by Dave Hazel
“Back to what I was trying to say,” Percy said to get back on track. “You already have three battalions under you, Towbar and Major Chick. 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion are both made up of combat fighting soldiers and 3rd Battalion is everyone we classified as other than grunt combat soldiers. We put the helicopters and their teams, the mortar teams into 3rd Battalion as a way of saying we only had two battalions of fighting men involved in Towbar one. Not only was it a way to simplify everything, but it was also part of the manipulation, excuse me,” Percy corrected himself. “I’m not supposed to say ‘manipulation’ or ‘trick’ or anything that would come across as deceptive. It was a way to ‘massage’ the numbers a little,” Percy said and rolled his eyes.
“I don’t care about all this. I want what we need so--”
“No, I have to explain it to you like this just in case you are questioned,” Percy said sternly. “Believe me, I’m fed up with this tiptoeing around the words I used to explain what we’re doing,” he added with a heavy sigh. “But the President has an election this year and you couldn’t possibly understand some of the nit picking details we have to be aware of because of the political microscope the President is under.”
“But he’s the sitting President and we just had a major victory by bringing all the people back,” Mykal argued.
“It doesn’t matter,” Percy said and held his hand up to stop Mykal. “As a matter of fact because of that victory some would argue it would be all the more reason to end the operation and bring everyone home. But that’s not for us, and that is not our discussion.”
“Okay, I understand.”
“Back to what I started to tell you. You will bring 1900 combat fighting men, so with what you have there already, you will have over 3000 fighting men under your command.”
“That’s good,” Mykal said but he sounded less than enthusiastic. He wondered if 3000 fighting men would really make a difference with all the Sosos and their allies they were facing.
“I’m not sure if you will need to know all the details but we have four battalions returning with you. Three of them are strictly fighting men and the fourth battalion is made up with the civilian and what we classified as the non-combatant personnel. Each of the fighting battalions consists of three companies and each company is made up of four platoons just like your last group. Whereas the first Towbar One had two battalions of only fighting men, this addition to Towbar One will bring three more battalions. I’m not trying to get into the weeds here, but I don’t want you to appear unprepared, lacking knowledge or out of the loop if you happen to get questioned.”
“That’s another reason why I personally wanna avoid the media,” he snickered and rolled his eyes.
“The last battalion, which we are calling extras, will merge and blend with your 3rd Battalion that is already there. It all has to do with trying to make it look on paper like we’re not sending a brigade or a division. This last battalion will have extra men who will replenish those you lost in the last battles with the Sosos. And this extra battalion will become part of the 3rd Battalion you have there, which will turn your 3rd Battalion into one large battalion. Trust me it’s just a trick with the numbers on paper.
“We are really hoping this will offset the overall small number of fighting men to help you combat the Sosos and their allies,” Percy continued. “I know you’re facing one to two million there and 3000 fighting men doesn’t sound like much, but when you see what has been packed into this ‘extra battalion’,” he said with air quotes “that will merge with your 3rd Battalion, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. This large battalion will have more medical personnel, engineer types, more equipment like backhoes, transport vehicles and obviously people to man the machines. There will also be mortar teams, heavy artillery, a number of tanks with their crews and twenty-four helicopters and their crews. Twelve of the helicopters will be Huey UH-1D like you have now. They are basically for small troop transportation that will give you quick maneuverability but you will also have twelve Huey Cobras, attack choppers, for countering what we saw on the videos. The rockets on the Cobras should be an easy fix for the dragons we saw. If that turns out not to be enough, we can change it up or add to it if you need to come back. Our goal here is we’re trying to keep somewhat of a low profile. Which I know in saying that, I sound ridiculous with all that you’re taking with you. If you really needed troop transport helicopters we could have brought along some of the big Chinook birds.”
“Great. I thought it was going to be a battle to get anything to fight with,” Mykal said with a broad smile and nodded his head. He knew Towbar and Towbar’s people would be greatly impressed.
“No, no. We want there to be a quick and decisive victory,” Percy said. “The public supports this greatly, but there are those who don’t want us to go and with the media on their side they could easily ambush and blindside the President right before the election so we’re trying to make it look small. But I want you to get out there and smash them in the face and stop the war as quick as you can. And if the war drags out until the end of the year,” Percy paused and looked around to ensure no one could hear him. Since they were alone on the flight line away from everyone no one would be able to hear their discussion. “Then as soon as the President is re-elected, we will send the right size force and stop them hard and fast,” he added with a confident wink and nod. “This is from the top.”
“That makes me feel a whole lot better than saying we’re only going to have a total of three thousand fighting men,” Mykal said with an upbeat smile. “I was thinking what’s the point if--”
Percy cut him off. “On paper your fighting men will be just under 3200, but that is really deceiving because that last battalion that will merge with your 3rd Battalion has a good number of personnel in it with all the equipment they will be operating. You’ll get it all figured out when you get there and look over the notebook in your hands. Now, understand this, I know I’m repeating myself but this is important,” he paused again and looked over his shoulder to see if any of the media personnel were nearby. “If this happens to drag on just be patient because after the election is over and when we are assured President Edmonds remains in office, we will immediately send you anything and everything you need. We will establish a regular military base and get you fifty thousand soldiers or whatever is needed to end that war. Obviously don’t repeat that to anyone. This is just between you and me. We just have to get through the election and then our hands will be free to put a permanent end to the Sosos and their ilk.”
“Great. That really makes me feel tons better.”
“Also Mykal, I need you to understand, that although all this will go under Major Chick, we are sending along a full bird colonel, Colonel Marc Fisher. Yes, he out ranks Chick, but technically he is going only as an advisor and will not interfere with what Major Chick is doing there. He is actually a friend of Major Chick’s and Chick requested that he come along,” Percy said and appeared to study Mykal for his response.
“Huh, I don’t remember Major Chick saying anything about any Colonel Fisher.”
“We’re not going to risk upsetting what we already have in place,” Percy said. “Don’t worry about it,” he added as if he was trying to convince Mykal. “Chick will have under him five battalions of combat fighting men and when the ‘extra’ battalion,” he added with air quotes, “merges with 3rd Battalion, it will be one hell of a battalion with all that will be attached to it. Your new 3rd Battalion will need a separate zip code,” he joked to demonstrate how large the group would be.
“Back to this Colonel Fisher, if he out ranks Chick won’t that create a problem?” Mykal asked and searched his memory for the name of Colonel Marc Fisher. “Right now there is a Major Hansen in charge of 3rd Battalion, but he’s basically a medical guy. He’s the chief operating physician. Is Colonel Marc Fisher going to take over 3rd Battalion?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Percy answered and suddenly seemed
to get antsy.
“Cuz I don’t want there to be any problems with what Major Chick is doing,” Mykal said as if he demanded for Major Chick to remain in control of the entire operation.
“Oh no. Colonel Fisher is a part of the ‘extra’ or rather the 7th Battalion which is going to merge into your 3rd Battalion. He won’t be an issue,” Percy said rather hastily. “Don’t worry about it. It’s all in the manual I gave you. He’s an advisor besides being Chick’s friend,” he added and kept looking in all directions to eye the men who were forming up their convoy.
“No biggie,” Mykal said and flipped through the many pages in his three ring binder to get an idea of what was in there. “As long as he doesn’t pull rank and screw things up. He doesn’t know what we’re dealing with there. I don’t want there to be--”
“Mykal stop,” Percy cut him off. “Don’t worry about it. It’s going to be alright. It’s going to be perfectly fine. Just let the military people do what they do best and they will save Towbar’s people from the defeat they seem to be facing. I want you to know Mykal, myself, and the President went above and beyond to give you what you needed,” he paused and tapped the notebook in Mykal’s hands. “We’re thinking of the future,” he said and his eyes seemed to widen with excitement. “Also, I want you to treat this notebook like it is Top Secret. We don’t want anyone looking in here, except for those you trust like Major Chick. Colonel Fisher has his own copy and so do all the commanders who have the need to know. We deliberately didn’t attach a classification to these binders so they wouldn’t draw any attention to them. Just protect it.”
“No problem. I want you to know that I’m more than grateful and I am speaking on behalf of Towbar and his people cuz I know how much this will mean to them,” Mykal said. He quickly thought of how he would break his arrangement he made with Percy. He instantly felt terror. The terror was the result of getting himself into something that he wasn’t going to be able to extricate himself from. While he looked at Percy, the one he planned to renege against, he realized Percy was the point man of the entire United States Government. A silent death grip seemed to grab Mykal’s throat. Even with his magic ring, the ring that was causing him so many ‘mental and emotional’ problems, even with the ring, he couldn’t stand alone against the United States Government. ‘I’ll have to think this through later,’ he thought. He nodded while Percy continued to speak.
“Like I said before, we’re on the same team,” Percy expressed firmly which grabbed Mykal’s attention again. “And we’ll do what we need to do because we are thinking of the future and we are making a deep investment. I understand that compared to any operation or campaign this is minuscule, but that’s because we’re trying to keep this a low profile. We have several namby-pamby lefties crying about another Vietnam with what we’ve already sent.”
“Yeah, I understand,” Mykal replied and watched several buses stop on the flight line and foreign soldiers disembarked and rushed to different vehicles carrying their weapons and equipment. “Whoa, we’re taking more foreign soldiers? I thought you said a couple of days ago we weren’t taking any this time. Don’t get me wrong, the foreign soldiers I worked with over there were great. I didn’t have a problem with them and I don’t mind if they come, but what gives?”
“Yes, there wasn’t supposed to be any foreigners going,” Percy said and arched his eyebrow angrily. “There was really no time to get the word out while we were trying to keep everything hush-hush until we got the approval. But someone, and we’re still trying to find out who the rat bastard is, but someone let the cat out of the bag. Whoever it was didn’t leak it to the media. That person or persons made sure the Russians found out. So we know we have a problem. The Russians said if they couldn’t send personnel, they were going to announce to the world that we have a clandestine operation occurring and that President Edmonds is up to no good. To make a long story short, they wanted to bring along a complete division of soldiers and we quickly nixed that. We allowed them to bring a company just like the last time. We told them they could take it or leave it and if they tried to black mail us again, not only would they never be allowed to go to Towbar’s world, we threatened that as soon as you got there you would round up their personnel who are there and would return them here immediately.”
“Who would do that?” Mykal gasped. Russians were the only foreigners he didn’t want because he didn’t trust what their motive was.
“See, this is where your abilities would come in handy Mykal. We could find out who the rat is and,” Percy paused. “We’ll talk about that stuff in the future. Obviously someone is a traitor or trying to make some money on the side. Just be careful if you have any dealings with them. We believe the forces they’re bringing will actually be made up of KGB and Spetsnaz.”
“What is Spetsnaz? I’ve heard that word, but I’ve never known what that is.”
“They are like a Soviet Military Intelligence organization. They are also known as diversionary troops and they specialize in going behind enemy lines and creating havoc. We believe they have actually murdered political and military leaders and anything else that would deem necessary to accomplish their mission. Don’t worry about that. They know you’re the only ticket to Towbar’s world and they want to get there so it wouldn’t surprise me if they try to befriend you and win you over that way. The Russians are angry and we agreed,” Percy said with air quotes for the word ‘agreed’, “to have discussions for different arrangements in the future so they relented.”
“Well I wouldn’t trust them anyway. From all the training I had in Air Force security, it’s been ingrained in my mind not to trust them,” he laughed because of all the things he had been taught about the Cold War ‘bad guys’.
“One thing to watch for also is Russian soldiers getting overly friendly with Towbar. You have to remember if they are sending KGB dressed as soldiers they could try to turn Towbar against you and if they get you out of the picture they will use Towbar as the lone source of travel back and forth between our worlds. And that would spell our demise since they would force us out of the picture.”
“I’ll make him aware of the possible threat. I’m confident of how close our relationship is, but I’ll remain on guard. But what foreigners are coming, since no one really knew?”
“Well, since the Russians forced their way onto this trip we contacted our allies and offered them an opportunity to come along. You have one battalion of US Marines. One battalion of US Army and the third is a mix. As I already said the Russians have one company. We asked the Canadians and they gave two companies of their Special Service Force infantry soldiers and a company of their Airborne Commandos which are made up of all French-Canadians. South Korea sent a company of their Korean Special Forces. I didn’t think they would send anyone because of their losses. The French sent two companies, one the French Paratroops and the other their Foreign Legion. Australia sent a full company. A new group is the Italians. We promise we would invite them when they missed out the last trip so they sent a company of their San Marcos Marines. Our biggest ally, the United Kingdom, sent three companies. One SAS, one Parachute Regiment and the other the Royal Marines. We also have a company size group of Navy SEALs. Everyone involved understands we want to keep things simple, and to keep things simple we’ll provide the weapons. This way everyone is using the same weapons and ammo.”
“And they all understand that though I’m a civilian, me, Towbar and Major Chick are top dogs, right?”
“Yes and the foreigners have to speak English et cetera et cetera. Just like the last mission.”
“Is there one person who has all the information down so we can get Major Chick up to speed right away?”
“Yes, and perfect timing,” Percy said and waved to a lone staff car that stopped nearby. The driver let someone out of the back seat. “Colonel Fisher has everything down and knows what equipment and special weapons we have and here he comes now.”
“I thought you said he was just a
long for the ride so to speak? To be an advisor to Major Chick?”
“Ah, well, um yes,” Percy said as he smiled at Fisher, but he sounded insincere. “He is, but he does have to know everything you’re taking with you. He has been briefed on the status.”
Mykal suddenly felt like he was being lied to as the robust handsome officer neared them. Mykal thought the man looked young to be a full bird colonel. The man neared six feet tall and looked physically fit, though he didn’t seem to be one to ‘overdo’ it in the weight room. His square jaw line already started to show his five o’clock shadow. ‘He’s probably gotta shave twice a day,’ Mykal thought. The man’s cleft chin reminded Mykal of the actor Kirk Douglas, thus his good looks made the man look like a movie star. His BDUs were starched and crisp. The eagle, globe and anchor on his left pocket told Mykal he was a Marine.
“Colonel Marc Fisher, this is Mykal Graves,” Percy said and introduced them.
“Hi. How ya doing Sir,” Mykal said with a friendly smile and held out his hand. “Do you mind if I call you Marc?”
The man looked at Mykal’s hand with a hint of disdain. “You can call me Colonel,” he said as if correcting Mykal.
Mykal felt embarrassed and left his hand hanging. He was about to withdraw his hand when Fisher reached out to shake as if only to wipe away the awkward scene. Mykal felt Fisher shook his hand as if he had been forced to. “I’ll be sure to call you Colonel, Sir,” Mykal said as they plodded through the formality of shaking hands. Mykal felt embarrassed and out of anger wanted to tell Fisher to be sure to call him Mister Graves, but he didn’t want their relationship to start off on the wrong foot.