"Makoto's Tale"
Author: Haruo Chikamori
E-mail: hhchikamori
Rating: T
Classification: Meg/Animal
Spoilers:
Summary: An American MIA comes home.
DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Meg Austin, Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, Bud Roberts, Harriet Sims-Roberts et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.
Author's Note:
NOTIFICATION
Quang Tri Province, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, November 1968; 3rd Marine Division
"Mak!" the frantic shout of his gunnery sergeant caused Mak to look up. "Incoming!" The attack from the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) had been on-going for several hours now. M-16 in hand, Mak pumped off three-shot bursts towards the incoming NVA troops felling three NVA. "Fall back!" the gunny yelled as he propelled himself from his foxhole. Getting cut down was a major problem with an attack like this. Gunny barely managed to make it to the next foxhole and dove in.
"We got six men in foxholes here! Gunny." Sergeant Meller yelled back. "We gotta hold the line!" Pumping more shots from his M-16, Mak dropped several more NVA. Meller had Smitty in his foxhole covering the left flank with his M60. Jeffries on the right flank with another M60 was sending more 7.62 downrange at the NVA; cutting a swath in the attacking flanks. But more NVA were attacking. Pulling a M26 frag grenade from his pocket, Mak pulled the pin, counted the requisite three seconds and threw the grenade. Dropping into the middle of the charge, the grenade sat for a brief second then exploded throwing shrapnel threw the charging ranks of the NVA. Six NVA were thrown off their feet, their clothing ripped apart by the blast. Several more dropped unmoving due to fatal shrapnel wounds. Two more Marines tossed grenades, cutting down even more of the charge. But it still wasn't enough.
Mak looked over at his gunny as he crossed himself. "Semper Fi! Gunny!" Out of the corner of his eyes he could see in the distance the massing attack of the NVA held in reserve. And in the pit of his gut, the despair pooling, he knew that there was no way that he was going to make it home.
Spring Valley, New York, November 1968
Sarah Nakamura was washing dishes in a little suburb in New York State when she saw a black car pull up. Her breath hitched when getting out of the car was a Marine Corps major general. She went to answer the door.
"Mrs. Nakamura?" the Marine major general asked, a bit surprised to see a Caucasian woman answering the door.
"Yes?" Sarah Nakamura said. "Please come in…"
"Thank you." The officer's mood was sombre as he stepped inside the door. "Ma'am. I'm your son's division commander. Your son was with the 3rd Marines in the Quang Tri Province in Viet Nam when their platoon position was overrun. We have no information on any survivors so we have to assume that your son is missing in action."
Sarah's legs felt weak as she crumpled, leaning heavily against the general as the general caught her fall. Guiding her to a chair, the general tried to comfort her as long as she needed it. By the time Osamu got home from work, the general had left with his contingent and Sarah had dried her tears long enough to notify her husband that their son was missing in action. In 1972 a brand-new POW/MIA flag went up on the Nakamura's house and stayed there; for the next 36 years. Osamu and Sarah went to their graves not knowing what had happened to their second son. Being Japanese-American, Osamu never mentioned another word about their son. Neither did Makoto's brothers and sister. Stoicism in the face of family tragedy was the Japanese way of things and it was the way that the Nakamuras coped. Two brothers went to Vietnam, one came home and that was the end of it. Vietnam was never spoken about in their family.
JAG RLSO Detachment Fallon, NAS Fallon, NV.
"Lieutenant Commander Nakamura, there's someone to see you from JPAC." Captain Maria Albanesi stated as she leaned her head in Meg's office. A second head peered around the office door belonging to a blonde-haired female.
"Hi, I'm Commander Jennifer Gornick. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, Department of Defense." she extended her hand to Meg with a friendly smile.
"Afternoon, Ma'am." Meg stated, her tone equally friendly, but curious. "Please have a seat. I was just finishing up a case here."
"Lieutenant Commander, I noticed that your last name was Nakamura. You're married to a Japanese-American?" Commander Jen Gornick asked.
"Yes. I am." Meg stated. "Unusual?" there was a small hint of a challenge there.
"No." Jen stated. "I just need to know if you are related to a Japanese-American, because we have identified some remains of an MIA of Japanese descent and need to get some corroborating evidence so that we can close the file and repatriate the remains to his family."
Meg's eyes were wide. "I can take you to him. He's the NSAWC Commanding officer." Meg went to her commanding officer and told her that she would have to introduce the JPAC officer to her husband.
Naval Strike Air Warfare Center, NAS Fallon, NV
"Sir…" Master Guns Stacker leaned in the door to notify Animal of visitors. "Two here to see you, sir. One unknown O-5 type and your wife, Lieutenant Commander Nakamura, sir."
"Alright." Animal stated. "Send them in, Master Guns…and thank you."
"My pleasure, sir." The Master Guns' gravelly voice sounded amused as he grinned and about-faced marching out the door. When the two officers squared off in his office a foot from his desk; the O-5 apparently non-plussed at his rank at which he grinned.
"Commander, Lieutenant Commander… How may I help you two?"
"Admiral, sir." The O-5 stated, still standing at attention. "I'm Commander Jennifer Gornick, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command at the Department of Defense. I'm here to repatriate a Vietnam War MIA's remains, however, sir, I will need some genetic testing material."
Animal's look was puzzled. "Commander, I was not aware that my family had any MIA from the Vietnam War." He shook his head. "My father never mentioned anything, neither did my grandfather." He looked over at Meg who stood there. "Are you sure you have the right Nakamura?"
"Sir, Makoto Nakamura's records presented his parents as Osamu Nakamura and Sarah Koechner Nakamura at 6 Laura Place, Spring Valley, New York." CDR Gornick stated as she looked in her file and then passed the file over to Animal who took another long look at the file.
"Yes, that would be my grandfather. And you stated that you needed a genetic sample to compare the remains with?" Animal gave her a hard look.
"Yes, sir. Just to make sure that we have the match correct, sir."
"You are aware that you are opening up a lot of questions?" Animal asked pointedly with a raised eyebrow. "Some families are resigned to the fact that they've never spoken about their missing family members for ages. Some have even taken those secrets to the grave."
"Yes, sir. I'm aware of that. But we feel that it will provide some closure to the surviving family members to see a loved one back home; that they are aware of what happened to their loved ones in Vietnam." Commander Gornick stood her ground, well aware of the fact that this was causing a psychological upheaval in the admiral.
"Commander, if you will give me a moment with my wife. I'd like to confer with her as to my next steps." Animal requested the JPAC commander. With two stars on his collars, the request…was an order. And Commander Gornick knew it.
Nodding an affirmative and a "yes sir" she stepped out of the office.
Meg remained in the office as Animal let out a big sigh. "Dad never told me." He said simply. Meg could hear a tone of betrayed anger in his voice. Shaking his head, he got up out of his chair and looked out the window. Meg swore softly to herself as she knew that in uniform, she had to abide by the rules and not go to her husband's side to comfort him as her heart wanted to. Her husband's world had just been turned upside down but as a rear admiral, he had to present the rest of his command with a strong façade. He looked at Meg with pain in his eyes as he said. "What should I do? Part of me doesn't want to open up this whole box. Just want to let it be. But if it means bringing home a relative (that I never knew) and laying him to rest finally in peace in his homeland…" His voice trailed off as it choked up. "…what's the right thing to do?"
"I'd bring him home." Meg said.
There was a knock on the door. "Enter!" Animal growled and Harm stepped in. "I hope I'm not disturbing anything, sir." Harm asked.
"Harm, shut the door and sit down for a minute." Animal requested quietly. Harm did as asked and Animal continued. "I've just been notified by JPAC that a relative that I never even knew existed has been located in Vietnam." Harm looked over at Meg who nodded. "You found your father, right?"
"Yes, sir."
"So you know what it feels to discover that your long-lost father is gone." Animal stated simply. "I just found out that my dad, uncle and aunt had a brother lost in action in Vietnam. His remains needed to be identified and I'm the only one that they could locate to identify the remains."
Harm winced; he remembered the emotional upheaval when he found out that his father had been buried in the taiga in Siberia and that the whereabouts had been taken to the grave by Pitchta's brother. He could hear the despair and anger in his superior's voice. He knew intuitively that there had been some betrayal there. "No-one in your family spoke of your MIA uncle, sir?" Harm asked. Animal shook his head. Harm looked down at his feet. "Sir, I can't recommend any course of action. That has to come from in-here." He pointed at his own heart. "But I can tell you one thing, sir. I'd have a tough time leaving my father in Russia if I knew where he was buried."
Animal put his right elbow up on the desk where he sat down, and rested his chin in his hand as he pondered the situation. "Grandma and Grandpa are gone; Dad and Mom are gone. So's Auntie Susan and Aunt Asae. Uncle Dave and Uncle Jeff are the only two who are left who would have even had the slightest inkling of Makoto's existence and they don't talk about him either."
"Tell you what." Harm stated. "I'd do it. Just to bring him home. Just to be sure that they got the right person."
Animal nodded and hit the inter-office communication button on the phone. "Chief! Tell Commander Gornick that she can come back in."
The commander stepped in and looked over at Harm as if to ask why he was in there.
"Commander Gornick, this is Commander Harmon Rabb Jr. He's also another son of a Vietnam KIA." Animal stated. "I was just asking him as well as my wife on how to proceed from here or if we would proceed."
"Yes, sir." CDR Gornick looked at Animal.
"…and we have decided to proceed with the genetic testing to obtain proof that it is Makoto Nakamura that we are dealing with." Animal stated as he looked over at the JPAC Commander. "Just how did he die, Commander?"
"That's hard to tell…but I can tell you that he was with the 3rd Marine Division in Quang Tri and they were killed in a heavy offensive by the NVA on November 17, 1968. According to records, their position was overrun by the NVA and he was killed by a grenade attack. None of the men in his platoon survived."
The genetic testing involved a nuclear DNA test sample. "We don't need a mitochondrial DNA sample because your grandmother provided us with one before she passed away, just in case that we found him. It has been kept frozen so there should be relatively little decomposition of the genetic material." CDR Gornick stated as she started a blood draw, "Medical background" she said as she reassured Animal who at the best of times did not like needles. Taking two vials of blood she put those in the DNA sample cooler.
"How long will the testing take?" Animal asked and then had to open his mouth while CDR Gornick swabbed the inside of his cheek with a sterile swab.
"I would say a month at the earliest. sir." CDR Gornick replied, sticking the test cheekswab sample from Animal in a little isolation tube and placing it into a frozen sample cooler (there was both cheekswabs and blood drawn). "Thank you, sir, for your cooperation."
Animal nodded, his inside of his elbow still twinging from the blood draw. "Not a problem. Thank you. You have my card to notify me as soon as an identification match is made?"
"Yes, sir." Commander Gornick stated as she turned to leave. "By your leave, sir."
"Dismissed, Commander."
Naval Strike Air Warfare Center, NAS Fallon, NV, 4 weeks later
The phone rang on the desk as Animal picked it up. "Rear Admiral Nakamura!" he barked.
"Hello, Admiral, it's Commander Jennifer Gornick, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, sir."
"Hello, Commander, what can I do for you?" Animal asked curiously.
"You remember the DNA sample that we took from you about a month ago?"
"Yes?" Animal's curiosity peaked.
"We have a match!"
TBC - Chapter 2: CONTENTION