The Pilot
Hannibal, Ray and Face watched the Huey come over the trees, the tail swinging wildly. A few hours earlier they had arrived at the base to interview Murdock, but the base commander said he was out on a run. Twenty minutes ago, the commander had come to tell them Murdock sent a mayday call, something about the tail rotor being shot out. The commander had looked grim.
"That guy never EVER calls in a mayday. I've seen him limp a chopper in on no juice with smoke pouring out of the engine and not even a peep. This must be bad."
Hannibal hoped he was going to have a pilot to interview. The concern on his lieutenant's face was obvious. It has been a relief to hear the Huey's rotors approach the base, but when they saw the way the chopper was swinging, they realized their relief was premature. Sirens were blaring.
"All personnel clear the LZ! Repeat, all personnel clear the LZ!" The warning came over the loud speaker. As the Huey came in, people began diving for cover. The Huey came down hard on the ground, crushing one of the skids and making the chopper tilt to the side, main rotors still spinning. Finally, the chopper powered down and the rotors were silenced. For a moment, everyone held their breath waiting for any sign of movement from within the helicopter. Suddenly, three men began to crawl out of the damaged side of the chopper, which was touching the ground. Hannibal looked at the men, then looked at Face, who shook his head. Face looked wildly for Murdock, at last seeing him pop out on the high side of the chopper as if nothing untoward had happened. Murdock spotted Face and his face lit up. The pilot plopped to the ground.
"Face guy!" Murdock ran toward him in fake slow motion, then picked him up and twirled him around, like lovers in a bad romance movie.
"OK Murdock. Glad to see you too, but you're wrinkling the suit." Murdock cocked his head and looked at Face.
"You know Faceman, that's a uniform, right? I mean, you're going to be training in it and tromping through the jungle in it. Sheesh, and they say I'm crazy."
Face laughed, truly happy to see his old friend. Maybe his only friend, although his new CO and XO were already growing on him.
"Murdock, you're not impressing the CO here. Try to act a little bit sane please." Murdock looked at Hannibal and Ray as if just noticing them. Suddenly, he snapped to attention.
"Captain Murdock, reporting for duty, Sir!" Hannibal walked over and stood close to Murdock, scrutinizing the Captain with intensity. Then Hannibal suddenly relaxed and grinned.
"As you were Captain!" Hannibal told Murdock. Face looked at Hannibal incredulously.
"Wait, what? That's it? I mean, I got the third degree and he gets that…what the heck kind of grin is that anyway?" Hannibal and Ray both laughed.
"It's trouble is what it is," Ray responded.
"Don't worry Face, I'll grill him too. And remember, we met you under…shall we say less than favorable circumstances, you almost getting pummeled by a Marine and all."
"Great" Face muttered. Hannibal turned to Murdock.
"That was quite the landing Captain!" he said, grinning from ear to ear. Murdock looked at the aircraft with a combination of pride and disinterest if that were possible.
"That-well that is what I like to call relocating the aircraft with extreme prejudice. Sir." Hannibal, Ray and Face all looked at one another. "Hey, I'm hungry. You hungry. I'm really really hungry. Come on Face, I know you're always hungry." Murdock blathered on about food until they got him to the mess hall, where they were intercepted by the base commander.
"I'll need to debrief Captain Murdock." The commander could hear Murdock's continuing conversation about food and food groups and food he liked and food he didn't.
"Sir, you'd better let him eat first. I'm afraid you won't get far with the debrief until he's fed."
The commander laughed. It wasn't his first experience with the pilot's eccentricities.
"Very well, Colonel, send him my way when he's done. You can have him after that."
Two hours later, Murdock was in a room with Hannibal going over the pilot's service record.
"Very impressive record Captain" Hannibal told Murdock. "You've never left a man behind. I mean, you've gone out of your way not to leave people behind."
"Yes Sir." If Hannibal was expecting more from the pilot, it didn't come. Hannibal pressed on.
"That's very important to me. You'll be the lifeline of the team. I need someone I can count on. Would that be you?" Murdock looked pensive. Gone was the craziness he had seen earlier. There was deep thought going on in that mind. The next words out of Murdock's mouth were equally sane.
"I've never been on a team before. I've always been, well, you know, sort of a loner. Kinda like being a loner. Don't need to impress anyone but me. No one to let down." Hannibal had dealt with this type before. The military seemed to attract loners, which was odd because the Army was all about team work. Murdock's personnel file showed his mother had died when he was young, and his father was mostly absent. Being an armchair shrink came with the job of CO, and Hannibal mused that Murdock was probably picked on as a kid, maybe using crazy or class clown as a defense. For some reason he had formed a bond with Face. Hannibal had to use that because damn, this kid was the best pilot he'd ever seen. Hannibal wasn't letting him get away.
"You know, Face was really excited at the prospect of you being on the team. He considers you a really good friend." Hannibal said evenly. Murdock looked down.
"I know. I mean, he is a friend, maybe my best friend. If," Murdock corrected "If a loner could have a best friend." Murdock looked a bit sullen. "Anyway, he's got new friends now." Hannibal looked at the pilot questioningly. "You know, you guys. He likes you guys. I can tell." Hannibal figured he could use that.
"Yes, because we're part of a unit now. Members of a unit take care of each other. Sure, we won't always get along, but we always have each other's backs. Face is part of that and he…we all want you to be part of that too. You can do a lot of good." Murdock looked down again.
"I don't want to let my unit down. What if I let them down?" There was an urgency in his voice. Hannibal hadn't seen anything in his service record that would indicate a reason for the pilot's upset, but incidents don't always make it into the record.
"Son, I've seen you fly. I've spoken to people who served with you, men who say you'll fly into a hot zone risking life and limb to save one soldier, even when everyone else has given up. That's not a man who's going to let anyone down, much less his team." For the first time, Murdock met Hannibal's eyes.
"I think" Murdock sighed, taking a deep breath as one might before jumping off a high diving board, or more appropriately, a cliff. "I think that I would be very honored to be a member of your team Colonel." Hannibal grinned.
"Welcome to the team Captain. Welcome to the team."
