Chapter 7
“Excuse me sir,” someone said.
I opened my eyes not really aware of where I was, or why I was here.
“Sir. They've called your flight,” The person at the gate said.
The fog cleared and the dream faded. I couldn't believe I had slept.
“Thank you,” I said,
I stood and headed toward the door to board the plane.
“Captain Waters?” some guy in a suit said walking toward me.
“Yes. Can I help you gentlemen,” I said.
“If you'll come with us Captain Waters there is someone who wishes to speak with you,” the man in the suit said.
“They just made last call for my flight,” I tried to explain.
“We understand that Captain, but we believe you'll want to talk to this person, and I can assure you if you miss the flight we will see that you do get home to your family without having to wait for another flight,” the man said.
“I don't really have a choice about this do I?” I asked.
“No sir, you don't,” the man said.
I followed them into what looked to be an office where I was told to make myself comfortable.
“Captain Waters, would you please follow me,” another man in a suit said after I had waited for ten minutes.
I stood up and followed where they indicated. I passed through the door and snapped to attention.
“Sir, forgive me they didn't tell me it was you who wished to see me,” I said.
“At ease Captain. I want to apologize for making you miss your flight. Other arraignments have already been made for you to get home to your family,” The President said.
“It's quite alright sir I haven't been home in almost two years and a few more hours aren't going to make that much difference now,” I said.
“Chances are Captain you'll get home even sooner on my plane than you would have on the commercial flight, since we will be flying straight though,” the President said.
This had to still be the dream I was having when I though the attendant had woken me to let me know it was time to board.
“This isn't a dream Captain Waters, I really am the President and I really did ask to have a few minutes with you. Since my visit has cost you your plans, I'm willing to let the taxpayers pay to make things right. I understand they owe you a rather large debt of gratitude, so it should be the least they can do to say thank you.”
“Sir, I'm sorry, but I don't think I understand,” I said.
“Captain I doubt there are a thousand people in this country that don't know of your heroic actions in saving the lives of two companies of infantry. I've asked to see you so I could present you with the Presidential Medal of Honor,” the President said.
“Sir with all due respect I don't understand, what I did was my job, a job I would have done for anyone, a job I was trained to do, and it was the taxpayers of this country that paid for my training. I don't think I'm the hero everyone seems to think I am,” I said.
“That is the mark of a true hero Captain, someone who is willing to risk their own life and still doesn't see themselves as a hero. Captain I wish there where more I can do, but I'm afraid the Presidential Medal of Honor is the best I can do. I wish we had more men with your modesty and courage,” the President said.
He handed me the Medal and someone told me to follow them. I was lead out on the tarmac to a plane and told to again make myself comfortable.
“I'm sorry about all the cameras in there Captain, but the country needs all the heroes it can get right now. Why don't you join me in my office so we can talk a little more privately,” the President said.
He lead me into a room cordoned off from the rest of the plane and closed the door behind us.
“I want to thank you personally for the success of your last mission, one of my nephews was attached to one of those companies, unfortunately he was one of the wounded you airlifted out and he didn't make it. Word is he did survive long enough to make it to the hospital where he dictated his last letter to his mother. Captain in his letter he said: 'If it hadn't been for Captain Waters none of us would have made it back. Mom I know by the time you read this all you'll have are the memories, but thanks to the White Rose you'll also be able to visit where I'm buried whenever you feel the need.' Captain my wifes sister feels the pain of loss regularly these days, but she can go visit the grave of her son who died defending the freedoms of this country. She asked that if I had the chance to thank you in person to let you know you are a hero because you made it possible for her to know the truth about her son, something so many other families don't have since their sons, fathers, husbands and brothers are MIA,” the President said.
“Mr President if it were possible for me to find every man missing in action and bring them, or their bodies back home I would...” I said.
“No one doubts that Captain. I can only imagine what it was like trying to rescue those men. I've seen the official report that at one point you all were surrounded by three battalions of enemy troops. What those reports don't say however is just why on Gods green earth they pulled back rather than attack. I was hoping you might shed some light on that for me,” he asked.
“Sir that is classified information, and I was told it was on a need to know basis only,” I said.
“And you aren't sure I need to know?” he asked.
I'm sorry sir, I know you're the President and all, but I just don't see how your having that information would be of benefit to you or the country,” I said.
“I can respect that Captain. You do know I could order you to tell me, but I think you already know I won't do that. Is there anything about it you can tell me?” he asked.
“I think so sir. I believe you have the right and the need to know that when the enemy woke up that morning, they did so to find that over a thousand of their men were dead and they never had any idea it happened until they woke up. Sir there was more than just my small recon team of special forces troops, and one and a half infantry companies there that day. Two days prior we met up with a full company of special forces, the company was designated Alpha company under the command of Major Adam Jackson. When we met up with them we knew we had one battalion of enemy on our tail and decided it would be better to stand and fight than be harassed all the way back to our base,” I started.
“Together Major Jackson, Lieutenant Strong and I came up with a battle strategy we felt confident we would be able to discourage the enemy from such action. While we waited for them to come to us since we had a fairly defensible position we worked at putting our strategy into play,” I continued.
“The morning of the third day we got a call from base telling us we had three battalions merging on us and we had maybe one day before they would be in a position to over run us. I was the one monitoring the radio when the call came in and knew what we had in the way of weaponry with which to fight, and asked if there were any way they could airdrop what I felt we would need to have any kind of chance to make a stand,” I continued.
“Running for base was no longer an option, they would have over run us before we could have covered half the distance and trying to get us more troops wouldn't have worked since there were enough of the enemy already close enough to have shot most if not all before they were on the ground. Thus, the additional arms were our only choice,” I said.
“Colonel Talbot promised he'd do what he could, and four hours later cargo planes were dropping the supplies I asked for. Our whole battle strategy had to be changed since we were now dealing with a minimum of three times the enemy we had accounted for in the original plan,” I added.
“Sir, let me suffice it to say our special forces troops are the best trained in the world at gorilla warfare. The enemy withdrew because when they woke up that morning they had no clue what kind of enemy they were facing. To the best of my knowledge there isn't a single special forces soldier who enjoys killing, but there also isn't a single special forces soldier that doesn't understand
that some times to save lives you have to kill. That morning there were over one thousand enemy soldiers that died, but because the commanding officers of the enemy were willing to retreat thousands more were sparred,” I said.
There was a knock at the door. “Sir, the Captain said we just received clearance to land. I was wondering if you intended to get off the plane for a few minutes?” someone I guessed was secret service asked.
“Tell the Captain we won't be here any longer than it takes to meet Captain Waters family, and see he is safely home,” the President said.