Sorry for the delay, I'm still working on getting a beta plus my brother had an incident while trying to learn how to drive a motorcycle….on my bike.
April 14th, 1975, Forget-Me-Not-Valley,
5 A.M.
Entirely too early as far as Jack was concerned.
Jack stood outside Vesta's farm with Aiko at one side and Celia at the other.
"I'll be back," Jack said at the sound of Celia's crying. The problem was that he didn't know if he was trying to reassure himself or her.
"And I'll be waiting," Celia said giving him a hug,
Jack held her tightly, not wanting to let go but knowing he had to.
"Be a good girl Aiko, listen to Celia and don't cause trouble," Jack said to his dog, tears silently falling as he patted her on the head.
Jack looked at his farm in the distance and then at Celia. He was leaving his life behind once again, though this time he had built the life for himself.
"I'll be gone a month at the most, take care of yourself Celia," Jack said getting into his truck and starting it, "I'll see you soon,"
Jack started to drive up the hill that would take him away from the valley one again. In his rear view he could see Aiko sitting next to Celia who was waving sadly at him. Jack felt tears run down his face, he was finally starting to show his emotions and now he had to go back to the way he had been.
"I love you," Celia whispered waving at Jack; she felt no shame in saying it even if he couldn't hear her. She just needed to say it to make herself feel better. Aiko barked once and started to paw at the door to the house. Celia opened the door and went back to bed, Aiko next to her, she just wanted to sleep until Jack came back.
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Jack drove until he hit Mineral Town; he parked his truck by the Inn before knocking on the door. His first knock went unanswered so he kept pounding on the door.
Suddenly the door flew open, revealing a very angry Ann in a night gown. "What do you want? Can't you see we're closed?"
"Good morning to you too beautiful," Jack responded half sarcastic, "I just wanted to say goodbye and give you these," He held out his keys to the red head.
"You're leaving us again Jack," Ann said sadly.
"Unfortunately yes, I got called back into active duty. I want to leave my truck here in case something happens and I don't make it back," Jack said to her.
"Don't be a moron Jack, of course you'll make it back," Ann said trying to cheer her best friend up.
Ann watched Jack's face, looking for any signs of regret, of sadness, of loss, and she found none.
"If I make it back, I make it back, if I don't, I don't. It's that simple. Take these though," Jack said this handing her a stack of letters, "I wrote a bunch of letters last night, if I don't make it back please deliver them. I don't have time to say goodbye to everybody this time,"
Ann took the letters silently before Jack began to walk towards the dock. She wanted to cry, Jack was leaving again, his youthful optimism gone. Unlike the first time he left Jack knew full well that he could die, he wasn't superman. He was just Jack Logan.
"Come home Jack," Ann said as he walked out of her sight.
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It was now four in the afternoon and Jack was tired. He had to take three different boats to get here but he final made it to the army base. He looked up at the administration building and found it hard to believe he once volunteered to become part of this.
Walking into the building Jack saw many people, some were soldier seeing their families for the first time in a while. Some were parents watching their child volunteer to live a life of hell. And some were just the staff on base, looking completely indifferent, like nothing here mattered to them.
"Lance Corporal Jack Logan reporting for duty," Jack told the receptionist.
She did a quick scan of the book in front of her before responding, "Hello sir, you are to report to the briefing center for your assignment,"
Jack nodded his thanks and continued to the briefing center. That last time he had been near an army base was during his debriefing. Based on his experiences there he wasn't exactly thrilled to be back.
It took Jack about ten minutes to find the center, inside were three more Marines dressed in uniform and a corporal standing in front of them.
"You must be Jack," The corporal boomed, "I'm Mark Harris and these will be the members of your fireteam. Joel Baker rifleman, Charlie Williams automatic rifleman, and Sam Singer assistant automatic rifleman," He motioned to each man in turn.
"I'm Jack Logan, I'm your team leader," Jack said using his authority voice, "Corporal, what is our assignment?"
"I like a man who cuts out the bullshit, gets right the point," the Corporal said, "You four will be part of Operation: Frequent Wind. You will be placed aboard the USS Hancock. You may not even see combat as part of this assignment. You are part of the auxiliary forces that may be called upon in case of emergency. Now move out, you leave in T-minus two hundred hours,"
"Yes sir!" The entire fireteam shouted before saluting and walking out towards the quartermaster to receive their load out.
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Celia usually loved life on Vesta's farm, but today was different. She normally liked the mindless work that allowed her to take in the world around her or just to think. Today was different; she didn't want her mind to wander to what might happen.
Celia knew Jack wouldn't want her to worry about him but she couldn't help it. In the past month he had so deeply ingrained himself in her life she almost forgot what life was like without him. Now she wouldn't be able to go to his farm after work and talk with him.
"Celia, take the rest of the day off of work. Go see Lumina or go far a walk, just get your mind off of Jack," Vesta said being both stern and kind at the same time.
"Yes Vesta," Celia responded not wanting to argue with the older women. Sometimes Celia wondered about how Vesta knew so much about her feelings.
Celia walked off the farm and up the road to the mansion where she knew she'd find Lumina. Arriving at the mansion she could hear the graceful sound of the piano even from outside. She opened the door to find Lumina playing the piano, Romana nodding her head in approval, and the butler Sebastian dusting the ornate furniture.
Celia was always amazed by how graceful Lumina could be while playing the piano. Today was no different; the way Lumina moved with the music was beautiful to her. She seemed so calm and relaxed while playing. It was if she'd been playing her whole life.
After several minutes of this Lumina stopped at stood up, "I'm calling it a day Auntie Romana, I'll play some more tomorrow,"
Romana looked slightly upset, but then she noticed that Celia was there. She wondered how she had missed the girl before but didn't want to come to the obvious conclusion, she was getting old.
"Hey Lumina, how are you doing?" Celia asked trying to stir up a conversation.
"I'm well. But the more important question is how are you doing?" Lumina asked trying to steer the conversation towards Jack, hoping that Celia would open up to her.
"As Jack would say, I'm vertical in a horizontal world," Celia said cracking a small smile.
Lumina couldn't help but smile at hearing one of Jack's favorite expressions, "What does that mean anyway? I never understood what he was getting at,"
"As far as I can tell it means "I'm alive in a world that wants me dead,". That was always the way he seemed to say it," Celia said thinking back on all the times she heard his description of how he was doing.
"Seriously though, how are you doing? I imagine it's kind of rough without him," Lumina asked turning serious once more.
"It is, I never realized how big of my life he'd become. I'm worried about him and it doesn't help that he always talked about his own mortality and how that guided his actions. Now he's back in the war and I don't know what will happen to him," Celia started, "I miss him so much, I just want him to come back safe and sound,"
"Do you know what the Marines' motto is Celia?" Lumina asked working on a way to cheer the other girl up.
Celia shook he head no. She personally was never interested in the military and Jack never really talked about military life.
"It's Semper Fidelis, Latin for "Always Loyal"; you know he'll do everything in his power to come back to you. He's loyal to his country, to this valley, and most of all to you," Lumina said using her little knowledge of the Marines and Latin.
"Thanks Lumina, you're really a huge help," Celia said before the two girls moved onto less exciting topics, mostly the happenings in the village.
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April 25, 1975, USS Hancock, somewhere near Vietnam
"Men, the forty of us are about to embark on a highly important mission. Your job is to project the embassy in Saigon and help evacuate by helicopter if needed," Major Kean started, "You will be flown in to Saigon via Air America. You will be wearing civilian clothing and only carrying concealed handguns. From there you will go to the DAO compound where each fireteam will receive one semiautomatic M14, one M16, one BAR, and one M3 Grease Gun. Any questions?"
Up until this point Jack had been only half paying attention, but at the first and only question asked he started to put his full attention on the subject.
"Will we be issued flak jackets?" A voice in the crowed asked.
"Unfortunately we will not be issued flak jackets," the Major responded to chorus of groans.
Jack was not all that happy at this discovery; his flak jacket had probably saved his life multiple times during his first and second tours. Its ability to stop small fragments of grenade and even rounds from the VC handguns was beyond useful.
"We leave in two hours, be ready!" the major barked causing the Marines to scramble about, getting their service pistols and finding the best way to conceal them.
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April 29th, 1975, Forget-Me-Not-Valley
April 29th, 1975,
Dear Diary,
Still no word from Jack about how he's doing. I also haven't seen anything on the news regarding the war and I've been watching it every day for the first time.
Scratch that, I did hear one thing about Vietnam, I heard President Ford saying how they were going to try to "evacuate Vietnamese citizens of various categories," whatever that means. Maybe Jack is a part of this evacuation plan.
Even the thought of him only having to evacuate citizens rather than see combat is rather comforting.
Signed,
Celia
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April 29th, 1975,
"Okay, we are no longer under the orders of Ambassador Martin, Operation: Frequent Wind has begun. Lance Corporal Logan, you and your fireteam are to cut down the trees preventing the parking lot from being used as an LZ. There should be an axe out back, now move out!" Major Kean shouted at Jack and his team.
Jack and his team gathered up their weapons and moved outside to the garden shed where Jack quickly found a double-bit felling axe.
"Any of you ever fell a tree before?" Jack said holding the axe out to his team members. One by one they shook their heads in negative response.
"Damn, I knew being a farmer would catch up with me one day," Jack muttered handing his M14 to Sam, "Take this kid, if the fighting gets hot you'll want a little more than the M3," Jack than went to work felling the trees in the parking lot, one by one he cut them down and moved them to the side. This process took a little more than two hours.
At seventeen hundred hours the first of many Sea Knights landed in the embassy parking bringing in more Marines and taking out civilians and embassy personnel.
Jack slung his M14 over his shoulder and looked into the sky. At that precise moment he realized, the Fall of Saigon had begun.