Soldier Up (4 page)

Major Clayton woke up hooked up to all sorts of contraptions; he didn’t remember much other than being punched in the chest. Now he was flat on his back in a hospital bed hooked up to all sorts of what looked like monitoring machines and a big bandage around his chest.

              He found the nurse call button and pushed it, within moments a nurse came in, “Glad to see your awake finally.” She said.

              “Where am I?”

              “Landstuhl.” Was her only reply.  Major Clayton understood it to mean Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, US Army in Germany.               

              “How long have I been here?”

              “About a week. You were brought in from Bagdad. I’ll notify your Doctor that you’re awake now, she should be in shortly.  I’m Nancy by-the-way, if you need anything else just buzz.”  With that she left his room.

              The reason Nancy was so short with the Major was because they were under explicit orders to limit the amount of time with the occupant, unless accompanied by specific personnel which had been spelled out in an access list.  For the medical staff, who were for the most part, in the Army too, they understood, they didn’t see this often, but when it did they knew the need for operational security. 

              An hour later the Doctor came in and didn’t say a word to him, grabbed his chart and looked it over.  She sort of grunted to herself a couple of times, “You’re lucky to be alive Major. An eighth of an inch closer the bullet would have nicked a major artery and you would have bled out wherever in the world you were when you were wounded.  You were in surgery for seven hours while we stitched you up.”

              “Thanks Doc I appreciate it.” While thinking ‘It’s your fucking job to patch people up, what are you looking for a pat on the back?’ he then asked, “How long will I be here?”

              “Well that’s entirely up to you Major.  It’ll take a couple of months for your wound to heal entirely.  I don’t know whether or not you will need any rehab yet for the left side of your body. It took a pretty hard hit.”

              “I have to stay here the entire time?”

              “No, no…once I see that you’re able to travel you will be sent back stateside, to the base Hospital where you’re stationed at.”  She looked at his chart. “Odd it doesn’t say your home station on your chart, it normally does.”

              “Bragg, Fort Bragg.” Said Major Clayton.

              The Doctor nodded, “Ah…probably explains why.”  She went on to examine the Major, looked at all of his vitals, inspected the bandages and made sure all of connections were good.  By the time she was done John had fallen asleep.

              While at Landstuhl he underwent weeks of poking and prodding, test after test.  He could feel himself getting stronger day-by-day, he didn’t think he needed any rehab but they sent him to a physical therapist anyway.  Then finally after four weeks of this they were sending him back to Bragg, not to his unit, but to Womack (Womack Army Medical Center).  He would get on a medical transport that would apparently only carry him, and enjoy a lovely seven hour flight back home, ‘Oh joy,’ he thought.

              It was a long and very boring flight which fortunately he was able to sleep and read most of the way.  When they arrived he was ushered away to Womack in an ambulance that was standing by, he was able to get into the back of the ambulance under his own power, in fact he insisted on it.  In the back was a single EMT or what he thought was an EMT.  He sat down and lifted his legs onto gurney, leaned back and closed his eyes wondering when this nightmare was going to be over.

              “What the fuck took you so long? I can’t take you any place anymore without you catching a bullet!” said the EMT.

              “I know that voice!” The Majors eyes popped open and he looked over to see one Master Sergeant Dognillo sitting there, not an EMT, and he smiled at his friend. “Damn glad to see you boy!” said Major Clayton.

              “I’ve got your boy right here.” Dognillo grabbing at his crotch.  Both men laughed.  “It’s good to see you to John, how was the vacation?”

              “If this is a vacation then I don’t want another one anytime soon. Do you know when they are going to release me back to the unit?”

              “Nope no idea when and even if they are.”

              “What do you mean if?”

              “Well as I understand it the wound was pretty close to the heart, a lot of times they don’t let guys with these types of wounds return to the unit anytime soon, if ever.”

              “Fuck that, if that’s the case I might as well resign my commission, I don’t want to do anything else.”

“Well I don’t know what the final verdict is so don’t jump to any conclusions based off anything I said. I’m just say’in what’s happened to some guys in the past.”

“Fine, fine…I get it, I’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Pretty much, sorry.”

“Not your fault, wait…maybe it is…so what the hell happened to me?”

“Well what’s the last thing you remember?”

They were pulling up to the hospital where the rest of the team met him, everyone was happy to see the Major.  They got him checked in and escorted him to his room; they all crammed into his room as he got settled in.  Then the Nursing Supervisor came into the room and told them they had to leave.  All of the men looked at her with their war faces, she returned their gaze, she obviously was not afraid of them.  They filed out of the room saying their good-byes to the Major and they would see him back at the team room.  “Damn.” John thought.  “I still don’t know what happened.”

As the days went by John continued his rehab program and more tests.  He was required to also speak to an Army shrink to determine his frame of mind.  To John it was all bullshit; he just wanted to get back to work.  He played along with all of the doctors; he needed the medical release to be able to return to the team.  His teammates came by the hospital every couple of days; they looked like rough scruffy bunch. There were all sorts of rumors floating around the floor, considering they were treating a Major who had long blonde hair and a beard many of them were putting two and two together and coming up with Delta.  Of course none of them asked they knew there wasn’t anything he could confirm or deny and if they did ask they were pretty sure they would be told to mind their own business. 

After a couple of weeks in the hospital he got a visit from the Squadron Commander, it wasn’t all that unexpected.  Officers and NCO’s were expected to check up on their men and woman especially those in the hospital.  It was good to see the Colonel, he hadn’t seen him in months, John got the feeling though there was more to his visit then the formal check up on one of the troops.

The Colonel took a chair next to John’s bed, “How are you doing Major?”

“Great Sir, I’m ready to get back to work.”

The Colonel reached into his bag that he had brought with him, “First I wanted to give you this.” He handed over a blue box.  “If you were in a Regular Army unit there were be a lot of pomp and ceremony with this, but since the op was classified so are the events on how you earned this.” 

John opened the box and in it was a Purple Heart, John starred at it for a moment, “Thank you Sir. I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t say anything Major you earned it.”

John nodded and set the box down on the table next to the bed, “Sir, when can I get out of here?”

“Well Major that’s one of the reason’s I’m here.  The medical board has reviewed the recommendations from the doctor.  At this time you are cleared to return to the Squadron and to an extent your team.  You’re not cleared to conduct any op’s at this time.”

“Sir I’m not sure I understand?” John was confused.

“Understood Major, essentially you would return to the Squadron and work a staff position until they decided whether or not you can start running ops again.”

“I see Sir.” Said John. “What exactly would I do in a staff position?”

“Pushing papers basically, writing reports, analysis, things like that.” Replied the Colonel.

“Is that my only option?”

“Nope, you can return to your old SF or Ranger units, but you’re a Major and odds are they are going to put you in a staff position too.”

“Is that it Sir?”

“Yes Major that sums it up.  There ready to release you today, you can then take the next four days off.  Then come back into work on Monday.”

“Yes Sir.”

“It’s good to see you Major I’m glad to see your alive, see you on Monday.”  The Colonel stayed a bit longer and they engaged in small talk, he finally excused himself and said he had meetings to attend to that afternoon.

John was let go that afternoon from the hospital and was picked up by Boomer one of the team NCO’s.  They were good friends and had spent a lot of time partying together and been on the team together for the last two years.  Boomer and the rest of the team had been taking care of his house while he was in the hospital; they even stocked the refrigerator with beer and food for his return.

              Boomer dropped him off, he had a date and he was running late.  John told him good luck and wished him the best.  He would see him back at the team room on Monday.  John unlocked the door and walked into the house, it was so empty, so quiet.  This is the first time that it had struck him that his life was devoid of another person to share his life with, he was thirty-two and hadn’t really dated anyone serious since College; he had been concentrating on his career so much.  Besides, they were always gone and there was no way he could ever tell a significant other what he really did and where he was going.  Well he could tell them he was on SFOD-D he just couldn’t discuss missions with them or tell them where he was going

              Now that his career path was all but blocked he wasn’t going to be allowed to return to operational duties and regardless of where he went he was going to have to become a staff weenie.  He had some thinking to do; inside he knew this day was coming if he wanted to stay in the Army.  He just didn’t realize he was coming so quickly. 

              Did he really want to go through all of the advance training that would be required for field grade officers, he didn’t know.  He wanted to stay with the team, but the Army was all about move up or move out.  He didn’t want to be some Colonel’s or General’s dog robber he wasn’t built that way.  Over the next four days he thought about what the Colonel said and returned to work on Monday.

              When he returned to work there were all sorts of welcome backs, great job, glad you made it, all John heard was blah, blah, blah and then more blah, blah, blah.  He checked in at the team room everyone one was there.  He sat down with them for an hour or so and they explained what happened after he was hit.  The also went on to explain what was in the boxes, two rather large nasty dirty bombs that could have easily taken down New York City or Los Angeles.

              After getting caught up and hearing the rest of the details about the mission he was told to report to the Colonel. He took his time getting over to the Colonels office, there was no direction that stated it was urgent, so he got some coffee, said hi to a few more friends and finally arrived at the Colonels office. 

              As informal as they were around the detachment area he was never really sure how he was supposed to report to a Senior Officer still even though he had been there two years.  His Officer and Ranger Training screamed at him to follow military protocols and this is generally what he fell back on.  He rapped on the door until he heard “Enter”, he pushed the door open took several strides and came to attention at the front of the Colonels desk and saluted, “Sir, Major Clayton Reports as ordered.”

              The Colonel returned the salute, “At ease Major.” If the Colonel was surprised by the formal report he didn’t show it.  “Welcome back I hope you enjoyed your four days off?”

              “I did Sir thank you.”

              “Ready to get back to work?”

              “Yes Sir.”

              “Alright then you’re going to be moved over to operations.”

              “Sir does that mean no more missions?”

              “For the foreseeable future it does.”

              “Sir may I ask what does this really mean?”

              The Colonel looked hard at Major Clayton, “It means Major that your butt will be in a chair for a very long time to come.”

              John knew when he was about to cross a line so he stopped, “Yes Sir.”

              The Colonel told him to head down to operations and that they were expecting him.  They would show him his desk and bring him up to speed on his new duties.  John came to attention, saluted and did an about face and exited the Colonels office.   He headed down the main corridor and up a couple of flight of stairs and into operations.  He looked around a bit and found the office of the OIC who happened to be another Major, Major MacCoy.

              John knocked on the door, “Enter.” Major MacCoy said.

John walked into the room and stood in front of the Majors desk, Major MacCoy looked at him, “Is that the way you report?”

John looked at him, “It is when it’s another Major I do.” John said indignantly.

Major MacCoy looked at Major Clayton for a moment, he got up out of his chair and walked over and shut the door.  “Why don’t you have a seat Major.”

              Major MacCoy returned to his desk and sat; John went ahead and sat in the plastic chair in front of the desk.

              “How long have you been a Major?” asked Major MacCoy.

              “Three months or so.” replied Major Clayton.

              “I have been one for over three years so I out rank you by time served as a Major.”

              John couldn’t argue with that it was true if he had really been a Major for three years.

              “Look.” Said Major MacCoy. “We can get into a pissing contest about Major this and Major that and I really don’t want to.  I am the OIC of this Department so unless that changes and I hope to God it does soon, I apologize for how I came off I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

              John respected a person who stood up for their own faults and owned them, “No problem I get it, this caught me by surprise this morning, I was hoping to join my old team.”

              “To be honest we don’t get many operators here, it’s not their thing.  They might check in for a few days and are out of here as soon as they can.”

              “Where do they go?” John was curious.

              “Depends, we get both Officer and Enlisted.  They either find a job they like back where they came from such as Group or Rangers, or they resign or retire.”

              “What would my duties be here?”

              “Honestly not much right now, your butt on a chair eight hours a day.  You would review reports from the field, find out what the teams need and back fill them with materials or personnel. “

              “Sounds pretty low speed low drag.” Said Major Clayton.

              Major MacCoy smiled; he had heard the same phrase a hundred times from the operators who came through here.  “Yeah it is, when we leave here look around, look at the uniforms of the men and woman here.  There all jump qualified to be sure and maybe air assault but not much more.  Their MOS’s are such that they are doing the job they signed up for, but what you used to do, no way, not even close to being comparable.”

              John sat there he didn’t really understand the medical hold, he felt great, he had no physical or mental problems he was aware of.  He was running his five miles a day and spending a couple of hours a day at the gym.  The Army shrink said that he was fine, no mental imbalances other than wanting to still be on SFOD-D.

              Major MacCoy showed him to his desk which was far removed from the others who were mostly Senior NCOs and Company Grade Officers.  He looked around and did what Major MacCoy suggested and he was right.  There were no tabs at all, but everyone was jump qualified with a smattering of air assault here and there.  Major MacCoy gave him a bunch of binders to read through, he also told him if he lasted over a week then he would try to get him his own office.  He didn’t really want to ask why a week, he surmised that’s probably how long the other operators lasted before heading out if not earlier.

              He read through all of the binders by the end of the day, he felt brain dead after it.  He wondered why they didn’t have all this crap online.  It was after 1700 and he saw that Major MacCoy was still in his office.  He walked over and knocked on the door jamb because the door was actually open.

              “You know you don’t have to really do that if the door is open you can come in, we’re both Majors after all.” Said MacCoy smiling.

              John chuckled to himself, “I finished reading everything in the binders, that’s some pretty dry stuff.”

              “Really, you’re done? You actually read it?” MacCoy was surprised.

              “Yeah I read it, why isn’t it all online or in some app?” asked John.

              “Wow, I’m really impressed I don’t know the last time anyone read it, the other operators refused to even crack them open.  Well….the reason they aren’t online or an app is because we don’t have the resources to do it and you know the Army, if its ass backwards we like it!”

              “Do you mind if I give it a shot? Since I have to be here.”

              Major MacCoy was confused, “I’m sorry give what a shot?”

              John laughed, “Put the stuff on line.”

              “You can do that?”

              John laughed again, “Yeah sure it’s no problem.”

              “No seriously, you can do it?”

              “Yes I can do it; I have Computer Science Degree from Penn State.  Before I got all gung-ho I was the biggest computer nerd. I used to do this type of stuff for fun.”

              “Well yeah, go ahead and knock yourself out.”

              “Can I take the binders home so I can work on it? I need an IDE like Visual Studios or Eclipse to do it depending on the language.  Do you have a preference online or desktop app? And I would need to work on it with my own laptop, is that ok?” John was really into it.

              “Honestly Major I have no idea what you just said, but yeah you can take the binders home and yeah use your own laptop I don’t think it will be an issue, the binders aren’t classified.  We can get you a pass to bring your laptop in and out.”

              John smiled, “Great, well let me grab them then I’m going to head out, ok?”

              “Yeah sure, of course.” Major MacCoy wondered what the hell just happened.