First Class, living in a trailer park.”

  Tom started singing a country song, “Two young people without a thing; say some vows and spread their wings; settle down with just what they need; livin’ on love. She don’t care 'bout what’s in style; she just likes the way he smiles; it takes more than marble and tile; livin’ on love.”

  “You can stop now, Tom. You aren’t helping,” Everett stated.

  Tom chuckled.

  Rob looked at Tom, “Man, that’s just wrong. That’s his little girls you’re talking about.”

  Tom replied, “Look who’s talking, the man who dates a different girl every weekend. You’re the guy that fathers warn their daughters about.”

  Rob looked offended, “I’ve never treated a woman with disrespect. Every woman knows what they’re getting into before they come home with me.”

  Mickey snorted, “So you’re telling me that all of those intoxicated women you take home know that you won’t be calling them when you’re done with them.”

  Rob flashed sad eyes at Mickey, “Now you’re just insulting me. I never take an intoxicated woman home.”

  Mike said, “Wait for it. . . ”

  Rob continued, “Because I don’t want to hold a woman’s hair out of the toilet while she throws up. It’s just disgusting.”

  Tom laughed, “The man esteems the virtuous woman willing to sleep with him, because the non-virtuous woman throws up too much.”

  Rob flashed his white teeth in a smile, “They’re very pleased to go home with me.”

  Mike gestured with his arms, encompassing the room with his hands. “Something seems to be filling the room, pressure is growing, what can it be? Can one man’s ego grow so large?” His hands went to his chest, “Can’t breathe, ego . . . consuming . . . all air . . . in the room.”

  The group laughed at Mike’s theatrics. Mike continued, “you sir, are a slut.”

  Rob replied with a world weary shrug of his shoulders.

  Finally, one of the Airmen behind the service desk came out and yelled the number for their flight. They got up, grabbed their bags, and started walking to the shuttle that would take them out onto the flight line to board their plane. It was a ten minute ride. The pallet was loaded, and locked onto the ramp. The team climbed aboard the C-12 through the passenger hatch and sat down. The plane started taxiing shortly after they fastened their seat belts. As the plane started rolling, the back ramp closed and locked into place. The load master called over the microphone on his head set, and the plane taxied to the runway. The plane gathered speed, lifted off, and the team was on its way.

  The plane climbed steadily after it took off, and leveled into its cruising altitude. There were no others on the flight, so the team had plenty of room to stretch out. The interior lights cut from white light to green, inducing Mickey and Tom to nod into deep sleep. Rob was listening to music and reading a book. The drone of th
e turbines and the whine of hydraulics made the flight a noisy one. C-12s were nice to fly on, but they were not known for comfort. They were designed to get soldiers to combat as quickly and efficiently as possible.

  This airplane was more comfortable than the C-130 that Mike cut his teeth on in the 82nd Airborne. Sixty-four airborne soldiers with gear could fit on a C-130. Jump seats were not comfortable, and when Mike was in the 82nd, there were a few times when his leg went to sleep while waiting to jump from the aircraft. With sixty-four jumpers on board, it was very crowded. Soldiers had each of their knees between the knees of two other jumper’s legs sitting across from him. If they hadn’t been wearing ballistic vests, parachutes, backpacks and weapons, they would look like a big, camouflaged zipper from above.

  Mike relaxed, reading Ian Flemings ‘James Bond’ novels. Those, plus the ‘Sharpe’s Rifles’, ‘Master and Commander’, and the ‘Horatio Hornblower’ series of books were his favorite novels. He was keenly aware that all of them were about British military, but he liked the flavor of the novels, where men faced with great conflicts mastered the day and went on to beat and excel against their adversaries. He had worked with British and Australian SAS, and had nothing but great respect for their training, experience, and capabilities. They were a great bunch of ‘lads’ and fun to work with.

  He worked with many of his sister services, to include SEALs, Marine Force Recon, Air Force Combat Air Control, and Para-Jumpers. Looking back on his experience, he had a great career and had done many great things with his time in service. He had six more years, and then he could retire. Then he would be spending all of his time with Jo and their kids, and Jo wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not he would come back to her.

  Jo was a great woman. Had he met her when he was younger, he probably wouldn’t have chosen the life that he was in. He was enjoying it now, though he missed her constantly. He was comforted by the thought that Jo would be taken care of if anything did happen to him. There was plenty of money in the bank with his salary and hers. Plus, there was life insurance, just in case. He sank enough money into the house so that the land and house were about half paid off. He knew Jo would be taken care of, but he would worry, no matter what. His goal was to always come back. That was his promise to her when he asked her to marry him. He told her that he would never leave her, and that no matter where he was in the world, he would always come back to her.

  He pulled out the biscuits and passed some to Everett and Rob. It was chilly on the aircraft, so he pulled a light jacket out of his backpack and put it on. The drone of the plane started to wear on him and he stretched out, then fell asleep.

  The plane droned for an hour, and then finally, they felt the plane turn. Hydraulics sounded as the aircraft banked. They were experienced enough to know the indicators that the plane was about to hit the target area. They roused, and the sleepers rubbed their faces to ensure that there was no drool or sleep lines.

  The situation wasn’t helped as Rob gestured to Mickey, and kept pointing at his own face, indicating that there was something on Mickey’s face. Mickey kept trying to rub whatever it was off, but Rob kept motioning that he missed it. The fact that there was nothing there didn’t dawn on Mickey until he saw the grins on Mike’s and Everett’s faces.

  “Asshole,” he grumbled.

  Rob nodded.

  Everybody checked around themselves and made sure that trash was picked up and no personal items had been left. They felt the angle of the plane change and knew that the plane was losing altitude. This pilot was good. He did such a soft landing that they were surprised when they felt the brakes of the aircraft take hold. Then, as is usual with a C-12, the aircraft slowed down quickly, throwing them against their seat belts, and changed direction as it moved off of the main runway towards the area where they would disembark.

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