We did good, Right?
Chapter 1: An end to a Beginning
At the centre of the parade ground, with the crowd around it was a small, unassuming monument. Three pyramids of varying sizes on a squat pedastal, on which some words were inscribed.
When men sacrifice everything they have
for you
How do you thank them?
And after that:
"We did good, right Captain?" - Corporal Casey Grant
An American general stood and walked towards a podium. He was about sixty, with marbled salt and pepper hair and clear, watery blue eyes. He stopped at the podium and fumbled in his jacket for the longest time. Eventually settling on a piece of paper and his glasses, he put his glasses on the end of his nose and looked up at the fidgeting assembly.
"I hate getting old." he said to polite laughter "But the men and women we are honouring today will not be getting older. It may not be a pleasant thought, but we must understand exactly the atrocities we, as humans, can commit. I spoke to the leader of this team before they went." he gestured the five coffins behind him " And he said to me, 'General Durham, I don't believe this massacre can justify meeting in kind.' to which I foolishly said 'The ends justify the means.' and I can tell you... the ends do not. And Captain Alexei Dragovai, Leuitenant Duke Durham, Corporal Casey Grant, Sargeant Lucy Booth and Sargeant James Garret have paid a dear price for my naievete. I wish I had listened to the brave Captain, if I had, this meeting would not be happening and five of the bravest and most couragous soldiers I have ever known would still be with us. So I will not be here in my capacity as a general." he removed his jacket and tie. "I will be here in my capacity of a foolish old man, who learned more in three days from this team than he ever learned from his considerable career in the military. I learned Integrity. I learned respect... earned respect not given. I learned how you never leave a man behind... So after this speech I will resign, effective immidiately. I will end with saying that... as Captain Dragovai told me... 'No end is permanent... We will see you soon, sir.' as he walked over to the chopper. Thank you for your time." he took his seat, visibly weeping, and watched as the coffins were picked up and moved towards the convoy, to a two hundred gun salute from the men at the barracks. General Walter Durham looked into the sky and sighed, hoping that Captain Alexei Dragovai would have liked his speech... the cynical bastard. Long after the convoy and the crowd had gone he was sat there, as the sun set over the desert he got into his car and drove home. His wife, Linda, was there with dinner.
"I saw your speech on the news," she said "Well done. I think he would have been proud." General Durham smiled sadly as he saw the faces of the five people he had sent to their deaths. War used to be so definate... so absolute. These were the bad guys, you sent the good guys to stop them and the good guys came home and partied. He forgot that even in Vietnam he had lost friends... how war had seemed so unjust back then. He had been fed into the machine and out was spat a General. It took a new event to open his eyes. He wanted nothing to do with the war machine anymore. He smiled earnestly, it was time to take up gardening. He ate his wife's pot roast and enjoyed it more than he had in a long time. Retirement had possibilities.