by T I WADE
Four of the carcasses are hanging in one of my reefer trucks. I’ll butcher them for you, package them up, and bring the reefer truck over so that the meat can stay here and you’ll have enough space to store the meat. It’s about 1,200 pounds of prime beef. Actually, I still have some frozen lamb in the other freezer truck. I’ll throw in 30 or 40 pounds for you. I know you have a large crowd coming over for the festive season and since we’ll all be here for New Year’s Eve, we might as well contribute. Got any new war planes I can look at?”
“No” laughed Preston. “But wait until New Year’s Day. It’s going to look like the U.S. Air Force in World War II here at the airstrip. Martie and I have several new aircraft coming in for the fly-in this year. Why don’t you bring over your army, hang out here whenever you want and I can introduce the Rat Patrol to the U.S. Air Force.” Both men nodded and smiled at each other. They could already smell the beer.
“I hope old man Von Roebels is coming this year,” said Joe. “I liked talking to him last year, he’s a good man. And guess what, Preston old buddy? I have a new collector friend you are going to love. He lives in Raleigh and collects stuff like me. He wants to meet you. I went over there for dinner last week—he has several old radios from Vietnam and I want to get ‘hammy over Miami’ on the radios and became a ham radio-jock like you and Carlos.”
“I’d love to meet him, Joe,” Preston answered.
Joe continued on. “This guy has two working Army armored cars. He calls them Ferrets. He’s Jewish and spent time as a collector in Israel where most of the stuff was easily purchased at military auctions if you knew the right people. Not only does he have these two working armored cars, he has what he calls a Saracen, or something like that. It’s beautiful! It’s a six-wheeled armored personnel carrier. He also has a real troop carrier—British, I think—and tons of other stuff. He contacted me because he wants some .30-caliber ammo and my brother in Virginia met him at a gun show and told him that I might have some. I was thinking if he and I brought all our stuff around over New Year’s, this place would look worse than a Hollywood World War II movie set! We could sell tickets to the Preston and Joe Military Museum and make a fortune!”
Preston laughed and said that Joe should bring his friend around sometime.
Martie had left before Preston called Joe, and by the time she called him over her lunch break, Joe was already returning from the Apex Home Depot with thick blocks of 4 x 4 wooden beams, dozens of 2 x 8s, 16-inch floor beams, two truckloads of building materials, and his five sons.
Preston walked over the design he wanted with Joe, which included five bedrooms on the new second floor over his current hangar sleeping area, plus a small room with a sink and toilet. Joe had built the initial ground-floor structure for Preston over a decade earlier. In it there were three rooms—Preston’s lounge, a full bathroom behind the lounge, and his tool and work room, all of which were strong enough to hold another floor above them.
Joe explained to Preston that it would be okay to use the current wooden frame he had built years earlier for the second floor over the first two rooms. The workshop, the single open-plan room, and the bathroom were a combined 50-feet long and 20-feet wide.
“Joe, I think we should leave my current lounge as the downstairs party room. I can always put it back the way I’ve always had it after the party. The only change is that you will need to build a staircase up to the second floor from it and a bar counter and rear shelves in the opposite corner from the bathroom. Then build a second floor and divide it into five bedrooms with a hallway running down the front. Put the toilet and sink over the current bathroom at the top of the stairs and the windows from the hallway can face out into the hangar area and give some light since there will be no windows in the middle rooms. You can put a large window in the end walls so the end rooms get hangar light, and build the inner walls with wood panel sides and noise insulation inside. I’m thinking hotel-style rooms—I reckon 10-feet wide by 16-feet long. The guests will just have to come downstairs to shower. Create the staircase as close to the bathroom door as you can and make it and the bedrooms feel like hotel rooms with electrical installations for a queen bed on one side-wall and a corner hanging space in each room. What do you think so far?”
Joe nodded his agreement and reminded Preston that the initial structure had been built to have a good-sized load on the roof, and that it would take the added weight with no problem.
“Put in a wall air conditioner/heater unit high up in the front hallway wall or somewhere where nobody can bang their head or feet on it. We can put a nice carpet in the five rooms and varnish the walls with a thick boat varnish instead of paint, paint the ceiling white with a middle light set and that should be it. A nice hallway wooden floor will be a nice touch and with a white ceiling and some quality wood products, it’s going to be a permanent addition.
It had taken an hour and a half, but Preston and Joe already had the complete design on a piece of paper and Martie’s initial idea came to life, except that the party room was now downstairs and the sleeping rooms upstairs.
Joe planned on four days of construction work with his team of six guys, with the fifth day set aside for wood varnish (which Preston liked instead of paint), carpet laying, the HVAC installations, ceiling paint, light fixture installations, and final touch-ups. Preston gave him a credit card and told him to buy what he needed, and Joe rushed off to collect his sons and grab his other truck.
By Thursday, the woodwork was finished and it was looking good. Martie took measurements for a day of shopping. She had taken Friday off to shop, and that was what she was going to do.
That meant lots of new people in delivery trucks visiting the farm, and Preston never liked that. He made sure that all his valuable aircraft were fully covered with extra tarps and hidden from prying eyes so the visitors would think that they were just the usual aircraft found in hangers. The faithful crop sprayer that was never covered always looked natural in the hangar. The ammo was now safe and secure in the old barn across the airstrip, and nothing looked really different to an outsider, except perhaps the fancier than normal airstrip.
Over the last decade, Preston had built up his airstrip to look really professional. His last purchase, a complete airfield landing-light system and directional beacons was on his list for 2013. In 2000, he had lengthened the runway from 1,600 feet to 2,200 feet. The next year, after reading about the needs of most average small commercial and older war aircraft, Preston had lengthened the runway to nearly 2,700 feet. In 2002, he spent close to a quarter of a million dollars and structured the undercoat of the runway to accept heavier aircraft, and then tarred the entire 2,700 feet. He had also increased the width of the landing area from 18 feet to 30 feet. That much good thick asphalt had cost a lot of money. Joe had supervised most of the work and made good money from Preston that year, purchasing his first World War II jeep in mint condition.
In 2004, Preston had purchased five large underground fuel tanks from a bankrupt gas station auction. Each tank held 5,000 gallons of fuel. One was for diesel—he didn’t really need it but it was part of the lot. Two were for regular 87-octane truck and car gas. He filled them up when prices were down and drew off them when prices went up. The fourth tank was modified for aviation fuel and the last one was modified even more to hold jet fuel, in case he ever purchased a jet. It had hardly been used and he had filled it for regular aviation fuel every now and again and when prices were down. It took him another large check to drop these big tanks into large holes in front of his hangar and then add the asphalt over them to give him a very large aircraft parking apron—far larger than the hangar it stood outside.
In 2005, he completed his fuel project by buying and building a re-fueling point for all five tanks to the side of the parking area so that all aircraft-refueling was at least 50 feet from the hangar for safety.
On Friday evening, Joe was done by 8:00 and it was beer time. It looked warm and cozy, and the new upstairs looked more li
ke the inside of ship with all the varnish instead of the inside of a farm hangar. He had even redone Preston’s downstairs rooms, adding new paint, carpet, and varnish where needed. The whole structure looked like it had always been that way. He and his boys had done a good job. Preston paid him well and gave him a decent tip as a Christmas gift and Joe left a happy man with four beautiful machine guns to add to his jeeps. Joe and his boys were also off to cut up the meat for Preston, promising delivery in a couple of days.
Saturday was also a busy day, with the comings and goings of several delivery trucks. “Martie… that is a massive new fridge/freezer! Why on Earth did you get that?” Preston asked as the men brought the large silver unit into the downstairs room.
“For all the beer, wine and champagne, my love,” she responded. But Preston suddenly had a new problem. His little French generator was not going to survive this invasion of all these new electricity-sucking gadgets.
“I’m going to have to forklift over and power up one of the Man diesels and connect it into the system for both the house and the hangar to generate the power needed for the holidays,” he mused. “That reminds me, I’d better get the tanks filled. I don’t think I have much diesel.”
“Why don’t you just move it outside and let it stay behind the old barn where the ammunition is? I bet it is noisy and we shouldn’t hear it so bad from back there.” Martie suggested. “Remember, you put in the oversized pipe to feed electrical wires over there when you wanted to light up the old barn.”
“Good thinking, my beautiful German Fräulein. It weighs over a ton,” said Preston, thinking. “The forklift should lift it, or at least allow us to put some rollers under it so we can roll it outside and place it behind the barn. Good idea. They are pretty noisy.”
For the rest of Saturday, everything came in fives—five queen-size beds, five small desks, five chairs for the desks, five single lounge chairs, and five standard lamps. Five headboards and five large pictures for the walls above the headboards soon followed. Then came items in tens—ten bedside tables, ten bedside lamps, and ten captain’s chairs to fit around the five corner tables for each room. Several truckloads later, the upstairs looked like a Holiday Inn. Even the bedding was perfectly matched and looked good enough for a three- to four-star hotel chain. The colors blended well with the varnish and carpets. Martie had done a fantastic job.
“The ‘Officers Mess’ is ready for occupancy!” Preston laughed, once everything was in its new place. Even his old and well-used California King bed downstairs had the same color scheme as the beds upstairs.
“I’ve been meaning to buy you some new sheets and pillowcases for a while now,” stated Martie. “I remembered your bed here and decided that we didn’t need a pull-down. We can always put this one somewhere in the hangar out of the way if it’s not needed. Now, if you look in the new freezer, you’ll find a bottle of good French Champagne getting cold—a gift from me for your new hangar house-warming.”
“And what is with the fancy new speakers and music system?” asked Preston.
“Oh, yeah!” replied Martie with excitement. “We’ll be dancing in here and we need music.” She walked over to demonstrate while Preston looked in the freezer, and a few seconds later the beautiful and rich sound of a good system filled the air.
“U2! I should have known that Bono would be first if you had anything to do with it,” laughed Preston, as he opened a bottle of champagne. “What date is it today?
“Saturday, December 1st, and I’ve noticed that the smell of varnish is nearly gone,” answered Martie, sniffing the air. “Come, sit with me on the bed and drink a toast to our new boarding house. Who knows, you handsome officer, you might get lucky tonight. I’ve been known to loosen up after a bottle of bubbly, and I like the new bar. We can naughty-party here more often.”
***
The President had not had a good term since taking office in 2009. The worst recession since the Great Depression had hit the United States very hard, as well as the rest of the world. Unemployment had reached 13% in November 2011. Most of the media stations were quite adamant that the real statistics were been withheld and that realistically it was more like 18% since unemployment benefits were being cut and new applications were being delayed for weeks in the system before any payments were released.
House foreclosures soared through the beginning of 2012, and another two million homes in the United States stood empty between early 2011 and April 2012. China was trying to cash in on its loans to the United States, as were any countries that had loans to other countries—especially the United States. The banks were grabbing at every cent they could, and small businesses had been neglected since early 2010. America wasn’t happy and with the government only interested in bailing out big business, the whole U.S. population was in a foul mood. Politicians from both sides were often pelted by mobs anytime they tried to make a public appearance. The health-care plan was dead by the end of 2011, and the President seemed to have lost control of the government. He disappeared from television screens and it seemed like the first family was in seclusion.
On the streets, there was growing crime, hunger, and people sleeping on the streets. The nightly news was only interested in the bad news happening abroad and the daily killing of American troops on foreign soil. The media, it seemed, had a blackout on the bad news inside the United States. In July 2012, there was a little growth in the stock market, and the President came on the news to explain that mortgage rates on any home purchases would be held to 2% by the government and that any banks not offering mortgages at this rate will incur hefty penalties. Companies were offered a cash bonus to hire new employees by the government and another stimulus package was planned to help individual taxpayers in the New Year.
Slowly, the financial infrastructure was waking itself up a little, and there seemed to be a little life in the economy. The real question on everybody’s lips was, why were so many American troops fighting wars in five foreign countries? We were in Iraq and against Iran, then in Pakistan against the Taliban, Afghanistan, Syria and the new war in South Korea fighting the North Koreans.
The Pentagon chiefs who often appeared on the talk shows kept telling everybody that more and more troops were needed overseas. Many of the hosts asked the same question time and time again: “What happens when we are left with no troops on home soil” and the reply was that we “still have the National Guard.” Unfortunately, the same news media showed more and more National Guardsmen being deployed. Many had lost their jobs and had no choice but to go back into the Guard on a full-time basis. Naturally, they were being shipped out pretty quickly.
Now, more troops were being deployed than any time in American history except for the Second World War. In January, the President stated that with growing concerns in Pakistan and the chance of the Taliban getting their hands on nuclear weapons, he was sending in another 15,000 troops. In March, fighting escalated in the Koreas. South Korea begged the United States for more troops and weapons and another 10,000 troops, and most of the country’s remaining Air Force jet fighters were deployed. Seoul was under fire daily.
In May, Iranians started bombarding U.S. and NATO troops re-stationed in Iraq. Another 10,000 troops, of which 4,000 were National Guard, were deployed to Baghdad. In June, another 25,000 troops got their marching orders and were deployed around the world for no apparent reason—the media only getting wind of the massive troop movements after they were on the move.
The President’s rating went down to less than 20% and he went on the airwaves to remind America that we were still the strongest country in the world, that the Pentagon was under his direction, and the people need not be worried. “Nobody can or will attack the United States,” he said. “We still have thousands of troops across the country and, with the National Guard, we are strong and a real force to be reckoned with.”
He allowed a short question and answer session for the press and the first question was: “Numbers show that in the most recent deplo
yments of 150,000 troops this year, 30,000 were National Guard. The Pentagon stated in January that we still had 70,000 to 90,000 National Guardsmen ready to defend our shores. Mr. President, how many troops are left in the country?” The President answered that there were enough troops and that more information on numbers would be forthcoming. He was meeting with his Chiefs of Staff later in the week.
That caused the media to panic and life for the President went downhill from there. Historians were brought onto every media channel and the troop numbers were ground down like teeth. Some said there were less than 100,000 left inside U.S. borders. Some said that based on their numbers, the Chief of Staff and one or two other generals might be the only troops still in the States. Pictures showed empty National Guard stations all over the country. Bases were starting to block news programs from taping any footage.
Military barracks were scanned by the local population and nobody seemed to find many troops anywhere. A real panic started setting in August, when the President stated that things were not going well for our sons and daughters in foreign lands and he was thinking of sending in more troops.
More than 100,000 angry protestors hit Washington when, on the Sunday after a Presidential speech, the media reported 157 American military deaths the previous week. Somebody had leaked the information. The information leaked to one of the national networks also suggested troop numbers in the United States for September. The network stated there were only 40,000 troops and 15,000 National Guard left in the country. They also reported that approximately 90% of the Air Force was overseas, as well as 78% of the Navy. There were less than 2,000 Marines, apart from trainees, in the United States.
Washington was ablaze for a whole week. Buildings were on fire, motor vehicles were wrecked by the hundreds and all airports, bus depots, and railway stations in the area were on police lock-down and closed tight. It was time for something to happen and after 100 riot deaths that week in Washington alone—and another 150 reported by the excited media around the country—the government began to listen to its angry citizens.