Soldier Up (6 page)

Almost nine months from the date they were married a gift from God was bestowed on John and Mel, at least that’s how they looked at it, Kai Mark Clayton was born, nine pounds two ounces, a baby boy.  Mom was doing great and Dad was ecstatic, John was in the birthing room holding Mel’s hand and encouraging her the entire way, in John’s eyes the entire process was a miracle. 

              He remembered that his first twelve or so years after college were all about taking life and the best and most efficient way to do that.  How his life had changed a hundred and eighty degrees, now it was about making life and doing everything he could do to preserve it.  Right after the baby was born he was asked to leave the birthing room as mom needed her rest.

              John stepped out and  called his mom and dad and told them the good news, they were no longer able to travel, too many medical issues, but he assured them they would be out as soon as possible so they could meet their new grandson.  On the other hand Mel’s parents who lived near Berkeley were there at the hospital in the waiting room to hear the good news, which after his phone call he shared with them.  From there they made phone calls to all of the other relatives to let them know.  For John the only phone call he made was to his parents, he was an only child and he had no idea where most of his childhood friends were. He had lost track of them while he was in the Army and his life was entirely different and he was sure he had nothing in common with those people any longer.

              He ended up making a couple of other calls to some friends from work and they spread the word there, essentially letting everyone know that John wouldn’t be in for a couple of weeks at a minimum.  When he was in the Army he had a lot of friends, of course they were teammates and their families, then everyone they hung out with at the local dives and clubs.  For some reason the civilian world was very different he found no one really had your back like they did in the Army, everyone was always out for themselves.

              Although he loved his job and his wife and his new born son he missed the camaraderie of the Army and his team, he missed it a lot.  He even went so far to talk to a US Army National Guard Recruiter about joining.  When the recruiter saw his DD-214 he damn near shit himself, it was impressive, quite impressive was his exact words.  He was shuttled into talking with the recruiter’s commander who was an O-3 (Captain) who then shuttled him off to talk to the Battalion Commander a Lieutenant Colonel; none of them had ever met a man with John’s background.

              Last he heard from them was months ago and nothing came out of it, they had no openings for him, not at his current pay grade and MOS’s.  He thought about reaching out to SFOD-D to see if they might be able to help him out but he was afraid that Mel and others would find out.  So he dropped that idea both actually, thinking about it more he realized going into the National Guard Mel would certainly find that out too, one of the things though he had never tried was to talk to her about it. 

              He was working off the assumption that over a year and a half ago when they first met he had told her he was in the Army once and she never asked about it nor brought it up ever again, so he believed she was anti-military, especially when she said who would ever want to be in the military. 

              Mel wasn’t naïve or stupid, she saw how he handled a weapon, people at the range talked to her about it and they told her it looked to them he wasn’t your average Soldier when he was there and  there was something special about him.  She knew he liked war movies and reading books about the military she wasn’t oblivious to his interest.  Then she liked to snoop too, she was home by herself for a month before the baby was born and one day she was rummaging through the garage.  John has always had a foot locker that he kept lock, anytime she asked him about it he was always very evasive and just said it was some personal stuff.  That day she was rummaging through the garage she found it unlocked.

              That being the case she felt obligated to look into it, obligated in this case meant curious as hell, what could he be hiding that was so bad he couldn’t tell his wife she wondered.  She found his DD-214 and a bunch of medals and other awards which she read through, a lot of it she couldn’t make heads or tails from but she was impressed by the ones she could understand.  She wanted to know more and so she made a copy of his DD-214 and put the original back, then put everything else back where she found it.

              The following day she went down to the range and spoke to a few guys, who had served in the Army, she showed them the DD-214.  She was not prepared for what they told her, according to them her husband was officially a bad ass, meaning that he was from what they could tell from the document he was Ranger and Special Forces Qualified with a bunch of tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, he was also in SFOD-D which meant he was in Delta. Which means that he was in the less the one percent of the highest trained members in the entire military and he was an Officer, it looked like he was a Major when he got out.  She didn’t know what that meant either, “Was that up there in rank?” she asked one guy, “Well yeah he was a field grade officer, I mean he wasn’t a general, but it looks like by reading this he might have been if he stayed in long enough.”

              “Does this mean he killed guys?” she asked another former Soldier.  “Well,” he said.  “Given that he was in all of these units and had all of these qualifications and all these deployments, I would say yeah.  But only he knows for sure.”

              Each man she spoke with was truly impressed by her husband’s qualifications what they told her he was by and large he was one tough son-of-a-bitch.  They had never seen anyone else with all of these schools under his belt and a ton of medals to go with it.  She had a lot to think about and take in with everything she was told.  At a minimum she was very proud of her husband and everything he did for the country, she was incredibly impressed by his achievements and his service.

              She couldn’t get over it, this was not the man she married, he was so laid back and came across as non-threatening and a computer geek.  “Wow!” she kept saying over and over to herself, she thought about talking to him about it, but there was a reason why he didn’t want her or anyone else for that matter to know, so she would keep it to herself and destroy her copy of the DD-214 which she did.  She fell in love with him all over again, her husband was a “Bad Ass!” she smiled and just shook her head.

Nineteen months after Kai was born they welcomed Morgan Ann Clayton she was born ten pounds eight ounces and two weeks late.  The couple was elated to add her to their family, a little girl, for John she was a Minnie-me of her mom, he would treasure her and treat her like the princess she was.  Starting today he said he would create his own “Rules for Dating My Daughter” and God help the poor bastard that broke them.

              By this time tragedy had struck the Clayton household as Johns dad has passed away earlier in the year.  He had Alzheimer’s and for the last few months of his life the quality of it was horrible.  His mom couldn’t care for her husband and she had a whole host of medical problems herself.  They had hired a homecare nurse to help with his care, but by the time he passed John reasoned it was time.  One of the things that surprised Mel was that John showed absolutely no emotion when his dad passed away.  She talked to him about it and all he said was that he saw it coming awhile back and he had time to think about it then and grieve about it months ago, so when his dad did pass he was ok with it, he was in a better place now.

              Mel wasn’t sure that’s how he really felt; she had an idea his service in the Army made him feel certain ways about death.  When she had found out about his past she secretly read everything she could about Army Special Forces and Delta which made her even more proud to think her husband could go through all that.  She recalled that she had read once that the men learned how to compartmentalize their emotions when a man was killed so they could continue the mission, if they didn’t do that they would become emotional wrecks.

              As the months went on and they found out Mel was pregnant again John’s mood changed from bored and moody to happiness and jovial.  They were looking forward to having another baby, John and Mel were having a great time with Kai, they were fortunate that they could afford in home care for him and Mel’s mom who was retired also lived close so they had plenty of back up.  John was engrossed in everything Kai up to this point, but she wished he spent more time out with friends the few that he had.  She was still active with hers granted she had grown up in the area and John grew up in Colorado and moved here from North Carolina, she felt he missed the Army but never said anything about it.

              With the new baby coming they spent the time getting everything ready, there would be no hand-me-downs from brother to sister, matter-of-fact Kai was still using most of his stuff.  For the time being she would have to share a room with her brother until they moved into a larger home which they had talked about a lot more these days. 

              They were actually thinking about having a custom home built in Hayward which was about halfway between Berkeley and the Bay Area about thirty miles each way.  As far as commutes were concerned it wasn’t that big a deal everyone had to travel to get to work here, especially if they wanted to afford a home.

              They visited Hayward often over the months Mel was pregnant looking at various homes and empty lots in areas they believed that would be nice to raise a family.  About a month before the baby was to be born they went ahead and did it, they bought a lot in Hayward, hired an architect and contractor to build them their house.  Needless to say, there was a lot going on in their lives, it was wonderful, they both realized how blessed they were.

              A few days prior to the baby being born they were wondering slowly through Walmart, Mel was waddling through the store and John was more or less assisting by pushing Kai in the shopping cart and acting like it was a race car, Kai was having a ball.

              In the sporting goods isle Mel was planning ahead and looking for some new work out gear she could use after the baby was born.  From behind them they heard, “Well I’ll be a son-of-a-bitch!”

              John and Mel turned around to see who had said that, what Mel saw was some Hispanic man in a uniform standing there looking at John.  What John saw was Sergeant Major Dognillo in his Class A uniform and in his hand holding a Green Beret.  John’s jaw dropped, he had no idea how to respond, he had spent so much time and effort hiding the Army from Mel and now here it was literally starring them in the face.

              Dognillo couldn’t help but notice the beautiful woman standing next to the Major was very pregnant. He stuck out his hand towards here, “I’m Sergeant Major Dognillo, your husband? boyfriend? Significant other? friend? and I served together in the Army.”

              Mel laughed and shook his hand, “Wife and mother.”

              “Let me get this straight, you’re actually claiming that you’re married to him?” Dognillo thrusting a thumb towards the Major.  You could hear John groan.

              “Yes, yes I am.” Mel was laughing as she could see how uncomfortable her husband was.  John failed to see any humor in this.

              “Cat got your tongue Major?” asked the Sergeant Major.  With that John hung his head and shook it back and forth.  “What’s the problem tiger?” said the Sergeant Major.

              Mel was all but lying on the floor of Walmart laughing her ass off.  “Wait.” John thought to himself, “Something’s not right.”

              John asked, “Am I missing something here?”

              “How so sweetheart?” replied Mel.

              “Well, all of a sudden some Green Beret aka Special Forces Sergeant Major shows up out of my past, says we used to work together and all you can do is laugh?”

              Sergeant Major Dognillo was now caught in the middle of something he had no idea about, “Ok what the hell is going on?”

              Mel felt sorry for her husband, she knew he must be struggling internally with what just happened and doesn’t have clue one on how to proceed, she said, “Sergeant Major it’s very VERY nice to meet you and thank you for your service.  John and I have been together now for over two years closer to three actually.  He’s only mentioned once to me that he was in the Army, outside of that he has refused to talk about it.”

              “Is that so?” stated Dognillio flatly, glaring at the Major.

              “It is so, but what John doesn’t know is that I know he was an Army Ranger, Army Special Forces and I think a member of Delta.”

              John’s eyes got a big as saucers and he was staring at Mel and for the second time in less than twenty minutes his jaw dropped open. Both Mel and the Sergeant Major got a good laugh at how he looked.

              “Yes John I also know you were an Officer, a Major, I wasn’t sure about that until now though.” she laughed again.  Sergeant Major Dognillo couldn’t stop laughing.

              John now finally looked at the Sergeant Major, “Shut up Dog!” with that Major Clayton, US Army, stuck out his hand towards his friend and both men shook and hugged.  That was the first time Mel had ever seen him hug another man, outside of his father.    “Why are you here?” asked the Major.

              “Well I needed to get some toothpaste, laundry detergent, and some food.”

              Major Clayton shaking his head, “No, no why are you here in Hayward?”

              “Yeah I know I was just screwing with you.” The Sergeant Major laughed. “I’m no longer with you know who, so I took an advising position with 19
th
SF Group out of Los Alamitos, they’re a National Guard outfit but I’m fulltime.  We’re starting a detachment up at Camp Parks and I’m working out all the logistics, the building of it and so forth.  Hey! We’re looking for a Detachment Commander; it can be an O-4, interested?”             

              Mel watched John when the Sergeant Major offered him the job, she saw something in his eyes she had never seen before, it was hard to describe, what she saw was a Warrior.

              “Nah, I’m sorry I can’t just too much to do.” the Major replied.

              “C’mon man it’s only part-time for crying out loud, you know one weekend a month, two weeks a year that sort of crap.”

              “I’m sorry I can’t.”

              “Well look, if you change your mind let me know, here’s my card.  In fact just give me a call anytime so we can at least get together and talk about old times.”

              “Yeah, now that I can do.” John was excited about talking to his old friend.  Mel thought it was good to see.

              Sergeant Major Dognillo knew it was going to be an interesting conversation between husband and wife on the drive home.