Going to War

by burmafrd

AR, very AU. No Aliens. CC. Mostly Liz/Max. All hail Jason Katims for creating it; but he also messed it up as well. This is just for Fun. This is still our Liz, just different going in a different way. No Roswell.

7. Chapter 7

"The Presidential Unit Citation currently leaves out the Crew chiefs and crews that kept our choppers flying. That is wrong."

The reply came back in an hour. "I am on it."

SECDEF really did not have time for this and proceeded to chew out his Undersecretary for Personnel who was supposed to take care of screw ups like that.

Liz cleaned up her office; then made sure all necessary paperwork was done, and then looked around. Ted came in and proceeded to pull her to where they had put together a going away party for her. Liz would miss them; she had spent more time with them than any other unit and that counted for a lot.

She reported to the 5th Group the following Monday and talked to the Commander.

"Captain Parker, you will find that no one is left from the group you trained over two years ago. So that is why you have been assigned TDY here. The new commander designate has decided to leave the army so it will be a while before we can scare up a replacement. I was informed of your condition and it should be no bar to this assignment. The 160th SOAR will be your PCS move technically even though you remain on the same installation."

"Understood Sir. I have a fair amount of time before I reach the point where I will be completely desk bound. I see no reason that the ASP cannot be well in gear before I leave."

Liz headed down to the SF ASP Office and walked in the door and looked around. There was no one there. She walked around and noted that the key cabinet was not secured. There was no one in the office at all. Beginning to get steamed she called up the 5th Group G4.

"Sir, this is Captain Parker. I am down here at the ASP office and there is no one in the building and it is not secure. I thought the Commander was not due to leave yet?"

"He was not as far as I know, Captain. I will send security ASAP."

Liz went through the building and did not like what she found. A quick look at the SOP's showed that they had all been last updated one year after she had left; not since. Virtually everything she saw screamed sloppiness and taking short cuts.

Within 10 minutes of her call upstairs, two vehicles loaded with SF Security appeared. The lead sergeant approached Liz.

"Sergeant Gunderson. Was told by Group to report to you on a security breach."

"That is correct sergeant. You will have half your men secure this building; the rest and you will come with me to the ASP."

"Yes Maam. Sergeant Wilson, take your team and secure this building."

"Understood Sergeant."

"Sergeant Wilson, you will hold anyone that comes in until I return."

"Yes Maam."

"Let's go, Sergeant Gunderson."

Liz got into the Hummer and the Sergeant took the wheel and they headed towards the ASP.

"Sergeant, I have reason to think I just inherited a cluster fuck. I may need more of your men to do a sweep of the ASP."

"Understood Captain."

He then called into HQ for more men.

Meanwhile the G4 had contacted the Group Commander and filled him in.

"Damn, this sounds bad. What about the current Commander?"

"Sir, I have not been able to find a leave slip. He is not due to process out for 2 weeks. His quarters do not answer."

The Group Commander thought for a moment.

Then the G4's phone rang, and he answered it.

"Yes it is. What? OK keep me informed."

"Captain Parker just asked for reinforcements."

"I want an alert RIGHT NOW. Get the reaction force rolling for the ASP."

Liz and the Security detachment rolled up to the Group ASP. The gate was open and the guard was not there. Liz got out and looked around- saw a porto potty.

"Sergeant, secure this gate, check that porto. Call HQ and declare a security breach right now."

"Yes MAAM! Jones and Brandon, check that potty. People we are on alert; weapons locked and loaded and ready to fire; safeties off. Smith, close that gate."

Liz thought she might be over reacting but she was taking no chances; she wished she had a side arm but then again she had not expected this and had no reason to.

The potty was empty and the two security people unlocked the back of the vehicles weapon storage and produced M4's. Liz was glad to see they had more and took one and two magazines and quickly readied it for action.

Liz looked around and still saw nothing. She looked at Gunderson.

"Sergeant, any moving vehicle will be stopped one way or another. Deadly force is authorized."

"Understood, Captain."

Liz thought for a minute and pulled out her cell phone and punched in a number.

"1st Battalion."

"Sir, this is Captain Parker. We have a situation at the Group ASP; probable security breach. Possibly worse. Is there anyone immediately available and armed?"

"Negative; only scouts available."

"Need eyes in the sky, sir."

"Understood; 10 minutes."

"Yes sir, have them contact us on Group Security."

"As soon as we can Captain."

10 minutes went by and they heard sirens coming from the main area. Then approaching sirens. They could see flashing lights as the security vehicles approached. 4 Hummers approached; 2 with 50's on mounts and two with flashing lights.

At the same time came from Gunderson's radio

"6 Battalion, Ferrer, for Captain Parker."

Liz grabbed the mike "This is Captain Parker; I need a sweep of the Group ASP and tell us what you see."

"Roger that, Captain."

The Lead vehicle stopped and a LT came hustling forward. He saluted Liz.

"Told of a security breech; Group has called an alert. Was told to follow your orders, Captain."

"I want a sweep of the ASP. I have a hawk upstairs looking right now and will give us the situation."

"Ferrer to Captain Parker; I have four magazines open; one vehicle in front of one magazine; no personnel in sight."

Liz thought about the layout of the ASP.

"Ferrer which magazines are open?"

"All the magazines on the 3rd row."

"Where is that vehicle?"

"Third magazine from your right as facing the magazines from the gate."

"Thank You Ferrer, keep looking and if anything changes sing out."

"Roger that, Captain."

Liz looked at the Lt.

"I went to the ASP HQ and the building was empty and unsecured. We got here and the gate was open and nobody present. I want you to move in and check those magazines for intruders or anyone else; detain and secure anyone you find. I checked the planographs for the open magazines and there are no AT weapons in them. The one magazine with the vehicle in front has only small arms ammunition. Deadly Force is authorized."

"Understood Captain."

He then gathered his sergeants and quickly briefed them.

Then more sirens and two vehicles approached; one looked like a commanders Hummer and the other was another security Hummer.

Liz looked at the LT. "LT, just in case those are not who they look to be."

"Yes Sir."

Then gave orders and the two hummers with 50's turned to cover the oncoming vehicles. Liz and the others moved behind their hummer and watched.

The two vehicles stopped and out of the second came the 5th Group commander, Colonel Collins.

Everyone relaxed as he quickly came forward.

"Captain, brief me."

"Sir we arrived 20 minutes ago. The gate was open and unmanned. We secured it; the reaction force arrived. I called the field and they rushed a Blackhawk" she pointed at the hawk hovering at about 2000 feet "and it reported four magazines open and one vehicle in front of one; no personnel in sight. I just ordered the LT to move in and secure the area; to detain and secure anyone found. He was about to do so when you arrived."

He nodded. "Well done Captain. The ASP commander is missing. Has anyone shown up at the ASP HQ?"

"The Sergeant there has secured the building and will alert us if anyone appears; anyone that does will be detained. We have received no communications from him."

He thought for a minute then looked at the LT.

"Lt Anderson, are you ready to move in?"

"Yes sir my people are briefed and we are ready."

"Then do so."

"Yes sir."

Liz broke in "Sir, I authorized deadly force if necessary."

The Colonel nodded. "Per those orders, move in."

"Yes sir."

They moved out 2 minutes later, two vehicles going each way to the far end of the rows of magazines in view; there were 4 rows of 4 magazines laid out in a square.

Liz moved back to Gunderson's vehicle and took the mike. "Captain Parker to Ferrer, any change?"

"Negative, Captain. The security vehicles are approaching the first open bunkers; two troopers are going in to check; with two outside covering; "

A couple of minutes went by.

"first two open magazines are closed now; one unit is checking the third open bunker; the other is waiting."

Another couple of minutes.

"third magazine closed they are moving towards the magazine with the vehicle."

"They are going in the magazine."

"They are pulling out four uniformed personnel out of the magazine and are handcuffing them. They are staggering, barely able to stand."

"Security to Group Commander, have secured the situation. Have arrested four personnel who are apparently under the influence of drugs."

Everyone relaxed. Liz shook her head. "Stoned out of their gourds probably."

The Group commander reached for his phone. "Call off the alert. Contact CID, we will need a full investigation team."

He looked at Liz. "You reacted correctly, Captain. And it looks like we have a much bigger mess than I ever suspected."

"Yes sir. Before we left the building, I looked around. The Key cabinet was open and unsecured; everything I saw indicated a very sloppy and careless attitude. The SOPS were all out of date."

He nodded. "Right now I think a full replacement of all personnel is going to be required."

Liz looked up as a vehicle approached with flashing lights; it was a command Hummer. It approached and stopped and a Major came out and approached the Colonel and saluted.

"Major Fresnel, Security. IS the situation under control, sir?"

"It is. But I will need this ASP secured and the guard on duty is either missing or is one of the four we have found who are under the influence."

The Major blinked and nodded.

At that point the Security Force came up to the gate. LT Anderson got out and approached the group and saluted the colonel.

"Four personnel apparently severely under the influence, sir; we could smell a large amount of marijuana smoke in each of the magazines; the one the personnel were in reeked with it. They are so bad they can barely stand and are completely incoherent."

"Take them straight to the Base Hospital for testing; you know the procedures."

"Yes Sir."

Major Fresnel spoke up. "I want 4 personnel here for the immediate future until relieved, Lt Anderson."

"Understood sir."

Liz also spoke up. "Did you lock the magazines, Lt.?

"No captain; I was not able to find any locks or keys."

Liz shook her head. "Will need to get spare locks from the office, and we will need to reset the IDS." Suddenly she thought of something and looked at the LT.

"Shouldn't the IDS have gone off; If I recall the system it has to be keyed every hour the door is open or it alarms. I doubt those characters have only been stoned for an hour."

His eyes widened as did Major Fresnel, who called into his office and wanted to know what his board showed. He paled as he looked at the Group commander.

"The IDS board shows all those magazines as secured; and have not opened today."

Liz sighed. The others looked at her. "They must have bypassed the IDS so that it never alarms no matter what happens. That is not something easily done."

Major Fresnel shook his head. "No it's not." He looked at the group Commander. "Sir this is very serious."

The Colonel nodded. "It is getting more serious by the minute."

He looked at Liz. "Captain, as of right now this ASP is on lockdown. Closed until further notice. You will perform a 100% inventory starting tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we will have security on each row 24/7."

"Yes sir." Then Liz headed towards Gunderson's radio. "Captain Parker to Ferrer; situation secured and thank you. Head for the barn."

"Roger that Captain Parker."

The Colonel looked at Liz. "Good thinking there, Captain. Let us proceed to the ASP office and we will discuss this. I will call the G4 and have him come down. I will also call the Base Commander and have the head of his ASP head over as well; we will have to use his people for the inventory."

They all trooped down to the ASP Office except for the detail going to the base hospital or back to the Barracks. Liz unloaded her weapon and gave it back to the Sergeant to be locked away. The Colonel noted that she was very precise and competent with the weapon.

In the office Liz immediately checked the keys in the Key cabinet. The Colonel and Major noted her frustration.

"Just how bad is this, Captain?"

"Sir this is a mess. We have CAT 1 and 2 keys mixed in with all the others; a major security violation as they must be separated so that no one person can draw both keys…oh hell. IT looks like only one lock on the Cat 1 bunkers. Damn. I see some of the keys are missing. This keeps getting better and better."

She closed the cabinet that had a combination type lock on it; then stopped and looked in the cabinet next to it and found a key lock still in the box; she took that lock out and locked the cabinet with it and took both keys and placed them in the safe. Then stopped. "Damn. Need to change the combination to this safe." She looked at the lock. "Well good you can change the combination." She fiddled with it. Then locked it. She looked at the Major. "Sir, I will give you the combination and I will have the combination and no one else." She looked at the Colonel and he nodded and stepped away. Liz whispered to the Major "8 4 76"

He nodded. "Got it."

Liz then looked around and poked at some boxes on the floor. "Jesus. Here are the spare Magazine locks. They are supposed to be secured as well." She picked them up and opened the safe and checked the lower drawer and dropped 6 locks in it and closed the safe again and put the closed sign on it.

Both the Major and the Colonel shook their heads.

The Group G4 came in and looked around. The Colonel beckoned him over.

"What did the base commander say?"

"The Ordnance Company commander resigned his commission 3 days ago and has already cleared post. The 2 LTs are still on leave. They have been unable to contact them."

Liz shook her head. "Jesus H Christ. The Ordnance Company was in great shape when I left."

The G4 shrugged. "All the personnel that you trained are gone. Over a year ago the last one left. Remember, Captain, it was almost 4 years since you left here."

The Colonel was also shaking his head. "With the increased emphasis that the Ammunition Mission has been getting; since the new SECDEF kept up the pressure the last one had been applying, I cannot believe that it collapsed here."

The G4 looked uncomfortable. The colonel glared at him. The G4 sighed.

"Sir I had been hearing some things about the ASP on main post; but I had heard nothing about this ASP. The Last inspection conducted before we left, 18 months ago, did not seem to find anything wrong."

Liz looked at him. "Who did it?"

"The Main post ASP office."

Liz was quiet for a moment. "How much do you want to bet that the last inspection for THEIR ASP came from THIS ASP."

The three officers winced. The Colonel sighed. "We are not dumb enough to take that bet."

He thought for a moment and reached for a desk phone. Dialed a number.

"Colonel Simms. I think you need to have your ASP checked immediately. IT was a disaster here; and the last inspection done 18 months ago was by the main post ASP and there are things here that should have been caught even then. And were not. I am at our ASP office; frankly the only officer on this installation who has an idea how bad it might be is Captain Parker here. She was supposed to take over the ASP and found a Major Security Breech." "Yes. That Captain Parker; she is TDY for the moment here prior to her joining the 160th SOAR. She will clearly be busy here; and I think we might have to have her take over all the ordnance company functions on this installation. Yes I agree. We will head over in a while; 1300 is a good time for a meeting in your office."

Liz checked her watch. It was 1130. Only 90 minutes had passed since she left the Group HQ to come here.

The Colonel looked at the officers present. "Meeting at the base commanders office at 1300." He looked around. "Captain Parker, how many people should be here?"

"Sir, TOE is 1 Captain, 1 LT, 2 Sergeants and 6 specialists. We know the Captain is missing; the LT has transferred out. One of the four was the gate guard who is in security; the other three were 3 of the specialists. So that leaves both sergeants and 3 specialists unaccounted for."

He looked at Major Fresnel. "I want them found. At this time I want them detained."

"Yes sir I will send out an alert." They began to discuss that.

Liz had wandered over to the Captains office and looked inside. She saw an envelope lying on his desk. She went in and picked it up. She brought it out to the main office area where they had been talking.

"Sir this was laying on the captain's desk. It is labeled for Personnel."

He took it and opened it. Pulled out some papers. Looked at them. "His resignation effective today. IT is dated last Wednesday."

Liz shook her head. "Well that explains his absence but not much else."

The Colonel looked around. "Check all the offices. See if any more like this are around." They all started to poke around but found nothing but more evidence of an incredibly sloppy operation. Liz did find the keys to the door to the building. The Colonel told them to close the doors and for Liz to secure it.

"Major, I imagine you have quite a report to start on."

"Yes sir and I need to start on it ASAP."

"Then go do so."

He looked at Liz and the G4. "We have time for lunch; we will go to the officers club and we can discuss this over food." Liz had the keys to the ASP office vehicle that had been brought back from the ASP; she decided to take it instead of the base car she had been using.

After they went to the Officers mess and had taken seats in the senior officer section the Colonel looked at Liz.

"Just how bad do you think it is?"

"Sir this is about one step down from apocalyptic. I have no doubt we will find everything wrong. The Ordnance company mostly did not deploy due to where the 101st was; the ASPs are permanent there and manned by other units. So they stayed here; with very little to do since the whole division was gone. The Special Forces ASP also has had little to do due to how much of 5th Group is deployed and once again not many of them went. The old saying that while the Cat is away the mice will play has been already proven here."

The G4 shook his head. "You left a trained and competent ASP here and on Main post. But I am willing to bet that the senior people were gone within 2 years at the most; with the others steadily going. We probably got the dregs here from elsewhere; why I do not know but I bet that was what happened. Somehow we became the dumping ground for the bad Ordnance types here. With that increased emphasis on Ammunition, everyone wanted to get rid of their bad apples. Looks like we got more than a few. And since we did not need them, nobody noticed in the past year how bad it had been getting." His cell phone rang and he took the call. Listened for a bit then told them OK and keep digging.

"That was personnel. Of the 2 sergeants and 3 missing Specialists, it turns out that the three specialists left over 6 months ago and the Captain did not bother to get replacements. One of the sergeants also transferred to the NG two months ago. The remaining sergeant is still unaccounted for. The LT transferred out and his time in ran out last month and he left the military."

Liz sighed. "So we have one missing sergeant who could very well be out somewhere drunk. I would not be surprised if he had something like that in his record. One of the sergeants offices looked somewhat empty; the other had his trash can full of beer cans."

The Colonel looked up at the ceiling. "I cannot believe that I did not hear about this from somewhere."

The G4 also shook his head. "I had heard vague things but had no idea of this goat rope. That is why I wanted Captain Parker to take over here for the time being."

Liz shook her head. "I have NO one then I can start with. I will need bodies. And if the Main ASP is anything like this, and right now there is no reason to not think so, there might be very few there that I can use."

The Colonel grunted. "Well, let's eat. And try and enjoy the meal."

At 1245 they headed to the Base Commander's office.

The Base commander, Colonel Sims, the Division G4, Colonel Allen, and the Base Security Commander were waiting in the office. After introductions the Base commander nodded to Colonel Allen to start.

"Ordnance Company. Captain Jenkins resigned. Lt Johnson has had his transfer approved and is on leave in Europe. Lt Dunkin has been found in his quarters passed out drunk. He was supposed to be on leave and apparently was just drinking in his room. 4 sergeants. 2 are transferring in and are not Ordnance qualified; but seem competent from their records. 2 slots were empty and have been for 6 months. The two coming in are due on base next week. They both have families and are in route. 8 specialists for doing paperwork; and the TAMIS system. 4 slots empty. The other slots are filled with personnel that are barely competent. None of them were evaluated at more than satisfactory and that was probably a stretch. Effectively at this time this ordnance section is an empty building."

Liz was thinking hard and the Group Commander noticed. "What is it Captain?"

"Sir none of them include the personnel that did come with us to Afghanistan."

He looked at the G4. Who nodded. "Due to the realignment, the Ordnance company is permanent post so that if one or more of the brigades stay they can be taken care of. We do have the people who were deployed. Some sergeants and specialists."

"So what do we have from them?"

The Colonel pulled out a file and checked it. "4 sergeants, 2 89B's. 8 specialists, 4 of which are TAMIS qualified. All attached to their various brigades."

The Base Commander nodded. "Well they will not be needed so we can put them in the Ordnance Company permanent post."

Liz nodded. "I can also grab the two sergeants extra and I have something to start with at the SF ASP. If we can take two of the specialists, one TAMIS, there is a core to build around. One of those sergeants need to be one of the 89B's."

The atmosphere lightened up now that there was some light at the end of the tunnel.

The Base Security commander then interjected. "I think the absolute first thing will be to have a 100% inventory."

The group nodded and the Base Commander looked at Liz. "Captain Parker, since this will be your responsibility, I think you need to let us all know what you will need first."

Liz took a deep breath and pulled out her notebook that she had been making notes prior to the meeting.

"As was pointed out, 100% inventory. No records previously used will be considered as anything but unreliable. I will need to talk to the QASAS here. I wonder why they did not say anything; they should have caught this long ago."

The Division G4 sighed. "One QASAS recently retired; the other just got here last month and has just started duty. The AMMO LAR retired 2 months ago and has not been replaced. The new QASAS is very inexperienced."

Liz blinked. "We need either an immediate LAR or QASAS that is experienced at Camp or Post."

The Division G4 nodded. "I will contact the Career Office and request an immediate fill. But that means it will be several months."

Liz shook her head. "We need QASAS help now; tell them to send some TDY."

The Group and Base Commander both nodded. Group commander was blunt." If the Career Office is hesitant, I will have SOCOM demand one ASAP."

Liz looked at her notebook. "Need to have those brigade sergeants and specialists tomorrow if possible; ASAP anyway. Also I need the authorization to issue ammunition per regulation; need to cancel all previous permissions as well."

Group nodded. "I will have your authorization to issue by tomorrow NOON.

The Base Commander also nodded. "For the rest of the base tomorrow by NOON as well. Your appointment as Ordnance company commander is already being worked on by my office."

Liz sighed. "Someone probably needs to let 160th SOAR know about this. I am going to be here a lot longer than originally thought."

Group nodded. "I will take care of that."

The Base Commander mused. "I know Captain Parker left the Ordnance Company in very good shape and that was only four years ago. It is remarkable to me that it was allowed to deteriorate like it did, especially in the new climate as regards Ammunition. I only took command 3 months ago, but Colonel Johnson did not seem the sort to allow it to happen."

Division G4 sighed. "It is more our fault than anyone else's. With the new organization, technically we should have been keeping a closer watch but we just plain did not."

Group shrugged. "No point in worrying about blame; but we do need to make sure it does NOT happen again. If Captain Parker had not decided to go looking this morning rather than waiting for tomorrow, that ASP might have been left wide open until nighttime; and we would not have known about the IDS system."

The Base Commander looked at him. "There is something wrong with the IDS system as well?"

Base Security grimaced. "Technicians are right now looking over the system; their preliminary report I got just before this meeting indicates the SF ASP had over rides placed on the IDS so they would not register as open unless specifically entered in the keyboard on the magazine control board."

The Base Commander was shocked. "How long?"

"Not known at this time."

Group sighed. "All involved will be given bad conduct discharges unless we find that there are serious shortages. In which case the CID will have even more to look for. Which is another reason the Inventory must be done ASAP."

Liz had an ugly thought. "If the Main Post ASP has been working with the SF ASP to cover things up like it looks, is it possible they did the same thing to the Main Post ASP IDS?"

Everyone at the meeting had their jaws drop, fall off, and roll on the floor.

The Base Security chief pulled out his cell phone. "Thompson. I want those techs checking the Main Post ASP IDS ASAP. Yes for the same thing."

The Base Commander closed his eyes, Group leaned his head back. The Division G4 was very quiet. "It will be next to impossible to keep this from hitting the media."

Group G4 looked at Liz. "Captain, there is a chance that by this time next week you might be the only one at this meeting with a job."

The meeting ended not too long after. Liz sat and thought for a while; then picked up her notebooks and headed home for the day. There really was nothing more she could do.

She came in the door and realized that Max was at his job and Aliya was still at school. So she just relaxed. The tension of the day got to her and she dozed off.

Max and Aliya came into the house and saw Liz on the sofa asleep. Max put his fingers to his lips and Aliya tip toed by and up to her room. Max quietly began to prepare dinner.

The smell of food woke Liz. She smiled and stretched and padded to the kitchen and sat at the table watching Max prepare dinner. He was a pretty good cook.

Max looked up and noted Liz at the table.

"Have a nice nap?"

"Ya. Needed it after today."

"What happened?"

"Remember what I told you about the ASP here when I first came to the Aviation Brigade?"

"Yeah."

"Today I found both in even worse shape."

He turned and looked at her and saw that she was very serious. At that point Aliya came in and Liz started to ask her about her day. He saw that she did not want to talk about it and did not bring it up again.

Liz before going to bed dug out all her old Ammunition reference material and packed it ready to take to the base in the morning.

Liz opened up the SF ASP office at 0600. She took a better look around and made notes on what needed to be done. At 0630 she locked it up. Left a sign on the door for anyone to call the number to the main ASP office, which doubled as the Ordnance Company office. She headed there.

Liz walked into the office of the Main Post ASP and found the expected personnel from the Brigades sitting in the break room. She went into the office area and found no one. Went back to the break room and asked those there

"Did any of the regulars from this office show up?"

A sergeant stood up. "No Captain. Security let us in to wait for you."

She looked at him. Memory niggled. "Sergeant, I think you were in my 89B class."

"Yes Maam. Jason Engler."

"Where have you been posted?"

"Ist ID, Ft Riley for 5 years. Then here since."

"Good. We will need your experience."

"Who is the other 89B?"

"Here , Captain. Tom Simpson. Took 89B in 2007 and was sent here after."

"OK here is the deal; one of you will be going to the SF ASP and one will stay here. Do either of you have a preference?"

"I would like to try the SF, Maam." Came from Engler.

"Very well. Now I want to hear about the rest of you. How much experience each of you have."

The answers were pretty good; none of them were fresh from training, all had some experience. All had been deployed at least once.

"Here is the situation. I don't have to tell you that this ASP and the SF ASP are in sad shape or you would not be here. The Ordnance Company at this installation at this time consists of the people in this room. The remaining former members of it are either up on charges or will be transferred for cause. Two more sergeants, not 89B's, will be in next week as transfers. One will go to SF and one will come here. More specialists will be brought in but you people and the two sergeants will be doing the work. Replacement officers will be brought in but unless I miss my guess none of them will have worked Ammunition. So you will have to train them alongside me. This will be the second time I had to rebuild the Ammunition Mission on this installation in the last 5 years. So I know the route."

Her official cell phone went off; she had gotten it yesterday.

"Parker."

"Yes Sir. Understood sir."

"Ouch. When it rains it pours."

"Well that is good anyway. We will need them. What about replacements for here?"

"Yes sir. If anymore collapses occur I will inform you."

Liz sighed. "Well the bad news is that the only QASAS on post resigned suddenly to take a position with a contractor elsewhere. The good news is that he will be replaced by an experienced set of QASAS. For the time being two Senior QASAS will be sent here TDY. So when they show up they will be helping out here; and training everyone. So the technical assistance problem will be taken care of. So there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not an oncoming train. Officer replacements will be here by next week. But none of them have ammunition experience, just as I figured. The first thing we will be doing is a 100% inventory of both ASP's. We will start here and then do the SF ASP. I was informed by Group G4 and Division G4 that there will be no critical training scheduled for at least the next few weeks. So any issues that would have to be done will be emergency ones. Which I will do. Any receipts of ammunition coming in we will handle. No shipments are scheduled. So we can concentrate on doing the inventory and getting the system fixed. One major factor will be the SOP's; they are all out of date. The good news is that they were originally written by me at Ft Stewart then brought here the first time that I had to fix this place. So I know those SOPs. We just have to make sure they are up to date, which should not take long. We will do them right after we complete the inventories."

At that point several officers came into the ASP. Liz went to meet them, Major Fresnel was with them.

"Captain Parker, this is Captain Jamison of CID. And four of his officers. They will be conducting the investigation. The technicians confirmed that the IDS here was modified the same way the SF ASP IDS was compromised. The Division Commander has insisted that charges be filed on this and anything else serious found. So they and the technicians will be looking at the IDS for every magazine on base; then they will be accompanying you on the Inventory, which will be done as soon as the IDS is examined and any evidence removed. Then the IDS will be returned to its correct configuration."

Liz nodded. "Very well. Is there an estimate how long that will take before we can begin the inventory?"

"They have been ordered to have it done by 0600 Thursday."

"So I can expect to start the inventory at 0600 Thursday."

"If not sooner."

"Understood sir. Right now I intend all the personnel here to start examining our SOP's to bring them up to date. We should have them done by Thursday and ready for staffing."

"Get them started on that and then show the CID people here what the problems were."

"Yes Sir."

Liz turned to the 89B's. "OK, you two split up the SOP's and start going over them with everyone in two groups. When you are each done with redoing your set, exchange them so that each group can go over the other half of the SOP's. That way everyone sees all of them."

She then motioned the CID people to follow her into the main office area.

"We will start with Key Control. Here is the AR 190-11, the parts on it that deal with Keys and Key control." She had been given the combination to the safe by the Base Security Chief the previous afternoon. She then opened the safe and took out the keys to the key cabinet and opened it. They then counted the keys and found several missing. Liz looked in the cabinet and at the bottom of it inside its ledge were several keys. She found the key list and it was out of date, naturally. It did seem like they had keys to all the locks on the magazines, but would not know until it was checked. One of the CIC Lts had taken the pages Liz had copied and was taking notes on which parts of it the ASP was in violation. The list was growing steadily. None of the CAT 1 bunkers had two locks as it appeared; another major violation. The keys were not separated in two cabinets; one more. Liz looked around the office.

"When I left here 4 years ago there was a second key cabinet for magazines with two locks. It is no longer here- it used to be right next to it." She showed where it appeared a second cabinet used to be but no longer was. She then went to the safe and opened all the drawers and pulled out 4 spare locks still in their original boxes.

The Main ASP gate was locked and two guards on duty. Liz told them to lock it after they got in and no one was allowed admittance. They then started on each magazine beginning with Mag 1. The first two rows all the mags had locks that opened to keys on the list; but they did not all match up. The 3 CAT 1 Magazines on the second row – containing items like Stingers and AT-4's- all had only one lock, though that lock was correctly listed. So Liz added a second lock and entered that on a new key list. She was listing the magazines and locks on another key list. The third row was ok until the last one; its lock was not on the list and none of the keys Liz had would open it. She told the CID that a lock smith would have to be called to see if he could open it; if not a welding torch would cut the lock off.

After some discussion it was decided to do the same with the SF ASP, so they went back to the ASP office and Liz locked the cabinet and the safe. They then headed over to the other ASP office. Liz opened the building and went to the safe, opened it and pulled out the key to the key cabinet. She turned to the CID officers.

"Yesterday this was open; I changed the lock and the combination to the safe; only myself and Major Fresnel know it." There was a key list in the safe; it did not seem to follow what was listed on the hooks on the cabinet. There were keys on the bottom of the cabinet that Liz took as well. There were 2 Cat 1 bunkers; and like at the main ASP there appeared to be only one lock. There was also no second key list or second cabinet for a Cat 1 set of keys. Liz looked in the safe and took out the 6 new locks she had put in there the previous afternoon. She got a new key list and put it on another clipboard. They then headed out to the SF ASP. The gate was open but guarded by two guards; they informed Liz that the technicians were working on the IDS systems. Liz took the crew and they began to check the magazines. The first 4 were correctly listed; the next row 2 of 4 were listed; the other two were not correct and the keys on the hooks did not work; but fortunately two of the keys on the bottom did work. The third row, with the magazines without locks, was where the technicians were working on the IDS. They told Liz that simple jumper clips had been put on the terminals inside the box to bypass the IDS sensor on the door. They could not explain how this was done without Security finding out. Captain Jamison closely questioned him on it and was clearly not happy with the explanation. After they left that magazine he told Liz that it should not have been that easy. She agreed. She suggested that maybe they better call in some techs from another company and double check all this; he agreed and called up the Base Security commander who also agreed and would get on it. They did put a lock on each door so that now basic security was restored. The final row had the same problem as the second row; but Liz was able to find keys to unlock them. They then went back to the SF ASP office.

Captain Jamison looked at the list one of the LTs had been making at where the violations were in the AR 190-11. He looked at Liz.

"8 Major Violations and 6 minor ones. Not counting the IDS. Pretty evenly split between the two ASP's. I have never seen nor heard of anything this bad ever."

Liz nodded. "Neither have I. But the Brass are going to have to decide whether to prosecute and thus make it much more likely the media gets a hold of this, or try and keep it quiet."

They then headed back to the main ASP office and locked up the SF ASP office.

There Captain Jamison told Liz they would be writing up their preliminary report and would be waiting for her to start the Inventory.

Liz then went into the office for the commander and called first the Division G4 then the Group G4 and gave them the latest. She was told a meeting with the Division Commander was set for Weds at 1300 when he arrived back from DC where he had been at a Commanders conference.

Liz checked on the SOP progress and saw that it was good. Then she got a call from Base Security; the missing Sergeant had been found; he was in the drunk tank at a nearby town. He would be taken care of by the Base and would not be a problem for her. She thanked them for taking something off of her back.

Liz sat down at the desk and thought about things. It amazed her that it got this bad here and that no one had noticed; and this was something that had not happened overnight; it had taken at least a year and probably two of steady deterioration. How all the signs had been missed was nothing short of incredible; and then she started to think about the interesting coincidence that both the ASP officers in charge had resigned from the military only days apart. Then she looked up as Major Fresnel came in and close the door behind him. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He did not look happy.

"Captain Buchanan, the SF ASP commander, was not SF. Just regular Army. His quarters were checked and they are empty; all his personal effects are gone. His personal cell phone has been canceled; supposedly none of his personal contacts know anything about him leaving the service or where he is. Captain Sanders, the Main Post Ordnance commander, cleared post on Friday. Just one week after resigning. He also seems to have vanished. Captain Jamison is of the opinion that this is all too coincidental and I have to agree."

"I was just thinking about that. For them to up and disappear that fast, tells me that they knew the jig was up; might have gotten a hint of someone starting to check up on things. Now they could be counting on the Army not wanting publicity and just letting them go; or it could be something else. They had to know they were facing court martial and time in Leavenworth. Maybe they were doing more than just doing as little as they could and ignoring anything that would have made them actually work. I have a nasty feeling that we might find a fair amount of inventory missing and no paperwork describing where it went. I hate to suggest this, we might need to contact the FBI and ATF and see if there were any large amounts of military ammunition suddenly showing up in the black market."

Major Fresnel had gotten a little paler as Liz described her worry. He then pulled out his cell phone.

"Sir, have you been told about the two Captains missing and no one being able to contact them? Captain Parker is thinking that we might have to start thinking of a worse possibility then what we have so far been looking at; that those two might have been selling ammunition. Yes sir. If anything more comes up I will let you know."

Liz had been going further down that dark road. When he hung up she quietly asked him about the LT that had transferred out and was supposedly in Europe and the Lt that had left the military one month ago.

"Maybe all of this is just making me paranoid, but what if all four of them were working together?"

"I keep wondering how this can get worse. I need to stop doing that. We need to get that Inventory done ASAP." He then left the office and Liz began to start digging into the files for Receipts and also for inventory records and a stock count showing what was supposed to be in storage.

She went out and got a quick lunch and was back in the office digging into things. Then she went to the SF ASP Office and did the same. Finally getting back to the MAIN ASP office she looked at the stock accounts and began to see if she could find anything noticeably wrong. That did not take long. At 1500 her phone rang.

"Parker."

"Captain Parker, this is Captain Jamison. I just got off the phone with CID HQ in FT Belvoir and they do not like what it is beginning to look like. Col Green, the Chief here at Campbell, just got back from Leave and wants a full briefing. I would like you to be there; he just got in and is looking over what we have so far. Could you come down to the Office?"

"Yes, I have been looking at some records and stock reports and there are indications that it might have been happening. I can be there in about 20 minutes."

Jamison hung up the phone and looked at his CO. "She said she would be up here in about 20 minutes and that from looking at the records so far there are indications that it may have happened."

Col Green shook his head. "Captain Parker; THE Captain Parker?"

"Yes sir."

"She does seem to find the sticky end of things all too often for one person."

"Yes sir, but on the other hand she is extremely competent."

Liz got her paperwork into a folder and headed out to the office area where they were all still going at it on the SOP's.

"I am going to a meeting at CID. If I am not back by 1800 close up and send everyone home for the night. But have everyone back at 0600 tomorrow" to Sergeant Engler.

"Yes Maam."

Liz got to CID HQ and was directed to the CO's Office. She went in and was introduced to Col Green by Captain Jamison.

Col Green got right down to it.

"This whole thing reads like a damn conspiracy nuts book. So far we have been unable to track down either captain or the two Lts that have also slipped from sight. The one in Europe has not followed the itinerary that he provided when he went on leave. He was supposed to go to England and then Germany; he went to England but the trail ends there. He was scheduled to pick up a rental car two days ago and then drive to Germany and then back a week later. He never showed up for the car. All efforts so far to find the other officers have come up empty. The LT drunk here says he knows nothing; his record shows alcohol problems but he was requested by Captain Sanders and was transferred here 18 months ago. My suspicion is that Captain Sanders wanted a drunk at that position so that he would not notice anything. We just have been able to get permission to check their bank accounts and nothing suspicious showed up on any of the four."

Liz opened her folder. "Sir, a large amount of 7.62 X 39 ammunition was in the SF account to be used for various purposes including training on AK 47's for covert operations. I was able to find old files going back 5 years. The usage went up drastically about 14 months ago; just about the time the 5th Group sent out a lot of their personnel for deployment. Which on one hand would make sense; issue to take with and to use in training before they left. However the usage remained constant for the next 12 months only dropping off a month ago; just when many of the units got home. A large amount of the same ammunition was transferred to the SF account on paper and not online where it can be traced by higher HQ. JMC and the WARS report each show a much higher amount of that ammunition here at Campbell then the latest stock report –once again not the online official report-shows. If what I think is correct 500,000 rds is missing."

Col Green sighed and nodded. "Captain Parker, from your experience in Ammunition operations, how hard would that be to hide?"

"Sir I am willing to bet that we will find few if any documents for that ammo; and those that we do will only have the signatures of those four officers on them. SF is known for doing strange things; SOCOM is basically its own world; so it would be easy to claim that it is because of that that that the ammo use is not unusual for THEM. If they were halfway careful, no one would notice. Especially if they kept it constant and steady so that it seems normal after a while. And since those four officers did the entire so called inventory for the SF ASP as both inspectors and checkers, no one else would know."

"What about CAT 1 items and CAT 2 items such as demolition charges?"

"Sir I checked them first; it is very hard to do anything with CAT 1 items due to the monthly inventory requirement and constant worldwide over sight. Nothing looks suspicious there. Same with those CAT 2 items. Any change is very visible. But once again if all 4 were in on this; and the only other one a drunk everyone ignores and probably never sees, it could be possible. If something was done there they just put them in a truck and haul them out. No issue documents at all. One of the sergeants was a drunk as well. Would not be hard to forge his signature on inventory records as well. Or Catch him when he is hung over and just have him sign something he does not even remember signing. Same with the drunk Lt."

Col Green was quiet for a minute then picked up his phone. "Colonel Sims, this is Colonel Green CID. I am here talking with Captain Parker and what she has already dug up indicates that selling ammunition was almost certainly happening. Clear signs of small arms ammunition. But what worries me is that from the way the system is designed, if all 4 of our missing officers were in on it, we could also be seeing CAT 1 and CAT 2 items gone as well. Yes sir. I agree." He hung up.

"He wants a meeting now at Divisional HQ. The General just got in; he like I think this cannot be put off."

Liz got her papers together. "Sir, is the 5th Group Commander in on this?"

"He did not say. You better call him."

Liz pulled out her official phone. "Colonel Collins, this is Captain Parker. Sir that apocalyptic possibility I mentioned yesterday? It is looking more and more like that might have happened. There is a meeting with the Base Commander and Col Green of CID and the Division Commander who just got back that will happen basically as soon as everyone gets there. I would say 20 minutes."

Col Green and Captain Jamison were looking at her. Col Green spoke first.

"Apocalyptic?"

"Sir at that time I was being slightly facetious. But I mentioned the possibility."

"It is not a joke or even close to one now."

"No sir."

Liz got in her vehicle and they got in the Colonels vehicle and headed to Divisional HQ.

Liz was thinking as she drove; could they have been selling Stingers? She had heard rumors that some had hit the black market; but that had always been thought to have come from somewhere other than the US. Maybe they had come from here.

They all headed to the HQ building and as they pulled up the 5 Group Commander and his G4 arrived at the same time. They all headed into the building and to the Divisional HQ office. They were shown right into the office where the Base commander and Divisional G4, as well as Major Fresnel and the Base Security Commander were already present. Introductions were made and everyone sat down; the Divisional commander indicated that Liz sit beside him at the table in the conference room adjoining the office. He started off.

"I came in early after I got the initial report yesterday. I get here and the story gets worse by the hour. Colonel Green, start off."

He described the situation as they had talked earlier. The Divisional commander sat with a stone face then looked at Liz.

"Captain Parker, I want you to do an inventory on all CAT 1 and 2 items ASAP. As soon as this meeting is over I want that started. Who do you need?"

Liz had been thinking about it. "The 2 89B's and one specialist with TAMIS experience. We should be able to get a count very fast and I can compare it with the WARS report. That can probably be done for the 4 MAGS in the MAIN ASP and the 3 MAGs in the SF ASP in about 20-30 minutes each. A total of 4-5 hours."

"Very well. I want this done tonight." Liz nodded and pulled out her cell phone and called the ASP. "This is Captain Parker; I need Sergeant Engler."

"Sergeant Engler, I have been ordered to do an immediate Inventory on CAT 1 and CAT 2 Items tonight. I am at a meeting and will be down soon as it is over. You and Sergeant Simpson as well as one of the TAMIS specialists. Pick one. Send everyone else home and wait there for me."

The General looked around the room. "People we have to face the facts that we are all going to have to carry part of this can. No one here will be considered not partly to blame except Captain Parker. Myself because I am senior here; Base and Group commanders because of their commands. G4's as this is supply. Security and CID for not finding out something was going wrong for quite a while. All we can do is make it right as best we can and accept the consequences. I am going to call the SECDEF and let him know the situation; so this will be going to the White House. I have no doubt it is a matter of time before the media twigs on this overturned garbage can stinking up the base. Captain Parker, what do you see missing at this point?"

"Sir right now I am fairly sure of 500,000 rds of 7.62 X 39. It is more than likely that is the bulk of the problem unless we find CAT 1 or 2 Material missing."

He then looked at Col Green. "IF a Stinger is missing, how much could one sell that for on the black market?"

"Sir, one would have to have contacts for that to get any real money. But if you could reach someone, the price could be anywhere from $100,000 to a million each."

"So that is the worst possibility?"

"Yes sir a missing stinger would be the worst possibility."

"Then we find that out first. Captain Parker, get started on it. I want to know the minute you suspect a Stinger is gone."

"Yes Sir." Liz picked up her folder and left the room and got to the Office in 15 minutes to find the three waiting for her.

After she left the general looked at Col Green. "Send CID with her."

"Yes sir" and he looked at Captain Jamison who nodded and left.

Liz motioned them to follow her. She went into the office and opened the safe, then the key cabinet and pulled out the keys to the CAT 1 and 2 magazines. She then closed the cabinet and then the safe. The three had clipboards and the TAMIS clerk had a copy of the latest WARS report. They were just leaving when Captain Jamison drove up and poked his head out of his hummer.

"I get to watch."

Liz nodded and headed to the ASP. They got to the first magazine which had CAT 2 items in it. They opened it up and quickly started to count. After 20 minutes they looked at the count and the latest planograph report and it matched. The clerk was keeping a running count on the items found. They went to the next magazine that had AT-4's and other AT missiles. Once again the count was good. Then they went to the next magazine that had Stingers in it.

Liz noticed that none of the stinger boxes were strapped to their pallets. She looked at Sgt Engler. "I have not been in a Stinger Mag for years; but I remember that usually they were strapped down."

He nodded. "Yes Maam."

Liz went to the first one and tried to lift it; the weight felt right. She looked at the two sergeants and they checked every box in the magazine. All appeared to be of the right weight. Liz then had them check the seals on the boxes. All appeared intact. She checked the count on the planograph and it matched. She looked around and saw nothing suspicious. Then motioned them to go out.

As they locked the door she looked at Engler. "We will band them to pallets later."

"Yes Maam."

The next magazine had Stingers as well and it also looked good though it also had none of them banded to pallets.

That finished the MAIN ASP. They went back to the office and put the keys away. It was 1900 and getting dark. They headed over to the SF ASP. Got to the office and opened it up. Liz went through the routine and got the keys. They headed to the SF ASP. They went to the one CAT 2 magazine first and checked it; it looked good. Liz then went to the TAMIS clerk and checked the running accounts.

"Looks like CAT 2 lines up with the WARS report."

"Yes MAAM."

Then they went to the CAT 1 MAG, Stingers and AT-4's. They found the same there; not banded but looking good with seals and the weights were right as regards trying the boxes. The AT-4's were properly banded and sealed and looked good; the count matched. So they locked up the mag and headed to the last. By now they were more relaxed as it looked as if the worst possibility was not going to happen.

The last Magazine was a mixture of US and foreign CAT 1 missiles. They first did the AT missiles; some us AT-4's and some Russian ones. The count looked good. There were a dozen Stingers; they were banded to pallets at 4 to a pallet. The seals on the boxes looked good. Then there were some Russian SA-7's; banded and sealed. Then there were some Russian SA-14's. In loose boxes. Liz looked at them and the seals seemed good; she lifted a corner on one and the box came up easily.

Too easily.

She took a deep breath and looked at Sgt Engler. "Get those tools; we are opening this up." He nodded and went out to the truck that Liz had been using; it had some basic banding tools and other tools that could be used to open boxes and containers. Meanwhile Liz went to the pallet of Stingers and pushed at it; it seemed heavy enough. Captain Jamison came over and gave it a push as well and it still seemed heavy enough. They went over to the SA-7's and it also seemed heavy enough. Meanwhile Engler came back in and he and Simpson began to open the box. It took about 5 minutes and they pulled it open and all five of them looked inside.

At an empty box.

Liz then looked at them; "ALL of them now." Then she went outside the magazine and called the General.

"General we have an empty SA-14 box right now; we are opening the others. All the Stingers look good and the SA-7's as well."

"Call me as soon as you have opened all of them."

Liz looked at the TAMIS clerk. "Use that camera; take pictures of each box that we find empty."

Captain Jamison had been making a call as well. He finished and looked at her.

"Now what?"

"We see how many are gone. There are supposed to be 8; they each have everything in the box to fire; missile, control and BCU."

In 20 minutes they were all open; all were empty. Liz made the call.

"General we have 8 SA-14's missing from boxes that were sealed. There is no indication anything else CAT 1 or 2 are missing."

"That is enough. Did they have everything to fire?"

"Yes sir. These are fairly new ones, so the life of the BCU will probably be good for several more years."

Liz was thinking about things as they left the Magazine and closed it up for the night. She talked to Captain Jamison.

"They did this probably on a weekend when no one was around. I would bet that they had been selling the small arms steadily in a way no one would notice; this would be their big score. I imagine they could get $100,000 or more for each one. They probably bundled them out in the back of this truck under a tarp. Then transferred them to one of their vehicles. Then crated them up and somehow shipped them to Europe where that LT is right now. And where I bet all the others are by now as well."

"Two places in Europe; one Spain and sell to the Basque Separatists but that is tough to do so I doubt it. The other is the former Yugoslavia; somewhere down there. Then there is the possibility of trying to sell them to the Chechnyans for use against the Russians."

"Or farther to Turkey to sell to the Kurdish separatists."

"True. But every case there they would have to make contact with someone in each group."

"Which would be very risky; I bet they managed to find an arms dealer and they sold them to him for resale later to the highest bidder."

"I agree."

"The AK ammo could have been sold at Gun Shows and the like; so much of that around and a lot of it are sold in the original Russian boxes. So it would not be noticed. Probably get $500 a box. That would be 200 boxes or $100,000. I would not be surprised to find out more of other types are gone as well. Probably been doing this for the last year and a half. I think Buchanan panicked and took off; he probably felt and rightly so he would be arrested for all of this before we even found the shortages."

"There is already a worldwide alert for all four of them on Interpol."

"If one is going to mess up my money is on Buchanan; the others had time to make arrangements. He had to move fast."

"He is the one we have the best chance of finding."

It was 2000 and another meeting was being held at the Divisional HQ.

"I have talked to the SECDEF and he is not happy to say the least. He wants all the CAT 1 containers opened up so that we can visually confirm they are there. How long would that take, Captain?"

"If we have some help, forklifts and other support, and personnel to do the banding and rebanding and the like, multiple crews can get it done in one day easily."

"Make a list and you will get it."

"Yes sir."

"I want this started at 0600 tomorrow morning."

"I have some good news sir."

"Well I need some what is it?"

"The IDS systems have all been restored; turns out there was a fundamental flaw in the design that allowed a simple bypass to work. Every IDS system of this design worldwide will have to be modified to prevent this. We would not have found that out otherwise."

"Small comfort, Captain Jamison."

"Yes sir."

"No point in extending this meeting any farther; we might as well all go home and start working on our resumes for our next jobs. As you pointed out, Captain Parker in a month will be the only one with a job with the US Army."

Liz thought about that as she went home. Some would call that unfair; but they had been here while it was happening. Even the 101st people had been there before deployment. The Base Personnel though would catch it the worst.

Liz got in and found Max waiting for her. He went into the kitchen and started to warm up something for her. She had not eaten anything since lunch and was very hungry.

"How bad?"

Liz debated for a moment and then figured it would get out sooner or later.

"At least half a million rds for AK-47's and 8 SA-14's."

"Holy shit."

"Yeah."

Liz had given the G4 the list for the next day; 8 forklift operators 4 each for 2 Crews, 6 people for banding and unbanding for each crew; she would have one TAMIS specialist and one of the 89B's on each crew.

The next morning Liz got up early and was at the Main ASP at 0530. Getting ready. The people started coming in before 0600. After thinking about it some more she left both 89B's with the MAIN ASP crew and took the SF crew herself.

The Main ASP crew was opening magazines at 0700. Actually Liz opened all 4 of them and left the keys with them. She then headed to the SF ASP. By 0800 they were at it there. IT went faster than Liz had hopped; each box was opened and the SN verified with what was on record and on the box. By 1400 they were done and nothing wrong was found.

The worldwide alert worked; in Paris the French spotted Buchanan. He was using his civilian Passport. He had flown to England on Friday and had rented a small car and had driven to Paris where he had gotten there on Sunday. Wednesday morning the French got lucky as he rented another vehicle and had to use his Passport for identification and that rang bells. They followed him as he left Paris and drove south then East and entered Switzerland. There the Swiss took over as he kept going East into Austria and then into Hungary where he stopped in Budapest. The Hungarians had him and watched him as he met with three other men. They were identified as the ones most wanted. They tracked them to a meeting with an arms dealer and bagged the whole lot Thursday afternoon. Faced with prison in Hungary they gave up the location of the missiles; a crate shipped to France two weeks earlier. The Arms dealer had assisted them in doing it; he had met Captain Sanders when he had been in Germany on a tour the year before he was sent to the 101st. All four of them would be shipped back to the US for trial.

Liz got the news that they had been caught and the missiles found just as she gave the report to the General.

"Well, did they ask about the small arms?"

"Yes. They had been, as you surmised, selling it box by box at gun shows steadily for over a year. We got a list of what they sold; some US ammo as well; but mostly that AK ammo and other Russian Ammo."

"We will still need to do a full inventory just to make sure the records are straight."

"Get started on that on Monday. You did say you wanted the SOP's done."

"True. We can get those done on Friday."

The SECDEF was giving the good news to the President.

"This could have been a lot worse, sir. This is the worst incident of this kind in almost 40 years."

"And again Captain Parker was instrumental?"

"Yes sir. By starting to check the ASP when she did the whole ball started rolling. Otherwise it would have been at least 12 hours later before we knew anything was wrong. Captain Sanders had recruited most of the people specifically because they were drunks and drug users and unmotivated and unreliable. That in the end is what caught them. And if Captain Parker had not mentioned the possibility of the CAT 1 and 2 problem, that inventory would not have happened that day. If she had not thought to check the boxes for weight, it would not have been found as they were all properly sealed. I believe the French would not have pushed so hard if we had not told them the SA14's were missing. One more day and the deal would have been done and they would have been gone to who knows where."

"It seems like an almost monthly occurrence that she does something."

"Does seem that way sir."

"I take it she will get recognition for this?"

"I believe her promotion to Major would be coming this year anyway with her record."

"See to it she has that promotion by the day she and her unit are recognized at the White House."

"Yes sir."

"I can expect a report and recommendations on how this can be prevented in the future when?"

"Within the month sir. Though I would say the chances of this being pulled off again are very remote."

"Still it did happen once."

"Yes sir."

That Friday they did manage to get the SOP's done by the end of the day and Liz sent them out to be staffed after she read each one.

The Saturday Liz thought about resting but the weather was beautiful and she and the rest of the Posse and the Crew had their usual twice a month Saturday picnic.

Liz was buttonholed right away after eating and the children were running around.

Ellen started it off.

"OK, Liz. Spill. Something happened; half the installation is buzzing. Everyone knows that the ASP's are all screwed up and you have to fix it. But it is more than that, isn't it?"

"Yes something happened and No I am not talking about it."

And they got nothing else despite every trick and entreaty tried. Max also refused to say a word.

Starting the Next week Liz got in 2 LTs for the Main ASP and 1 LT for the SF ASP. The two sergeants processed in. Some more specialists were made available and except for the two commanding officers the TOE was full. 3 more 89B specialists from the next class would be sent in June. So Liz was confident that by July or August at the latest the Ordnance Company and both ASP's would be fine. On Friday she was summoned to the Division HQ for a meeting with the General.

"How are things going, Captain?"

"Except for the new 89B's arriving next month and the new commanding officers, we are complete as regards TOE. I have good personnel who just have to learn the ropes. We will be starting the 100% inventory on Monday and hope to have both ASP's done by Friday."

"Excellent. By the way you will need these to add to your class A's." And proceeded to take off her Captain's Bars and replace it with the gold Oak Leaf signifying a Major.

Liz blinked. He smiled. "You would have gotten that this fall but it was accelerated by order of the President so that when he gives you your Presidential Unit Citation, you will be wearing them. Now head down to Personnel to finish the paperwork. Good day, Major."

"Thank You, sir." Said a slightly dazed Liz.

She was smiling as she got home. She wondered how long Max would take to recognize it. It turned out that Aliya beat him to it. When she got home from school she hugged Liz as usual then stopped and stared at her.

"What is it honey?"

"When did you get promoted?"

They had fun that weekend just staying home and being a family. Even though Liz still had almost 7 more months to go Aliya wanted to start looking at baby names.

It was interesting Monday when Liz came to the Main ASP to start the 100% inventory. Everyone was caught off guard by her promotion. She had made it clear they would be starting at 0600 and would be in the first magazine by 0700 and she pushed and prodded to get it done. The CAT 1 magazines had been done already; the CAT 2 magazines were quickly done as it was a matter of making sure that all the MDC's were updated and the items were correctly palletized and the magazine was orderly. The two TDY QASAS were also present; one of them would be checking each magazine for its semiannual inspection. They also made sure that all condition code tags were correct and noted any packaging that would need to be replaced. Of the 30 magazines, 14 of them were done by the end of the day. By the end of Tuesday 22 were done. The rest were done Wednesday. Thursday they started the SF ASP and 10 of them were done on that day. By 1400 Friday they were all done. Most of the MDC's had to be updated or replaced; but the overall counts were not far off. The missing small arms correlated to what had been admitted by the felons. Liz would spend the next week writing up the reports and making sure all the quantities were correct on the WARS report.

Liz made the first report to the General, G4 and Base Commander; the second for the SF to the Group Commander and the group G4. At 1800 a C-40 landed at Campbell and picked up A Company and related personnel and family members; around 110 total to take them to DC for the award ceremony. Liz was happy to be with the pilots and ground crew; they were happy to see her promotion; and they like everyone else tried to get her to talk about what really had happened at the ASP. Everyone knew about the stoned incident; and that something else had happened that was big. But the details had not gotten out which had surprised Liz; the two sergeants and the specialist had kept their mouths shut.

Nancy and Ted had scheduled a vacation in the NE at that time so they would be there as well; Liz made sure they got their invitations. Nancy had surprised Liz with a quick marriage to Ted that previous Christmas; Liz had wanted to be there but Nancy told her it was a spur of the moment thing. Liz was glad her mother was no longer alone and she liked Ted.

When Liz had checked her Class A uniform, making sure everything looked right and all her ribbons were correctly done, Max had been very quiet. She had just made sure her gold flight wings were correct when she noticed Max had not said anything. She turned towards him and noticed a look on his face she had never seen before.

"What is it Max?"

He got up and pulled her to him and sat down on the bed with her on his lap. Then he very quietly said

"It just hit me as I saw you there with all those ribbons and I realized that I have never told you just how proud I am to be your husband. You are just coming up on 10 years in uniform and you have easily twice the ribbons I got in 20. And you earned every one. There are full generals who do not have as many. And very few have the ones you do; Presidential Medal of Freedom, DSC, DSF, 2 Presidential Unit Citations, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and all the rest; 20 of them. And every single one of them you absolutely earned by what you did. I love you and I will always be proud to be your husband."

Liz was a little misty eyed at that. Aliya had looked at her when she showed her uniform and quietly said

"The girls at school said you have more medals than any woman ever has. Are you a hero?"

Max had placed his hand over Liz's mouth before she could say anything.

"Honey, it is not right for a hero to say it herself. It is for others to say. And yes your mother is a hero."

Liz was thinking of that. The ceremony would be at 10; then there would be pictures and a quick press conference then the whole crowd of awardees and family would have a formal lunch at the White House. Liz dreaded the press conference but had been told it would be short. IT was all carefully choreographed.

Liz stood back with the unit as she waited for the signal. She would lead them up to the area and then stand at the center while the rest would file in behind her. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. Tripping and falling would just be something to make you want to die.

Then she was signaled and she marched out and went right to the spot that had a very small X on it and stood at attention there. The rest of company A and their crew chiefs and ground crew filled in behind her; 56 in all. The National Anthem was played by the Marine Band.

The President gave a short speech; then stood beside the flag and Liz marched up to him, Saluted and stood at attention. He nodded to her and he gave her the plaque for the Unit. She shook his hand and with it at her side in her left hand took two steps back and saluted again and remained at attention.

"From the period 30 March 2010 through 15 February 2011 Company A, 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Brigade, United States Army conducted 275 missions in Afghanistan in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. In support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Company A escorted and supported the forces of the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Special Forces, British Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Marines, and Special Air Service. In those 275 missions not one single member of the Allied coalition lost their life. That is a record unmatched in modern History. In those missions they severely damaged the Taliban and Al Queeda. In recognition of that achievement, their Commander, Major Elizabeth Parker, and the Pilots and Copilots of Company A and their ground crews that ensured their Apache Helicopters would fly, are hereby awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for unparalleled achievement during Combat in the face of the Enemy."

Liz then marched out with the company behind her to the rear of the Rose Garden where they collected. Liz looked around and gave a whistle that got everyone's attention.

"I think it is more than likely, that we will never again all be together as we are today. Sad but true. You guys were the very best any one could ask for to fight alongside of. I was honored to be your commander. Good luck and god bless all of you."

Ted Dugan yelled "Three cheers for Doberman!"

And they did. Then Liz made them line up and she saluted, then shook the hand then hugged every single one of them.

Unknown to all of them, this was caught by a FOX News camera crew that managed to wiggle past the normal restrictions.

Then Liz was taken as the official sacrificial lamb to the Press Room for questions and pictures.

Liz made quite a picture; petite and very cute; and ribbons out the yang. There were dozens of flashes.

Then the questions.

"Major Parker, were you surprised that your command managed to make it through all of those missions with the loss of a single life?"

"Of Course. Anyone would be. The worst part of it was at the very end when that got out; the last few missions were very nerve wracking."

"Major Parker, is it true you have transferred out of the 101st Aviation Brigade?"

"Yes. I asked for and received a transfer to the 160th SOAR."

"Major Parker, doesn't that make you the first woman pilot of the 160th SOAR?"

"I believe so."

"Major Parker, how do you feel about that?"

"Well, someone has to be the first."

"Major Parker, is it true that you had to force your way back to Afghanistan; that you were originally going to be left behind?"

"There was some discussion of that for various reasons but in the end the US Army realized that a commander should go with her troops into combat."

At that point much to her relief the questions were cut off and she escaped to the dinner.

As their commander Liz was placed to the right of the President at the long table. Aliya was alongside and Max beside her. She had huge eyes at everything. Liz managed to keep small talk going with the president. Who mentioned something she had not talked about.

"Major, I was very interested in your mission to find those documents. It was explained to me but somehow I do not think they got it right. Exactly what maneuver did you do to land there?"

Liz took a deep breath. "Sir, the place I had to land was on a ledge at just over 16,000 feet. Now many people do not know this but it is just about impossible for a helicopter to hover at much over 10,000 feet. You have to be moving forward or you will drop. The Mountain was 18,000 feet high. I came over the top of the mountain then around it slowly losing altitude till I could land on the ledge. I had about 2-3 feet clearance from the tips of the rotor to the side of the mountain. And taking off was just as interesting since I had to be very careful or it would stall out; and at that altitude you are very vulnerable to any kind of wind. I unloaded everything in it except for 100 rds of 30MM and a main fuel tank at about 60%. That is something I really do not want to do again if I do not have to."

"I think that would be wise decision."

Liz did not realize that Max had heard that.

Eventually everything was over and they were able to escape at 1300. The C-40 would pick them up at 1600, so they had a couple of hours or so to make it to Andrews. The rest went in a bus but Liz, Max and Aliya went with Ted and Nancy who had rented a minivan. They went down the mall to the Viet Nam wall; and walked through the area. Finally getting in the van to go to Edwards. Liz was glad to spend some time with her mother. She walked with Aliya between her and Max as they headed over to get on the plane.

C-SPAN covered the ceremony so many on Campbell watched. The Posse instead to going to the park congregated with the Posse and friends at Susan's house where they watched it. They cheered when Liz marched out leading her company. They were silent when the award was read. Susan looked at Vicki.

"Just how big is that?"

"No one getting killed? Huge. Everyone in the brigade knew Liz's company was the best. Pretty soon the whole division knew it. You always felt better when A company and Liz were watching over you."

Susan looked at her husband and he nodded. "Word got out; I know we always felt better when Liz was there. Getting towards the end of the tour I know it got almost to knife fighting for who would get her company as escort. When she spent that time taking care of the British it got us all down; we wanted her with us taking care of her own. When she got back everyone relaxed; you could feel it. Somehow we just all knew it was ok. We only lost a handful of people on that tour anyway; but no one had any doubt a lot more would have died if Liz and her company wasn't there. B Company was solid and did well but not as good as A company, not close. And until the end of the tour NO one wanted C Company."

Jesse nodded. "C Company had problems; their commander was good but he had some dud pilots. Finally the word got out that after a mission Liz went to the Battalion Commander and flat out told him that something had to be done. SO they grabbed Liz's XO and fired a couple of the pilots and the company got a lot better. Some of the pilots felt if Liz had not gone and raised hell nothing would have been done."

Ellen chimed in. "You could feel it at the mission brief. The first thing we always did was see who was the escort; if it said A company you relaxed. Anyone else and you were tense until you got back from the mission."

Ruth was quiet. Then she said

"I have convinced Joe to put in for recruiting duty. He expects to get it this fall sometime. He has a shot at getting duty around here so we do not have to leave. Enough is enough. Liz would not have been back even if she had not transferred; and I do not want my husband out there again."

Becky sighed. "We have been talking about it; if we do not get Iraq for the next deployment he is finding a way out."

Susan nodded. "Same here."

Ellen looked at the others. They nodded. "Same with us. We are not going back to Afghanistan a third time."

In a big house in Savanna, three friends watched the ceremony.

Isabelle blinked at a close up of Liz. "Wait a minute, she has the ribbon for a DFC; when did she get that?"

Maria and Tess looked at each other and shrugged.

Tess looked thoughtful. "She did not have it after the last tour; she did not have it when she got the Medal of Freedom. So it happened on this tour and they do not give that out easily."

Maria was thinking hard. "Liz said something about having to do a couple of missions for the Company, the CIA. Wanna bet she had to pull some spook out of trouble and that is how she got it?"

Isabelle and Tess nodded. "Probably." They chorused.

"Liz sure does have a lot of fruit salad. And she will get a lot more when she starts flying for the 160th SOAR."

By the end of June, Liz felt that the situation with the Ordnance Company and the ASP's was pretty much taken care of. The two new captains had been selected and while not Ammunition types, were solid officers. The rest of the personnel were doing well. The new 89B's had arrived and that helped as well. Liz was making sure that all the ammunition personnel were getting training by the new QASAS, who were both very experienced.

SECDEF had ordered a review and a report on the situation; and was looking for suggestions on how to make sure nothing like that could happen again. Liz felt personally that as usual the military was over reacting to a once in a lifetime situation by trying to double lock the barn door long after the horse had been stolen. Also as usual when a team is picked, it is very senior people who have not worked with ammunition or in an ASP for many years if ever. When they showed up at the beginning of June to talk to Liz, she was ready for them.

There was of course a general, a senior QASAS, a senior Ammunition Manager, and a couple of other senior types. They sat in the conference room at Division HQ and asked her for her observations.

Liz looked at them calmly.

"You are mostly not going to like what I have to say."

The general looked at her. "Major Parker, that is an interesting statement. Care to elaborate?"

"I started out my career as an 89B before that MOS had any respect. I saw how the SENIOR Army leadership treated my MOS and Ammunition in general. Then I went into Aviation but got brought back temporarily to fix this installations Ordnance Company. Then 4 years later I have to do it again. BUT the situations had different causes. The first time was because of the general neglect of the Ammunition Field. The Second time had two reasons; one a once in a lifetime coincidence that had corrupt and dishonest multiple officers in one place. Sent here as a dumping ground. The other was the reorganization for what was either the second or third time in the last 10 years of the supply and support organizations of the Army. I have not bothered to keep track. It created a situation where once again you had permanent party personnel here at the ASP and in Ordnance. And that created the opportunity for the incident. Ammunition has a better situation overall in the US Army and the military then it has had for over 30 years. But of course there are still problems. There always will be. You solve one or two and create one or two more. And one of the biggest problems is right here in this review team. Basically its composition insures that there will be more rules and regulations that are not thought out and the critical input that could help will be ignored."

The whole room got very still. The General said quietly "Major, are you saying that this review team is part of the problem and not the solution?"

"Yes Sir."

"And why is that?"

"General, when was the last time you actually worked in an ASP?"

"Never have and you believe recent experience is that important?"

"Yes sir. Has anyone in this room actually worked at an ASP in the last 10-20 years?"

No one said a thing.

The General was silent for a moment, and then sighed.

"I was told that you probably would not respond in a way that we expected. I can now see that was a huge understatement."

The Senior QASAS then spoke up.

"Major Parker, I am willing to bet that you already have proposals. So why not just tell us what they are?"

"Very well sir. Review teams are not a bad idea; how they are put together is where the failure is. You need less senior people with fairly recent experience at working at ASP's. Now not saying no senior people but that the majority of the team should be younger and more in touch with how it is done down here and what the real demands and problem are. That will also help them talk to the people there without the intimidation factor. All too often a review team is given a carefully managed picture. Right now review teams are scheduled at least a year in advance. Gives the installation a full year to cover things up and make it look better than it really is. And then they know that it will be a minimum of two years before that team comes back. A perfect breeding ground for problems. I think a page needs to be taken out of the book written by General Curtis Lemay when he formed the Strategic Air Command. No notice inspections that could come at any time. Which was a big factor in why SAC has been shown to have been one of the best and most competent military commands of all time. Now we do not need to go to those extremes. Say a one month notice. Not enough time for the installation to really cover things up as long as a good team is picked."

There was more silence in the room. Then the General spoke.

"I rather doubt that is all."

"No sir. As regards something like what happened here, that would do a pretty good job on making sure it did not happen again. But I also recommend that at least once a year an independent inventory team comes to each installation and looks things over. And have the installation QASAS go with them looking as well. If both teams are put together correctly and used intelligently, then that would go a long way towards making sure nothing like this can ever happen again. We do not need a new system, or new regulations. Just a better process to catch problems before they get really bad."

The senior Ammunition manager spoke up.

"You do not see the need for tightening anything up?"

"No sir. The Regulations are fairly clear; a process needs to be in place to make sure that they are obeyed. I happen to think that the situation in the Ammunition Community is much better than it was; this was a one off that almost certainly will never happen again. It would be foolish to over react to it."

The General, she noticed, was smiling.

"It is rare that so many senior experts get told they are full of crap. But I cannot honestly disagree with anything you have said."

The senior QASAS was smiling a little as well.

"I doubt I will see it again. Well, we are here so we might as well head down to the ASP and look things over."

Liz took them to the Main ASP office first; where they looked at the records and that there was once again two key cabinets, correct procedures and paper work. Then to the ASP itself and the magazines and looked in a couple. Then to the SF ASP and did it all again. The Senior QASAS was looking at the SOP's.

"Major, these look familiar."

"They are all versions of the SOP's I wrote at Ft Stewart when I was there. When I rebuilt the ordnance company the last time I used the ones I had there and just made necessary changes as regards being on a different installation. The basic tenets and regulations and rules are the same everywhere."

The Ammo manager was looking at one of the reference books Liz had put together years ago. He called the QASAS over to look at it. Liz was showing the general what had been the situation when she showed up that first day.

The Ammo manager and the QASAS looked what Liz considered her Bible over. It was a primer on how to run an ASP; the basic regulations to be used; the basic procedures that had to be followed and what was done at an ASP and why.

"Major Parker, this reference here."

"Yes Sir, that is something I put together over a period of years while a 89B after talking to some different QASAS and basing the needs on my experiences at a ASP."

"Would it be possible to have a copy made of this?"

Liz went to a box on the floor and pulled out several similar binders.

"I had a batch of copies made. How many do you need?"

The general observed this and smiled.

After leaving the ASP the Team had a meeting to discuss their report.

The General started it off.

"Gentlemen, I think our report can be fairly concise. Major Parker's suggestions and comments are so much to the point that I frankly do not feel that we have must of importance to add. Is there any disagreement?"

One by one they all shook their heads. The Senior QASAS mused

"I have rarely seen an Ammunition mission so efficiently organized. Her remarks about when was the last time any of us actually worked in one was brutal, but honest and to the point. We visit, look around at carefully staged operations if they even do any, and then leave and they go back to work as they normally do. She is absolutely correct that that kind of inspection is really of very little worth. And what she considers her bible for ASP operations is the best compilation and guide that I have seen anywhere. I would recommend that it be gone over and then used as just that."

The SECDEF read the report and smiled slightly. This would be interesting when the various organizations that prided themselves on doing inspections read it.

The Division commander looked at his G4.

"So she basically called them stuffed shirts that would not know a real ASP if they fell over one?"

"Pretty much, sir. Not quite that blunt but not far off. What is astonishing is that they accepted it like schoolboys being chewed out by their teacher."

"Which in all honesty is exactly what happened."

"Yes sir. They took copies of her 'bible' and if the Senior QASAS has his way, is going to become truly the ASP bible for ASP's everywhere."

The General was pensive. "He told me that while he would not ask for my resignation, this would be my last position."

"The Base Commander and myself were pretty much told the same thing. The Base Security Chief has put in his retirement papers. Have not heard what the story is with 5th Group."

"SF might be a little more forgiving, but I wonder how hard the SECDEF will push on this?"

At the end of July Liz requested release from her TDY to leave for the 160th SOAR and it was granted. By this time, she was just beginning to show; on her petite figure it was more obvious than those of more ample proportions.

Colonel Ballard welcomed her to his office and she sat down on the chair indicated.

"Well, Major, it is a shame in one respect that you had to clean up that mess as you could have gotten a fair amount of what you will need to learn out of the way. But what is is. You can still do a fair amount before you are unable to do anything but sit behind a desk. I have talked with our Medical Personnel and they have recommended what you can do till after you have your baby. You can observe a lot; and read up on our documents and manuals. Also you can visit the area where they are starting to test the new models. The first production versions came out last month; 6 months behind schedule."

"I would like that sir. I would also if it is possible to visit the plants making them; I think I could get a better feel for the differences if I did that."

"The assembly area would be good for that; you can see all the various parts as well as units in the process."

"Yes sir."

"I think it would not come to you as any surprise that you are being considered for the command of our first Battalion."

"Yes sir. The bad thing about that, sir, is that I would not get all that much chance to fly."

"You might be surprised at how much our battalion commanders fly here in the 160th. But you do have a point. I think Battalion XO would be a better use of your talents. Your record as a company commander was superb and we would be fools not to make use of it. You would retain command of a company while XO."

"That would be very good sir. I want to be able to fly them a lot; they will be very different than regular Apache's and I need to understand those differences."

"An excellent idea. If I may, what is your due date?"

"December 26, sir."

"Well that is good. We do not believe our first company will be fully equipped until November at the earliest. Personally I think January or February is more likely. How much time will you be requesting off for maternity leave?'

"I intend to work right up to Labor, sir. After that, probably 4-6 weeks."

"Speaking as a father that is probably about right. Of course that is as a father. My wife might have something different to say."

"Sir, it will be hard enough to leave my baby and come to my mission. No point in drawing it out. Max has already decided to take a leave of absence starting at birth and going for 2 months. After that we will have to use day care. Not happy about it but that is the way it is."

"Well that will work fine for us. Command has been aware that it would take some time to get the new units up and running."

"Sir, I have been able to talk to some of the pilots of the Little Birds. I got a feel of their operations some while in Afghanistan. They are going to have to change if they want to use Apache's, even the new ones, efficiently. There is no way you can do some of the things Little Birds can do with even a very much improved Apache. It is just too big and too heavy. And I would recommend as part of the training program that if possible any pilots transitioning to the new Apache's from Little Birds fly and qualify with regular apache's first. It is a hunch more than anything else but I think a number of them will have a hard time doing so."

The Commander considered this. He had not flown Little Birds very much and had never flown an Apache. So he really could not say from his own experience how valid her concern might be.

"Well, for the moment you can still fly. I would suggest you get some time in Little Birds to make sure what you suspect is true."

"Always happy to fly, Sir."

Liz had been able to sneak some flight time in on Apache's here and there; enough to keep current. So a chance to fly something different; small and agile was not to be passed up. She was taken to the field by one of the pilots, WO3 Sam Drake, and introduced to the very small helicopter. It had stubby wings on the side where a 4 missile pod of Hellfires or a 7 shot pod of 2.75 could be mounted; also a minigun or even a 30MM could be mounted as well. Used to much larger helicopters, Liz liked the Little Bird. Sam took her up and they tooled around the area; Liz after a while taking the stick.

To call it agile was to say the Pacific Ocean is deep. Comparing them was like comparing a go kart to a sports car. The Sports car is much bigger and faster; but the go kart can do things a sports car could not dream of.

When they landed, she smiled at Sam.

"Now that is a fun bird to fly."

He agreed. "I have never flown an Apache; but I can guess it is a huge difference."

"It is." She gave him the analogy she had come up with and he nodded.

"So these Super Apache's that are coming, will be like the regular apache except souped up?"

"That is what the specs say. Lighter but more powerful; even more sophisticated avionics. Stronger and tougher and better protected. But it will be hugely different from this."

When she went back to see the Commander, he immediately noticed she was concerned.

"Were your suspicions correct?"

"I believe so. It is so agile and sensitive; absolutely nothing like a regular Apache. The Apache is a sports car and the Little Bird is a go kart. That would make it a little tough to transition from the Little Bird to a super Apache. So I really think that those that will be making the change need to get time on a regular Apache."

He nodded. "Well here is your first assignment: write up a training plan for going from a Little Bird to an Apache to a Super Apache. And also work on one for going from a Blackhawk to a super Apache. Get familiar with the various ones we have here."

"I would like to see the assembly plant first. And what about a simulator?"