Things were back to what for the Black Sheep constituted normal. It was a lazy Monday morning just before lunch and having just returned from an uneventful morning patrol everyone was in a fairly good mood when Casey ran into the Sheep Pen.
"Pappy you'd better head over the radio shack and see what's going on Colonel Lard's on the phone and he wants to speak to you now! He says he's not taking any excuses either!"
Greg, who was in a very intense game of cards with TJ, Boyle, French, and Gutterman scowled.
"Okay guys I guess we'll have to resume this later," he said before following Casey back to the radio shack.
"This better be important," he said. Then lowering his voice added. "I was winning that game and winning big."
"Sorry," Casey replied not knowing what else to say.
"Yes Sir," Greg answered picking up the phone. "What did you need to speak to me about?"
"May I begin by saying that I am constantly amazed by the ingenuity of those miscreants that you are in charge of."
"Thank you Sir," Then to himself added. "I think." before he continued. "To what specifically do I owe this honor?"
"I asked for feedback on how I was doing my job, how I could improve, and suggestions on how to improve morale among other things. What I got from Vella La Cava was nothing more than utter nonsense."
"What do you mean Colonel, I gave them clear instructions as to what you wanted and they assured me that they would respond with respect and sincerity when making suggestions to you."
Both Greg and Colonel Lard knew that Greg was lying through his teeth, but neither was going to admit it, especially Greg unless he was caught outright since he was the one who had come up with most of the suggestions in the first place and he had to admit that several of them were quite inventive."
"May I read you a few of the suggestions?"
"Go ahead Sir," Greg was quite anxious to hear whether or not the suggestions were his or if any of the others had outdone him with their creativity.
"First, the Colonel needs to learn when to shut that fat mouth of his up. If he spent more time listening instead of talking, we'd all be a lot happier and things would go a lot smoother. Then there's one that I will not repeat about me, my wife, and ways to improve our, ahem, marital activities, since it seems one of your men thinks I would be in a better mood if things were more risqué in that area."
"Sir, surely you can't be serious they actually submitted suggestions like this?"
Greg was doing his best not laugh those suggestions were even funnier than when they had first been thought up.
"Oh I am definitely serious, Boyington, and it gets better let me tell you. Meatball needs his own personal office with a desk, filing cabinet to store sticks and bones in, dog bed, dog biscuits and treats, and a very hot looking secretary to give him tummy rubs."
"What in the name of all that is sensible does that ridiculous looking dog of yours need with an office, for crying out loud, besides the fact it's against regulations for you to even have him over here?"
Greg took offense at Colonel Lard's calling Meatball ridiculous looking. Of course, Meatball wasn't the best looking dog in the world, but in Greg's opinion he was better looking than Colonel Lard and 100 times more faithful. He did have to wonder why Meatball needed an office when he was perfectly content to lay under his desk or on his cot. Although, he did admit that the idea of a personal secretary did sound intriguing. He wouldn't have minded having a hot looking personal secretary himself, to rub his tummy and he could think of a few other places on his anatomy that would feel good, as well. He thought about asking Colonel Lard if it would be possible for him to be assigned one, but under the circumstances decided it was probably best not to mention it.
"I had no idea, Sir; I assure you that this matter will be looked into and handled in a quick and efficient manner. Those responsible will be handled according to Marine protocol up to and including me, personally, taking the fullest disciplinary action allowed by the Corps."
Colonel Lard was about to say something else, but just then the air raid sirens began going off. Greg was not sure if the Colonel had heard them in the background or not, but at that moment he really didn't care. Greg hung up the phone and then attempted to make it to a cluster of large rocks that were near the radio shack, which would provide a little better shelter.
He could hear several of the Corsairs taking off and he thought about trying to make it to his plane, but decided it would be too dangerous from where he was at. Just then he felt something strike his shoulder and he was thrown several feet, landing in a clump of grasses at the base of a large palm tree. Not knowing what had happened he lay still aware that it sounded as if the Zeros were flying away from the island.
TJ had been unable to make it to his plane and having seen Greg get hit, quickly ran over to him followed by French and Boyle who also hadn't had time to get to their planes, either, before the others had managed to fire at the Zeros and scare them enough that they had hightailed it out of there as fast as they could fly.
"You okay Pappy?"TJ asked.
Then he noticed the red splotch spreading over Greg's shoulder as well as the cut on his forehead.
"Just lay still, Pappy, don't move we'll take care of you."
Greg looked at TJ and wondered why he looked so out of focus. He tried to sit up, but a burst of pain ripped through his shoulder and he felt nauseous. French and Boyle forced him to lie back down.
"You got hit by one of those rice ball's bullets and we don't know how badly you're hurt. Bragg and Gutterman just landed and they've gone to get Dr. Pendleton and Suzette from the hospital," French told him.
Greg started to say something, but suddenly his vision began to dim and he slipped into unconsciousness. When he awoke, Greg found he was lying on his cot back in his tent and the rest of the Black Sheep as well as Hutch were seated nearby looking at him concerned or standing around talking in hushed voices.
"Would one of you guys like to tell me what the hell happened?" he asked. "Or are you all just going to sit around acting like you're waiting for me to die so you can find out if you're in my will?"
"He's awake!" Anderson and Hutch who were seated closest to him said thankfully.
"Pappy, are you okay?" several of the others asked.
"Do I look like I'm okay," Greg asked still in quite a bit of pain. "And what happened exactly, the last thing I remember was the air raid sirens going off and I hung up on a very interesting conversation with Colonel Lard, which reminds me whichever one of you screw heads made that suggestion to Colonel Lard that he and his wife need to get more creative in the bedroom. I'm supposed to discipline you to the fullest extent allowable."
"Um Pappy," Anderson said. "You came up with that one yourself of course you'd just finished your second bottle of scotch in addition to all the other liquor you'd consumed so you were pretty drunk at the time."
Greg stared them in disbelief for a few moments.
"Well, I guess that means you all are off the hook and I think for my punishment I'm going to have a few drinks and see what other suggestions I can come up with."
If Greg could make comments like that they thought he was going to be okay in no time.
"Anyway," Greg continued getting the conversation back on track. "I remember running outside and hearing the planes take off and then something hit my shoulder and I was thrown several feet from the radio shack. I don't remember anything after that until TJ, Boyle, and French were telling me to lie still and a lot of pain in my shoulder."
"That was when you tried to sit up," French told him. "After that you passed out from the pain. Dr. Pendleton and Suzette helped us bring you back here, once he made sure you didn't have a concussion, and then..."
"And then I woke up here surrounded by you meatheads," Greg said finishing his sentence.
"Sorry we're not Miss America contestants," Bragg said from across the room.
Greg gave them a weak smile.
"So am I," he agreed. "So am I."
"Anyway, Casey continued."Four Zeros flew over and gave us a brief strafing. I hit one of them, but we don't think it did much more than some cosmetic damage to the paint. You got struck by a bullet that bounced off a rock and creased your shoulder, and then when you landed in the grass near that palm tree you put a gash in your forehead when you struck it on a rock.
We were scared to death since we couldn't get you to respond when we found you. We didn't want to move you so we sent Bragg and Gutterman to get Dr. Pendleton and Suzette, shortly after they left you started to come around before you passed out again. Dr. Pendleton assured us it would okay to move you back here and then he put eight stitches in your head and 14 in your shoulder, but you'll be fine after a few days rest."
Suddenly Greg looked around as if trying to find someone.
"Where's Emily?" he asked as a feeling of fear overcame him.
"She's fine," Anderson said hoping to calm him. "When the sirens went off she was napping in your tent, remember? Meatball pulled her under your desk and then curled around her for protection. After we got you taken care of, Suzette found them both sound asleep, although Emily was slightly damp." Greg gave each of them a look that seemed to say, "What am I going to do with you people?" "What Pappy?" Gutterman asked.
"You idiots didn't change her after I've lectured you all on how important it is to keep her bottom dry to prevent her from getting diaper rash again?"
"Her face was damp from Meatball licking her. I guess he's got some maternal instincts and was licking her to calm her down like mother dog's do with puppies sometimes?" Casey explained.
Greg sighed with relief.
"Where is she now?" he asked realizing he hadn't seen or heard her.
"She's going to stay in the nurse's quarters with Suzette tonight. Dr Pendleton and Suzette took her back so you could get some rest. TJ's offered to go get her after we get back from routine patrol tomorrow morning," Casey said.
It was two weeks after the Zeros had strafed the island and Greg was pretty much recovered, not that it had been an easy task keeping him from overdoing it. Dr. Pendleton had told him that the only restriction he was placing on him was not to fly until the area where the stitches in his shoulder had had a chance to heal a little more.
Of course, Greg always said that restricted didn't mean no; it meant don't get caught. So, as soon as he had returned with French from having Dr. Pendleton check out his shoulder he immediately followed his own advice and headed for his plane. He probably would have gotten away with it, but Bragg, Gutterman, and Hutch happened to be checking out Bragg's plane as he thought something hadn't sounded right during the morning patrol. The three of them managed to catch him before he got to his plane and it was only after a heated discussion between Greg, Bragg, and Gutterman about them needing him to be recovered in case they got their orders to bomb the oil tanks, explosives plant, and ammo dump on Bougainville that Greg finally realized they were right and headed back to his tent.
Just to be on the safe side, however, Hutch removed a couple fuses from Greg's plane thus ensuring that even if he managed to get in without being caught there would have been no way he could take off.
"How are you feeling, Pappy?" Casey asked catching up with Greg as he was walking across the camp a few days later."Is your head doing okay?, Your shoulder?"
"Yes, Casey, they're both fine?" Greg answered.
"Did Dr. Pendleton give you the go ahead to fly?"
"Yes Casey, you know that I've flown the last three morning patrols."
"Well did he say whether or not you'd be able to tell if there was going to be a change in the weather by how your shoulder felt?"
Greg was becoming a little irritated by Casey's ongoing questions and stopping mid stride he turned and looked at him hands on his hips.
"Casey," he said trying not to sound as exasperated as he felt. "What is it with all the damn questions?"
"I'm just wanting to make sure you really are okay because...well because..."
"Casey spit it out will you," Greg said his voice rising just a little bit.
"Okay, this just came for you," Casey said handing him a piece of paper.
Greg looked at it and looked at Casey with a mixture of relief and dread.
"I guess since you took the message you already know that we take off in four days for Bougainville?"
Casey nodded.
"Tell everyone I want them in the Sheep Pen at 1400 for an important meeting and if they ask what it's about; tell them they'll find out when they get there."
After Casey had left Greg stood looking at the paper. For some reason, in the back of his mind, he had this feeling that this mission was not going to turn out well and there would be nothing he could do about it.
The Sheep Pen was very quiet as everyone waited for Greg to start the meeting.
"I'm just going to come right out and say it," Greg said. "We've got our orders clearing us for that bombing mission I talked to you all about a couple of weeks ago."
"When," A few of them asked.
"In four days that will give me time to get the teams assigned?" Greg replied.
Everyone was silent. They had had time to think about the mission the last few weeks; and most of them, while still wanting to fly it, had hoped that General Moore and Colonel Lard would find some reason, whether fabricated or actual they didn't care, to hand it over to another squadron.
"You aren't having second thoughts are you?" Greg asked.
"No Pappy...No Greg...Of course not...We all agreed we could do this."
Greg couldn't have been prouder of them than he was at that moment. They knew the risks that were involved and weren't going to let it stop them or cause them to think about backing out at the last second.
"All right then plan on us being on the flight line at 0500 on Friday. I'll have the team assignments posted the day before so you'll know who you're flying with and who's leading the teams."
Everyone knew that Greg would be leading one team and it would probably be the one that would be doing the actual bombing.
"Anyone have anything else to say or any questions?" Greg asked.
"Pappy, what about Emily?" TJ asked looking down at her asleep on his lap.
Greg hadn't thought about that, but it was something he'd need to take care of and as soon as possible.
"I'll talk to Suzette. I'm sure one or two of the off duty nurses would be glad to watch her for us. If there's nothing else you are all dismissed except for TJ. I need to talk to you so meet me at my tent in five minutes."
"Am I in trouble?" TJ asked a few minutes later.
"Why do you all always think you're in trouble every time I want to talk to one of you?" Greg asked.
"Because nine times out of ten we usually are," TJ admitted.
"But," Greg added. "I'm usually involved to some extent in whatever it is, too. Aren't I?"
TJ, after a few minutes, nodded.
Greg grinned.
"I thought so. Now what I wanted to talk to you about is the upcoming mission."
TJ looked worried remembering another dangerous mission; when Greg had been sick with malaria, and he had tried to get TJ to remain behind.
Greg saw the look on TJ's face and knew what he was thinking.
"I'm not going to try to talk you out of going on this because I need every pilot I have flying," he assured him. "I'm going to be working on the team assignments for the mission this afternoon and I wanted to talk to you about leading the second team."
TJ didn't know what to say. Actually, he wasn't certain that he had heard Greg correctly the first time.
"You want me lead the second team?" he asked slowly.
"Yes, it's not going to be as dangerous as what the first team will up against, but it's still going have some risks. You all will stay back about 100 miles or so from the island to watch out for the Zeros when they come back from their patrol; and hopefully keep them from reaching the island before we've had a chance to blow everything up. If things go as I hope though, we'll have accomplished that, and rejoined you all by that time. I figure there's probably at least 20-30 Zeros on that island, and whether or not they'll all be on patrol is an unknown factor that I want to account for when putting together the teams."
"Pappy, you know how I am, I can screw up a mission faster than any of us, so why me? I mean it's going to be dangerous enough, but putting me in charge of a team is like sending half the squadron to their deaths before we've even taken off."
"TJ, listen to me dammit, if I didn't think that you could do this I wouldn't be asking you in the first place. Yeah, you definitely had a rough start; and to be honest I wasn't certain at first that I'd made the right decision when I asked you be one of the Black Sheep, but you've come a long way, and like I told you in the hospital, if you hadn't been there on that mission when I was nearly out of it with malaria things would have turned out worse than they did. So, I think...no I know you can do this and this is your chance to prove it to yourself that you can do it. You still mess up every once in awhile, but we all do that and admit it at least you haven't shot me or Gutterman down in quite some time," Greg said smiling.
"No Pappy I haven't," TJ agreed. "If you're certain you want me to lead the second team well I'll do it."
"That's what I wanted to hear. Now I'm going to work on these team assignments and you can tell the others that I don't want to be disturbed while I'm doing that."
The night before what they all knew could very well be their final mission everyone was gathered in the Sheep Pen. Greg walked in carrying Emily, who was contentedly drinking a bottle of formula, and sat down beside Suzette.
At the sight of Emily the others immediately began making a fuss over her.
"How do you like that?" Claire said, pretending to be miffed. "I'm sitting right here, and the minute another girl comes in Don ignores me for her."
"Same here only in my case it's Larry who's ignoring me," Penelope added.
"Jeez girls, she's just a baby," Anderson said. "If you're jealous of a baby you both really have problems."
Just then the jukebox began playing "Stardust."
"If you'll dance with me I think maybe I could forgive you," Claire leaned over and whispered to French.
"And that holds true with me as well," Penelope whispered to Casey.
The four of them got up, Casey took Penelope in his arms and French did the same with Claire before they slowly began gliding across the dance floor leaving Greg and Emily, who had finished her bottle, brought up a couple of tummy bubbles, and was now happily babbling to Meatball, who was sitting on the floor beside them, sitting with Suzette, Gutterman, Bragg, and TJ.
"I saw the flight roster for tomorrow's mission. How come you've got TJ as the second team's flight leader?" Gutterman asked.
Greg took a drink of his scotch before answering.
"I've got TJ as the flight leader because I know he can make quick, rational decisions, follow my orders without argument, and keep a calm, level head if things get to dicey."
"Yeah, and he can screw up a mission worse than any of us. The first time we went out he practically shot me out of the air and he's shot you down twice in the same week. Hell, Pappy, we won't have to worry about where the Zeros are and them taking shots at us; we'll have enough on our hands just keeping an eye out for TJ so he doesn't shoot us down on accident."
Greg didn't like the way Gutterman was talking about TJ and he damn sure wasn't going to let him continue.
"I realize that Gutterman, but he's come a long way skill-wise and you know it as well as I do. How many of us has he shot down recently...in the last few days...weeks... months? I can't think of anything other than Zeros that he has shot down. And don't forget he probably saved my life and all your lives as well, when I was out of it with malaria."
Gutterman was silent for a few moments, not believing what he was hearing. "Oh, so what?...Look at how many missions I've lead without you even being around...how many patrols. And I am your executive officer so that should count for something."
Greg handed Emily to Suzette.
"I understand all that Jim, but in this case I feel more comfortable having TJ lead the second team. I don't want to worry that you'll refuse to follow my orders, go off on some tangent, or get it in your head to do something stupid like going off half-cocked after a bunch of Zeros on your own and wind up shot down and as a result get yourself injured, killed, or taken prisoner. You and I both know that you've done most of those things in the past and I have enough to worry about on this mission without adding those scenarios into the mix."
Gutterman was too stunned to speak for a minute, and Greg could see that his temper was clearly starting to get out of control.
"Okay, Pappy, is that the way it's going to be?"
Greg was doing his best to keep calm, but was finding it extremely difficult.
"Yes Jim, TJ is going to lead the second team and that's final. So, what are you going to do about it?"
Gutterman's temper snapped and he drew back his fist punching Greg squarely in the jaw with a hard uppercut.
"This," he growled."You old fart."
Greg rubbed his jaw too stunned to say anything for a moment.
"That, Gutterman was the worst thing you could have done," he replied slowly, his voice hard.
Then he sent Jim flying across with room with a jab that was twice, if not three times harder, than the one Jim had thrown, as Suzette and Emily, along with Bragg and TJ quickly got up and went behind the bar where it appeared to be a little safer. Claire, Penelope, Casey, and French stopped dancing and followed them as, by this time, Greg and Jim were going at each other with such ferocity that for a few moments it seemed as if they would kill each other. However, no one wanted to jump in the middle and stop them. Jim sent Greg slamming into a table, which immediately broke from the force of impact. Greg got up from beneath the broken pieces of the table and threw him out the door of the Sheep Pen. Then he dove on top of him and the fight continued with as much or more momentum as before.
As everyone followed them outside to see how much longer the fight would go on Anderson and Boyle walked up accompanied by two of the newly assigned nurses that they had become very friendly with, Annaliese and Kathlynn. The four of them were returning from a moonlit walk along the beach.
"What's going on?" Annaliese asked.
"Apparently, Pappy and Gutterman are beating the daylights out of each other," Anderson replied. "But, the way Gutterman likes to shoot off his big mouth it's a frequent occurrence, so we're used to it," he added as they went into the Sheep Pen, but upon seeing the damage that Greg and Jim had caused immediately came back outside and stood with the others watching the fight.
Jim landed a hard shovel hook squarely in Greg's side. He landed on his back, the air knocked out of his lungs and pain radiating through him.
"That's all I need is some broken ribs," he thought."
Jim stood over him taunting him with every insulting remark he could think of.
Finally, Greg managed to get back up and sent Jim flying several feet across the ground. Despite the fact that he felt as if he were going to be sick at his stomach from the pain caused by that last punch from Jim, Greg dove on top of him.
Casey and French looked at each other thinking the same thing as everyone else that was if this didn't end soon someone was going to have to step in and break it up or else they were going to continue until one or the other was killed. It appeared as if that was going to be the case as fueled by anger and adrenaline neither of them showed any signs of backing down.
Then, Greg drew back his fist preparing to let Gutterman have it full force when Jim held up his hands
"Enough, Pappy, enough," he choked through swollen, bloodied lips. His face already a mass of bruises and one eye was swollen shut and purple green in color.
Greg lowered his fist and backed off. He was in the same shape as Gutterman with the addition of a bloody nose that he was not exactly sure wasn't broken and the possibility of several broken ribs, as well.
"French, you and Bragg take him back to his tent and the rest of you get to bed. I expect you on the flight line at 0500. Boyle see to it that these young ladies get back to the nurse's quarters at the hospital safely."
Boyle nodded and led Claire, Penelope, Annaliese, Suzette, who was taking Emily back to the nurse's quarters with her, and Kathlynn to one of the jeeps parked nearby.