by Unknown
Petyr gave a sigh. “Same with me. I help out my father delivering packages after school. Sometimes I think I’ll never get my homework done and get some sleep. How long has your Mom been sick?”
“For the last five years. Mother has to use an oxygen tube now. She gets winded just standing up and walking across a room. That’s why we moved into the city. Going back and forth to his work from the family farm nearly killed Father. He works so hard, and comes in so tired, I felt like I had to do something. Luckily, I’m a pretty good cook,” she said with a grin. “But sometimes I have a little time and I go down and sit on the bench in front of your store. Just a little fresh air helps a lot. Aren’t you at the same level as I am in school?” she asked.
Petyr smiled. “Yes, but you weren’t assigned any of the same classes. I’ve seen you a few times, but when you’re rushing to your next class, there’s not much time to say hello. How are you doing in school?”
“Not too bad,” she said. “I want to go to the university and become a teacher. Father says they will get by if I go, but I’m not so sure.”
“A teacher, huh. Why that?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I really like being around children, and my grandmother was a teacher. What about you?”
“I hope to get into the university too, but I am interested in biology. Either I want to do biological research or become a doctor. I’d like to help figure out what makes us all the way we are. You know, what really comes together to make your hair the color it is or your eyes as green as they are,” he said. “I don’t want to change how it’s done, but just to understand it.”
“Sounds nice,” she said with a smile. The fact he had noticed the color of her eyes had not gone unnoticed. “Maybe we will go to the same university together.”
Petyr couldn’t believe how much he was enjoying the conversation. “I think I would like that a lot. I’m glad we finally got the chance to talk a bit. Maybe I need to come this way every day.”
Freda laughed. “Well, I don’t go to the grocer every day, but I might try and sit on that bench for a while each night. Maybe you will catch me there,” she said with a sly look.
Petyr looked up and rubbed his chin with one hand. “Hmmm, I might be able to work it into my busy schedule,” he said before looking back at her and smiling.
Freda had heard all about Petyr at school. Of all the students, no one ever said anything bad about him. Yes, his looks were amazing, but she found his personality to be just as pleasant as the others had told her, and she felt drawn to it. Now they were laughing together walking along the street. She would make sure that she spent some time on the bench tonight.
The Pentagon
Lieutenant Jeffers escorted Colonel Pete Peterson into Hammond’s office. He had been a little concerned about the summons to an Admiral’s office to be a part of a special team. Admiral Hammond came from his desk to greet him.
“Colonel Peterson, it’s good to finally meet you. A friend of ours had a lot of nice things to say about you,” he said cheerfully.
The puzzled look on Peterson’s face was priceless. “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Admiral,” he said. “A friend?”
Hammond almost laughed. “Yep, Dale Ricks told me you were probably the only army officer who had his shit together, so that’s why I asked for you.”
Peterson’s face broke into a wide grin. “I’ll be damned. I hadn’t made the connection. How’s he doing?”
“Pretty fair. The last I heard, they have him down at Fort Belvoir in a training billet. I just got here a few days ago and I haven’t been able to catch up. Have a seat,” Hammond said to the colonel. The two men sat down and Hammond continued. “Colonel, I’ve been handed a tough job and I will need a few people with combat experience on the team. I got the go ahead from Defense to select a few people to join it. I remembered what you and Ricks had gone through so I asked where you were. Luckily you were over at Fort Meyers. I appreciate you joining us on such short notice and I appreciate you coming in a little early so we could meet.”
Peterson was relieved a bit now that he knew what had happened. “Not a problem, sir, but I’m still a little interested in knowing what we’re up against,” he said.
“I’ll explain more at the meeting, but the main thing is to try and determine who the next threat is and how we are going tackle it. At first, my predecessor had just invited flag officers, but I felt like we couldn’t do this without people who have been there and done that a little more recently than they had. I need you to look at this from the ground pounder perspective. I can’t make recommendations that will work unless I know the guys with the bayonets can do the job. I believe you are just the guy to tell me this,” Hammond said firmly.
Peterson nodded his head. “Oh, I can do that, all right. If you talked to Ricks, you know we were at it from both the losing side to eventually the winning side. Even now, some of the guys I work with can’t believe what we did,” he said with determination. “Of course, what I say won’t mean much if a bunch of flag officers poo-poo it. But I’ll give you what I’ve got. From what I have heard, you have seen some of the same kind of action yourself, so I’ll leave you to fight with the rest of the elephants. Us pygmies will just keep from getting crunched underfoot,” he said with a grin.
“I’ll try to keep them from making jelly out of you. Thanks for joining the team.”
The two men talked a few minutes before they had to leave for the meeting. The conference room was just down the hall. The men were the last to enter and everyone stood as they came in except for two of the admirals, who remained seated. It quickly reminded Hammond that technically, he was still a three star, while these two men were four stars. After asking the people to be seated, Hammond led off.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Roger Hammond, acting Vice Chief of Naval Operations. Thank you all for coming today. Some of you began this process under the late Admiral Styles, today we are picking up that effort. It has been bumped up a little and now has the support of the Department of Defense, so it’s not just a Navy project anymore. I also asked to expand on the people taking part in this effort,” he began. “We have a monumental task before us. Some of the decisions will be easy, while others will require intense effort. As I see it, we have four goals,” he began
Lieutenant Jeffers turned on the computer projector and the outline appeared in front of them.
“First, we need to determine the top three threats facing the United States at the present time. Second, we need to determine the largest threat and how they threaten us. Third, where are we most vulnerable or to put it better, how would you see them attacking us, and fourth, how do we meet the challenge. Specifically, if we are attacked, what do we do about it? You will notice that we have officers from the allied services here with us. Since the United States does not operate in a vacuum, we have to take into consideration how our allies will respond as well.
“That is the basic outline, but as you can imagine, the deeper we go into this, the more detailed it will get. I will say this, if any of you feel you cannot stick with this until it is complete, please let me know now. Once we start, we all will have a part and we all will have homework to do. I will ask that if you do leave, you assign someone else to take your place. I’m not kidding on the importance of this project.
“Now, as to how I want to conduct these meetings, they will mainly be brainstorming sessions. Everyone has an equal say,” he said while glancing at Peterson. He noticed Peterson grin back. During the meetings, we will look at specific aspects of the mission and everyone will need to go back afterwards and find out what information we need to eventually come to a consensus. Once we have everything finalized, we will go over it all in front of the Joint Chiefs. If they have any other comments, it will be incorporated into the final.”
Hammond looked around the room. “Each of you is a resident expert in their area of warfare expertise. There is no denying that. Each of you has an equal say. If you have a doubt
, sing out and bring it up to all of us. We can’t get this done if there are lingering doubts. This must be our best effort. Now are there any questions?” he asked finally.
Admiral Lockwood spoke up. “Roger, why involve such a large number of non-flag officers? When we first met with Styles, we assumed this would be something that would last a few meetings then a report submitted,” he said in an accusing tone.
“That may be, but I got the distinct impression from the CNO that he wanted something a little more substantial. Evidently the Secretary of Defense agreed, so it got bumped up to a higher priority with a few more provisions. I invited the rest of these senior officers because they have much more recent combat experience and can give us a better insight on what happens at the ground level.”
“Don’t you think we know that,” Lockwood said sternly. “I have a lot more experience than these guys.”
Hammond looked at him and laid his hands on the table. “Admiral, you are an aviator. What aircraft did you fly?”
Lockwood grinned. “I trained on the F-4 Phantom. Then I transitioned to F-14s,” he said with a smirk.
“And both are aircraft no longer in our inventory. The aviators we have today are dealing with systems and aircraft we never dreamed of. Although I know you have vast experiences, they are not necessarily modern experiences. We need that input, not just the outdated ideas of people who have been flying desks instead of aircraft for the last ten years,” Hammond said calmly.
Lockwood got a stricken look on his face. No one had ever doubted his abilities, yet Hammond had cut right to the core. He was right. It had been ten years since he had flown in an aircraft except as a passenger. What made it worse, Hammond had calmly cut him down in front of all the others. He silently began looking for a way to get a little revenge. Looking back at Hammond, he said, “So I take it none of the other flag officers have the experience either.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said a female voice from the back of the room. Everyone turned to see Lieutenant General Claire Richardson sitting back in her chair. “I personally recognize several people in the room who were with me when we had our little walk up the Korean peninsula. It looks like a well thought out team to me,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I agree,” said Rear Admiral Chris Hustvedt, sitting beside her. Every naval officer in the room remembered how Hustvedt had won the battle of the Sea of Japan just six years before.
“It’s not that I doubt anyone’s abilities. You have an amazing record and I really do need your input into all this. But I also need the experiences of everyone in the room, not just one or two. Once this is done, we will have a blueprint for fighting a modern war. Something like this hasn’t been done of this scale since the Second World War. I need all of you,” Hammond reiterated. “Any other questions?”
The room was silent. Everyone recognized leadership and it was standing at the front of the room.
“Very well, then, let’s start at the beginning. What do you think are the top three threats to the United States,” Hammond began.
“Russia,” said Admiral Best put forward. “With all the activity she has been in for the last year, I would expect something between six months and a year from now. There may be others, but Russia worries me most,” he said, warming up to the task. Several of the people in the room nodded.
“China might be the next one in line,” said Richardson. “She is still rattling her saber in some of the outlying areas and we have gotten word that she is putting pressure on some of the neighboring countries to get some things done. I wouldn’t put her in the same ballpark as Russia, but with over a billion people, I would be worried. I know we worried about that in Korea.”
“Okay, that’s two to consider, are there others?” asked Hammond.
“What about the Middle East? It has quieted down some, but they are still killing each other over there by the dozens,” said a Marine lieutenant colonel.
“Yea, they never seem to go away,” said Best with a grin. There was a chuckle in the room. “We finally got out of there but the conflict seems to always keep going. The threat there is to the oil supplies,” he said. Again there was nodding around the room.
A British captain spoke up. “Actually, I believe those are the real threats to any of us. Venezuela used to be somewhat of a threat, however it appears that issue has been handily dealt with,” he said with a grin. “In any case, aside from minor skirmishes with the damned Somali pirates, the rest of the world appears to be holding its own. If it were left to me, I would agree that the number one threat is Russia, then China and the Middle East. At least I can’t think of any other major threats,” he said. “India is a big question mark, but, fortunately, she has her own troubles and is not bothering anyone at present.”
Hammond looked around the room. Some were nodding and some simply watching. “Very well, is this a consensus?” he asked. Now everyone was nodding. Hammond smiled, “Now see, we have already accomplished a quarter of our mission,” he said with a grin.
There was a general chuckle around the room. Everyone knew this was the easy part, but everyone felt the energy now. People were participating and they all felt something big was being done.
“Now to stage two, how are we threatened by our top choice, Russia.” This time, the discussion was much livelier.
Krakow, Poland.
The night was very peaceful. Freda could hear crickets in the distance and the light from the streetlamp cast a dim yellow glow across the area. She had only been sitting on the bench for a few minutes when she heard the shop door open and Petyr came out.
“Hi,” she said, “Glad you made it.”
Petyr sat down next to her. He could see the outline of her face in the light of the streetlamp. He was thrilled she had invited him to join her and was working hard not to show it. “Wouldn’t miss it. I used to come out here sometimes myself. It’s nice in the cool of the evening,” he said. He shifted on the bench to face her. “Now, tell me about yourself. About the only thing I know is that you just moved in here and you have to take care of the family,” he said.
She turned slightly to face him. “Where do I start? My father is a banker at the PKO Bank just a few blocks from here. Originally we had a farm outside the city on the other side of the A4, but when my mother got so sick, father decided to move closer to work so he could be home more often. At least that’s what he told us. What really happened is he has spent all we have on special doctors to try and treat mother. We flew her to the United States for care, but she was so far gone, they said the only thing they could do was to put her on something called a transplant list. They sent us home and told us to wait. We call every week or so, but so far, there has been no word. I overheard father telling a friend they didn’t have much hope they would get one in time,” she said as her voice drifted softer.
Petyr could feel the pain she felt. He reached over and took her hand. “I can’t imagine what you have been through. If I had known, I wouldn’t have asked,” he said softly.
She squeezed his hand. “Don’t feel bad, we have seen this coming. Even mother does what she can to cheer us all up. My father is determined to make life as pleasant as possible for all of us. It was just a shame we had to leave the farm. I loved it there,” she said wistfully.
“Did you sell it or rent out the land?” Petyr asked.
“Oh, Papa wouldn’t sell it. We rent the house to a family who works the land. It has been in our family for several generations. It has several hectares of farmland, some forest and a small lake. I loved that lake,” she said wistfully.
“What kinds of things did you like to do there?” he asked.
The smile returned to her face, “Oh, I’m an outdoor girl,” she said. “I love anything outdoors. I used to ride my bike every day, go out with friends camping and swimming. Sometimes I would just go out and soak up the sun. My father used to have to hunt me down for dinner each night. I would be off doing something somewhere,” she said gleefully. �
�I haven’t had the chance to do much of that lately.”
Petyr got even more excited. Those were the kinds of things he loved to do as well. “Maybe we should take some time and do things like that together. I enjoy being outside too. If nothing else, you can ride with me on my errands,” he suggested.
“That might be fun. Maybe we could go to the park by the Wisla River. I have wanted to get down and see it,” she suggested.
“I’d like that too. Do you want to go some weekend?”
“If I can get the time,” she said.
“Then we will make it work. Sunday afternoon might be the best time,” he said excitedly.
“That may work. I’ll ask my father,” she said.
Petyr held her hands tighter with the excitement. The conversation stopped for a moment as they simply looked at each other. Eventually both realized nothing was being said and they looked away.
“Now tell me a little about yourself,” she finally said. It was a good thing he could not see her blushing.
Petyr looked down and smiled. “Not much to tell. I’ve always lived here. My father was born in Russia, in the old Soviet Union. He came in while this country was a part of the Warsaw Pact. When it all fell apart, he decided to stay. He said he could make more money here anyway. So this has been my home. I have a lot of friends and over the years got to do a lot of the same things you like; camping, fishing, hiking, that kind of thing. As a matter of fact, I know some great places to camp. There are some cabins in the Tatransky National Park that are fantastic. I’d love to take you there for a weekend,” he said with glee.
Freda let out a hearty laugh. “You really can get excited about things, can’t you?” she laughed.