Thunder in the Morning Calm
Page 33
When the applause finally subsided, the man stepped behind the microphones and said, “Colonel Pendleton. I’m Mack Williams. I’m your new commander in chief. Welcome home!”
Keith shot the president a sharp salute. “Nice to meet you, Mr. President.”
That reignited thunderous applause, this time peppered with cheers and whistling and the sound of Marines grunting “Ooooo-rah.”
“My first order,” the president said, then waited as more whistles and applause threatened to drown out his words. When the applause subsided again, he said, “My first order is for you to come stand behind the podium with me.”
Keith complied, and the president greeted him with a big bear hug.
More applause.
“Colonel, I know you are anxious to get home, and we have a Marine chopper waiting to take you to a place called Corbin Hall.” Cheers … whistles. “But first, there is something you should know. While you were in flight from Hawaii, the Senate, at my recommendation, approved your promotion to brigadier general. You will retire from the Marine Corps at that rank and, though I haven’t checked lately, I suspect that might improve your retirement pay a tad.”
More cheering.
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
“I’ll ask Lieutenant Commander McCormick, your grandson, to help me here, and we’re going to remove those birds from your collar and replace them with stars.”
“With pleasure, Mr. President,” Gunner said.
Keith stood at attention while Gunner removed the eagle off his left collar, and the president removed the eagle from his right collar. Then they each pinned a single silver star onto each collar, officially making him a brigadier general in the United States Marine Corps.
“Congratulations, General Pendleton,” the president said. More applause. “And now … and now … there is someone who is very anxious to see you.” He turned around and said, “Captain.”
A trim Marine officer, standing by the black limousine, opened the back door. An attractive woman who looked to be in her sixties got out, took the arm of the Marine officer, and walked toward the podium. With her free hand, she wiped tears from her eyes.
He had last seen her when she was a baby. But still, somehow, he knew. Daddy never forgets his little girl.
She walked up to him and fell into his arms.
“My little Margaret,” he said, holding her tight.
“I always knew you were alive,” she said. “I never stopped praying.”
They hugged, oblivious of the sustained cheering around them.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
“Yes, let’s.” She stepped back, smiling, tears flooding her eyes.
The president said, “General, I know you’ve got a chopper to catch and a lot of catching up to do. But before you do, is there anything you’d like to say?”
“Yes, sir, Mr. President, there is.” Keith stepped to the microphone.
The crowd went stone silent. All eyes were focused on him.
“Thank you for being here. You have made this one grand welcome home. I am grateful. And I was grateful for my country when I was captured sixty years ago as a young man. I am no less grateful for my country today as an old man. I am grateful to my grandson Lieutenant Commander Gunner McCormick and to all who risked their lives to save me. And I am most grateful that my final days on this earth will be spent at home, with my family, in the glorious sunset of freedom.
“May God bless America.”
EPILOGUE
Corbin Hall
Suffolk, Virginia
Brigadier General Robert Keith Pendleton, United States Marine Corps, retired, sat at the head of the table and absorbed the sights of Christmas. His daughter, Margaret, wearing her red Christmas sweater, sat to his right, beaming like the happiest woman in the world. His grandson Gunner, the real hero of the hour, sat at his left. Right beside Gunner, in a radiant new red dress, the product of her first visit to an American shopping mall, Pak looked stunning and happy with her new adopted American family.
Grandson Gorman sat at the other end of the table, surrounded by his wife, Bri, and their two children, Jill and Tyler.
Keith looked down and eyed the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and squash casserole on his plate. It was a white plate that had the Marine Corps globe-and-anchor emblem on it. Margaret had insisted that he use this plate, although he was the only one with such a plate.
Whatever Margaret wanted. He wasn’t going to argue.
Off to the side, the Christmas tree glowed with a myriad of colored lights, some shining constantly and some blinking. And on top, an angel looked down with outstretched arms.
He wondered if this could all be a dream and he would soon wake up back in the perpetual nightmare of his real life.
The doorbell rang.
This was no dream. This was real.
The doorbell rang again.
Although the turkey was freshly carved and on the table, Keith was grateful for the interruption. He got up with the family and walked to the front door.
Since his return home, Christmas carolers had descended on Corbin Hall like an invading army of goodwill. They were bused in from churches around Tidewater. One church youth group even trekked in from Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
They would park along the road, offload from their buses, and walk down the long driveway singing all the carols that he had not heard for so long — “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” “O Come, O Come, Emanuel,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” — then they would walk back singing, board their buses, and go back to spend the rest of Christmas with their families.
Standing out front in a light falling snow was another group of carolers. The last time he had seen snow, it was like frozen ice falling into the cold pit of hell that was Korea. But tonight, as he stretched out his hand and looked up, Keith smiled. The falling snow was like manna from heaven.
A smiling young woman, perhaps seventeen years old, stood in front of the other smiling teenagers.
“General Pendleton?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“We’re the youth group from First Baptist in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.”
“Thank you all for coming tonight.”
“May we ask a question?”
“Certainly you may.”
“May we sing you something a little unusual for Christmas?” The girl’s blue eyes twinkled with excitement.
“My dear, you can sing anything you would like.”
She smiled and turned around. She held up her hands in a director’s pose and said, “Slow and meaningful,” then hummed a single note for pitch.
Then came the most beautiful blend of melody and harmony his ears had ever heard.
Oh beautiful
For spacious skies
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain,
America, America, God shed his grace on thee!
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea!
Keith stood there, his right arm around Margaret, and wiped his eyes.
Maybe he really wasn’t a Marine.
Marines don’t cry.
“Merry Christmas, General Pendleton!”
Acknowledgments
For his superb editorial assistance, a special thanks to US Army veteran Jack Miller of La Mesa, California, who, with his wife, Linda, is a generous benefactor of the San Diego Zoo and the Lambs Theatre of Coronado, California. With grateful appreciation for the behind-the-scenes tours with the giraffes and the magical musical performances by the Pacific.
A special and warm thanks to Sue Brower, acquisitions editor of Zondervan, and to Lori Vanden Bosch, both of whom, quite frankly, were born to be editors, and whose comments, feedback, and strategic input during the editorial process have been an oasis of wisdom. Also, special thanks to Jane Haradine not only for her superb editioral assistance, but also for her
superb talent and artistry in the preparation of the various maps found throughout the novel.
TO THOSE AMERICANS WHO SERVED
This novel is released in conjunction with the sixtieth anniversary of the Korean War. You who are still alive who fought in that war liberated a nation that Communist forces had invaded, smothered, and occupied totally, with the exception of a small amount of land on the far southeastern corner of the country around Pusan. But you, brave soldiers and marines and sailors and airmen, hit the enemy hard in one of history’s most daring amphibious landings, at a place called Inchon, where tides rise and fall rapidly, making the precision and execution of your operation a matter of life or death. You ended the Communist strangulation of South Korea and pushed the freedom-hating invaders back north of the 38th parallel.
Yes, some troops from other nations were involved, and yes, some call the war a UN “police action.” Some have even called it “the Korean Conflict.”
But then there is the truth. Korea was neither a “police action” nor was it a “conflict.” Korea was war in its bloodiest and most brutal form. Although other countries fought in the war, American blood saved South Korea. Nearly 37,000 of your brothers-in-arms gave their lives in Korea. That’s ten times the sacrifice of all other nations combined who sent forces there. More than eight thousand Americans are still missing to this day. No, despite what some say, Korea is not the “Forgotten War.” Korea was an American war. And you who served shall never be forgotten.
North and South Korea, Seoul,
Osan Air Force Base, Inchon, Pusan, Pyongyang
All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke
BOOKS BY DON BROWN
The Black Sea Affair
The Malacca Conspiracy
The Navy Justice Series
Treason
Hostage
Defiance
About the Author
DON BROWN is the author of Malacca Conspiracy, The Navy Justice Series, and Black Sea Affair, a submarine thriller that predicted the 2008 shooting war between Russia and Georgia. Don served five years in the US Navy as an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, which gave him an exceptional vantage point into both the Navy and the inner workings of “inside-the-beltway” as an action officer assigned to the Pentagon. He left active duty in 1992 to pursue private practice but remained on inactive status through 1999, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He and his family live in North Carolina, where he pursues his passion for penning novels about the Navy.
ZONDERVAN
Thunder in the Morning Calm
Copyright © 2011 by Don Brown
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
EPub Edition © JULY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-310-41043-0
This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook. Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks.
This title is also available in a Zondervan audio edition. Visit www.zondervan.fm.
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Don, 1960-
Thunder in the morning calm / Don Brown.
p. cm. — (Pacific Rim series)
ISBN 978-0-310-33014-1 (pbk.)
1. United States. Navy — Intelligence specialists — Fiction. 2. Grandfathers — Fiction. 3. Korean War, 1950-1953 — Prisoners and prisons, North Korea — Fiction. 4. Prisoners of war — United States — Fiction. 5. Korea (North) — Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.R6947T48 2011
813’.6 — dc22
2011012855
* * *
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other — except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Maps created by Jane Haradine. Copyright © Don Brown.
Cover design: Extra Credit Projects
Cover photography: istockphoto©, photo.com™
Interior design: Michelle Espinoza
* * *
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 /DCI/ 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgments
TO THOSE AMERICANS
WHO SERVED
BOOKS BY DON BROWN
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
Share Your Thoughts