101st

by Archer969

Continuing the adventures of Buffy and Barb, minor femslash.

10. Chapter 10: The Debriefing

An hour later we were pulling up to the 8th Air Force headquarters at High Wycombe. As we got out of the car a Lieutenant came down the stairs with a couple of privates trailing along behind, "Lieutenant Colonel Summers? Major Thompson?"

Buffy nodded, "Yes, Lieutenant."

"It will be a while until they're ready for you, General Doolittle is out right now and won't be back until later but he wants to see you tonight. I'm to get you settled into guest quarters."

Gravatt had opened the trunk of the car and the two privates had gotten out our duffels, Buffy was still keeping hold of the German back pack. "Lead on, MacDuff"

"Sir?"

"Jesus! And I thought I didn't pay attention in class." Buffy snapped.

The Lieutenant looked at her in confusion and then turned to me, "She gets Shakespearian around these old English manor houses, or at least she tries to."

"Tries?"

"Buffy, it's 'Lay on, MacDuff'"

"'Lay', 'Lead', it's close enough." She looked at the Lieutenant, "Lead the way."

The lieutenant led us into the building and down hallways and up some stairs, followed by more halls and another set of stairs; I hoped we weren't going to be expected to find our way around this building without a guide. As we passed people and small groups I could feel their eyes on us and whispers trailing behind us. Eventually we came to a door and he lead us through, we were in a large room with a sitting area set up near a large fireplace on one side and a huge bed on the other side.

The two privates put our duffels on a wide low bench at the foot of the bed; the Lieutenant said to them, "You can report back to the duty sergeant."

"Yes sir," one said and they both walked out of the room, closing the door as they left.

The Lieutenant went over to a door near the bed, he rapped on it and after a moment opened it, I could see it opened into a large bathroom, "You're sharing this with the room next door so you'll want to knock and maybe keep the door locked."

"Why, is our neighbor a rapist?" Buffy snapped.

He looked at her, blushing red, "Uh… No, I'm sure the Colonel next door isn't…"

Buffy shook her head, "How long until we'll be able to meet the General? Generals?"

He shook his head, "I don't know sir - they haven't set a time. Later this evening, General Doolittle isn't back yet and isn't expected for several hours."

"So we don't have anything to do for a while?"

"No sir."

"Can we get some food?"

He glanced at his watch, "The officer's mess doesn't open for another hour, almost an hour and a half sir."

"Well, if I can't eat then I think I'll get some sleep."

Buffy took off her uniform coat and hung it over a chair, and then kicked off her shoes while she pulled her tie off and tossed it on the arm of the chair. "Sir, I'm supposed to stay with you; they'll call when they want you and I'll be able to escort you…"

His voice trailed off as Buffy unbuttoned her slacks and let them drop, she stepped out of them and then leaned over and picked them up and carefully hung them over the back of the chair. "That's fine; just don't make a lot of noise. It looks like there are a lot of books by the fireplace; you can read quietly can't you?"

"Sir!" He squeaked as she finished unbuttoning her shirt and let it slide off her shoulders.

"What?" she looked at him and saw him turning red, "Jesus! Haven't you ever seen a woman get undressed before?"

"Buffy!"

She looked over at me, "What? I'm not sleeping in my damned uniform. Besides making a mess of it it's uncomfortable."

I shook my head in resignation and turned to the Lieutenant, "Just ignore her, she has no sense of modesty."

Buffy didn't pay any attention, she popped her bra loose and let it fall down her arms and dropped it on the rest of her clothes. The Lieutenant stared at her open mouthed as she walked over to the bed, flipped down the covers and crawled in. She pulled the covers over herself and sighed contentedly, then raised her head and looked at us, "Just keep it quiet, please!"

He finally turned his head to me, after a minute of thought I said, "I think I'm going to join her, it's been a long day and a couple hours sleep in a car really wasn't enough. Can you get some food sent up when the mess opens?"

"Yes sir, I suppose so sir."

I nodded, "Good, get us up at least half an hour before they'll want us."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, "General Doolittle will want his evening briefing as soon as he gets back; that usually takes forty-five minutes or so. I imagine he'll want you shortly after that but I can't be sure, sir."

"Well, get us up when he gets back and we'll just go from there."

"Yes sir."

I went to the far side of the bed and got undressed, putting my clothes on a chair by the window. As much as possible I kept my back to the Lieutenant, but I had to turn toward him to walk to the bed unless I wanted to do some kind of embarrassed sideways walk. I wasn't doing that so I tried for Buffy's nonchalance and just turned and walked toward the bed, trying to ignore his eyes as the followed me. While I might have gotten somewhat used to the casual nudity around the quarters at Spilsby I'd been out of that environment for almost two months and some of it had worn off. Besides, that had always been as part of a group in the communal head, not in the privacy of a bedroom with a large bed, my lover, and one man. I tried not to think of that, or about Buffy, as I crawled into the bed and realized what she had been sighing about; it was like heaven. The thoughts didn't matter then; I wasn't awake for ten seconds after my head hit the pillow.

Vaguely I heard the jangle of a telephone and then felt a hand shaking me and calling my name, "Major Thompson."

I rolled over and looked up at the Lieutenant standing over me; the room was dark except for the light from a lamp near the fireplace, "Time?"

"About 9:30, the General would like to see both of you at 10 PM."

I nodded and threw the covers back; he jumped back and turned away. From the other side of the bed I heard Buffy's querulous voice, "Whas up?"

I swung my arm and thumped her shoulder through the covers with my fist; she raised her head and peered at me through her hair, "Buffy, it's time to get up."

"Christ! Why can't they give us at least one day to recover?"

"It's the Army."

She stuck out her tongue and gave me a raspberry; then she threw the covers off of herself and rolled out of the bed, "Dibs on first to the bathroom!"

She opened her duffle and got out her bathing kit and then walked quickly to the bathroom door. She gave it a sharp rap and then opened it and walked in, if anybody had been in it they wouldn't have had time to react. Fortunately it was empty; she shut the door behind her. A couple of minutes later she was back out, her hair brushed and back in a ponytail.

The Lieutenant was watching her as she walked across the room in her panties; she came to a stop and turned to face him, "Like the view?"

"Sir!" he squeaked and averted his eyes.

"Listen Lieutenant, you can look but don't leer, it's embarrassing." She turned away and went over to the chair and started dressing.

I got out of bed and went and got my kit out of the duffle, as I went past him to the bath room I said softly, "You weren't leering badly, just don't look quite so intently… don't make it like you're trying to see through her panties."

I could feel his eyes follow me as I walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I was back a couple of minutes later and started to get dressed. Buffy had her shirt and slacks on but that was all, she was seated near the fireplace with a plate on her lap and eating quietly. The Lieutenant was in a chair across from her, as I came back into the room he turned to me, "Major, there's some cold roasted chicken and rolls and some coffee that's pretty hot. There are also some mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans but they've gotten pretty cold. I thought you would prefer to sleep when the food came, you both seemed pretty out of it."

Buffy nodded, her mouth full of food, I answered for both of us, "Thanks, Lieutenant, you made a good choice. How much time have we got?"

He glanced at his watch, "About fifteen minutes, it will take us about five to get to the conference room."

I put on my bra and pulled on my shirt and pants and then went over and had a quick meal. Buffy and I ate our meals and finished dressing in the allotted time and then followed the Lieutenant through the maze of hallways and stairs until he lead us into a large room. It was a library, tall windows on the far wall were covered with blackout drapes; both side walls and the wall containing the door we had come through were lined with floor to ceiling book cases. The only break in the book cases was a large fire place in the middle of one of the side walls. A portrait of some English noble; at least by the robes and jewels I assumed he had been an English nobleman, hung over the fireplace.

A large table filled most of the room; there were ten chairs down either side of the table. It was still a couple of minutes before ten and the room was empty when we entered. Buffy walked to the windows on the far end and pulled the drapes aside to look out over the English countryside. "Sir, we're not supposed to break blackout."

Reluctantly she dropped the drapes and started browsing the book shelves, I heard her mutter under her breath, "Giles would be in heaven!"

I looked around the room for a minute and then pulled out a chair and sat down to think. I was trying to organize my thoughts, going over what had happened so I could help Buffy during the debriefing. I knew most of it would be on her, but I wanted to be able to help with any details or specifics if she needed them.

A couple of minutes after ten the door swung open and the Lieutenant called out, "Attention!"

I got to my feet and came to attention beside Buffy as a stream of officers came into the room lead by General Doolittle. There was a Brigadier General immediately after him, his chief of staff I assumed, followed by four Colonels and two Majors and then a Captain, bringing up the rear was another one star, General Miller, our old CO.

Doolittle walked down the far side of the table until he came to the center chair in front of the fireplace, the other officers spread out on either side of him except for the Captain; he pulled the end chair nearest the door on our side of the table to the end of the table. General Miller came down our side of the table and came to a stop near the center. When everybody came to a stop Buffy brought her hand up in a stiff salute, Doolittle looked at her for a few moments and then his eyes darted to me and then returned to her. Finally he returned the salute, when he dropped his hand Buffy dropped hers back to her side.

"At ease," Doolittle said after a moment.

General Miller walked over to us and held out his hand to Buffy, "Welcome home Summers."

Buffy took his hand and shook it, "Thank you sir."

When she released it he turned to me and held out his hand, I took it as he added, "And you also, Thompson."

"Thank you, sir." I responded.

I turned back to the line of officers across the table, after a moment General Doolittle spoke, "It seems congratulations are in order for your safe return Colonel Summers, Major Thompson."

"Thank you, sir" Buffy and I responded together.

"Lieutenant Colonel Summers, I remember you from that briefing back in August but I don't believe we've ever been introduced?"

"No sir."

He turned to me, "But we have, Major Thompson, several times if I recollect correctly."

"Yes sir, in the early 30s. You stayed at our house once and we also met several times at air shows or racing meets."

He nodded, "Yes, I remember you… curious about our planes if I remember correctly."

I knew I flushed a little, when he'd stayed at our house he had caught me in his Army fighter trying out the controls and pretending I was in a dog fight. I had just turned eleven and Dad wouldn't start to teach me to fly until I was thirteen and I was impatient, "Ah… Yes sir."

"And still at it, I see."

"Yes sir, always like to broaden my knowledge."

He looked at me for a couple of moments longer before turning to Buffy, he gestured to the chairs opposite him, "Ladies."

Buffy and I moved to the chairs but remained standing behind them, Buffy returned Doolittle's steady gaze for several seconds; then she gestured slightly to the chair in front of him and added "General".

In the world of social graces gentlemen always waited for the ladies to take their seats before sitting themselves. In the military world junior officers always waited for senior officers to take their seats before taking theirs. Buffy always considered military courtesy topped civilian courtesy when she was in uniform unless it was a social occasion in which case she might take a seat offered by a man. Then again if she felt it was condescending she might just ignore it.

After a couple of moments Doolittle gave a sharp nod and pulled out his seat and the other officers around the table followed along. General Miller took the seat next to Buffy and as soon as he was seated we drew out our chairs and sat down, Buffy was directly opposite Doolittle and I was opposite the Brigadier General at his side.

After everyone was seated Doolittle had the officers with him introduce themselves. While that was going on there was a wrap on the door and the Captain at the end of the table got up and opened the door, a couple of privates were outside with wheeled cart. The cart held a large coffee urn and a bunch of cups and saucers. The rolled it in and set it up near the door, then spent a couple of minutes distributing cups of coffee to everyone around the table. When they were done they left, closing the door behind themselves.

Doolittle looked at us for a couple of seconds before starting, "I don't usually concern myself with debriefing pilots that have been shot down and manage to get back, it is more properly the realm of the intelligence division. Colonel Gorham is here representing them," he nodded to the Colonel sitting to one side of himself, "but your situation has some… some unique attributes. Just to satisfy my own curiosity I thought we should do the initial debriefing together."

After a moment of silence Buffy responded, "Yes sir."

"So, let's conduct this as a normal post mission debriefing, start at the beginning and take us through it, Colonel. If I or any of the other officers have questions they'll ask them as they become relevant."

"Yes sir."

He turned and looked down both sides of the table, "Gentlemen, keep your questions germane and to a minimum, but ask them if you feel they are necessary."

There was a chorus of "Yes sirs."

He nodded, "Go ahead, Colonel Summers."

"Sir, I believe it would be more appropriate if Major Thompson led off, she was the squadron lead during the mission and I was just a flight lead."

One of the other Colonels spoke up, a man named Simmons, "I saw that in the mission report, why weren't you leading the squadron, Lieutenant Colonel? For that matter why weren't you leading the group? You were the group commander, weren't you?"

It bothered me a little the way he emphasized 'Lieutenant Colonel', in normal conversation 'Lieutenant Colonel' was a little awkward and Lieutenant Colonels were generally addressed as Colonel, just like Generals were addressed as 'General' rather than their full rank.

"I wasn't scheduled to fly that day, I was only along because one of the back-up pilots came down with some kind of respiratory infection and the Doc scratched her. I took one of the back-up spots and then filled in as Blue flight leader when an oxygen system failure forced her to abort. Captain, now Major, Nelson was leading the group."

"You seemed to have a lot of aborts that day."

Buffy bristled a little, "We had four aircraft abort, out of forty-eight, fifty-two if you count the four back-up planes. If you examine the statistics I think you'll find that is actually a low number. I believe our abort numbers are better than most."

There was silence in the room for several seconds, then General Miller spoke, "The 101st has the lowest per mission abort rates in the wing, and our wing has the lowest abort rate for fighter wings in theater."

General Doolittle held up his hand, "I asked that the questions be kept germane, let's keep on subject people. Colonel, why didn't you take command when you found out you were flying the mission?"

"Sir, there was no reason to scramble our formation, Captain Nelson was perfectly capable of leading the group; she'd done it many times in the past."

He nodded in understanding, "Okay - Major Thompson, you can start off."

"Yes sir," it took me a moment to get my thoughts organized. "The mission was a normal bomber escort mission for the group, the target of the day was the industrial complex on the southern edge of Munich. We had a normal take-off and rendezvous with the bomber stream and a quiet flight. As we neared Munich I became concerned because it was so quiet, we hadn't met any German fighters the entire flight and I hadn't heard of any other contacts. We were nearing the front of the bomber train in our escort orbit when I decided to keep our squadron with the bombers during the bomb run rather than staying clear and attempting to rejoin after they cleared the city."

"Captain Nelson, with the 795th was in front of us and continued her escort orbit while Captain Carson with the 793rd behind us decided to stay with the bombers. We climbed to twenty-five thousand feet; the bombers were at twenty thousand, both to slow our advance along the bomber train and to create separation so we wouldn't be at as much risk from flak."

One of the Majors raised his hand and I nodded to him, "Is five thousand feet going to make that much of a difference?"

I nodded, "It's a lot of distance for flak rounds when it's vertical distance and I doubted that the Germans were going to adjust their fire for us, their primary targets are the bombers."

I waited for a moment but he seemed satisfied; "We stayed with the bombers through the bomb run and as they turned out of the area. As we cleared the main flak area we, Colonel Summers made the initial sighting, she spotted what appeared to be two squadrons of heavy fighters, Me-410s it turned out, escorted by a squadron of Me-109s. By that time we were several miles in front of the bomber stream. I was able to lead the squadron in an attack curve that took us through the 109s and then we hit the 410s."

The Colonel that had questioned Buffy about leading the 101st interrupted, "Why didn't you attack the 410s immediately? They were more of a threat to the bombers."

I was shocked by the question, who was this idiot? "I wasn't going to try to attack the 410s with an undisturbed squadron of Me-109s sitting on top of them and ready to bounce us!"

The Brigadier next to Doolittle spoke up, "You'll have to excuse Colonel Simmons, he's brand new from the states and new to the army; he's been attached to the 8th as a logistical expert."

So what the hell was he doing here, I wondered? Colonel Miller filled in the answer obliquely, "Mr. Simmons was the chief aide to Senator Nickerson before deciding to lend his expertise to the Army."

I remembered that Nickerson was the Senator that had blocked Buffy's Medal of Honor. So Simmons had political connections and it seemed like he was of the same persuasion; he didn't like us and I suspected I knew why.

"Go on Major," General Doolittle directed.

"Yes sir. We made our attack, we got a good bounce on the Germans, I don't think the expected us to have come through with the bombers. We were also aided by the fact that a high cloud cover had developed, about 8/10ths, and we were flying right at the base of the clouds. I believe we downed 11 of the fighters although I don't know how many were confirmed."

"We continued our attack on the lead group or 410s, they knew we were coming and started to put up some defensive fire but they were pressing home their attack on the bombers. I don't know if they were aware that they had lost their fighter cover but it seems likely, our attack must have been clearly visible to their gunners. We hit them hard, 9 or 10 of them went down although again I can't tell you how many kills were confirmed. It was enough to break up their formation and I don't think any of them made any attacks on the bomber stream."

"I lead the squadron, or rather three flights; Yellow flight wasn't able to rejoin immediately, they had lost several thousand feet of altitude in pursuit of the flight of 410s they were attacking. When we turned in to attack the last squadron of 410s, it was a short squadron, there were only three flights of four aircraft, they scattered. One flight went for the bombers, I had Blue and Green flight attack them, one flight dove away and I had Yellow flight intercept them, the last flight turned toward us and I took my Red flight to engage them and keep them off of Blue and Green while they went after the ones attacking the bombers. We came in range of the flight that was trying to intercept us and shot down three of the four planes, I'd been unable to get Red 4 repositioned so she wasn't able to attack the fourth 410."

"The 410s blew up unexpectedly easily, they were carrying what I determined later were rocket pods under their wings and when our fire hit them the tracers detonated them. Before Blue and Green flight were able to reach the flight of 410s attacking the bombers they launched those rockets at the bombers, I don't know if the bombers took any hits but it cost the Germans, Blue flight got all four of them. Yellow flight also managed to get two of the four 410s that were in the flight that broke off."

Colonel Simmons raised his hand; I stopped and nodded to him, "Sir?"

"I've kept a tally of what you just said, according to my count you claim your squadron of 16 fighters shot down 11 out 16 Me-109s and then18 or 19 out 28 Me-410s in what could only have been a couple of minutes."

"Yes sir."

"No wonder the number of kills the 101st has claimed is so high - with such ridiculous tales you make up. Doesn't anyone bother to check these stories?" He said incredulously as he looked around the room.

I saw General Miller begin to redden, "Colonel, every one of those claims has been verified by gun camera footage. The only exception are the enemy aircraft shot down by Colonel Summers and Major Thompson, since they did not return their gun camera film was not available. However, we had the eye-witness accounts of their wingmen and second element pilots. In addition there was a reporter, a photo-reporter with a movie camera, flying in one of the lead group B-17s, he filmed the entire engagement. It's long range and you can't make out a whole lot but it's clear enough to count exploding aircraft and smoke trails. The credited kills from that engagement was eleven 109s and nineteen 410s, including two kills for Colonel Summers and three kills for Major Thompson."

You could hear the sneer in Simmons voice as he replied, "Those are certainly good numbers for your wing, General."

Doolittle glanced sharply down at him, "Colonel, watch your mouth!"

Colonel Gorham, the intelligence officer, spoke up, "I've conversed with Colonel Feldman; the head of the intelligence section at VIII Fighter Command, about the 101sts claim procedures, those procedures are very strict and very thorough. They have eased up a little since Colonel Summers was with the 89th Fighter Group but not a whole lot. Colonel Feldman told me that they have yet to discredit a claimed kill made by any pilot in the 101st, on the contrary they have on many occasions upgraded claims for probables to kills."

Doolittle nodded to him and then turned back to me, "Continue, Major."

"We were reforming and I was deciding what we would do next, we had dropped quite a bit behind and below the bomber stream and we were well south of their course while we had dealt with the enemy attack. In addition I knew we had expended a lot of our ammunition and fuel, I was considering whether it was worth it to return to the escort or to just head home and see what we could find on the way. I was hit, at the time I didn't have any idea by what, and my plane was on fire and out of control. I managed to regain partial control, enough that I was able to bail out."

"I was low when I bailed out and my chute had barely opened when I landed high up on a mountain, right at the tree line. I hit hard and sprained my ankle pretty severely. I had gotten myself organized and decided what I was going to try to do and had moved a couple hundred yards from where I landed when Buf… Colonel Summers found me. I think she can take it from here."

I glanced over at Buffy and she gave me a sour look, I just smiled back at her.

"Colonel?" General Doolittle asked.

Buffy turned her attention back to him, "Yes sir, I think the reason we got bounced was my fault."

General Miller looked at her skeptically, "Why do you say that, Colonel?"

"Major Thompson has glossed over the fact that I was arguing with her that we should forget rejoining the bombers and go on a rhubarb. I think the Germans used the radio intercepts to vector the jets to us, they came out of clouds right on top of us, I did not even have time to react, and they targeted Major Thompson and I."

Colonel Simmons couldn't seem to contain himself, "A little egocentric aren't you?"

Buffy shrugged, "There were two jets, one went for the squadron lead and one went for the Blue flight lead, Barbara and I. I think our voices are distinct enough that the Germans know who we are; Colonel Galland certainly did this morning. I also think the Germans know where our color flights are normally positioned when we're in various formations. I think we've gotten awfully slack in that respect, Red flight is the lead, Blue flight is second or starboard flight in diamond formation, Green flight is third or port in a diamond and Yellow is last or rear in a diamond. If we're in those positions then the Germans know who is who. I've never considered that that might be an issue, but if they're going to start targeting specific pilots then that should raise some concern."

The Colonel didn't seem convinced, "Do you really think the Germans are that concerned about one specific pilot?"

Before Buffy could respond Gorham spoke up, "We know the Germans have a bounty of 10,000 Reichsmarks for anyone who kills or captures Colonel Summers and 5,000 Reichsmarks on Major Thompson. We also believe that the first time Colonel Summers was shot down it was by what could only be described as a targeted interception of the 89th Fighter Group, and her squadron in particular, by the German fighter command."

Colonel Simmons didn't respond but his expression clearly indicated he didn't believe there was a connection. Gorham turned back to Buffy, "What did you mean when you referred Colonel Galland?"

"He tried to intercept us this morning and he knew who we were."

Gorham nodded his head, "I saw the report from the British about the German's funny scramble this morning, it makes sense that they would try to stop you considering you'd stolen a couple of their newest and best planes. But what makes you think Colonel Galland knew it was you."

"Because he talked to us this morning."

Colonel Simmons asked in a startled voice, "You talked?!"

"He contacted us by radio after we had broken through, congratulated us on getting away."

"How on earth could he contact you by radio?"

Buffy looked at him startled, "Uh… maybe because we were in German planes? They use the same radios in all their planes and we hadn't changed the frequency setting in case we needed to talk to each other."

Doolittle spoke up, "I'm sure the Germans collect as much information as they can on our pilots, especially our star pilots, as we do on theirs. In fact I suspect they have an easier job since we have a harder time controlling what our press publishes."

Gorham nodded in agreement, "I'm sure they know as much if not more about Colonel Summers and Major Thompson as we know about Galland."

I spoke up, thinking of the package I had just turned over to the Swiss, "How much do we know about Galland?"

"He's their leading ace on the western front and there were rumors that he was being considered for 'General der Jagdflieger', General of Fighters, until Molders and Goring worked out their differences. Technically he's CO of the 26th Fighter Wing but in practical terms he's in charge of all the fighters on the western front."

Doolittle caught my eye and then turned to Buffy, "Colonel, you were describing the jets intercepting you, go on."

Buffy nodded, "I only got a glimpse of them coming out of the cloud, they were a little above us and at our eight o'clock; they were firing almost as soon as they came out. I tried to bank away but took three or four hits before I could maneuver. The first round took off my wing tip. I was lucky, the second round went through my wing just aft of the guns but it must have been a dud, it didn't detonate, it just punched a hole. Then I took at least one round but I think it was two rounds just below and aft of my seat, it, or they, took out my radiator and must have dumped all my glycol. It knocked me into a spin and screwed up my elevator cables, it took a minute for me to figure out how to fly her with the damaged controls and by then my engine had seized."

Colonel Simmons was looking skeptical again, "You're saying it only took three or four rounds to knock you down?"

"The Me-262 is armed with four 30mm cannon, the 30mm cannon round is twice the size of our 20mm rounds and a half dozen 20mm will take out any fighter. Luckily the 30mm cannon the Germans are using fires a very low velocity round so it's not the best thing in the world for air-to-air combat."

"And you are an expert because?" Simmons sneered.

"Maybe because I've done more of it than most people?" Buffy reached down to the German backpack she'd been hauling around all day and picked it up and placed it on the table. Then she reached inside and pulled out the Me-262 Operations and Training manual and the pilot's transition notebook she'd stolen weeks ago and slid them across the table to Colonel Gorham, "Or maybe because we spent a lot of time reading about it?"

Gorham looked at the two books in front of him, then reached out and pulled the thicker manual toward himself and started leafing through the pages, "What the hell is this?"

I answered him, "I believe the title is "Messerschmitt 262A/B Operations and Maintenance Manual."

Buffy filled in more, "They're how we learned how to fly the Me-262; the other one is a pilot's transition workbook."

Doolittle took the transition workbook and flipped through the pages for a minute and then turned his attention back to Buffy, "Go on, Colonel, you said you think you took two hits in the fuselage?"

"Yes sir."

"Why two?"

"Because I got some shrapnel in my side, if it had been only one round I don't know how I could have been hit and at the same time have so much damage done down in the radiator area that the engine seized in less than a minute."

He nodded in understanding, "Go on, Colonel."

"Once I got some control of her and got her out of the spin I started looking for someplace to set her down, I knew I wasn't going to do anything else. I saw another P-51 on fire and a couple thousand feet below me and then I saw a parachute open and a couple of seconds later they landed just at the tree line on the mountain below me. I saw a clear area a couple hundred yards away and managed to belly her in there."

"She skidded downhill until we got to some trees and then she wrapped a wing around one of them and came to a stop. I got out and got my gear and cleared away, she didn't go up so I went back and got the thermite grenades out of their locker and set one off in the cockpit and the other where the wing had torn open hitting the tree, she went up like a torch."

"I took a minute to put a bandage on my wounds and figure out what I was going to do. I decided to try to find the other pilot; I knew they couldn't be far away. I could see the smoke pyre from the other plane so I knew just about where she'd be. I started hiking and about fifteen minutes later found Bar… Major Thompson."

"We discussed the situation and decided to stay up high, at or just in the tree line. It kept us out of view from the valley below and provided cover if we needed it but at the same time it made travel a little easier, we didn't have to deal with a lot of underbrush. We hiked for three or four hours, until late afternoon, and had gone maybe four or five miles from the crash site. It was rough going and because of Major Thompson's injured ankle and my side we weren't making the best time."

"We came to large rock scree and I tried to find a way we could get through it. I left the Major so she could rest her ankle. I came back about ten minutes later without having found any way that we could get through given our condition. Thompson had done some exploring on her own, she'd found a cave we could shelter in. The entrance was very small, a couple feet square, but it opened into a much larger area. I guess technically it wasn't a cave, a large slab of rock was being supported by other rocks creating the open area, but it was completely covered except for some small gaps high up on one side, roughly eight feet off the floor. It was about ten feet, maybe a little wider and about fifteen feet deep."

"We decided we would spend a couple of days there, healing up and letting any searching the Germans did die down."

"How were you going to survive without food?" A Major, his name tag said Koch, asked.

"We had a couple weeks' worth of K-rations in our E&E bags so we figured we'd be okay for a while. Then that evening while I was down in the forest collecting firewood I managed to sneak up on a young doe, red deer I think, and kill it with my knife. Bar… Major…"

"Colonel Summers," Doolittle interrupted, "since you have been friends with Major Thompson since before you were in the Army I think we understand that you usually refer to each other by your first names. Just do it."

"Yes sir," Buffy said as she blushed a little, "Barb helped butcher it and we stowed the most of the meat in a snow field behind our cave where it froze but we could get to it when we needed to. The Germans sent some patrols up to investigate the crash sites and search for us, but they didn't seem to be that into it. I suspect they figured we went down the mountain as quickly as we could and were in the forests down lower."

"The second day we were there we heard the jets for the first time, they were landing at an airfield in the valley below us. We found a spot near our cave, a little promontory in the rock scree, from which we could observe them. That was the first time we got a good look at what had shot us down. Over the next day or so a squadron moved into that base, eventually we counted nineteen different aircraft being stationed there."

"The third day we were in the cave a series of storms started hitting us; they were basically continuous for the next couple of weeks. When they weather finally cleared a couple of weeks later winter had arrived. We decided that it wouldn't do any good to try to continue our escape given the conditions, we thought we could survive where we were and wait until spring to continue our escape."

"How were you going to feed yourselves?" The Major Koch asked.

"I went down the mountain to try to find some stuff we needed…"

"Alone?" he asked.

"Yes, Barb's ankle was still weak and we didn't want to aggravate the injury and cause a permanent problem or something we couldn't deal with without a doctor. Besides it was less likely one of us alone would be caught, two of us sneaking around would make it twice as likely they would spot us."

"But if you ran into trouble and needed help?"

"Then Barb could probably have survived on her own for the winter with the supplies we already had, if not she could come down and try on her own. She's a perfectly capable woman." I heard a snicker from Simmons but he quickly covered it up when General Miller shot him a glare.

Buffy also glanced briefly at him but then dismissed him and turned her attention back to Doolittle, "I was able to locate the German commissary at the airfield and get some supplies. I was also able to get those two manuals."

"We spent the next week or so studying the manuals and observing the Germans down at the airfield. As we worked our way through the manuals I realized that given the chance we knew enough to fly the Me-262. We started observing the Germans more closely, we soon realized that they launched a two aircraft CAP at dawn every day the weather was decent. After a week I decided to do another reconnaissance of the airfield. I went down in the middle of the night and found a place to observe the German morning flight operations."

Colonel Gorham held up his hand, "How close were you to these operations?"

Buffy seemed to ponder her answer for a moment, "About thirty feet."

"Thirty feet!" squeaked Simmons as he spewed coffee from his mouth, he hastily grabbed a napkin and cleaned up the mess.

Buffy looked over at him, "Thirty feet from the pilots tent, maybe a hundred from the closest plane."

He looked at her in disbelief, "How the hell did you get that close?!"

"I found a mass of brush and branches the Germans had cleared out of the area and was able to work my way under it." Buffy stopped, waiting for another question from Simmons.

Before he could think of anything Doolittle put his hand up, "Go on, Colonel Summers."

Buffy turned her attention back to him, "The Germans had set up two tents about fifty feet into the forest from the cleared area around the runway. As I found out the smaller tent was for the two pilots and an orderly, the larger tent, closer to the aircraft, was for the half dozen or so ground crew. The two planes were just beyond the large tent. From our observations on the mountain I knew that the aircraft were rotated every day and I suspected that the pilots were also."

"About half an hour before dawn I heard a telephone - a German field telephone - ring in the small tent. Someone answered it and said a couple words, Barb was able to work out from my description that it was "'Ready element' and 'Yes sir'. Then I could hear movement in both tents and see some light leaking out of the nearest one. Just before dawn the orderly, he was a private and I assumed that was what he was, stepped out of the tent and rang a bell. The two pilots ran to the planes and got in, the ground crew came out of their tent and got the planes started and then the planes took off."

There was a knock on the door and the Captain got up and went to it and opened it, a Lieutenant was outside and spoke quietly to the Captain for a minute. The Captain turned to the room, "General Miller, your aide would like a quick word with you."

General Miller turned to Doolittle who made a shooing gesture, "Go, General."

Miller went over to his aide and they had a whispered conversation for a few moments, then the General took a small haversack from the aide and returned to his seat. The Captain closed the door and he resumed his seat. Doolittle was looking at Miller curiously, "General?"

He gave a quick negative shake of his head, "It will be relevant in a little while - let's have Colonel Summers continue her report."

Doolittle nodded in agreement, "Continue, Colonel."

She nodded, "A little later all the ground crew and the orderly headed off toward the main section of the base and I was able to get out of my hiding place and headed back up the mountain. Barb and I discussed what I had seen and the implications of it the next day. We decided there was a reasonable chance that we could take the place of the pilots and get back to England, hopefully with a couple of intact Me-262s. We figured it was worth the risk. We thought the information we had collected was too valuable to wait through the winter to get to our people, but at the same time we couldn't travel through the mountains in the winter. I know those jets are going to be a bear for us to handle, especially with what we've got now. With the information in those manuals and what we can learn from the planes we brought back maybe we can get something in the air in time to do some good."

"The next night we snuck down the mountain, when we got to the airfield we used the same hide I'd used the first time. We waited until about an hour before dawn and then I sneaked into the pilot's tent and took care of the pilots."

Colonel Simmons raised his hand, "How did you 'take care' of the pilots?"

Buffy looked uncomfortable, it took her about five seconds to respond, finally she said, "I snapped their necks."

Simmons turned red; then glared at her, "Miss Summers! You can't possible think we'd believe such a…"

Buffy cut him off, "It's 'Colonel' sir! And it is not that hard to snap a man's neck if you know what to do!"

"And you do?"

Buffy slumped back in her chair and glared at him, "Yeah, unfortunately I do."

"You can't…" he sputtered, "do you really…"

Her expression was getting darker by the minute, "I'd offer to demonstrate but it would be sort of hard on the demonstratee… unless you'd care to volunteer?"

General Miller spoke up, "I'm quite certain Colonel Summers is capable of breaking a man's neck if she says she is." He turned to Buffy, "Colonel, rein it in a little."

"Then keep…" she brought herself up short, "Yes sir."

Doolittle spoke up, "Since she is here, since both of them are here, then we'll go with the fact that Colonel Summers can do what she says." He gave her a 'continue' wave.

She nodded and sat back up, "I decided it wasn't necessary to kill the orderly, I tied and gagged him."

Colonel Gorham held up his hand, Buffy turned to him expectantly, "If you did that to the orderly why not to the pilots also?"

"I couldn't be sure of keeping absolute silence if I tried to tie them up, if another woke up while I was dealing with one of them they could sound the alarm. When I got to the orderly I realized he had woken up, I must have made some sound but he was too terrified to do anything. It didn't take much to gag him and tie him up; I didn't think it was necessary to kill him… besides he was just a young boy."

Gorham nodded in understanding and Buffy continued, "I signaled to Barb and she joined me in the tent, we waited until the phone call came and she answered it. We were going to wear the German pilots' coveralls but found out that these two pilots didn't wear coveralls; they flew in their normal uniforms. So we got dressed in their uniforms and then waited until it was time."

"I sent Barb ahead and waited until she was nearly in her aircraft and then I rang the bell and ran like hell. None of the German ground crewmen paid any attention to us, it was still ten minutes before dawn and the area around the planes was pretty dark. We got in our planes and closed the canopies and went through the normal start-up process. The ground crewmen started the small gasoline engine located at the front of each of my engines and it spun the turbines up until they reached starting speed, then I fed them fuel and hit the ignition button and both engines started. After warm-up I directed the ground crew to clear the chocks and then followed Barb as she taxied out to the runway and we took off."

I could see Simmons was growing increasingly agitated as Buffy related what had happened. She shot him a glance but he held himself in check.

"Once we were in the air I assumed the lead and Barb flew as my wingman."

Major Koch spoke up, "Why didn't you take off as the lead?"

"The German Captain was almost exactly Barb's size; she didn't have to adjust much to wear his uniform. The German Lieutenant was slightly smaller than the Captain, closer to my size. Since Barb was impersonating the Captain she had use his aircraft and take-off as lead."

"How did you know which aircraft was his?"

"I asked the orderly, his answer was supported by the position of the aircraft, the closer one was the Captain's. Evidently we were correct because the Germans didn't react to the aircraft we were in. I believe Barb also found that her aircraft was set for her size."

"Yes, I didn't have to make any adjustments to the seat or rudder pedals to fly the plane."

Buffy continued, "We had an uneventful flight until we were over Belgium when we spotted a heavy concentration of German fighters that were attempting to block us."

Gorham raised his hand, "That was the scramble the Brits notified us about this morning?"

"I believe so sir," he nodded for her to continue, "I headed us toward an area where there appeared to be a gap in the blocking forces and when they attempted to adjust their formation to cover it we dove and went through an area where the shifting had disrupted their formation to some…"

Simmons had evidently reached the end of his patience, the skepticism was clear in his voice, "So you were able to avoid all of those German fighters?"

Buffy was startled at the interruption and took a moment to collect her thoughts, "No… we had to fight our way through."

"You fought your way through?"

"I believe I shot down four of their fighters, Barb got two of them I know."

Simmons sat back in his chair with a look that switched between disgust and anger and back again, finally he seemed to settle on disgust, "Lieutenant Colonel Summers, enough with your stories and fantasies! You need to tell us the truth no matter how embarrassing it may be personally. Even you should understand the harm that lying about this can cause!"

"What?!" Buffy let out in a startled squeak.

I glanced at General Miller and he was starting to turn red but before he could say anything Simmons continued, "I imagine it involves some sexual impropriety but we can understand that you had to use questionable morals, even suppress any morals you may have, to facilitate your escape. We know this ridiculous story about hiding in a cave in the mountains for six weeks is just a fabrication. Now, did you find a brothel to hide in or did the Germans capture you and put you to work in the brothel. And what did you two do to those German officers to get you onto the base where you could poison them? We really…"

Buffy finally came out of her shock and cleared the table in one bound. Her diving tackle took Simmons and his chair over backwards, she ended up sitting on his chest and her fist came back to deliver a blow that would have destroyed his face if it didn't kill him outright. She stopped her fist after it had only traveled a couple of inches, at the same moment that General Miller yelled at the top of his lungs, "BUFFY! NO!"

Doolittle and the other officers were scrambling to their feet; several chairs had ended up tilted over in their haste to get away from Buffy. She slowly dropped her fist and then stood up, stepping away from where Simmons was sprawled on the floor on top of his shattered chair. She turned to General Doolittle, her head bowed in shame, "I'm sorry… I'm sorry sir… but that was just too…" She brought herself attention and raised her head to look at him directly, "I'm sorry sir; I apologize for losing my temper."

Simmons had started to recover; he raised himself on his elbows, his face red with fury, "I want that bitch arrested immediately! Assaulting a superior officer! She's going to spend the next twenty years in Leavenworth where she belongs!"

Before anyone could say anything Doolittle stepped around Buffy and up to Simmons. The look he gave Simmons dripped with disgust and anger, Simmons cowered under it. "You are hereby relieved of your post and all responsibilities concerning the 8th Air Force. You are going to be out of the Army as fast as I can get the paperwork done!"

"You can't do that to me!"

Doolittle looked startled at his response, "You have two choices, you resign your commission immediately or I'll have you before a General Court Martial tomorrow morning and I guarantee you will be convicted and sent to prison for so long you will never get out!"

"You can't… I'll talk to the Senator! You can't do that to me!"

Doolittle leaned over him, "You want to bet? Are you feeling lucky?"

Simmons seemed to collapse into the floor, "No… But I'll…"

"Get the hell out of here you sniveling worm. And I want that letter of resignation on my desk by the time I'm done here!"

Simmons slowly got to his feet and walked out the door, the Captain shut it behind him. Doolittle spent a minute kicking pieces of the broken chair toward the fireplace. Finally he turned to Buffy, "Colonel Summers, I don't quite know how to apologize for…"

"No apology is needed, sir."

He looked at her for a moment; then nodded to himself, "You don't need someone to defend you very often, do you Colonel Summers?"

"Sir?"

"It was a simple question."

Buffy thought for a moment, "Sir, I need my men, my girls, to defend me quite often… when we're at war. You can't survive a war without the help of others, no matter how good you are. But I don't, nor do my girls, need to be 'defended' in the sense I think your speaking of. We are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves."

He nodded in agreement, "Well, after that little interruption do you think we can get back to the business of this evening?"

"Yes sir," Buffy said as she walked around the long table, brushing down her uniform and straightening her tie. She picked up her chair and then waited patiently until the other officers got seated.

When we were all in our seats General Miller spoke up, "General Doolittle, did you send a Lieutenant Colonel Norris to the 101st to look at the planes Colonel Summers and Major Thompson brought back?"

"Colonel Norris? I don't know any…" he turned to the Brigadier next to him, he hadn't said a word beyond the initial greeting the entire evening, "or is that the assistant Simmons brought with him?"

The Brigadier nodded, "Yes, that is his 'aide', Simmons brought him from Washington. I've never heard of a Colonel that rated a Lieutenant Colonel as an aide before."

Doolittle nodded and turned back to Miller, "Why?"

"A little while ago my aide interrupted us, I think that explains it."

"Go on."

"Lieutenant Colonel Norris showed up at the 101st late this afternoon with orders from 8th Air Force, signed by you sir, to 'examine and determine the disposition of the German aircraft that had surrendered that morning'. Major Nelson was skeptical but couldn't reach me or anyone here at 8th Air Force to clarify the orders so she acquiesced and permitted him to examine the aircraft. He got in the cockpit of one of the aircraft and evidently he started messing with the controls, he managed to fire the aircraft's guns."

"Jesus shit!" Buffy snapped; then concern came to her face, "Was anyone hurt? Killed?"

"There were a couple of minor shrapnel wounds and evidently he blew quite a hole in the revetment but fortunately he got off the trigger before too many rounds were fired. According to Timmons only two of the cannon were firing."

"They have separate triggers for the two outboard cannon and the two inboard ones," I explained.

Miller nodded, "After the incident Major Nelson had Norris barred from the planes. WO Gunderson, with her approval, decided to disarm the planes. They figured out how to remove the ammunition and clear the weapons so we won't have any more accidents. In the process they found the gun camera and had the base lab process the film. It confirms their kills this morning."

"Sir," I interrupted, "How does it do that? I know that for the first attack I stopped firing before my shells reached the enemy aircraft."

"Gunderson noticed the same thing; he went back and examined the camera installation. Evidently the Germans were aware of the situation; there is a delay on the camera that keeps it filming for about five seconds after the triggers are released."

I nodded in understanding, "That explains why their specification calls for a wider angle lens than we would use; not as much magnification but they get more of a view."

Doolittle thought for a moment, then turned to the Captain, "Have someone call out to the 101st, I want that assho… I want Norris on the same ship back to the States as Simmons, and preferably out of uniform."

"Yes sir."

"Anything else Colonel?"

"One more thing… I'm sure some of you had some question in your mind about Colonel Summers description of being shot down and their shooting down the Germans this morning. This may settle those questions, Gunderson sent this down; he thought I might find it interesting." He reached into the pack and drew out a large cannon shell, a complete round, and set it in the center of the table. I was used to the 20mm ammunition we had used in our P-38s so the thing looked huge, for those that were used to the 50 caliber ammo in most or our fighters it was gigantic. The round was over 8 inches long and the projectile over an inch in diameter and I could see more than 4 inches of it; I didn't know how deeply it was seated in the cartridge case but if it was typical the damn thing was over five inches long.

Major Koch reached out and picked it up and hefted it and then set it down, "Its light for its size, not an armor piercing round but an explosive round… I'd bet it's got the equivalent of better than half a stick of dynamite in it."

Colonel Gorham nodded, "It certainly wouldn't take many of them to knock any aircraft we have down."

"That's what I noticed this morning, a couple hits and the 190s just disintegrated, and they're normally a pretty tough airplane to shoot down." Buffy said.

Doolittle turned to the table, "Let's get this wrapped up. Colonel, if you would…"

Buffy nodded, "Once we got through the first bank of fighters there was only one more flight that could intercept us, they had altitude on us and were far enough back that they could make a diving attack on us. We headed toward them to make it a head on pass and to get through as quickly as possible; I hoped we'd get by without any significant damage. I tried a little experiment and lobbed some rounds at them at extreme range, my aim was off a little and I missed the leader but luck was with me and a couple of them hit his wingman. Their formation broke up as they dodged his disintegrating aircraft and we were able to dodge around them, I don't think they even tried to shoot at us."

"Once we were clear the leader of that flight, at least I assumed it was him, called on the radio. He identified himself as Colonel Adolf Galland, Wing Commander of the 26th fighter wing. He congratulated us on getting away."

"I was watching the three planes we had just gotten past and the leader rocked his wings before he turned away, I'm sure that was him." I added.

Buffy continued, "By that time we were almost over the coast, we came across just north of Brugge and got a little flak from them but nothing serious. Once over the water we turned straight for London, if the Brits were going to try to intercept us we wanted them a long way from where we were actually headed."

Gorham raised his hand, "Why didn't you land at the nearest airfield? Why risk flying all the way up to your old base?"

"The airfields in southern England are much more used to German raiders; they're alert and are probably much better shots than our guys. We haven't been subject to an attack in the nine months we've been at Spilsby. Besides, I wanted our approach to be fast and we know our airfield better than any other, I didn't want us dawdling around low and slow trying to find the runway. And I know our schedule, the likelihood the 101st would be launching or recovering aircraft at that time in the morning would be minimal, lessening our chances of something interfering with us getting on the ground before people started shooting at us."

"It worked, we landed on our old field, but it was close, I ran out of fuel about five seconds after I touched down."

I nodded in agreement, "I lost one engine over the perimeter fence, the other just after I touched down."

Doolittle sat back in his chair and contemplated us for several seconds, finally he asked, "Any questions?"

Major Koch held up his hand and Doolittle nodded to him, "What's it like to fly those planes?"

Buffy looked over at me and gave a little 'go ahead' gesture, I thought for a moment before starting, "They're very clean and very fast. At high speed they're amazingly maneuverable and they keep most of their speed when you bank them hard, they just flow through the air. They are pretty easy to fly, we didn't do a lot of maneuvering but they respond well to the controls and were easy to trim for cruise. That also seems to agree with the information we got from the transition guide."

"They seem to have two main weaknesses; first the engines are very slow to respond to throttle changes. It's not like a piston engine where you can just slam the throttle open or closed and the engine will respond to it. These you have to ease the throttle open, letting the RPMs speed up before adding more fuel, this makes them sluggish to accelerate especially when taking off. From the warnings in the manuals they can't be operated from dirt or grass runways, they have to fly off of paved runways."

"Why?" Gorham asked.

"There is too much danger they'll pick up a stone or other debris in an engine, if they do the engine will disintegrate. The engines are sucking in a tremendous amount of air and they're made up of these little fan blades that are spinning at high revs, up to 12,000 RPMs or so. If anything gets sucked in the turbine blades are destroyed. This is also where the danger of changing the throttle settings seems to be, too much gas too quickly will cause them to 'flame out' and they may or may not survive. Chopping the throttles too fast doesn't seem to be as dangerous but is discouraged because it causes increased wear."

"The other problem is those cannons, they're very destructive but they also have a low muzzle velocity. The 262 is so fast you have almost no time to shoot; getting the proper lead can be difficult. I suspect you'll see they favor overtaking attacks, maybe head on attacks against bombers where they can just lob the shells and let the bomber run into them. But I don't think they'll try to engage in turning or deflection attacks."

"I guess I should add one other weakness, again dealing with the engines. They have a very short life, I think the German's are hoping to get fifty hours out of them but I don't think it's happening, more likely they're getting thirty to forty hours, probably less in combat."

I sat back and Doolittle looked around the room for several moments, no one else seemed to have any questions for us although I sort of wondered why. Then I noticed General Miller seemed to be looking at everyone pretty severely. Finally Doolittle said, "I think we've got the basics and that should be enough for tonight."

There were murmurs of agreement, he turned back to us, "Colonel Summers, Major Thompson, you will not do any flying without my specific permission, understand?"

"Sir?" Buffy squeaked.

"Colonel, I am not going to risk losing either of you. For the next couple of days you are going to be going through extensive debriefings, I'm sure you realize that."

"Yes sir," Buffy said as I nodded in agreement.

"After that you'll be going back to the states, both of you."

Buffy looked resigned, we had both known realistically we wouldn't be going anywhere else, but there had been dreams, "Yes sir."

"My office cabled General Arnold as soon as we confirmed you were back, I've received a directive from the President that you are to be at the White House within a week."

Buffy nodded her head, "I understand, sir."

He looked at us for a long time and then seemed to come to a decision, "General Arnold has ordered that your return be kept quiet, not exactly secret but there isn't to an announcement or any press conferences or public appearances."

"Yes sir," Buffy replied, a slight grin touching the corners of her mouth, "That's just fine with me, sir."

"Don't get used to it, that's only until you get back to the states." Buffy's grin disappeared in an instant and was replaced with grim determination, he smiled at her, "I know what you're going through, and what you are going to be going through. Being back when you didn't expect to make it leaves you in a surreal state, I went through that when we made it to China and then finally made it back to our side with the help of the Chinese. And now you get to look forward to what is going to happen to you when you get to the states. I had the same thing to look forward to when we were coming back from Tokyo as you're going to get when you get to the states - you'll live through it. Hopefully we'll meet again in the not too distant future. Colonel, you're an amazing woman and an outstanding officer."

"Yes sir."

He looked at me, "Major Thompson, I also include you in that."

"Yes sir, but it's the way she is, I'm just along for the ride." I thought for a moment, "What she does comes so naturally to her that you never have any doubts, afterwards you are amazed at what you have accomplished but at the time it doesn't seem that extraordinary."

Buffy looked at me in shock, "You had a lot of doubts about my plan."

"Only until we hashed it out, once everything had been settled it was a very reasonable plan. Extraordinary, outlandish, and unexpected maybe, but also with the potential for an incredible pay back, but then that's what I expect from you."

Buffy reddened a little and I could feel myself flush, this was getting a little too personal for a room full of senior officers. I turned my attention back to the General.

"Well said, Major, but I think you are minimizing your own contributions to the Colonel and your adventures." He looked at both of us for another moment, "There is one thing we're going to deal with this evening, normally I would want to do this a little more formally but Arnold's orders prevents that."

Doolittle turned to Colonel Gorham sitting next to him, "Colonel, if you wouldn't mind being out of uniform for a bit would you give me a set of your eagles?"

Gorham grinned and unpinned the silver eagles from his collar tabs and handed them to Doolittle. We all rose from our seats as the General stood up, he walked around the table and as he approached Buffy and I we came to attention. He walked up to Buffy and unpinned the silver oak leaves from the epaulettes of her tunic and replaced them with the eagles, he shook her hand as he said, "Congratulations, Colonel Summers."

"Thank you, sir."

Then Doolittle stepped in front of me and removed my gold oak leaves and replaced them with Buffy's silver leaves, "Congratulations Lieutenant Colonel Thompson," he said as he took my hand.