Roswell Fanatics

Well Warrior Liz will not leave me alone. If you think she is determined in the story, its nothing
compared to living with her. "Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended."
And thanks to Mary Mary again for the new banner!


“So, you think this will get through?

“The Navy is supporting it and cutting out one MEF will save a lot. So I think we can get this done.”

“You are not all that put out with losing an MEF?”

“Brutally speaking it was not needed. One for each area is enough in this day and age. One At Hawaii and one at Diego Garcia really will be enough. We have enough left in the states that can be sent by Aircraft elsewhere. Diego Garcia and Hawaii really does all we need. Bottom line is that having one on the gulf or Atlantic coast is just not logical anymore. And this way we keep the troops in the US until they are needed. Frankly that is why the Marines in Hawaii will go to Diego Garcia and the ones in the states go to Hawaii to pick up their ships if need be. The big dustups that the Marines might get into for the foreseeable future are all closer this way to our assets where they will be.”

“So you do not see anything in Europe or South America that you need to worry about?”

“Nothing that the Army will not be all over first. Europe has always been solely army, and SA will now be. As regards Africa, not likely we ever go there in a big way with anything. The Middle East and everything there in that area is easily reached by the ships at Diego Garcia.”

“Unless the Suez canal is closed.”
“So what?”

“OK, I guess it does make sense.”

“Korea, China, Southwest Asia is the most likely big problems in the future. We are better placed to respond to all of that in this plan. In the old days everything in the Pacific or touching it was supposed to be the Marines responsibility anyway. Europe only got added during the cold war to beef up the North. Temporary thing.”

“OK. So that is how you are pushing this?”

“Did not have to push. Makes sense once it is explained. Not like the Army is interested anyway. As far as they are concerned only Korea is of interest to them. And there they have no problem sharing with us. Now moving from Okinawa to Hawaii will increase the response time for Korea significantly; so we are looking to keep the ships at Okinawa and just fly the personnel in.”

“Hawaii is expensive.”

“On Honolulu it is; not so at MCBH. We will have to expand that a fair amount but we have the room.”

“The other part is going to make noise.”

“Sure it will. But the case has been made and it is a good one. The mess with the F-35 B strengthens our hand.”

“Just what is happening there?”

“We are going with the minimal buy; in other words no more than the 120 B’s we are about to get.”

“And THAT is why you want the Super Apache’s.”

“The big squawk about helicopters was not the speed; that was always just diversion. Marines operate at short ranges; so the kind of speed a jet gives is just not that big a deal. The real key has been loiter time. And until the Super Apache Loiter time for an attack helicopter was not enough. It can hang around with a full combat load for 5 hours. THAT is the critical factor. Add to that the fact that it can also carry a combination of AMRAMM and SIDEWINDER so that it can pretty will defend itself; and the tests that we have run show that a Super Apache just hovering above the ground is virtually impossible for airborne radar to find. Even the AWACs has trouble if it stays below 30 feet. So they can ambush incoming fighters let alone bombers. So as far as protecting themselves and others they can get it done. Sure the Apache cannot carry bombs but realistically that is not a big factor anymore. Those new guided 2.75’s are also going to come in handy.”

“I heard that they got Doberman to try them out and she loved them.”

“Yeah. There were 42 separate targets and 42 rockets and she hit 38 of the targets and the others were near misses. And she did it in 60 seconds.”

“I had not heard it was that good.”

“One has to step back and remember just how good she is. So the odds are most of the other pilots will not do that well. But still it was something to see. The 2.75 carries a nice warhead. And they can tailor the mix in so many different ways. The Super Apache was built with that capability in mind; so it is just a matter of quick installation to use them. Bottom line is that the Super Apache can give us all the real ground support we need, take care of itself and the area it is in, and is going to be a lot cheaper than the F-35B. Really by now half the price.”

“And they work.”

“And they work NOW better than the F35B NOW and frankly probably in the futures.”


The call to test the new guided 2.75’s was a bit of a surprise but Liz did not mind. The Super Apache had been built with that system in mind; and when in 2014 it began to get fielded it was just a matter of time before the SOAR’s would get them. She was curious about it; all too often contractors made extravagant claims that upon testing tended to shrivel. But the capability to hit targets accurately with the 2.75’s was very attractive. What had been the holdup was how the targeting system would work. Infrared was just too easily fooled, spoofed or confused; even with the most modern types. Laser guided meant keeping the designator on the target which means stationary for the platform which is not advisable in a combat area. Radar guide means locking in which takes time no matter what. Then someone had mentioned how small TV cameras and transmitters had gotten. From what Liz gathered, that is when things really took off. The ability to lock the camera on the target then fire was what got it done. Her helmet targeting system allowed her to put the cross hairs on the target and it would lock on immediately. She then can choose which warhead to use if she wanted. HE, Fragmentation, HEAT, WP. Or if she is unitary loaded just keep firing. She was rather proud of her score considering she only had one training mission before doing it for the show.

She had had her Apache loaded on the C-17, took her crew and copilot, and had gone to Aberdeen where she had one day to get ready and the next to fire. So she was quite pleased with herself. Only a month after the Pakistan operation it was still hard for her to go anywhere without being recognized in Uniform. And even on the bases it was not comfortable. The release of the transcripts and more to the point the audio parts had really fixated interest on her.

“Liz, maybe you should sort of step back and listen without putting yourself there. Try and listen like it is someone else. Then you might get the idea why it gets to so many. You are so cool; calm, matter of fact. Like someone talking about the weather happening somewhere else. You are directing an operation to prevent nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists; and at the moment some might be in that bunker trying to set one off. No one would know that listening to you.”

That had come from Maria when she had talked to her not long after.

Unknown to her, most of her close friends had thought the same. In a strange sort of coincidence the Posse and Crew had ended up around Nashville in their post military lives. So naturally they got together at least once a month. Only a week after it got out they had gathered Shelby Park. While it was not all that warm, it was warmer than usual at almost 60 and sunny, so it was a nice day for the first week in Feburary. The Crew were pilots for a tourist company, while most of the rest of them were working for a defense contractor who was working on advanced body armor and had hired a number of combat veterans to help figure it out. Needless to say the main topic of conversation was the event.

“I have known Liz for years yet hearing her like that in combat was just surreal. So cool; calm, almost matter of fact even though she might be looking at the opening event of WW3.” This from Ruth.

Ellen sighed. “What you heard is what we heard during our time with her. Like someone ordering a pizza to go.”

Jesse nodded. “I would have been surprised if she had been any other way.”

“When she gave the orders to open fire-just like a wife telling a husband to take out the garbage.” This from Susan.

“I keep wondering what she is going to do to top something; then this happens.” From Vicki.

“I guess one should say how is she going to top this but I better keep quiet; she probably will.” Came from Ellen.


Liz was glad to know that they were going to start getting the new guided 2.75” rockets; they could come in very handy. But she had an idea something else was going on; there had been a number of Navy and Marine corps highups there. So she asked Jim to sniff around.

A week later he came in to see her. She could tell he was bursting.
“OK, Jim, before you pop, let it out.”

“You asked me to find out why all the squids and jarheads were interested in that 2.75 demonstration. You are right that it was not important enough for them to be there. Just got word from someone I know pretty well; they were much more interested in seeing you and the Super Apache perform then just the rockets. That ties in with something else I heard; that the Marines are willing to drop one of their MEF’s.”

That made Liz’s eyebrows go right up. For years the Marines had fought tooth and nail to keep all three MEF’s. For them to just give one up was very interesting. Even with the cuts in the budget that had not been something that was pushed hard enough to go through. For them to voluntarily give it up meant they were trading it for something else.

Jim went on. “They are going to stand down the MEF that was based out of North Carolina. Okinawa will go to Hawaii. Pendleton will go to Diego Garcia. Basically they think they do not need one on the East coast or for Europe; and it makes sense from the long view. And they really do not mind downsizing some; they can spread it over a period of years and do it by attrition. But one problem they have had was the whole F-35B mess.”

Liz winced. The F-35B was supposed to be the VTOL and STOL version of the F-35; Liz had always wondered why anyone thought that was a good idea. They should have just upgraded the Harrier instead of wasting all that money trying to make the F-35 do everything. The F-35A was the successor to the F-16; and the F-35B was to be the successor to the Harrier. The F-35C was supposed to be the successor to the F-18. No one was really surprised at all the problems that came up. The Marines had got 120 of the 340 F-35B’s but were not going to get the rest under the current budget crunch and frankly did not want them. So they were going to keep them; but would be using them to replace their F-18’s. Not the Harriers as originally thought. This tied in with their wish to fully separate themselves from needing the Fleet Carriers around at all. The F-35B’s could operate from any good sized ship technically; though realistically not due to the support requirements. That was when the light dawned; what they wanted to use to replace the Harriers. She looked at Jim who was grinning.

“So they are now after Super Apache’s to take the place of the Harriers.”

“Makes sense. We can hang around longer then the Harriers can and need less overall maintenance. Smaller logistical footprint. And we are cheaper then more F-35B’s by almost half. We cannot drop bombs but they really do not need that and admit it; they want accurate close up support. Nothing is better than a Super Apache at that. Now with the guided 2.75’s we can really get it done. They will still use their AH-1Z’s for direct support to each battalion; but we can do so much more. And with our capability to use both Sidewinders and AMMRAMS, we have a significant air to air capability. You heard about those exercises?”

Liz nodded. Putting Super Apache’s low above the ground at under 30 feet meant that even AWACS could not spot them; let alone airborne radar in a regular fighter. So you could stay in the weeds and ambush an incoming attack before they even knew they were being targeted. So there was nothing outside of dropping bombs that the Super Apache could not do that the Harriers did. They were nowhere near as fast but realistically what did that matter for Marines?

“So more Super Apache’s are going to be built.”

“Looks that way. They will save billions letting that MEF go; so they can put it into the Super Apache’s.”

SOCOM was getting this from a somewhat higher source.

“This has been kicked around for a while. They have kept the various subcontractors going on a slow basis for spare parts; they actually have enough to build about 30 more right now. So they can get the 96 they want for the two MEF’s; giving them two of their squadrons (each squadron is like one of our battalions) for each MEF. But I can bet you know where this is going.”

“They will want the SOAR to train them.”

“The Marines have very specifically requested Colonel Parker to train them.”

“I guess one should not be surprised.”

“This has been in the works for about a year.”

“Hmm. Just about the time that people began to recognize what a Super Apache could do.”

“Since it came to my attention about the same time, you can bet they were talking to each other about if for months before that.”

“So they are going to want to detach Colonel Parker for that.”

“Cannot fault their logic. She also made a name for herself as training officer for the 160th. They are still trying to find someone good as she was two years later.”

SOCOM winced a little at that. He had indeed been forced to relieve the 160th commander; and one of the problems had been that he was not pushing training like he should have been. Though to be fair, finding a training officer as good as Parker had proven to be very difficult indeed. They were still using her plans but the extra gift she had for getting them done no one had been able to duplicate. Luckily he had been able to keep his previous Aviation chief there and they were training us a new commander that looked promising. But the training officer had been more difficult to replace. As a matter of fact his Aviation chief had had a meeting with him just the day before.

“So how goes the slumming?”

“Funny. Frankly being back in command of a unit sounded better before I did it. Forgot about all the BS you have to put up with. And the paperwork. On the other hand it beats sitting behind a desk just worrying about the next meeting.”

“How is the training situation?”

There was a very definite pause there. “Not bad.”

SOCOM looked at him and just waited.

“OK. Not great at all. Barely adequate. No matter who I seem to try, no one has the gift she had. She really trained everyone up to a degree I did not realize.”

“She is that much better?”

“Yes.”

Remembering the conversation SOCOM looked at the Chairman.
“They still miss her there as a trainer as well. Still has not been adequately replaced.”

“Amazing. But then she is as gifted a pilot as she is a leader; so maybe it is not so surprising. But to be that good at training as well is extremely rare.”

“It all adds up when you look at it. She is superb at rebuilding units or remaking them; so being a great training officer is no surprise; she has the combat experience to go with the gift of being able to understand what it takes to get people ready for combat. And that is rare as we are finding out.”

“So you are going to have to detach her for a time.”

SOCOM was thinking furiously on this. He looked at the Chairman.
“But we have no one to take her place at the 161st. Her XO is strictly admin.”

The Chairman nodded. “And there is the rub. I was going to point that out but I wanted to be sure I was right. We definitely need to start thinking about her replacement anyway; she is going right up the ladder now. Command School then her star; and there is going to be a knife fight for her services.”

SOCOM sighed. “Those positions are just about the toughest around to fill as they are truly unique. I admit I did not realize it until the last year or so.”

“Which is another reason the Alternate Promotion board is gaining steadily in importance. Basically positions like those are not going to really be filled by normal officers. You need the unique and the maverick for those areas; the very things that over the last 20 years the regular military has tried to stamp out using all the cookie cutter requirements for promotion. Which is coming back to bite their asses big time. Hardly a week goes by without someone in the media or congress or the like talking about the nameless faceless so called leaders of our military.”

SOCOM mused. “We have been very lucky here in SOCOM because we are insulated from all that.”

“Because until USCOCOM was created you were small potatoes; not worth worrying about. You saw over the last 20 years that once they recognized how much influence was coming here they tried to start horning in.”

“True. It was only because we got the support of presidents and SECDEFS plus congress that we resisted straight legs being sent here to command positions. It was a very slick deal that got through congress that made it a requirement to have had Special Forces or Special Operations experience to be a SOCOM commander.”

“I can still remember when someone pointed that out as regards trying to slip one in back in 2008 and it was pointed out that it was not allowed. The impact on the cookie cutters was fun to see. Not even a deputy is allowed.”

SOCOM grinned at that then sobered. “Still does not help my problem; I cannot have her gone from her command for 6 months; even if she is here in Campbell that does not let her keep an eye on her command; or keep it tight and ready. Sure she can fly back quickly but that is nowhere near good enough. We do NOT have anyone that is ready to backstop her.”

The Chairman nodded. “I thought not. So obviously the answer is to send the Marines there. They would like to train over water anyway.”

“That would make it kind of crowded. Though I guess they could manage one Squadron at a time.”

“That might work. Send the 160th Apache’s over there to train as well. They need it from what I hear.”

SOCOM winced again. It had been just over a year and a half since Parker had stopped training the 160th; and their edge had dulled significantly. Just how significantly had been demonstrated just a month ago when they had been put through a no notice inspection and had been sent up to maneuver and fire at moving targets. They had not failed, but it had not been a good performance. Which was another reason his acting chief had not been happy about things.

Not long after the chairman left SOCOM decided to visit Campbell. He found the acting Chief going over performance evaluations. Since he had not told anyone he was coming it was not surprising people were scrambling as he came through the door.

“Sir. I take it something is going on?”

He nodded and closed the door of the office behind him. Then filled him in on the situation. The SOCOM Aviation Chief and acting commander, 160th SOAR sighed.
“Got to give the Marines credit for being smart. As slick a piece of horse trading as I have seen for a while. No doubt they will have the clout to have Parker detached TDY to train them; which leaves us really with a short load. Jim Harkness is a very good admin man but there is no way he can lead them in combat.”

“The Chairman has suggested they send one Squadron at a time to her to train. It will be a tight fit but possible.”

He relaxed at that. “OK, now I can get off the chair and take the noose off of my neck.”

SOCOM grinned. “Thought that would help. But he did mention how the Super Apache’s of the 160th did not look so good. I guess it is not surprising the word got out.”

“Yeah. If anything was needed to ram home the need to have a top training officer that did it. And it is my fault since I am in command.”

“You have only been there 3 months; and have been busy trying to get a permanent replacement. So don’t beat yourself up too much.”

He looked at SOCOM and nodded. “Thanks, Boss. But that does not help my problem; because unless I am very wrong and I do not think I am, the rest of the Regiment might not be in much better shape.”

SOCOM was not that surprised. “Well we have a real problem. The only officer that we both know can shape things up as they need to be cannot be taken away from her current command. Yet we badly need the Regiment back to where it belongs. We have been very lucky in the last year; outside of some of the Little Birds we have not deployed anyone. And the training exercises have been too vanilla as we now know.”

“Well then we are going to have to rotate everyone through Scotland then. One month with her will shape up any unit if it is any good.”

“And if it is not then you have a bigger problem than just not the right training.”

“True. Well let’s pull her over here to talk to her. Any idea when the Marines are going to start standing up their first Squadron?”

“The contractor has the parts to make at least 30 of them but it will take at least a couple months to do that; then probably 4 or so a month after that.”

“So a year and a half. The Marines train their aviators pretty hard; not as hard as we do but not far off.”

“So we need to talk to Colonel Parker.”

Liz looked at Jim. “Have no idea what this is about. But I bet part of it has to do with what you found out. The upcoming training exercises with the Pols and Austrians are going to be pretty much what we did last year. So nothing new there. So you just have to follow the pattern.”

“We are getting requests for another big one sometime this summer.”

“Well I can talk to SOCOM about that; our training budget is fine for everything else we are planning but not a big one like that. The Spanish want us over for another one soon as well; plus the Italians. Just glad that they sent the 101st over to Kuwait for three months; that will take care of the middle east.”

The 101st Aviation Brigade (part of it) had been sent to Kuwait to help train up the Gulf allies; since this was working with regular forces it had been decided that regular brigades would do fine. That was no problem for Liz; they had more than they wanted or needed already in that area of operations. The Pakistani’s had requested a mission; and there was a chance they would get pulled in to do a mission with India as well, even though that was the 160th’s area. Being even handed with the Indians had become of greater importance over the last few years; considering how much they had worked with the Pakistani’s on things.

The Group Captain had been promoted to Air Vice Marshal, but was basically doing the same job. He was very good at it and unlike the US Military if the UK found someone doing a job very well they tended to leave him alone. He was now more than ever becoming the defacto first contact for any training missions with any other country no matter what the service due to his extensive contacts.
He was once again getting pushed for more training missions; the defense budget was still very tight; and not likely to ease much for at least another year. The demise of the EU and the Euro had actually helped the UK; they were in much better shape to whether the storm. Things were still sorting themselves out but the dire predictions of the Euro fanatics had proven as pretty much everything else they had ever predicted wrong. The countries of Europe actually were doing better than anyone had thought. The austere budgets had made a big difference; the cutting of bureaucrats and the slackers had invigorated industry; the onerous burden the Brussels machine had inflicted on them was gone. But it would take a few years to really become prosperous; though now that seemed much more likely. The Defense budget was not going to be cut anymore, which was a victory; but it would not expand all that much for at least another year. So units needed training but had no money. A problem all over western Europe except for France and Germany; the kicking out of the unemployed immigrants had eased the burden in France considerably; and the new young President was showing a real gift for getting things done. The retirement age had been brought up to 65; and the workweek was back to 40. The shock of the events of the previous year had awakened the old fighting spirit of France that had been dormant far too long. And Germany had brought the Mark back to become one of the strongest currencies in the World. Eastern Europe had done quite well; not being formally part of the Euro zone had definitely worked to their advantage and they were all doing better than Western Europe.
The three weak sisters; Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium were still recovering slowly. They had gone down the rabbit hole of cradle to grave farther than any other countries and they paid the highest price for that. Portugal was ok, Spain was improving; Italy had seemed to turn the corner. Austria and Switzerland had also been more or less immune. Finland and Sweden and Norway were lagging but doing better.

The new Air Vice Marshal looked at his aide. “I take it that the requests are increasing?”
“Yes, sir. Everyone is looking for another big exercise to point for.”

“Well there is not money in the budget for this year; but I have gotten solid word that we will be in better shape next year.”

“Well then, what about this year?”

The Air Vice Marshal sighed. “I will have to see what I can do.”

He was reluctant to contact Colonel Parker; she had done more than her share to help last year. Virtually every regiment in the British Army had trained with her; that had been very helpful indeed. But he was very well aware that they could not keep putting off training. That could have deadly consequences in combat; and despite what many seemed to think the world had not become peaceful over night. True it was calmer now than it had been in over 20 years, but only a Pollyanna thought it would continue. He was virtually certain that something would come up before long somewhere. Russia was starting to wake up after its bloodbath with its Mafia; and some of the former Russian republics were not the most stable. Iran was seemingly forever a worry. One could not forget Korea either. China was just now emerging from its massive disaster of the collapse of the Three Gorges Dam; and it was now having to spend more than ever to get pollution under control. But it was just a matter of time before it began to flex its muscles again. So this respite would not last long. The UK military had to be ready to shoulder its share of the burden. But they could not do that if they were not ready. Then he was unexpectedly called into a meeting with the Defense Secretary.

“Air Vice Marshal, we have just been informed of some major changes in the US Marines and that some of the effects of that will come this way. They are sacrificing one of their MEF’s to gain something else. 4 full squadrons of Super Apache’s. They intend to have them trained with your friend Colonel Parker in Scotland. They are coming over for a meeting tomorrow.”

Liz got into DC only one hour after her 0800 departure according to the clock; but then when your flight only takes 6 hours and the time change gives back 5 that is what happens. She was lucky in that she was able to catch some sleep anyway. The fact that this meeting was in the Pentagon not with SOCOM at Campbell told her that it was something out of the ordinary; and that her meeting with SOCOM would almost certainly be just the first one. She went right from Andrews to the Pentagon and met SOCOM in his office there at 1000. Another hint had been that she was wearing class A’s. Which meant big brass time. She deliberately wore her BDU’s then changed just before going to his office.

The ceremony in Scotland scheduled for May for the 161st to get a Presidential Unit Citation and her to get her second DSC was going to be a very large affair and Liz was not looking forward to it. Her ribbons were going to get more additions. She had to admit it looked pretty impressive. So she was thinking when she went in the office SOCOM had when he was at the Pentagon. She was ushered right in and sat in front of his desk.
“I am willing to bet you have no idea why you are here.”

Liz grinned. “If rumors have anything true to them, it has to be about me training the Marines to fly the Super Apache they are gunning for.”

“That is only part of it. There is a lot more besides that. What have you heard about the Marines?”

“They are looking to dump their Harriers and replace them with Super Apache’s; two of their squadrons which are the same as our battalions for each of the two MEF’s they want to keep; they are sacrificing their third MEF to get them.”

SOCOM nodded, not really surprised. “SO you pretty much guessed you would be designated as the training officer for them?”

Liz sighed. “That is what I figured. I was just worried about six months away from my command.”

“Well the good news is that you are not going to them, they are coming to you one squadron at a time. The first one will be standing up in June. They have the parts to assemble the necessary number and will have them up and going in April. That is when they will probably start heading your way. The Marines started picking and choosing the pilots then stopped. Guess what?”

“You have got to be kidding?”

“Nope. You get to do it. Basically you get to run them through the mill first and then decide which ones are good enough then train them.”

Liz blinked and then shook her head. “This is bizarre.”

SOCOM then got serious. “No it is not. You are by far the most respected Apache Driver, let alone Super Apache driver around. It is just common sense on their part. But that is not all of it either.”

Liz sighed and waited for the rest of the load to fall on her.

“You might not be aware that only a few weeks ago the acting 160th commander threw a no notice exercise at the Apache Battalion. They did not do well.”

Liz shrugged. “So they come as well.”

He grinned evilly. “That is still not all of it.”

Liz closed her eyes the opened them. “What else is there?”

“The entire 160th will be coming over a battalion at a time to train. Since they have been unable to come up with a training officer good enough, you will be doing it all.”

“shit.”

One hour Later Liz followed SOCOM and the Aviation cum 160th chief who had just arrived to the main briefing room of the Secretary of Defense. Liz went to sit beside SOCOM with the Aviation Chief on her other side. The rest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff came in then all rose when SECDEF walked in. As they all took their seats Liz noticed that she was the only one in the room under the rank of general sitting at the table. All the aides and such were on chairs behind their chiefs.

SECDEF looked around and nodded. “Good. Everyone is here. This special meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will now come to order. Chairman, you may proceed.”
“Yes Sir. To be brief, major changes were just approved by agreement with Congress and the White House. The Marines will be sacrificing a MEF; the one in Okinawa will be going to Hawaii; their ships will remain at Okinawa; that agreement was just reached with Japan. The California stationed MEF will go to Diego Garcia. The North Carolina MEF will be stood down. Attrition will take care of the excess personnel in two years. Those officers not needed will also be let go. The Marines have requested that the SAH-64 Super Apache be substituted for the F-35B originally meant to replace the Harrier. That has been approved. They will get 96; the price will be half of what the same number of F-35B’s would have cost. The savings from the stand down of the MEF will cover all costs of these changes. Including the extra construction needed in Hawaii and in Diego Garcia.”

Liz looked around the room. She wondered why a meeting was needed for this.

“Due to some problems with the 160th, the originally designated training of the Marine Super Apache Squadrons will now be the responsibility of the 161st . Also the fleet units operating with the Super Apache’s will also train with them there. An agreement to temporarily station them at Glasgow during the approximate year and a half it will take to train all units has been reached with the UK MOD. They will also train with units of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Plus other units of the British Army. When we had our meeting with the MOD, they made a counter proposal when we informed them of our training plans. And after some discussion it was agreed to. This is the result.”

Liz did not move as she considered the situation. Well she was not going to have to ask for more funds to train with the Brits; it was coming anyway. Along with just about the rest of the world. No one could not say she was going to be busy.

“That concludes the meeting. I would ask that SOCOM, the Commandant and the Chief of Naval Operations join me in my office.”

The Aviation Chief and Liz followed SOCOM as he went to the SECDEF’s office just down the hall. There was a meeting room just off of his office that they sat in. Liz was a little curious; she had only been in the Pentagon once before and never in the rarified atmosphere of the SECDEF’s part.

He sat down and looked around.
“I wanted to make sure that there were no high level questions. This was very quickly arranged. Even by Colonel Parker’s standards.”

This got smiles all around; Liz was used to needling about the Cyprus exercise.

“Admiral Williams, since we wish to move quickly, what ships are you looking at using for these training exercises?”

“All 8 of the WASP class; and both America Class. We will be spreading out the Apache’s so that we have half a squadron aboard every active ship. Sir, it has been discussed that the Super Apache squadrons be reduced from 24 to 12; that would allow one Squadron per ship.”

SECDEF looked at the Commandant. “Your views, General Sampson?”

“Our aviation people are flexible about squadron size; and it does make sense. I see no reason we cannot go that route.”

“How many ships at a time?”

“Sir we would prefer to go two at a time.”

“That should work.”

He then looked at SOCOM.
“I assume you filled Colonel Parker in on this?”

“Yes sir.”

He then looked at the Commandant.
“The proposal as regards the pilots was a little out of the ordinary, General.”
“Sir, it makes sense. This is an extremely sophisticated helicopter; much more than the latest Huey. I have no doubt that some will have trouble making the transition. We want to be up and running for at least one MEF in less than a year. The Harriers are just plain worn out; operational percentage is hovering at 75% despite all we can do. We do not have the time to bring the pilots along slowly. I have no doubt from her previous record that Colonel Parker can quickly weed them out. It is not like we do not have the volunteers; we already have two for each slot and more will come.” He looked at Liz.
“Colonel, every pilot you get will have at least one year operational experience. No new nuggets. So if they cannot cut the mustard cut them.”

Liz nodded. “Yes sir. My decision will be final?”

“Absolutely.”

“I should have them capable in 90 days for each squadron- if you go for the 12 per squadron.”

The other people in the room blinked at that. SOCOM looked at Liz. “You already have a training plan in mind?”

“Yes sir. I got information about this possibility about this a week ago; and began working on a plan. Figuring that the Marines would be using their Wasp and America Classes, I took a look at their specs. Knowing that the Marines wanted not only close ground support but an anti-air capability, I will use our own training program for that. We will give them at least 30 days flying before they will attempt any ship operations. We will be doing a fair amount of that over the water anyway; I believe 30 days will be enough for them to get used to flying from a ship; it will not be like regular carrier operations with catapults and hook wires. Much simpler. It will be good trying them in the waters of the Irish sea; it will be calm most of the time; when they get more experience we can take them north for tougher waters. I hope that their ground crews will be brought in soon; they can learn from mine then learn to do it on ships. Their graduation exercises will be to go up against my Apache’s. I see no reason that 90 days cannot get it done with already experienced pilots.”

Everyone in the room was impressed by this. SECDEF slowly nodded
“Very well then. No one here will argue with that kind of timeline. The word from the assembly plant is that they will have the first 24 ready to go this coming month; so they can be sent straight to Scotland.” He looked at the Commandant.
“How soon can you have the first batch of pilot candidates there?”

“I see no reason we cannot have them there at the same time.”

SECDEF looked at the Navy CNO. “That would mean that early in April they would need the first ships there.”

“Sir, as long as the ports are ready the ships will be there.”

“I see I will have to have a word with the MOD. I doubt they expected us to move this fast.” He looked at the rest of them. “Well this went faster than I expected. But that is good. Any questions or comments?” Liz raised her hand. “Yes Colonel?”
She looked at the Commandant. “Sir, I would ask that all prospective pilots first pick up copies of the manual on the Apache; and can bone up on the flight systems and the cockpit. I want them familiar with that end of it when they arrive; I intend to have them up each personally to try them out before I approve them for further training.”

The Commandant raised his eyebrows. “You intend to make it sink or swim?”

“Not quite sir; but I will be riding with them. I can usually tell pretty quickly if someone is going to make it or not.”

“Then it will be as you requested.”

They left the building and got in the limo to head to Andrews. Liz had requested they send her right back the same day. In the Limo the Aviation chief looked at Liz.
“We did not want to air our dirty laundry there though I am pretty sure it was known at that level. The Apache Battalion almost failed a no notice. I will be sending them to you in the next week for a month’s refresher training. You might as well know that each Battalion of the 160th will be coming to you for a refresher over the next 4 months.”

Liz sighed. “Why not? Everyone else in the world is coming.”

Liz got back at just before 2000 that night and was exhausted; she had spent the whole flight back refining her ideas about training the Marines. As soon as the jet landed she went right to her quarters and Max was waiting for her with a nicely cooked meal which she proceeded to devour. The she sat with him for a while decompressing. Max being Max, realized that she just needed to be held and did just that. After a while she just tugged him to bed and once again he just held her.
“I can guess you got thrown another big fat challenge.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Just how bad is it?”

“I get to train 8 Marine Squadrons of Super Apache’s; and the 160th is coming one by one to train here; and there will be ships coming as well for the Marines to fly off of once I choose the ones that will complete the training.”

“Sorry I asked.”

The double jet lag then caught up to Liz and she conked out.

Max made sure the alarm was off and called the office to let them know that Liz would be a little late.

Liz slowly surfaced and blinked; she was alone in bed; but she could tell that it was light outside. She looked at the alarm clock and saw that it said 0845. She sank back realizing that Max must have turned it off. She had slept almost 11 hours. Taking a deep breath and moving slowly she got out of bed and hit the shower. She shuffled off to the kitchen and slowly got some coffee going. She took her time since she had not told the office she would be back until today anyway. She did not get into the office until 1000. Once there she called a meeting of her Battalion commanders. They were in there by 1030, knowing something was up. She went to the conference room where her 5 Battalion Commanders and Jim Harkness waited for her.
“OK, people, if you thought we were busy before you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
She then outlined what would be happening. They stared back at her in shock. A fully rested Liz was more amused by the situation then put out.
“Cheer up people, the good news is that for the next year and a half for all intents and purposes the sky is the limit as regards training costs. The money the Marines are saving will pay for everything. Those extra billets we were considering; well now we can build them. We will contact the company we had discussions with and have them start building immediately. The designs will be the same as what was already built, so there is no reason that in 90 days a new block cannot be up. That will house an extra 200 people and that will be about what we will need. That large training exercise we were looking at this summer will be covered; I think we should gun for September. We will be done with the 160th and hopefully the first two squadrons of the Marines at least; depending on how fast they send them to us. One thing: for the time being we are going to have to double up our bachelor enlisted and officers to free up enough space for all our visitors. Once the new block is done we will return to normal.”

After leaving them to adjust to things Liz headed for her office; she knew that the Air Vice Marshal, her old friend the Group Captain, would be coming by. The Base was technically a RAF base and had a RAF Wing Commander who was the official liaison with the MOD, in theory running the base. In practice he played a lot of golf and had his small staff take care of the inevitable paperwork. So she was not surprised to find the Air Vice Marshal waiting for her.
“Well, did you get the full word?”

“I think I got all they knew; but since I know you just got back from the Pentagon you probably already have seen the changes we will not hear about for a while.”

“True. In addition to the Marines they are sending one battalion of the 160th over hear each month to train them up.”

He raised an eyebrow at that. She shrugged. He nodded.
“You mentioned a major training exercise this summer before you left. How has this changed things?”

“Well, we will have to move it back to September; but other than that nothing changes. Until the Marines are done I have a virtually unlimited training budget. The SECDEF specifically mentioned training with the SAS, Commandos, Para’s, Royal Marines and ‘assorted regiments’. Frankly I was thinking of pushing this to the limit and talking the Navy into sending some of the ships to the Med and doing another biggie in Cyprus and Turkey. Next month before the Marines and everyone else in the world comes rolling in we will get the Polish and Austrian training missions out of way. I have been kicking around the idea of talking to the Spanish about a big exercise there as a kind of Graduation ceremony for the first Marine Squadron. Depending on how many they are willing to put up with we could bring a fair number of British units to that operation as well. As a matter of fact if the Poles are willing we could bring some to that party as well. Then that big one in Cyprus and Turkey; and of course the Greeks want one too so we could rope them all in for a whole month of sun and fun.”

The Air Vice Marshal contemplated this. That would satisfy all needs for certain for this year. That would be a massive operation down in the Aegean and around Cyprus, but using ships would actually make moving around easier. Certainly would be different even compared to the last years operation.
“Seems ambitious but I have learned that you thrive on that sort of thing. I will ask around and see what each thinks of this. I know the Spanish would be happy to have you back; the Poles as well. Since you can now transport almost two battalions at a time, and maybe bring some in by transport, the Poles if they are willing could have a very big party indeed.”

Liz nodded. “Will get with them right away; I have about 30 days before things go nuts; so let’s see if we can get that done before then. After the Marines get here; and the 160th; it will be hard to get away for anything else. April thru August we are going to be run ragged.”

Liz called up her contact with the Poles and was transferred right away to General Sosabowski.
“Colonel Parker. Good to hear from you. I take it you wish to make the plans for this year’s exercise?”

“Very much so, General. I have some regiments in the UK that wish to play. Last year you mentioned this. So what I would need to know is how many you can accommodate?”

“Well, I will have to see. I believe I can get an answer to you by tomorrow. When were you looking for this exercise?”

“Would it be possible to get it done in the next month?”

“That is possible. I will confirm that to you tomorrow.”

“Thank you General.”

The exercise with the Austrians was already confirmed for the next week; this time only the transport units would go. Liz had decided to let the senior Battalion commander, Major Young, run that exercise. Liz was just too busy and it was decided that there was no need to bring the Little Birds at all this time. The same with the Apache’s.

Jim Harkness had been looking over the housing situation; luckily they had 100 slots that could be used by doubling people up that were available in the family housing area. The BEQ and BOQ and VIP housing areas could handle an extra 100 as well. It would be tight but they could just barely manage to accommodate the 160th and Marines at the same time; if the 160th left their crews behind. This would mean a lot of work for the crews of the 161st so Liz upon hearing this went to her Battalion Support Commander, Major Jack Dawson.

“So there it is. Your crews are going to be run ragged. If we had the housing for the support troops we could have them here. But we don’t.”

“And why can’t we just put them in tents? It will be the summer, for what that is worth. So what if they have to rough it? It is only for 30 days or so?”

Liz thought about that; then pulled out her phone and keyed in a number.
“General? Liz Parker. Just wanted to ask you a question. We will not have enough housing here for the crews with all the Marines we will have plus each battalion of the 160th So the question I have; we can put up temporary housing; fancy tents. So you have to make the decision whether to keep your crews there and over work mine or send them to live in tents for a month.”

“So my support troops have to rough it for a while. Do them good. No problem.”

Liz smiled as she shut the phone off and looked at Jack. “Now we just have to get the tents.”

“No problem. The Brits have a bundle of them we can borrow enough.”

Liz was glad she could give her crews a break. So she could check off one problem.

Three days later Liz went to a meeting at the MOD to thrash things out in several areas. She smiled as she remembered General Sosabowski’s call.

“Colonel Parker, my government informs me that we can commence this in 2 weeks. And let it last for a week. I have been given permission to allow 5000 British troops here for this exercise.”

Liz had relayed that to Air Vice Marshal Bryce and he had then went out and gotten The Rifles, 3 Battalions; The Mercian Regiment, 2 Battalions; The Royal Welsh, 1 Battalion; The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, 1 Battalion. None had been able to do much training in the last year so they were very happy to get some. Liz had arranged with Ramstein to transport the Brits to the training area; and pick them up afterwards. They also were bringing the 40th Artillery Regiment and its 18 105MM howitzers.

For the next two weeks Liz worked at the necessary planning for all of this; fidgeting when most of her Regiment went to Austria but managing to keep from calling there. By the time she left for Poland things had been pretty much settled; frankly for her this exercise would almost be a rest period.

It turned out to be an enjoyable time. The weather was in the 60’s and dry so that was good; General Sosabowski had worked hard and had prepared some interesting scenarios that had everyone hopping. Then Liz had thrown a couple of wrinkles in at the last minute that had everyone scrambling. The Commanding officer of the Rifles was the senior British officer present and ended up being alternately the aggressor or defender depending on the 5 scenarios that had been put together. Once again it was emphasized that flexibility was vital; and a couple of the Battalions did not get that and got thumped. The MOD had sent a couple of observers; and Liz arranged for Predator coverage of it all so it could be looked at later. When it was all over one of the MOD officers, a Colonel on the General staff, spoke to Liz.
“Colonel Parker, I see you once again work hard to keep everyone off balance.”
“Keeps them light on their feet, doesn’t it?”

“That is true. I did not know you could move those Artillery pieces with Black Hawks. That really caused some commotion.”

“Found that out last year. They cannot take the heavier guns but 105’s they can. Not many know that and that fooled that Polish Colonel and then the Mercian commander as well.”

The two observers wrote up their report after watching the predator footage as well. It was not very complimentary to two of the Battalion commanders who seemed unable to react fast enough.

The Chief of the General Staff read the report and looked at his deputy.
“Hmm. I think we might have to watch those battalions. Cannot have slow thinkers in this Army.”

“Yes sir. On the other hand just about everyone else did very well.”

“True; so overall that is good. Considering the low level of training that we have had to deal with, I can say that I am satisfied. Make sure a thank you letter is sent to Knightress Parker. She works very hard at including us in her training.”

The first Battalion of the 160th was due in on April 2; it was of course the Apache Battalion. Its commander, Major Robert Anderson, was very aware that his command was hanging by a thread. He knew the only thing that had saved him was the fact that he had been asking for more training. But if they did not show serious progress after a month getting worked over by Doberman Parker, he knew he was gone. He had to admit he was intimidated; he knew he was a good Apache Driver and believed he was a good Battalion commander; but he was now about to be put to the test by the best there was in both areas. He had a meeting with his pilots just before they got on the aircraft carrying their Apache’s.
“OK, people. This is it. You all know we looked pretty poor during the inspection. Technically we passed the standards but that is Horse Shit. SOAR is always better then the standards even on a bad day. Now some of you were here when Doberman was the training officer so you know the route. I got in right after she left so I have not but I have heard chapter and verse since. Captain Edwards was here and now he will take over.”
Captain Josh Edwards was commander of A company; he had been a Lt just about to get his platoon when he had come into the 160th and had been worked over by Doberman.
“Expect the unexpected. Get complacent and you are toast. Just when you think you have if figured out she will pull the rug out from under you. With her it is all about seeing how you react to the unexpected; how well you can get yourself out of a jam. It is going to be hell for the next 30 days; but if you make it and she passes you, you know you are now one of the best there is.”

Anderson knew that his men were ashamed of the performance and determined to show that they belonged with the very best. But sometimes that is not enough; so he hoped that they just made it through without embarrassing themselves.

Liz stood on the tarmac as the first C-17 came rolling in carrying the 1st Battalion of the 160th SOAR. She had made it clear she would be on their ass from the moment they stepped off the plane to the moment the final exercise ended. She had had the time to carefully plan what she was going to do and she grinned in anticipation. It was that grin, reminding all of them of a famished wolf looking for a big meal that they saw as they got off the C-17.
“Major Anderson. I would like all pilots and copilots in the conference room as soon as they are all on the ground. You have from now until that moment to rest. There will be very little after that.” And they found out that she spoke the literal truth.

“Let me make this perfectly clear in case you had not gotten it by now: you are here because you stank it up at your last inspection. If you do not pass this training mission with good marks you will be replaced and sent out of the 160th. There is no appeal; my word is final. The next 30 days your soul may belong to God but your ass is mine. I expect your aircraft to be in flying condition in 2 hours. Our first flight will take place at that time. The whole Battalion will be flying. I will be in my Apache and it will be up to you to keep up with me.”

She took them out and ran them from that point until dark. Then took them up at 0600 the next morning and ran them all day; only stopping for them to refuel. Then she spent the next day tearing them apart in her critiques. Then after giving their crews time to do maintenance on the choppers; she woke them all at 0200 and had them do an emergency combat mission; she had the cloverley’s out in the Irish Sea towing targets. Then she worked them all morning and critiqued them at night. She kept this up for 10 days until they had to rest the helicopters to allow maintenance to catch up.

Major Anderson managed to drag himself to the mess hall at 0630. She was generous on the morning of the 11th day allowing them to face her at 0730 instead of the usual 0630. He found a Zombie looking Captain Edwards nursing coffee and a half eaten breakfast and sat next to him.
“Was she this bad when you were there?”

“No. This is worse; but if you want the bad news it is not as bad as she can get when she really wants to be. This is just a case of seriously sustained nastiness that I have not seen before.”

“OK. How do you think we are doing?”

“I have no idea; sometimes I think we are getting there then she pulls something and we look like dog food again.”

Liz groaned as she got out of bed; this was a tough time for her as well. She was very glad that the Marines would not show up until May. She had found that she was going to have to really grind on the 160th people to get them up to the standards they should be at; they had gotten soft; no question about it. The good news was that they were excellent pilots. So she had hope for them. Now if just she could survive it.

Jim Harkness was talking to Majors Landon and Young; they watched as the 160th guys moved towards the conference room with all the enthusiasm of someone going in for root canals. Without Novocain.
“Is it my imagination or is she being kind of tough on them?”

Young thought about it. “Yeah, I think so. Not hugely; we have seen her when she is really on it. But then these guys just pretty much flunked a no notice. So she was going to be tough on them anyway.”

Landon nodded. “Remember, guys, this was HER battalion for quite a while. She built it. So for it to fail is really to her something personal.”

Harkness and Young both blinked; then slowly nodded. That had not occurred to them.

The acting 160th Head had tried to not call to find out what was going on but after 15 days had gone by he had to. He called her office at what was for them 1700 and got her secretary that told him that she was out flying with the 160th. He left a message asking her to call. She called him back; he looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 9PM.
“Colonel, my curiosity got the best of me. How are things going?”

“So far so good; just about to start the last batch of training; will be 10 days straight of it; I will give them tomorrow off to rest. Then right after that they will go in a fly off with my Battalion.”

“I notice it is 2100 your time; when did you land?”

“About half an hour to go. I kept them up for 6 hours this afternoon and evening over the water making them maneuver.”
“OK. I guess I will leave it to you then.” After he hung up he wondered just what hell she was putting his people through.

Anderson watched as two of his pilots pulled a third pilot up after he fell asleep in the mess hall and slipped out of his chair. Not that he felt all that much better. The good news is the Doberman was giving them the next day off; the bad news was that the day after that was the fly off with her battalion. Graduation or Execution.

Liz groaned as Max gave her a massage; this period had been just as tough on her.
“So how are they doing?’

“Well. They just have to fly against my guys now.”

“Who have been getting ready for this.”

“True. But I am going to be throwing wrinkles in at the last minute; this is a test for my guys as well.”

160th, break right; 161st break left; then maneuver by companies in standard ground attack; when I give the word, break. BREAK!”

Liz then had them both play follow the leader to her; then confront each other by maneuver. She started it at 0600 that morning and worked them until they were out of fuel which took 4 hours at full maneuvering. She constantly changed things; making them react then react to the reaction. As they all landed just after 1000, she told them she wanted them in the conference room at 1300 where she would tell them their status. She went to her quarters to shower and change out of her sweat soaked flight uniform. Then she relaxed and thought about things.

Major Anderson led his people into the conference room wishing it did not feel like they were trooping to the gallows. They sat down and waited.

Liz walked in at 1300 then began her critique as she asked questions and prodded and poked until 1500. Then she looked around at them.
“Good Job. You guys passed the nastiest training session I ever came up with.”

Then walked out.

Major Anderson and the others sat for a moment. Just sat there. Then they as a group just let out a big breath. Then they began to grin and laugh and shake hands.

Liz then called a meeting of her Apache Battalion.

“You guys did OK. But you gotta remember not to get overconfident. They did very well against you. Frankly it was just about a tie; the only edge you had was that you were more used to me. Other than that it was just about even.”

The 160th personnel got out of the aircraft at Campbell and looked around. No one actually got down and kissed the ground but it was close. Major Anderson walked up to the Aviation commander and his acting Commander and saluted.
“Sir, 1st Battalion reporting back from Hell, sir.”

SOCOM called him up after they landed.
“So any requests for transfers?”

“None so far; but I have a hunch if I told them they would be going back again in a couple of months they would all put papers in. She really wrung them out and shook them up; but I could see it in the way they walked and talked; they know they are good again. So I guess it worked.”

“When does the next battalion leave?”

“Next week.”

“Just long enough to have all the horror stories sink in.”

“Yes sir.”

Major Anderson was buttonholed by the commander of 2nd Battalion, who would be going next.
“OK. No BS. Just how tough was it?”
“Our SERE was a walk in the park in comparison.”

“Come on. No way.”

“You will see.” Then walked away. Leaving the 2nd Battalion commander worried. He talked to his company commanders the next day.

“OK. What have you heard?”

“Total Hell for 27 of 30 days. She gives 2 days off then the last day you are leaving. I am getting this from everyone. But you can tell those guys are stoked now. They are walking around with huge chips on their shoulders.”

Liz actually took her family and visited London for a couple of days to rest and relax from the training period. She knew she had really pushed all of them to the limit. This was a good time to be with her family.

Major Tom Warner was the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 161st. Liz had assigned him to get mean and nasty with the 2nd Battalion of the 160th; and to be prepared to be run through the ringer by Liz as well. His battalion’s combination of Little Birds, Attack Little Birds, and Blackhawks was the most diverse of the regiment’s battalions. So he was used to things being a little strange as a normal day to day event. The program was that for the first ten days he and his battalion people would run the 160th ragged. Then they would have a day off and then Liz would start on both of them. It would end with a flyoff between the two battalions.
The relief that the 2nd Battalion felt that they were not going to get bitten by Doberman until half way through the month soon left as they found that Tom Warner was trying to outdo Doberman. And not doing too badly at it.

The Marines started to arrive in the second week of the 2nd Battalions purgatory; and they got stories to share with the rest that showed up.

Liz wasted no time with the Marines. She met each one on one and put them through the mill. Grilling them then taking them to a simulator. Working them over there. Only then did she take them up in a Super Apache. With herself as pilot; then starting them out with basic maneuvers and the like. She gave each applicant a full day to convince her he was worthy. She got through the first 5 before she went out and started working over both regiments 2nd Battalion. Basically putting them through drills of pickups and reacting to changes in mission. She talked to the Scots and they agreed to get picked up and put down and also their equipment; it was not full training for them but their Colonel said it was something to do and fun to watch. The Attack Little birds would be chased by her in her apache and expected to get away; using their maneuverability. Which turned out harder for them then they thought; then a shoot off. The Little Birds found that the Para’s that Liz had recruited gave them other problems.

“That Colonel is something else. She had us act like we were drunk to see how her people reacted. Then drugged. Then had them pick us up and change courses about 5 times before we were put down. They sure looked miserable. Not just the ones she is supposed to be training; her own as well.”

The Fly off consisted of the Scotts randomly deciding where they wanted to be put down; changing their minds a couple of times each. Then just to test the ground crews as well, having them compete. She had also done this to her Apache crews as well. When she was done with them she smiled and said.
“Good Job. Have a nice day.”

Then she went back to drilling and filling Marines. She was determined that none of them would be told until she was done with all of them. She had 250 to go through and realized that she could not spend a whole day with each. So she decided to spend an hour in her Apache after she had put them through her interview process then the Simulator. She began to use Jim and others to monitor what happened in the Simulator while she flew them around. The first group of 50 were done in two weeks after the 2nd Battalion was sent back. Liz had said that they had done well and so they were happy. Sam Young would be taking care of the 3rd Battalion.

It was the beginning of May and the President would be there on the 12th to give the unit the Presidential Unit Citation and Liz her second DSC. Liz deliberately forced herself to step back and take a day off; the Marines were quite Happy. The first batch had left and the second group of 50 were in. Luckily since the Marines were not all coming at once they had not had to put anyone in tents.

Liz got back to her office the next day and looked over the plans for the ceremony and the President being there. He would arrive on Air Force One and greet the unit; and then make the presentation. Then Fly out. He would only be there for one hour or so. Which suited Liz fine. The Secret Service were already looking around. In the middle of this her secretary buzzed her.
“Colonel, the Marine Deputy commandant for Aviation is on the line.”

This surprised Liz so she was not sure what to expect. She picked up the phone and waited for the General.
“Colonel Parker, I have been told you have seen the first 50 applicants.”

“That is correct General.”

“How many pass?”

“So far sir 17.”

“Less than one third.”

“Yes sir. Most of them do not have the thinking speed. That is the usual problem. Why so many wash out at the 160th and 161st. This is not an extreme number from our experience.”

The Deputy Commandant called the Commandant.
“Just talked to Colonel Parker. Out of the first 50, she approved 17. Said that is not surprising for Super Apache applicants for the SOAR. Most of them then are sent to the Black Hawks or others.”

“If that keeps up, have we enough applicants?”

“Just barely.”

“Well we told her that she was the sole voice on this. The good news is that they will truly be elite.”

“From what I have heard about how she is working over not only the 160th but her own people, there is no doubt they will be if they can pass her muster.”

“Colonel Parker should have been a Marine.”

“Yes sir.”

Liz looked around; the 161st was lined up in formation behind her as the President’s plane landed. The honor guard was in position. They had brought in the band from the Scots Regiment to play Hail to the Chief which was a good touch. He came down the stairs and the ceremony began.

“For distinguished service to the United States and indeed all Mankind, I am honored to present to the 161st SOAR the Presidential Unit Citation. And to its commander, Colonel Elizabeth Parker I am equally honored to present the Distinguished Service Cross, for her leadership and example.” He then pinned the medal to Liz and handed her the placard. Then he turned and signaled the plane and Liz was shocked to see her Mother come down the stairs. The President was smiling. Nancy was smiling fit to burst and then the President spoke.
“This is further appreciation for the service Colonel Parker has done for the United States. With congressional approval, I hereby promote her to Brigadier General, effective 12 May 2015.” Then the President on one side and her mother on the other pinned stars to a dazed Elizabeth Parker’s uniform.

The President got back on the plane not long after and left Liz trying to recover. Her mother told her that she had been called by the President on Liz’s Birthday, which was May 5th, and told about the promotion. Her Congressman had quietly gotten it done and kept it all very quiet. These promotions were usually done in batches. This was a singular one off. The Congressman had sent Nancy a copy of the special act that made Liz a Brigadier General. Nancy would stay a few days then fly back on a plane sent by SOCOM, who had been in on all this.

As could be expected this made news. FOX and CNN had covered the President’s trip and of course had shown the ceremony live. So it had come as a shock to everyone.

The Posse and Crew were at work, but they had made arrangements to tape it. Maria took time off from work to watch it live and was the only one of Liz’s close friends to see it as it happened. She of course called Liz that night.
“Liz that was so funny; the look on your face was a trip!”

The media ate it right up; Liz had to admit she did look totally shocked; which of course she had been. There were many comments about how Liz was the youngest General the US Military had had since the Civil War. She had just turned 32. Several commentators mentioned that she was the first person to make general without any college or so called higher learning since the Second World War. And others mentioned that she would now have to attend the Command College for general officers; which was done before they got their promotions-usually. Others talked about how it seemed a sure thing that she would one day reach the highest levels of the US Military.

Liz that night as the Regiment had a party, told all of them that she really had to give them the next day off as she would be a piker if she didn’t. That evening when they all got back to quarters Aliya looked at her mother.
“It is going to be strange to have a general as my mother.”

The next day they just lounged around home with Nancy, talking and enjoying each other’s company. Ted had wanted to come but right at the moment things were too busy where he was at work. The next day Nancy headed back; but before she got on the plane she smiled at Liz and hugged her.
“I am so proud of you honey, my daughter the General.”

Back at SOCOM they had finally been able to find someone who looked like he could get the job done at the 160th and the Aviation Chief was returning to his position that he had held 8 months earlier. Both of them discussing the recent promotion of General Parker.

“Sir, while it has been understood for a while that her next posting would be here, are you sure you are going to be able to keep her?”

SOCOM shrugged. “Not anymore. The Pakistan mission really put her over the top. Like the chairman said it is going to be a case of whoever survives the knife fight will get her. Now for us the good news is that there really are not that many positions that warrant an officer of her record. And let’s be honest here; yours really is not one of them. At least not to anyone outside of USSOCOM. Also the good news is that she is going nowhere until she finishes training up the Marines which will take at least another year. Probably more. Then she has to go to command college, which will really be funny. Them trying to teach her ANYTHING about command. The Joint Services Command would have killed for her; but of course since that command is about to go away that takes care of them.”

“And since she will be working with the Navy on the training of the Super Apache’s for shipboard operations, she punches her tickets for joint operations. She has worked with other countries on both combat and non combat so that ticket is punched. Frankly she goes to Command College and there is nothing else required she has got to do to go further up the ladder.”

“So from this point on there is nothing she HAS to do.”

“So whoever wants her is going to have to justify why and not be able to use ticket punching as the excuse.”

“Exactly. And as long as her congressman is around no one is going to be able to try and send her to a hole. Of course now anyone trying to do that will get fried anyway.”

“Still some will claim she has to do time inside the Pentagon.”

“Well, that one is valid. You do need to know once you become a general how the puzzle palace works.”

“Or actually doesn’t work.”

“I cannot argue with such a visionary truth.”

“To be serious you know they are talking about bringing back the RDF.”

“It is interesting since they claim it never went away.”

“No it became CENTCOM. But now there is a movement afoot to try and make it live again as a separate force from all services.”

“In this day of austere budgets good luck to them.”

“I guess.”

SOCOM thought about it for a while and decided that maybe he needed to sniff around himself on that. So he began to call around and was somewhat surprised to find that there was indeed more fire then just smoke to this. Some of the more influential members of Congress were looking at it; and some former senior military types were pushing it as well. SOCOM really did not see the point. They had forces earmarked to quickly respond. They had both SOAR’s; and USSOCOM; the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions both had brigades that were kept on quick alert. The Air Force by its nature was fast to move. The Navy was the only ones that did not and once again by their nature it was not logical to have them even try to be. They had light troops and lots of air assets to respond; and they could always hit with missiles or bombs when that was needed. There was NO way to get heavy forces anywhere fast; even the US could not afford the dedicated air transport assets that would required. Just to move one heavy armored brigade to a place would require most of the US Military’s transports. This was logical; so what was behind all of this?

He found the answer a few days later; and the culprits were ones that surprised him: the US NAVY. They planned it this way: Build it around three groups of ships; 2 helicopter carriers and 2 LSDs/LSA’s; plus several fast roll on roll off ships now in the mothball fleet. They would sail around the Pacific, the med and northern Atlantic; and the Indian ocean. Always ready to launch and attack. With the troops and tanks, VTOL’s and attack and transport choppers to basically put a Brigade anywhere likely within 24 hours of getting close. They were arguing that the assets were already available; just not in the right places. The PrePo ships took days to get anywhere at best and more likely a couple of weeks. Air transports would take days to gather then get there. They wanted to take the 161st and leave a reduced 160th to take care of SOCOM; and with that regiment bolstered by two more battalions of Super Apache’s have three strike forces within 48 hrs of putting tanks and heavy forces plus lots of other forces anywhere likely to be needed. They would have a battalion of Abrams; and a battalion of Bradley’s and Strykers; and two battalions of infantry. They were making the argument that the Marine Super Apache’s would get the job done and that the Marine MEF’s should be used for this instead. It amazed SOCOM that they had gotten this much backing. The big problem SOCOM saw was that all these forces had to spend so much time ship bound. Which begs the questions how to keep them trained and ready to go? And you would need equal troops on shore to rotate out. Say 6 months or 4 months on and so on. Which would be hell on the families of the troops and crews. SOCOM shook his head. Dumb idea. They had as far as he was concerned the best that could be done now; without really wringing out the troops, crews and families involved.

Liz’s congressman had been enlisted in this process; he was dubious but willing to listen. SOCOM talked to him and pointed out the problems.
The Congressman respected SOCOM, but had to consider that he was also protecting his territory. This was to be expected; it was part of the way things were done. So he called someone he knew would be straight with him.

“General, your congressman is on the phone.”

“Congressman, what is going on?”

“I don’t know if you have heard, but there are some members in congress pushing a new type of RDF. It would basically be three groups of ships with a brigade of heavy forces plus helicopter carriers. They would have F-35B’s and Super Apache’s and lots of transport helicopters. Basically it would be the three Marine MEF’s only the troops would be on ship all the time moving around ready to respond. They would take your 161st as well plus some more transport choppers from the 160th. Their argument is the ships are hear now; they have the troops; the F-35B’s are ready and the Super Apache’s are not far off. And they would call it a joint force since everyone but the Air Force would be involved. They would have one steaming around the Mediterranean; one in the Northern Pacific and One in the Indian Ocean. Their claim is to be able to in 48 hours put a heavy brigade with heavy support on the ground anywhere.”

Liz sat back and thought for a bit. She could see the positives; but also the negatives.
“They would frankly need three times the personnel to man this; 4 months on and 8 months off is the most you can do and keep good people; the strain on families is just too much. So you would also need to have two crews or more; frankly three crews for the ships. Like they did with the Missile subs. So the manpower needs would be huge to keep it up. The Marines have the people if they used most of the corps; but it would be hell getting that many pilots and copilots qualified and then keep them qualified. Sir, this just would not give us more than we have now without it in the end costing more. The only edge this gives us is putting tanks and heavy forces on the ground sooner. With the exception of Desert Shield, when was the last time that was needed? In the last 25 years? No sir, I do not think it is a good deal.”

The Congressman nodded; SOCOM had said some of the same things; but she had put it in the way that really mattered in Washington: Cost benefit. To do it right would in the end cost more than what they had now and the benefit was historically unlikely. And that is what mattered.
“Thank you General, how are things going there?”

“The next batch of Marines for evaluation is due in tomorrow; and the next battalion of the 160th comes in next week. So I am busy.”

“Well good luck. I think I can step on this thing now before it goes any further.”

And he did. He knew how to talk to people and his reference to General Parker sealed it for most of them.

“So the Congressman shut it down. I was worried that would actually get somewhere.”

“I would have thought you would have loved it; the Marines would have had most of that pie.”
“I did not believe it gave us more than what we have now in a way that really mattered; and the point about needing three of each to keep one going was dead on. The training costs would have been horrendous. I kept my mouth shut because the CNO and Commandant bought off on it.”


Liz was just beginning to get used to being called General as the next batch of the 160th and Marines showed up. She had refined the process with the marines down to half an hour interview; half an hour in the simulator and half an hour in the air in the Super Apache. She would do the interview and then the simulator for 5 of them each day in the morning; then spend the afternoon flying with them and seeing what they had. She knew to keep it all unpredictable because they would talk to each other and she would not let any of them get an edge. She was very fair; she gave each one an equal shot; even when she was pretty sure after the interview if one was not going to make it. She was glad she did because a few did not do well in the first two parts but showed very good skills in the cockpit. By far the most of them were eliminated in the cockpit as things that could be hidden in the simulator showed up when they had the stick in their hands.

The Deputy Commandant for Aviation had opened up these slots to all Marine Aviators; active reserve and NG. If a reserve or NG made it they would be transferred to active duty. He had known that there would be no way that he would get the quality force he needed if he kept it to active only. Liz got 30 done a week now by working full time on this; 6 days a week. So by the end of the second week of the 160th 3rd Battalion being in, she had gotten the next 50 Marines done. 18 made it this time. So now she had 35 of 96 slots filled. Per the Deputy Commandants request, she was making up a second list of those that came very close to making the cut. They would be needed due to attrition. So far she had 6 on that list.

Liz was glad to get away from that process to start working over both Regiments 3rd Battalions. Sam Young had done a great job of messing with the minds of the 160th guys; so Liz had a fairly straightforward job of finding out how flexible and fast to think they were. This group was very vanilla; not great but no real weaknesses. She worked them mercilessly and then in the flyoff brought in the Royal Marines who proceeded to really act rowdy and demanding and basically push the pilots and commanders to the limits with all sorts of things; and the crews were pushed to the max as well. But in the end both Battalions acquitted themselves well. Liz gave them her usual good job; you passed and then went after the next group of Marine pilots.

This group had some gray beards in it; NG and reserves who were in their 40’s. Liz had no compunction about driving them just as hard; but found that they reacted better than many of the younger active pilots. Experience did help; but Liz bore down on the flight portions of the exam and pushed them really hard. The two weeks went by and out of this group of 50 she got 20, including 3 gray beards. She added 4 more to her second list; making it 55 and 10.

Then because of the way things worked out Liz had what was to her right now an off week. She was able to catch up on some paperwork and the like. And spend time with her family. With a day to go before the last Battalion of the 160th showed up and the next batch of Marines, she was checking on some things when she came across some notes she had written to herself when she was just about to make the move to Scotland, over a year and a half ago. She looked at one in particular and then made a call.
“That is reasonable. So you are decided?”

“Yes. Things are up and running well and I no longer will feel like I am dodging responsibility.”
“OK. Should be able to get this done fairly quickly. He will be in the zone?”

“Yes. And he deserves it.”

The next Monday night, Liz called for a Regimental meeting first thing Tuesday morning, after she had gotten a phone call telling her it was a go. It was a good day for Mid June, almost 50 degrees at 0800 that morning. She gave a quick talk to the Regiment, then signaled Jim to step up with her; he did not notice his wife slip in behind him.
“You all know Jim Harkness is one of the people who keep this place going. All too often support does not get the attention it deserves. Without the crews, our fancy choppers are very large paper weights. Well it is time he got some recognition for his work for the last 2 years. Lt Colonel James Harkness, it gives me great pleasure indeed to inform you that the Promotion Board has seen fit to do the right thing and make you a full Colonel.”
Then she and his wife took off his silver oak leafs and replaced them with the eagles that Liz had once worn.
“COLONEL Harkness, I think these eagles gave me some luck; I hope they bring some to you as well. Congratulations.”

But as it always seemed just when things are going well something comes along to remind you that the world is not always going to play nice.

The last battalion of the 160th was over to start their rotation through Dog Pound hell as it was beginning to be called. Liz was particularly interested in this because her 4th Battalion was newer than the others; and she was not yet totally sure of her Battalion commander, Major Rick Stimson. He had done well in the Pakistan mission, but had not really been tested otherwise. It was a case of the fact that he had not really been put through the mill as much as the others. He had missed the Cyprus and Turkish training mission, but had shown OK in all the others. She wanted to put him through the wringer so she could be sure that she could depend on him.

The next batch of Marines were in and Liz worked them over; and then she watched some as Rick did his thing pushing the 4th Battalion of the 160th. So far so good. But as the first week wore on Liz began to get some bad feelings. She had Jim watching the 4th and he was a little worried as well; they got together that Friday night after the 5th day and talked about it.

“He is favoring A company.”

“I kind of thought so but was not really sure. Tell me.”

“Two times this week he gave either C company the harder job; and they really belonged to his Black Hawks. Pushed the 160th guys on their Black Hawk Company.”

Liz sighed. This was not good. “OK. Now why is he giving favorite treatment to A company?”

Jim was quiet and Liz looked at him. “A company, its commander, is his best friend. I think, not quite sure, that he thinks that he has to carry him.”

“Does he?”

“No. Captain Ames is quite solid.”

Liz contemplated this. You picked who could do it best and dot it right; that is how you commanded. Playing favorites was just bad.

“OK, they are going to be going over water tomorrow; I want you to ride with him to watch. And do this.”

The next day in midafternoon of an over the water exercise, Jim suddenly orders Major Stimson to break off someone and land on the beach as a sudden pickup. The beach is not very level and would be a tough landing. The appropriate choice was the Black Hawks of his company A. Chinooks were too big.

“C Company, land and secure.”

Stimson commanded B company; Jim watched as the first Chinook started to try and land; and was going to call it off when the Chinook sat down and then just slumped a little.
“Mail Carrier Lead, I have damage.”


Liz looked at Jim. “I should have acted faster.”
“Jim, you are not an aviator. The pilot thought it was a little dangerous and found out what can happen when you get over confident. It is not too bad as regards the Chinook. No one was injured and the damage was not serious. But the real point is Rick. This was a case of serious misjudgement or worse. So we are going to grill him.”

Liz and Jim faced Rick alone in her office.
“Major Stimson, why did you order a Chinook into an area that was best suited for a Black Hawk?”

“General, I thought it was safe enough.”

“That is not what I asked. I asked why not the safest option which was a Black Hawk.”

“Sir, in my judgment it was just as safe for a Chinook.”

Liz and Jim looked at each other for a long time and Liz just nodded slightly.

The next day Liz brought Rick in and informed him that he was being transferred out of the 161st. She told him straight up what had been observed and that she did not trust his judgment. She then promoted his C company commander to the Battalion command and moved up his #2 in first platoon to platoon commander and his second platoon commander took over the company. She had liked what she had seen of C Company and she really had no one else with enough experience. Liz then put off the rest of the training for a few days to let the new Battalion Commander get used to things. Then took over the rest of the training herself, pushing everyone hard. Captain Ames had come in to talk to her.
“General, I kept telling him that we were fine; green but fine.”

“It is not your fault, Captain. He made errors of judgment and that is why he is no longer with us.”

The next week things seemed to be going well when on the Thursday, with just 8 days to go, they got a hairy situation.

Liz had just gotten back from flying with the last of the days Marine candidates when she noticed things seemed to be going on. Then she was informed that a Black Hawk had shredded its transmission and had by the grace of got landed on one of the Cloverley’s. They were going to get one of the Chinooks to lift it off.

Liz went into operations and said one word. “Report.”

Major Young was in the room. “General, a Black Hawk from the 160th’s A company shredded its transmission; and he managed to get it down on the cloverley.”

“Anyone injured?”

“He ordered everyone out to jump in the sea before he put it down. They are wet but the other cloverley picked them up.”
In two hours they had the Black Hawk back and were looking it over. Shredding a transmission was not a usual situation; very rare. And usually there was plenty of warning. She immediately went in to talk to the pilot, a WO3 named Alex Jones.

“Sir my copilot noticed the temperature starting to rise; and I informed my Battalion commander and started to head to shore; making sure I was passing close to one of the rescue ships. I was about 10 miles from land when we could start hearing the transmission starting to go. I headed right for the nearest ship and about 500 yds away I ordered my crew to jump; I was only at about 40 feet. The transmission let go just as I was about to set down. I landed with a bit of a thump but otherwise ok.”

They were already pulling the wrecked tranny from the Black Hawk and were looking at the black box data. The crew chief was shaking his head when Liz asked him what he thought.
“General, I just reworked that transmission. There is no way this should have happened. It looks like two main gears started to shred and that finally snapped the shaft. They started to shred and that raised the temperature as the oil could not flow and it happened in about 8 minutes.”

“Contact the company. As of this moment you are standing down. I will have one of the other crews examine this.”

Liz sighed as she sat in her office. Jim came in with fresh coffee which she drank about half in one go.
“Well, what you said about having those boats has come true. We just paid for them for the next 20 years.”
“I guess. But I want to know what happened; either there were bad parts or that Crew messed up.”

“Jones flat out says he has a great crew and crew chief.”

“Pilots will do that anyway.”

“Maybe but he is backing his crew chief.”

“We shall see. I want those parts checked carefully.”

Jack Dawson, her Battalion Maintenance commander came in at 2100 just as Liz was thinking about heading to her quarters. He had some paperwork with him.
“Those two gears were bad. Counterfeit. Below grade workmanship and material.”

Liz blinked. “Counterfeit or the contractor cutting corners?”

“Counterfeit I am willing to bet. This company has been getting us parts for years. Never had a problem before.”

“Contact Army Safety. There could be more of this batch out there.”

As it turned out the company had sub contracted those parts out; and the subcontractor had gone cheap. It would be sorted out but for the time being all Black Hawks that had any parts from that subcontractor were grounded and checked. This would take two weeks to clear up and would result in a curtailment of operations. Liz had spare parts looked over and two black hawks cannibalized to ensure they could finish the training mission and get the 160th people back home.

Liz as soon as she could went back to working the Marines. It was now the beginning of July and she wanted them all done in the next few weeks. She and her command needed some rest in August to prepare for the September event. She was glad the decision to start training had to be pushed back as regards the Marines; she had been hard core about the evaluation process. But the navy was pushing the ships over for the training exercise. They would train on Cyprus with the Brits; and then on Turkey with the Turks and then in Greece with the Greeks. 3 full weeks of training with a week in each would really stretch everyone. The same cast of characters mostly, but the 19th and 52nd Brigades would not be coming this year; while the Commandos, SBS, SAS, Para’s and Royal Marines would be. In addition the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards; 1st Battalion Irish Guards; The Welsh Guards; 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian; 1st and 2nd Battalions Duke of Lancaster’s; 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Yorkshire. And this time they would be bringing both the Commando and Parachute Artillery Batteries. Just to make it more interesting the US Navy had offered both the America and the Columbia for operations down there. Which would give them a chance to operate Super Apache’s from there and learn things. Then they added two of the older Tarawa class ships; and Liz then decided to have a big meeting of all concerned in London at the MOD.

So a week later Liz sat in the center seat again and on her right was a US Navy Rear Admiral and on her left a British Army Major General. And there was a Turkish Major General and a Greek Major general (on opposite sides of course). Air Vice Marshal Bryce, the Royal Commando commander a Brigadier of the Royal Marines. And then the other unit commanders down the sides. It was a rather full table. Once again Liz took the floor.
“OK. This particular training operation is beginning to look like it will be an annual thing. And it is growing. This time the US Navy will have 4 LHA’s. After some careful looking we figure we can squeeze all the UK troops and equipment on the ships; we will fly them to Cyprus and load the ships; then all strikes will come from the ships; then there will be movement from shore. The ships will be there for the first week and we will use them up. These operations will be based on Cyprus. Then we will spend the next week in Greece and the third week in Turkey. This way we will not need to set up camp on Cyprus. Now as regards the command situation. We will be splitting the units as such: the SAS on one side; the SBS on the other; Para’s on one side and Commandos on the other. We will split up the other units so as to make equal sides for the Cyprus operation. Then on moving to Greece all British units will be under Major General Brooke. The Greek commandos and regular army units will take turns with the UK forces playing aggressor and defender. Then when we go to Turkey the same. I want to emphasize that just like last year the plans will be vague and general; it will be up to the individual commanders to get it done. These operations are designed to test the regimental and battalion commanders on all sides. Now as regards the air components; both the Greek and Turkish air forces want to play; but they are going to have to get past my Apache’s and Attack Little Birds; so we will be having our own private war. While the rest of you are also going at it. There has been curiosity as regards the anti air capability of the Apache and we will test that here. So are there any questions?”

Needless to say there were a few but not that many. There had been so much talk about the No Name operation last year that everyone was eager to see if it could be done again.

“Oh. And regards the name of this year’s operation. It is called Little Interruption.”

Liz found it a little harder to push the keep it simple stupid (KISS) concept this time around but she got support from all those who had been there the previous year. So after some discussion it was agreed to keep it the same way. She was a little amused at how uncomfortable some of the higher ups were about not having a rigidly planned and scripted training operation. She did notice that she was not getting much argument when she pushed hard for something; she wondered if it was the fact that she was now a general or due to her reputation, or a combination of both. At least it came in handy at the moment.

The ships would add a whole new component to the operation and Liz wanted to make sure that was understood by all, herself included. So she went right to the horse’s mouth.
“Admiral, how do you propose to use your ships in this operation?”

“General, the purpose of those ships is to bring the strike force close enough to reach their target but far enough away to make striking them harder; and to as much as possible allow the element of surprise.”

“Well, then, we need to plan to use them that way as much as possible. The rest of the time they will be the base for operations of the helicopters and other support craft. The question is, and I think we should do this, is to decide whether to leave the troops on ships and go back and forth to the various target areas or move them from one target area to the next.”

It was agreed since the ships would only be there for the first week so they needed to make maximum use of them. The Super Apache’s would be expected to be the CAP. That would be a new thing and something Liz knew they needed some work on.
This time also the helicopters , once the ships were gone, would move from Cyprus to Greece to Turkey; setting up for full operations at each point. The crews and maintenance would have to move and work from tents.

Liz had proposed, and it had been accepted, that the desalination plants would move from place to place; they would be expected to move and set up quickly just like if this was the real thing. And while the areas were basically decided on, the choice of where they would set up would be a last minute decision. Once again just as if this was the real thing. Realism is what Liz pushed all the time.
“Some here are uncomfortable with the idea of not planning everything down to the finest detail. I ask those that, outside of the opening campaigns of any war, when were real military operations that carefully planned? Once the war began, you had to react and adjust on the fly. Operation Overlord is the only mid or late war operation I have ever heard of that took over a year to plan. Everything else took months at most. So those that think we need to take six months to get a training exercise done right are putting themselves against the history of modern war. Now one could make the point that waiting until 6 weeks before to really get something together is a little bit much but once again I argue why not? Training exercises are supposed to stretch you and make you think.”

No one there argued with her and as far as she was concerned that was that. She did have a short meeting with the senior officers right after; the Admiral and the Generals. That turned into a more of a meet and greet than anything else.

Liz finished up the last of the Marine interviews by the end of July; and had 96 on the main list and 18 on the second list. It had been decided that she would start training them in August; their Super Apache’s had arrived for the first 2 squadrons and Liz wanted to get started.

“OK. You are here to learn how to fly the Super Apache. You have flown in one and gone through a short exercise in a simulator. You have had time to get familiar with the systems and the cockpit, you SHOULD be very familiar with the manual. We will start you out on the simulator; and I do not think I have to tell you that I will be tough.”

Liz had 32 days until they left for the exercise and she spent the great majority of those days working the first group of Marine pilots and copilots over hard. The copilots had been chosen differently; Liz had not been part of that. She saw right away that some would not make it; but kept quiet about it. There was a full colonel of Marines in attendance who was supposed to be actually in charge of them; Liz had enough to do without that as well. They had talked when he had gotten in.
“Colonel Martin, how do you feel about babysitting?”

“General, I follow orders. Not the greatest duty but it is needed.”

“No argument there. Glad I do not have to be responsible for them in addition to everything else. You are almost certainly going to have to toss some of the copilots. Frankly I am surprised at how loosely they screened them.”

“So am I. General, just let me know when one screws up and I will have his butt out of here ASAP. I have already informed the Deputy Commandant that whoever was in charge of screening copilots did a lousy job.”

They were to find out that those in charge of this had frankly given it short shrift; cursory at best interviews and perusal of their records. Of course those officers soon found themselves no longer part of the Marine Corps soon after the results became clear, but that did not help Liz or the Colonel.

Liz worked the pilots and copilots equally hard; but the copilots had not expected it. In the first two weeks she washed out or kicked out 15 copilots; and 10 others requested reassignment.

“How did this happen?”

“Sir, it was my office that screwed up. The orders were clear but the training command chose to interpret them very liberally as regards the quality of copilots chosen.”

“That is to put it mildly. General Parker has had to kick out 15 and 10 have quit. That is out of a first group of 50. Colonel Martin has informed me that he expects no more than 20% of them to make it. That is completely unacceptable and a total embarrassment to the Corps. I want those responsible for choosing them out of the Corps one way or another; if they fight it get court-martials scheduled.”

“Yes sir.”

Liz was glad that she had made Jim Base Commander; that took some of the paperwork and other crap off of her desk. The latest mess with the copilots had been a real pain in the butt. The pilots were doing well, as she expected. No real problems there. Now that the worst of the copilots were gone that had settled down some. She still did not think that more than a dozen at most of those that remained would qualify.

The Deputy Commandant for Aviation, well aware that he was hanging by his fingernails, had worked over the head of training and had ordered him to personally vet the next batch of Copilots.

By the time it they were ready to leave for Cyprus, Liz had weeded the copilots down to 14. None of the first 24 pilots were gone. She then decided to take them with her, since there was no reason to have them doing nothing for 3 weeks. The whole Regiment was going. So it would have been a ghost town anyway. Then she also decided to take their Super Apache’s as well and have them work into the training. She would have to be careful but she figured she could at least get some work done with them.

They packed up all their choppers and headed south; the Air Force was collecting the Brits and would fly them straight to Cyprus. The ships were already on location so the first day would consist of loading them.

Liz had never been aboard a ship of any real size so the America, the flagship of Task Group 34.1 was interesting. It had only been in service for 3 years; the Columbia had only been in service for less than one. They were about the same size as the Essex class WW2 carriers; but were extremely modern. They had no catapults or arresting gear; VTOL and helicopters were the name of the game. Usually they had some V-22’s but not this trip. They did have some F-35B’s and Liz was very curious about them.

Colonel Martin gathered the pilots and copilots and laid down the law.
“There is already a fair number of people watching you; waiting for you to screw up. So think about that. These are the same ships you will be serving in when you become operational; so use this time to get familiar with them. Watch and learn. The General will be working with you when she has the time; expect a sudden call and you better be ready.”

Liz stood on the bridge of the USS America and looked around. They had loaded everyone aboard the ships and were now heading back down the Mediterranean; the idea was to simulate an attack; get to position then launch. The first groups out will be to set up perimeters and defenses; then the next groups out would be attacking them. Outside of a general idea no one knew who was going to do what; recon would be required. The Little Birds would be doing that; over watched by Attack Little Birds; the Super Apache’s would be the CAP; the F-35B’s would be high CAP.

Liz had changed things a little; she had the 161st and the British Helicopters that had come along fly all the defenders to Cyprus and then the ships sailed out of sight before they started moving them to positions only they knew about. Liz had ordered all crews to not tell anyone where they had put the defending forces. That would force real recon and the commanders to plan on the fly the following morning.

At 0530 the following morning, the British Major General commanding the attacking forces ordered recon of Cyprus. The Little Birds, Attack Little Birds and Apache’s took off by 0600, just before dawn. The ships were 50 miles from Cyprus. The F-35B’s took off 30 minutes later and took over the high altitude CAP; the Apaches kept at about 5000; while the Attack Little Birds escorted the Little Birds in for recon. At 0700 it was reported that Greek air craft were closing; and the F-35B’s went out to meet them. The Greeks sent their F-16’s high and low; the Super Apache’s got to shore and stayed low; in a melee lasting almost 20 minutes, the 32 attacking Greek F-16’s were shredded. They were astonished by being taken out by the Super Apache’s waiting in the weeds. They were unable to find them and were targeted by Sidewinder and AMMRAM’s. 24 F-16’s were considered downed; against 5 F-35B’s and no Super Apache’s.

The Little Birds bored in and located the defending forces. The General sent out the response forces appropriately. And that was how it went day to day; the Greeks trying to figure out how to get through the CAP but usually not succeeding. The ground maneuvers and assault and counter assault got very creative. They had to send back to the UK for more 105 blank ammunition as the gunners used more than thought.

Moving everyone to the staging area on the Greek coast took another full day; but they started going at it the next morning. And there were two night assaults as well. They had tried to see what each regiment wanted to work on and try and use them in that way. They had mostly succeeded.

By the end of the third week everyone was getting tired; but they kept at it. The General pointing out that in real combat they would be getting tired as well.

Liz took every opportunity she could find to work with the Marines; and she was usually able to scare up time each day. She had taken a back seat to things mostly, only occasionally injecting some last minute change to mess up carefully laid plans. So she spent a fair amount of time taking the Marine Apache’s around; they only took up 12 at a time and rotated the crews; she took them off the ship and then up and around; taking it fairly easy at first to allow them to get familiar with the Super Apache. Two of the copilots she had taken along showed problems and she sent them back to the States.
The Turks proved even more tricky and it was actually fun to watch; the SBS and SAS got caught out a couple of times falling into traps; and the Para’s almost did an Alamo. But the Royal Marines did capture his command post on a night raid so it mostly evened out. Before they left everyone agreed it had been a very worthwhile exercise.

Getting back to Scotland Liz gave everyone the day after arrival off to be with their families and rest. She went home and just laid around watching her family. Aliya was blossoming into a beautiful woman inside and out; and James was becoming a real boys boy. They seemed happy and that was what was really important. She snuggled with Max that night.
“They seem happy. How about you?”

“I got them and you; I would be a real miserable bastard to not be happy.”

Liz hit the ground running the next day, bringing the Marines in for more simulator work while having a critique for the training mission. She had really very little to gripe about.

Meanwhile interest in the results of Little Interruption were looked over in several areas. TRADOC had requested Predator footage and a written record and proceeded to go over all of it with a fine tooth comb. Marine Aviation was very interested in the overall anti air operation; disappointed that the F-35B’s did not do better but astonished at how well the Super Apache’s did. That part began to get a lot of attention. The Air Force was not ready to believe that a helicopter of any kind could really ambush a competently led attack of modern jets; and said so. Boeing then upped the ante by starting to advertise the Super Apache as being able to give moderate protection to ground forces from air attack; they were careful not to boast too much but the message was there. That got some flyboys really irritated. They had resented for years the way many in the US Army and Marine Corps relied on helicopters for ground support; which was kind of interesting considering how often they had tried to get rid of the A-10. This began to percolate up the ladder and the Deputy Commandant for Aviation added gasoline to the fire by casually mentioning in a article that the Marines felt there was no reason that the F-35B’s and Super Apache’s could not afford any attack group sufficient protection from anything except a major air attack. Considering the Marines were known to not be all that happy with the current F-35B package that seemed to be saying that anything getting past them would be taken care of by the Super Apache’s.

While Liz was working away at the Marines and having them do more and more difficult operations with the Super Apache’s, this debate began to grow teeth and legs.

“Are you just tweaking the Air Force with those comments or do you really mean them?”

“Sir, the preliminary indications are that just about any strike package short of a NATO one would have a hard time penetrating against a combined F-35 and Super Apache CAP.”

The Commandant raised an eyebrow.
“They are that good?”

“Sir, remember that the Longbow radar was very good; and this is the next generation. The heat source suppression on the Super Apache is very good; so getting a long range lock with a heat seeker is difficult. The radar return is not that great; so that also helps to prevent a long range lock with a radar seeker. The ECM and ECCM package is the same as the F-22 has. Same with the flare and chaff system. One of the criteria’s of the Super Apache was an increased ability to take on fixed wing aircraft in combat. Now that they can carry 2 Sidewinder and 2 AMRAMM, and since they operate in usually no less than Company strength, their ability to respond and survive a fixed wing attack is not small.”

“You do know that now the Air Force is going to demand some real exercises.”

“I hope they do. If we do even halfway decently they still lose overall.”

The Commandant nodded. That was true; the Air Force had nothing to gain and everything to lose by pushing this.

But apparently cooler heads did not prevail and at a Meeting of the Joint Chiefs the Air Force Chief of Staff floated an exercise proposal. Since at the moment only the 160th and 161st operated them, it was they who would have to carry the fight though it was clearly aimed at the Marines. The CNO, a pilot himself, also showed interest. No real surprise considering how much the navy had invested in their carriers. Being as it had been mentioned at an official meeting, it was considered a nearly formal request and thus things began to happen.

The Aviation Chief of SOCOM was considering getting out; he did not like desk jobs and anything he did next would not be in SOCOM in all likelihood. So when SOCOM mentioned the idea, he was interested as well. With the rather slow state of things at the moment (SOCOM was less busy now then they had been since it had been created) anything that promised to be different and interesting was desirable.
“Well, it seems the 160th would be the ones on the hot seat.”

“In all probability; but let’s face the facts: the best right now is the 161st.”

“True, though the gap has narrowed after she worked their tails off. And the new training officer for the 160th looks like someone who can keep it up.”

“We both know the bottom line of this challenge is aimed right at her and her people. They pretty much embarrassed the Greeks.”

“From all accounts once the Greeks broke through the F-35 screen they thought it was easy pickings afterwards and the Super Apache’s just flat out bushwhacked them.”

“In all honesty at any altitude and say over water the Super Apache’s would be hard pressed to survive at all against a modern trained fighter force. But even there if they go to almost sea level they will be very difficult for any airborne radar even AWACS to see them. Not being seen really evens things out. And as regards defenses against missiles the Super Apache has the same defensive capabilities as the F-22; ECM, ECCM, chaff and flares. They have a very light infrared signature so heat seekers would have a hard time anyway. And the designers have thought that they can lock on an incoming missile with the AMRAAM. It would be hairy but possible. Bottom line is that only at altitude is the Super Apache really in bad shape.”
“Well, talk it over with her and see what she really thinks.”

Liz had just come down from another nearly all day training session with the Marines. They were coming along well; she had a feeling that by the time the ships arrived in November they would be ready to roll. She was just sitting behind her desk looking with distaste at the paperwork there when her phone rang.
”General, its SOCOM Aviation.”

“General, what is up?”

“The Air Force wants to prove the Super Apache is no match for their F-16’s, unlike the Greeks.”

“Really? Where did this come from?”

“The Deputy Commandant for Aviation tweaked them. That got the flyboys all upset and apparently the swab jockeys as well. They are sensitive about that sort of thing.”

“And they do not want to wait until the Marines are activated.”

“Pretty much. Nothing formal has come down, but it was brought up at a Joint Chiefs meeting. So I have no doubt something will be coming.”

“Us and not the 160th, which are right there in the states and can do this fairly easily?”

“Come on Liz, you know very well that they want to knock off the Champ and that is you.”

“I know but it is not like I am just lying around doing nothing.”

“That is the price you pay for being #1.”

“So how do you think they want to do this?”

“They want it out in the open; you want it in real terrain; they will want it higher up; you will want it on the ground.”

“Duh. How about this? We beat them to the punch and challenge them to come to our back yard and fight it out?”

“Scotland or Campbell?”

“Not sure. We have all those lovely trees and hills in Campbell; but we have the cliffs and beaches here in Scotland. Overall probably Campbell would be better. But I cannot take the time to come over.”

“True. You have heard how this is done?”

“Gun cameras and transmitters that show what each aircraft can see and its all fed into a central location that decides who shot who down.”

“That and the data from each aircrafts computer. Showing when they got lock and the like.”

Liz sat back and thought about it. OK why not?
“Have them come here and see what they can do. I can talk to the locals and see if they do not mind us using the islands in this area; hilly and craggy and should give us an edge.”

“OK, I will start it going. When do you want to do it?”

“Next month before the weather gets too bad.”



“She really thinks they have a shot at doing well?”

“Yes. She will use the terrain and such. And let’s face it, you know the fly boys will come in hot and arrogant.”
“More than likely. OK, I will let it drop at the next JCS meeting next week.”

Liz got the Marines qualified at the beginning of November; then was informed that the next group would not be sent till January. Which was fine with her.

It was formally set up that the first week in December two squadrons of F-16’s would be visiting for a week to settle things as regarding who was the Big Bad in the air. Liz proceeded to talk to the company Rep from Boeing who then talked to some others and began to look at things. Suggestions came about how to deal with being hunted by F-16’s, and how to strike back.

And so it came to be on December 3 Liz led the Super Apache’s out of the base and north about 30 miles to the islands there. It was a cold but clear day. The F-16’s, coming from Lakenheath, would circle around and come towards those islands. Their target was the base, but knew that the defense would be to the North. They came in at 35,000 feet thinking to use their radar advantage; there was an AWACS nearby.

Liz deliberately split her command; one company stayed back near the base; one mid way; and she took the third forward. She took them right near the ground; the only rule was that they could not actually be on the ground. In Loch Tarbert she waited and then when she got the first radar indications that they were near deliberately popped up to 100 feet then dropped down.

The Major leading the first squadron went for them from high while the second squadron went low.

Liz had been deep in the loch and had then moved towards the mouth, staying near the shore at about a height of 20 feet. She then waited until she and all her people got lock and then let go with first a Sidewinder then an AMRAAM. Then headed back into the loch. The second company had waited until they got the signal from Liz then popped up and acquired locks and each fired a Sidewinder and a AMRAMM. Then they headed at speed back towards the Base.

Liz popped up over the hills then went down the coast heading south, staying low.

Meanwhile the high squadron had managed to supposedly break all but 4 locks and had sighted the choppers only to get swatted by the second company.

The last company moved at speed towards the battle area staying at about 15-20 feet above the water.
The second squadron came around the area at about 5000 feet and were smacked in the face by the second company who fired off the rest of their ordnance. Liz then caught them between her and the third company in a vice.

“Ok, what is the tally?”

“The first fight was ugly; of the 36 F-16’s that came 28 were considered either confirmed or probable’s; they got only 5 of the Super Apache’s.”

“That is really going to torque them off.”
“Yep.”


“OK, people, we got 28 and lost 5. But we really caught them by surprise and fat dumb and happy. And way over confident. Tomorrow will be different.”

To say that the fighter jocks were pissed is to say the sky is blue. But they had to admit they had walked into it. Well, they would show who was boss the next day.

Liz let her people celebrate for a while then got down to day two of ‘Whack the Jock.’

She figured, after talking with some experts in this area, that they would realize coming in high was a mistake. Gave too much warning. So this day she would bet they would come at low level. In other words right into her parlor, said the spider to the fly.

She spread her people all around the peninsula, all on the beaches except for her and Company B, she would be with a different company each day. They stayed hovering near trees and basically hard to see not far from the base. They had the run of the area since the Golf Course was closed for the season.

Today the two squadrons came screaming in at below 5000 feet and then went to wave height. They found out that this did not do them much good; as their radar was still unable to find anyone. Until they were right near the beaches where the Apache’s lay in wait. One squadron came from the North and one from the South. Got worked over by the Apache’s on the beach and then as they went over the base at only 500 feet got scorched by Liz and her company.

“Better or worse?”

“They lost only 20; but they only got 2 Apache’s.”

“So from 7-1 they went to 10-1.”

“Their post mission debriefing ought to be fun.”

The third day they decided to not go as low but not as high the first day; and to maneuver over the land not around the beaches and such. They did better as Liz had her people mostly on land for that one. 18 vs 6.

The fourth day they stood off and worked at figuring where the Apache’s were; but Liz foiled them by keeping her people low and hovering; radar once again useless; finally they headed for the base and got caught as Liz deliberately rose then dropped; they overwhelmed her and C Squadron, getting all 9 of them while losing only 6; but the other two squadrons took out 20 more with no loss as they back shot them. 26 vs 9. Which was the best ratio they had gotten.

Fifth day one squadron came in hard as basically a decoy at full speed just below supersonic. They lost 12 as Liz was waiting for them. The other squadron went right for the base and it was declared destroyed; but lost 6 more post bombing supposedly. But they got no Apaches so it was 18-0.

The sixth and last day they split their squadrons into 6 plane sections and surrounded the area and bored in. In that melee they did better but the total still was 25 to 12. 135 vs 37 overall. Just over 3.5 to 1.

“Unbelievable.”

“Yes sir.”

“These were not bad squadrons.”

“No sir, not our best but probably above average.”

“Going against the best there is on the other side.”

“If there was any doubt of that it is gone now.”

“There will be hell to pay about this.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Deputy Commandant for Aviation looked at the Commandant.
“After further review they changed the numbers a little but not much. Pretty much the same result. The Top Gun people will also be looking at it.”

“And so will everyone else.”

SOCOM and his Aviation Chief looked at the results. He looked at his chief.
“She really got into their heads I bet.”

“That she did; she clearly out maneuvered them. They tried several different tactics and none of them worked well. They could not get any real radar returns because she kept her people low to the ground. She played the ambush game and they got ambushed. Bottom line is that they have the edge; and that is always true when playing defense.”

The last JCS meeting for Christmas was expected to be interesting; one week after the end of the exercise.

The Air Force Chief of Staff wasted no time and put it right out there.
“OK, my people went in fat dumb happy and stupid and got waxed. Needless to say we want a rematch.”

The CNO put his oar in. “Our F-18’s would like to have their shot.”

SOCOM looked at them calmly. “I believe some exercises can be arranged.”

Meanwhile the Commandant said nothing. Just smiled.

Special Operations have been supposedly thinking about something like the Super Apache I have created. Everything I have described could be done. The Air Force jocks are known to be long on one thing and short on another. And if they do not get a radar warning; just that someone is locking on with their own radar, if they cannot see it then they are toast. Heat Seekers like the Sidewinder give no warning at all. Liz used the strenghts of her aircraft in a way that put the F-16's in a very vulnerable position. Now if Liz had took them up to 10,000 and tried the same thing it would have been her that would have gotten slaughtered. That is what a smart commander does.

After the great Scottish Turkey Shoot, as her people called it, things settled down. It was the holidays and the year had been pretty busy. So Liz pretty much let people off as much as she could. She had to maintain enough personnel on base to respond if needed, but she kept that to the absolute minimum. Nancy came over with Ted for a visit; then a real surprise when Maria and her brood of 4 came as well. Liz loved having Maria there; they got a chance to talk like they had not been able to for a long while. Max and Michael got along surprisingly well; and the kids did fine; Nancy enjoyed being with all of them and Aliya found that being the big sister was nice. The new housing had gotten done in August, so there was plenty of room for families to visit. Liz simply put it out that since the rooms would be vacant then people could invite family and they could stay for a minimum stipend. Which was way cheaper than any motels in the area. So quite a large number of families of the people of the 161st came to stay for those holidays.

Liz and Maria were lazing one night, just the day after Christmas, just sitting and eating ice cream and hanging out. Liz looked at her friend.
“So what is the latest with Tess and Isabel?”

“Tess is really thinking about another child; Kyle is willing. Isabelle has Alex thoroughly trained now and it is kind of fun to watch. They are happy.”

“When we met in Basic did you ever think we would end up lifelong buddies?”

“Not right away; but by the time Basic was done I knew that all four of us were best buds for life.”

“I have been so lucky; I never had the friends before I came in that I got being in. The three of you and the Crew and the Posse. Incredibly lucky.”

“We have all been real lucky; but if one is talking about luck then you really need to play the lotto. You were born with a rabbits foot and a four leaf clover already as part of you. No other way to explain all of this.”

“Cannot argue. Just living through it without anything but a couple of scratches does constitute considerable luck.”

Maria was silent for a moment. “Liz I remember once early on you talking about the Gods of War. More and more I get the feeling you are a chosen of the Gods of War. I hear you had something big going on recently.”

“You mean the training exercise in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey?”

“No, not that. I heard you reamed the Air Force a new one.”

“Yeah, they came in fat dumb and happy and we sent them back smarter wiser and in pieces. Ambush big time.”

“We make it a point to listen in and read some of the military forums. They sent two F-16 squadrons after you and the word is you cleaned their clocks.”

“Pretty much. Fighter jocks are all dick and no brains.”

“Liz Parker! Your mom would wash your mouth out for that!”

“Hey. I am an old soldier now and old soldiers are allowed to cuss.”

“Old my ass. You are only 32. And you don’t even look that. You still look years younger than any of us. Which is really bizarre since it is not like you don’t have lots to due and responsibility out the yang. And what is this about the Marines?”

“Training them has not been too bad once I weeded out the wannabe’s from the real thing.”

“Still bizarre you doing it and not other Marines. Even though you are the ones that started the Super Apache’s.”

“Common sense; and the Marines have gotten a bad rep I think. The pilots there are smarter than the Air Force jocks.”

“Not exactly a high bar.”

“True but they definitely think more. Now of course I only took the ones I thought were worth it but still overall much more mature.”

“Still trying to get over you being a General. The look on your face was just so funny. You really were shocked out of your gourd.”

“Absolutely. Realistically I was at least one if not two years off from that.”

“Youngest General in the US military since the Civil War. But then you have really earned it. Liz tell me: when you saw those SOBs going into that bunker, didn’t you really worry?”

“No. They were not going to have time to do anything. They would have needed at least half an hour, maybe more. They barely had a minute before I was blowing that door off. The plasma jets from the Hellifires fried them quick.”

“EEEEEWWW.”

“The SF took pictures but I have made it a point not to look.”

“Good call.”

“Really that mission was not all that tough. Just looked that way and the stakes were so high.”

“Liz. You probably stopped World War III.”

“That has been exaggerated. Honestly I look back at it and how in the world were the idiots going to get them anywhere before they got hit from the air by someone? The Pakistanis, Us, whoever?”

“What if they just wanted to set one off to get things started?”

“As long as it happened in Pakistan, India would not have done anything. Only if they had gotten it to India was that a concern. And there is realistically no way that could have happened.”

“Maybe but that is not what most think. Liz, rescuing Aliya was huge; this one was gigantic and humongous in one. You are immortal.”

“The Crew said that when I rescued Aliya. But I guess there is always another high bar to get over. Not that I care much anyway.”

“That is why we love you. Despite everything it has never gone to your head. Liz, you really are a hero. And you act like one should.”

Liz blushed and Maria giggled. “Lizzy blushes!”

After settling down a little, Maria got serious.
“So what is the next step?”

Liz shrugged. “When they pry me out of here I go to Command School where I guess they teach me to command.” She said with a smirk.

“When that happens there are going to be a whole lot of people shaking their heads. NO one has a thing to teach you about command.”

“Well there are some things I probably need to learn regarding logistics and such; but yeah it pretty much is going to be 10 months of boredom.”

“Maybe that won’t be such a bad thing?”

“Maybe. I was kicking around the idea of having another baby but I don’t think so. Just do not feel the need; unlike you.”

“I think maybe four is enough. Michael thinks so.”

“Well duh.”

“So after the 10 months where would you go?”

“Technically any one star position in the Army; or for the DOD. Realistically probably a pretty high profile one. I would hope for the Aviation Commander of SOCOM but I doubt it.”

“Is there a place they would not send you?”

“Well, they are not going to try and bury me. Actually Brigadier is an interesting rank. Mostly assistants and the like considered to be a learning rank. Like Lt Colonel.”

“Well you are active in your rank now.”

“True but I am over ranked for this position. But considering it is an important position and it is overseas not markedly so.”

“How long do you think you have?”

“Another year.”

Once back on the job Liz began to think about the fact that she would probably be gone in a year; and began to think about her successor. After what happened with the 160th, she knew it was very important to have the next guy ready to go. As she looked at her battalion commanders, she zeroed in on Sam Young and thought hard about him. The more she thought, the more she began to see him as the guy. And so she made a call.

SOCOM listened and considered things. “I will be back to you on this.”

His Aviation chief, due to retire in less than a year, considered it. And nodded.

“General Parker, we will look into your request and see what we can do.”

The Aviation chief was pensive. “She really is thinking about this; and good for her. I get a feeling that something else is going on.” And looked at SOCOM.
“There is but at this time I can say nothing.”

The next batch of Marine Pilots appeared right after New Years, along with what Colonel Martin told Liz were some much more carefully screened copilots.

The next few months went by quickly as Liz trained the Marines and began to make moves to push Sam Young up to her designated successor. He got his Lt Colonel’s wings and Jim told Liz she should make him her XO.
“Jim, are you sure?”

“Liz, I got my birds thanks to you. This is as far as I go. My wife and I really like it here; and when it’s time to go then I will hang it up and smile. You gave me a chance to be part of something really special and that is enough for me.”

So Liz did just that.

“You wanted to see me General?”

“Colonel Young, effective 1 March you will be the 161st XO.”

“So she is really sure he is the guy?”

“That is what she says and she made him her XO.”


Liz could hear the clock ticking. As the Spring turned into Summer, and the last of the Marines were trained, she began to wonder what she would be doing next. The Command Staff College was a given; but after that who knew. She just hoped it was an interesting slot. She knew her days of flying ended when she moved beyond the 161st. She wondered if she could stand it.

Proving that they were not totally stupid, the fly boys wanted to take on the 160th. Liz had long conversations with the Battalion commander of the 160th Apaches and made some suggestions. In the end he did quite well; the second round also went to the Apache’s, if only by a little over 1.7 to 1. Once again they made the F-16’s come to them and used the terrain advantages around Campbell. The fact that in two separate areas the F-16’s lost was very hard for the fly boys to swallow.

The Swab Jockeys wanted their shot as well; and they wanted to take on the Champ. Since there really was no situation where the Super Apache’s would ever be in mid ocean, Liz accepted on the proviso that they fight near her base. So in May they came to try their luck. They brought a Viking, which was considered the AWACS little brother, to help. Big Brother would once again monitor. They brought 3 squadrons to the fight; and Liz knew they would make sure they were the best ones they could shake loose for this. She had some long talks with her people; working on strategy.

“OK. We have to figure they are not stupid and know that the best places for us to be is low and hidden. The Viking is pretty good but it is not as good as a AWACS and they have just as much trouble finding us when we are in the weeds. Yet there is not a whole lot they can do about it. They have to come to us and they know that it will be real hard for them to see us and virtually impossible for their radar to spot us. But our radar does tell them they are being targeted. I think they will try and have some flying high and trying to look down; maybe 15,000 or lower. I would not put it past them to be willing to sacrifice some of their people by sending a section out to try and make us show ourselves. This time it will be much more of a chess game. The Viking might be able to monitor our radios so we will be using the low bands; they will have a hard time doing anything directional with that. Make sure, people, that you watch your transmissions; keep them short and to the code we agreed on. The tower will be giving warnings on omni directional transmissions so that we don’t have to worry about them getting any info that way. We might have to use some of you as decoys; sacrificial lambs so to say. Keep your heads in the game and your eyes open; our advantage is that they have to move and we do not; use it.”

And it was a chess match. The first fight resembled the others; and once again Liz was able to execute a couple of ambushes. They were more careful than the air force hotshots so they did not do as bad. Still the first day ended 17-6.

The second day they did better as they did indeed use some elements as bait and a couple of times it worked. By the end of the day it was 13-9.

The third day Liz got really sneaky; she used a couple of Apache’s as bait and put them forward and the Swab Jockeys got overconfident and she ambushed them badly. 21-7.

The fourth day they held back and tried to outwait the Apache’s but Liz’s people maintained discipline and finally they tried a mass assault which did not do too bad but they still lost. 27-10.

The fifth day they got very cautious and used multiple elements as bait and going right after them. But the Super Apache’s managed to do well no matter what. 15-7.

Liz had her people using Sidewinders almost exclusively the last couple of days; on the sixth she decided to take a chance and go with the AMRAAMS first. This caught the Swab Jockeys by surprise and messed up their ambush plans which might have worked. 18-9.

The total ended up 115-48. Much better than the Fly Boys had done but still a decisive defeat.

In the critique after wards the Navy Captain who had planned the exercise admitted that as long as the Super Apache’s had cover and could stay low, they would have the edge.

Liz gave her people the next 2 days off as a reward for doing so well. She took off as well and spent time with her family.
“This is going to have a serious impact on tactics.”

“Three separate exercises all showing basically the same thing. That is pretty definite.”

“The F-35 guys are not happy.”

“Too bad.”

“When will they be operational?”

“Next month. The 160th just gave them a tough contest so they are ready.”

“The new training officer of the 160th seems very good.”

“They needed one; first one they have had that is close to her. Not quite as good but then she is the best. He is sneaky and nasty and that is what you need.”

Liz waited as the intelligence officer began his briefing. She had this done once a week and once a month had him give an update on the world situation.
Europe was doing better; even the three weak sisters were improving. So far no more problems seen there. The rest of the continent seemed all right as well. Africa was as usual; no real problems they would care about. The Middle East was quiet at the moment and you had to take what you could get there. Russia and the Ukraine were not happy with each other; Russia felt he Ukraine was not doing enough to keep an eye on any Chechens they had and the Ukraine basically told them to stick it. But that was just the usual bickering; nothing indicated it would amount to anything. The rest of the former USSR was if not peaceful at least not threatening. Iraq was as always a little unsettled; the Kurds were still poking at the Turks but nothing unusual. Afghanistan was in an uneasy peace which was about the best you could hope for. Pakistan was doing ok; the clamp down on the ISI had eased things considerably with India. The level of tension there was much less than it had been. China was beginning to surface from its Three Gorges Dam collapse but they no longer had the overflowing cash box they had before and that helped; also there were signs that the monolithic Communist party was starting to fracture; the capitalists were gaining influence. The recent major mistakes by the military on the new aircraft carrier that was going to have to be mostly rebuilt; and on the new fighter that was supposedly a rival to the F-22 and turned out to be a total lemon had diminished the military’s influence measurably.

Otherwise there were no real worries on the horizon. Except for one.

Iran was literally boiling. The protests that had been stamped on in 2010 and 2011 had been pushed underground but had not been extinguished in any way. The crazy whack job was gone but the new so called President was a true puppet to the Mullahs, who as long as they had the support of the Revolutionary Guard would stay in power. But it was increasingly clear that resistance was growing. The Guards did a very good job of adding more Martyrs to the resistances memories; and making them madder and madder. What had everyone worried, though, was their steady persistence in making a nuclear weapon. The process had been seriously derailed with the CIA’s computer worm infestation; but they had finally started to move beyond that. Russia was beginning to realize that helping them with their unneeded nuclear power program had not been a good idea, but it was too late.
Early that year Liz had been one of the operational commanders briefed on the latest there. She had gone to the Pentagon and had been one of only a dozen in the room.

“The President has made it clear that we cannot afford to have the Mullah’s get a bomb; especially some that has very good reason to feel insecure. The resistance is steadily growing despite increasingly vicious attempts to crush it. As history shows that tends to just make any resistance movement that has real popular backing tougher. Needless to say the Israeli’s feel the same. They have been constantly refining their strike plans. We have seen nothing that indicates their total unwillingness to accept an Iranian Nuclear weapon has changed at all. Best estimates are that once they think that Iran is within 6 months of testing one they will start the countdown. When the Iranians successfully test one the Israeli’s will strike. It has quietly been the policy of the US that when that time comes we will assist them. Most likely with tankers; but it is possible we will use other assets.”

Liz did not need a piano to fall on her head to figure out what those other ‘assets’ might be.

“Our information has been firmed up in the last year; we now are reasonably certain exactly where the program is based. Needless to say the Iranians made sure the installations were deep underground and meant to withstand conventional bombs. The Parchin, Natanz, and Esfahan facilities are where we are certain that the major parts of the program are based. Natanz appears the most crucial; and is defended accordingly. We believe our latest edition of the bunker buster will penetrate and destroy those locations. However Israel does not have the aircraft capable of delivering them. They weigh over 20,000 lbs. Only our B-2 and B-52 can carry them. But the Israelis want to be sure; so the plan they have put together is to hit the others with air strikes but put Paratroopers at Natanz to make sure. It does not take a genius to see that those paratroopers would be considered expendable.”

Liz shivered at that. With the way the Israeli’s treated their military, making them expendable told her just how serious they were.

“There is an airfield nearby that C-130’s could use. The Israeli’s would almost certainly try. But it would be very tough for them.”

Liz wondered if the US would then help. That was answered quickly.

“The president has made the decision that we would try and help.”

“That decision made, it is up to us to figure out how to do it.”


From that point on it became about getting them out of there. Which would consist of neutralizing the Iranian air defense so that the transports could get in and out. Liz was quite glad to see that nothing was planned for her unit. But why was she here, then? She was to find out after the meeting.

She had been asked to stay behind; it was only her and the briefer, a Colonel Marin, who was Army Intelligence.

“I am sure you wondered why you were here, since none of the scenarios mentioned involved you.”

“Now I find out.”

“Correct. The current way the Israeli’s have this operation configured is that along with the Paratroopers they will be dropping ATV’s. Only a company of paratroopers, just at 120. The ATV’s are four men each. So that means 30 of them, with probably a couple of extras. They have a range of about 100 miles. If they cannot get in the C-130’s to get them out, they will head west through the passes in the mountains here. Basically to get as far away as they can. Then call for pickup. In terrain that no aircraft could reach.”

Liz began to get a cold feeling. “But that range is still probably 200 miles from Iraq.”

“At least; probably closer to 250.”

She sighed. “Getting Black Hawks in that far means refueling somewhere.”

“Which is why they would not be used.”

“Chinooks? That is tough on that kind of penetration, even with escort.”

“This has been batted about for over a year. Black Hawks, Chinooks, even DAP’s were considered. The problem is that nothing we have has the range without refueling. And that would be extremely risky given that the Iranians have worked hard on the last 5 years in increasing their anti aircraft defenses. So any refueling would be extremely risky. But an alternative was proposed and it has been looked at and found to be the most likely successful possibility.”
He then opened a folder and showed her. She managed to keep her jaw from dropping but barely. “This has been tested and found to work.”

She took a deep breath. “I guess it makes sense but that is still going to be really tough on those paratroopers.”

“Better than being captured.”

She looked at it again. “One on each side carrying 3.”

“Which means the helicopter would be carrying four. Leaving off the 2.75 rockets and hellfires would compensate for the weight. It is made out of Kevlar so it will give them protection from small arms fire.”

“This is different from the ones on the Little Birds.”

“Much improved; the Plexiglas cover protects them from the wind; and it is bolted to the wing.”

“This would take some work; our wing is moveable. It would have to be fixed and then disconnected from the flight controls.”

“It can be done in one hour.”

She sighed and nodded. “Where will they be kept in the meantime?”

“We do not want anyone to know we are working on this; so they are kept at Campbell.”

Afterwards she wondered when they would decide to try and start using them in other operations. Thinking about that crazy operation she hoped if the time came that the US just dropped the bunker busters instead. But she knew why this was thought up: depending on the administration, they might not be willing to drop the bombs. But they would be quite willing to sacrifice her people, she thought bitterly.

Liz finished listening to the intelligence briefing thinking that maybe she needed to have a talk with him; he did not need to give an over view every time when the audience was the same. But that was a relatively minor detail. Overall he did well.

She went outside for some fresh air; in mid June it was warmer than usual; in the low 60’s. Clearing from the rain they had this morning the sun was out and warming things up. She knew she would miss Scotland when it was her time to go.

With the training of the Marines done; and no exercises scheduled for the next month, it was a time to kick back some. She had run the Regiment through one of her scenarios last week and had pushed them some; they were in good shape.

She knew that probably early next year she would be pulled away and sent to Command School; the Army War College. SOCOM had hinted she would not be going through all the standard courses; which suited her fine. And having almost a year off from the pressures of command would be very good. She could spend more time with her family and friends. She just wished that it was closer to either Nashville or Savanna. Still, Carlisle, PA would be a good place to live for a while. The northeast had a lot of historical sites to see. And the War College was a short drive from Gettysburg. A place Liz had always wanted to see.

A week later Liz was working away at the never ending paperwork when Jim came in.
“Flash Traffic.”

Liz remembered the last time that had happened; she really hoped this one was not as interesting.

Liz skimmed it quickly then read it more carefully and sat back. Not exactly a surprise. Well, at least they had time; and maybe this was wrong or something else would come up. One could hope. She called in Jim and Sam Young.

“Iran. The leading opposition figure was just killed by the Revolutionary Guards. The wonks think that this might just be the final straw. We shall see. At the moment it has no effect on us. This is just advisory; the details in it are more than you are going to hear on TV or read in any of the newspapers. The pot is about to boil over; this is just the last in a series of moves the Mullah’s have taken trying to keep the lid on. I doubt it will work any better. At the moment we will not be increasing our alert factor. Unless something different comes down the pike, this is more something we will just be watching to see what comes next then anything else.”

The next few days there were no more Flash messages; while the Iranian Government was trying to keep anyone from knowing, they were unable to seal the country off from the rest of the world. So the protests and violence were described if not shown on tv. The talking heads seemed to think it was finally boiling over. Some really brave Iranians were using their cell phones to send pictures; and others with satellite phones were doing the same.

Then another Flash message came that said that it was escalating; the military was firing on demonstrators; hundreds had been killed in Tehran alone. And the protests were nationwide. Civil war was just about certain if it had not begun already; and it was going to be bloody. The Mullah’s had been very careful to make sure the Revolutionary guards were the most dedicated and fanatical followers; so their support was just about a given. They had been expanded over the last 5 years to a force of over 500,000. They had for all intents and purposes taken over all military responsibilities. There was differing opinions on just how good they were at real military procedures. Though it seemed they had worked hard on some things like air defense. That increase was more than double what they had been before 2011; and it was questionable just how good the new comers were; and how devoted. But so far there seemed to be no cracks.

The next week brought more of the same; it was clear that Iran’s economy had all but stopped; and no country could keep that up for long. The third Flash Message indicated that there were cracks showing: some of the units of the Revolutionary guards were not as committed as the Mullah’s had thought; there was information that there had been several mass executions. The message indicated that the Intelligence Services believed that the end game was coming soon. At that point Liz put her people at a level 1 alert, which told them they needed to stay nearby and be ready.

The CIA and NSA along with most of the world’s intelligence agencies were monitoring the situation as best they could. Very few had any real agents at any level in Iran. Satellites and intercepted messages helped, but agents in place still trumped all that and no one seemed to have many if any at all. There were those that could watch what was happening in the streets and report it but what was going on inside the Revolutionary Guards was what was really important and no one knew that.

The President expected a daily update and was not very happy with the lack of hard information.
“Billions are spent each year and all you can tell me is little more than what is on the web from camera phones?”
“Sir as far as we know no one has been able to get any agents close enough to the real power to know what is happening. Satellites and intercepts do give us more details on what is happening. But not why or who is in control. It is clear that the Guard is starting to fracture; the newer units have been shown to lack the necessary religious zeal the Mullah’s want; at least 5 reported instances of a whole company sized unit being executed. But even the more established units no longer are showing monolithic devotion. It is clear this cannot continue; the refineries and oil ports are closed; so no more money is coming in. Factories and the like are not operating. Transportation is breaking down. It is a matter of time before food starts becoming scarce. That is the final tipping point in our estimation. Starving people no longer care about anything except food and will not be stopped except with a bullet in each one. There are over 80 million people in Iran; that number consumes a lot of everything that is no longer being produced. And even half a million guns will not stop them from doing what they want.”

“How long?”

“A few weeks at most. We would be amazed if something big does not happen in that time that finishes things off.”




“It is clear; the faithful no longer are.”

“Western influences have ruined us.”
“All is not lost yet. There is good news; away from where everyone is looking and watching our project managers say they are ready.”

“No one suspects?”

“We have been very careful. All too many think there is only one way to make one; there is the first way which is very simple and very reliable, and of sufficient size to be decisive.”

“We must test one!”

“The Zionists and the Great Satan will know then. We must bring our people back to Allah, unite them. The only way is to make them aware of our real power.”

“Where?”

“Sirjan.”

“Where it started.”

“It will be cleansed in fire.”

Liz was getting a bad feeling about Iran; she just knew it was about to get a lot worse.


“How did we miss this?”

“We thought that like everyone else they were working on getting a modern warhead that could be miniaturized for missile use.”

“How many do you think they have?’

“If they used all their available material in this way, as many as 7-10.”

“Air transportable?’

“Yes, but not close to being small enough for missiles; each one probably weighs 3 tons.”

“The information is that specific?’

“Israel has been the ones most worried for good reason; the fact that they managed to get anyone inside is amazing. Their agent only found out yesterday; a small working group did it; isolated from everyone else. The yield will probably be about 25KTs.”
“Big enough. What are their plans?”

“Their agent said that they were told it would be used soon to convince the unbelievers.”

“How is he getting this out?”

“The agent is able to email another person using their intranet; it is buried in some porn. The agent is a brilliant mathematician and is forgiven his weakness because of it.”

“That is a lot of information on their agent.”

“They really want us to believe.”

“In order to help them.”

“Of course.”


“Mr President, they have bombs now. They went with the gun design; the Hiroshima model. Limited in size but very simple to make once you have the fissile material. The Israeli’s think they have enough for 7-10 25KTs bombs. Too big for anything but a strike plane to handle but will still get it done.”
“You are authorized to take out that site. Support the Israeli’s for the other strikes.”

The NSA was busy checking everything when someone noticed something.

“They are not sure it will work?’

“Sir, the strange composition of the roof of that Nantaz site was puzzling; we knew they were building it to withstand our bunker busters. But it was only just now we noticed that detail about the third level. It is too deep for the bomb to probably compensate for it. Having an air gap of 40 feet before the final barrier will cause it to detonate almost for certain. And in that case the last level will probably survive.”

“We can’t fix the bomb to compensate?’

“It will take months of work, sir, to be sure. At the very least several weeks to come up with and make something.”

“The only other option is to use a nuke ourselves?”

“Yes sir if you want to be certain.”

“So it is either that or the Israeli operation. And we did not plan one of our own.”

“No sir.”

“When?”

“They want to move in 24 hrs.”

“Do it.”


Liz read the latest Flash Message. She called in Jim and Sam.

“We are going to help the Israeli’s take out the Iranian bombs.”

“They have them?”

“They went simple and hid it- they have 7-10 or will have soon.”

“What is our role?”

“Rescue and the details you will just love. Get 1st Battalion ready to load and C Company of 2nd Battalion. My chopper as well.”


The transport aircraft arrived in two hours; they had all the choppers ready to go by the time they arrived. They were staging at an Iraqi airfield that had been abandoned near Kut.

They made it by 2000 that evening. Once there the crews from the states started to bolt on the carrying pods onto the Apache’s. 20 Apaches would have them placed on the wings; they would have their rocket and hellfire pods taken off; leaving them with only the 30MM. Liz and 4 others would go in with full war loads as escorts. The Israeli’s would hit at 0200. Liz and her people were ready to go at 0130, but would wait for the word to leave.

The US was able to get AWACS and some other aircraft in position and they began jamming the Iranian radar as the Israeli C-130’s went in. Then there was this huge white glow from Southern Iran.

NORAD was watching with satellites; so they saw it first of all the rest of the planet besides those there.

“That is a nuclear detonation; location Sirjan Iran. Estimated yield 27 KTs.”

“Mr President, it is believed that the rebellion really started there and that is why the Mullah’s did it. The Revolutionary Guard was driven out just a few days ago.”

“An example.”

“Yes sir.”

“How many?”

“Population was about 185,000. Though less now since a fair number have probably fled the fighting. But at least 100,000.”


“Is there any chance more of them have been moved out?”

“Very unlikely sir. All signs show this as a case of the big stick scaring everyone, especially their own citizens.”

“The Israeli’s are already on their way?”

“Yes sir.”

Liz and the others stood there shocked as they got the word. She closed her eyes then opened them and looked at her people who were waiting for her to say something.
“If you want to know why, there is your answer. That is what would have happened if we had not been successful in Pakistan. Only many times worse. Get in your choppers, people; we are taking off in 30 minutes.”

The Israeli Commandos were the best of the best of the Israeli military; they had been training for this operation for years. 110 landed then moved in. A barrage of HARM missiles had knocked out all the Iranian radar systems and they had dropped at 400 feet to make sure they were right on top of the main facility. They were all carrying demo charges to not only blow up the bombs but to blow the doors leading to them. Their agent had given them the exact layout so there were no missed steps. The guard force was not expecting a ground attack; only air so they were slow to react and that cost them. It took them only 30 minutes to reach the bombs; 3 more had been assembled and there were components for several more after them. Detonating charges were laid on each item and component. When they went off there would be very little left. They used old fashioned time fuze; the surest way of all to make sure things detonated. Double primed on every item.

Up above the word had gone out; the other installations had been hit as well and virtually obliterated. But there were reserves of the Guard nearby and they began to close.

The plan had been changed; Liz and the Apache’s were sent in no matter what and had already penetrated the Iranian border as they headed towards Natanz.

Liz led the Super Apache’s; she and the 4 other fully armed ones the only escort they had. It was just too short a time to get much else nearby. Then went in low as possible; they had a map made for them but it was still hairy as all get out.

2 C-130’s came in to land at the air strip; but there were Iranians left with good hand held Air to air missiles and they both were shot down. The ATV’s were going to be needed. Both crews died. 45 minutes after landing the Israeli commandos were on their way out of the area. The Revolutionary guard began to pursue, spurred on when the explosion below ground told them that what they had been guarding was destroyed.

The Israeli’s had planned their retreat; they paused and laid some mines that slowed down the pursuit.

By putting everything they had into it, the US Air Force was able to get two squadrons of F-15E’s in the vicinity; loaded with HARMS and the like they began to work over the remaining Iranian Air Defenses.

The Iranians sent all the aircraft they could muster for night ops towards the scene; but were unable to see where they should go. The US had hit a lot of sites and were trying not to be obvious about what air defenses they really needed to knock out. But a few figured it out and started to head towards the Iraqi border.


At 0315, Liz got the first message from the Israeli commandos.
“Reached area 1.”
Liz checked her map; they would be at area 2 in time so she sent back.
“Pick up at area 2.”

Liz had the apaches moving at just under 190 MPH. The carriers slowed down the other Apache’s a fair amount due to wind resistance, otherwise they would have been doing about 210.

The Israeli’s had used up all their mines and the Revolutionary guard was gaining; they had vehicles that were faster than the ATVS. They neared area 2.

The Guard had managed to contact the aircraft and several were heading their way.

Liz saw the blips on the radar and nodded her head; the Iranians were not very skilled at night work but clearly this was important enough to try. She ordered her lead group to lock on with Sidewinders at 5 miles. They were staying low enough that odds were they were not known about yet.

“Area 2 in 5 miks. Enemy closing.”

Liz looked at her screen; there were only 3 aircraft in range that would be a problem. She designated the others to take them out; she moved ahead to the target area to take care of the pursuit.

The vehicles were easy to see; the night vision on the 30MM site was very good; Liz waited until her other choppers had closed on the aircraft and ordered them to fire immediately; they did and then she started firing her 2.75 guided HE rds at the vehicles; they blew up quite nicely. She noted that the three targets in the air had also disappeared. She quickly circled the area and noted the Israeli force. 5 minutes later the rest of the apaches began to land. She had the rest of the escort drop down low; they did not want to give any more radar returns if possible.

It took 20 minutes to land and get all the commandos strapped in; the longest 20 minutes Liz had ever lived through. Then they headed out at 0410 and booked it west. Liz once again led them; but the ride back was strangely easy; the F-15’s had pulverized everything they could find and that was enough. They got to Kut at 0515. The Commandos had lost 5 dead and 2 wounded; but not badly; the 4 crew from the two C-130’s made the loss 9 Dead and 2 wounded.

The world was horrified by the event of bombing their own city. The Iranian government announced it and that anyone that interfered would be turned into ashes. But only hours after that was announced the US and Israel in a joint statement announced that the bombs were destroyed. And the Iranian ability to do it again with it. The US had fired cruise missiles on top of the Israeli attacks and had leveled most of the facilities at all three sites. Amazingly the Israeli losses were only those at Natanz.

The loss of the bombs was the final straw for the Mullah’s and the revolutionary guard began to divide and fight itself; and the rest of the country demanded the heads of the Mullah’s. Iran dissolved into full civil war. The fallout from Sirjan headed southwest on the winds and Pakistan, the UAE and Oman were in the path. People there began to panic.

After they landed Liz walked up to the Israeli Major and introduced herself.
“General Elizabeth Parker, 161st SOAR, US Army.”

“Major Tov Hannah, 35th Brigade, Israeli Army.”

“Congratulations Major. That was well done.”

“Thank you, General, for getting us out.”

The Carriers were taken off of the Apache’s, and transports arrived to take the Israeli’s home. Liz looked around and took the first relaxed breath in over a day. She and the others were bone tired but they wanted to go home. So they sucked it up and by 0800 they were on their way, Liz and everyone else were soon asleep as they winged home.

Details about the mission were somewhat lacking coming from both the US and Israel. All Israel said was that they lost 9 dead and had 2 wounded and lost 2 C-130’s. The US said they had no casualties.

The talking heads were able to ferret out a fair amount; the fact that a part of the 161st had taken off suddenly was one part; the 2 F-15 Squadrons another.

The DOD just said that yes they had participated and that was all. Liz was happy to leave it at that. They were all glad they had been too far away to see the nuclear blast.

In one respect Liz was unhappy about the mission because the use of the carriers had been a success and she could see more of it in the future.

The Israeli ceremony for their dead showed what units were involved and finally they bowed to pressure and let Major Hannah speak.

“We had trained for this for over a year. It went exactly as planned. Until the aircraft were shot down. Then we took our backup way out. The Americans picked us up and that was the end of it.”

Pushed a little he simply said. “Our gratitude to General Parker and her people for getting us out.”

The DOD only admitted that the 161st had gone into Iran and gotten the Israeli’s out. And that they had had to shoot up some of the Revolutionary Guard to do it.

After the fallout finally settled to the ground, mostly in Iran but a small amount in Pakistan, the world heaved a huge sigh of relief. The fighting in Iran lasted over a month before the last of the old Guard killed themselves and the others surrendered; most of them were executed not long after. The Mullahs mostly killed themselves or were killed; no one wanted them around even for trial. Over 500,000 dead and wounded all told. Iran would be many years recovering. The nightmare that had lasted for many for 35 years was finally over.

Liz felt like she had had about enough of this sort of thing. Even if she had many fewer combat missions with the 161st then during her tours, the responsibility of taking care of her people had worn her down. She was beginning to realize that advancing beyond this level of command might not be that bad an idea after all. She began to wonder if she was burned out. Or maybe it just was that the last two missions had been basically her worst possible nightmares? True she had not lost anyone but the fact that nuclear weapons were involved in each was just too much. She had the feeling the longer she stayed at the 161st the worse the missions would get. Perhaps that was a foolish fear, but that seemed to be the pattern. She was coming around to the thought that leaving this command might not bring with it the regrets of leaving previous units. After this if she did command a unit again, she would be distanced from it; not up close and personal.

Things were quiet through August, then they had some more exercises with the British regiments here and there. The Brits had been able to spend more on their defense and thus more training money; so they no longer needed as much help. Liz looked around the base; it would be 3 years in October since they stood up. She was quite sure now that Sam Young would do a good job as her successor. She realized that she would not find it as hard to leave this position as some of her others.


SOCOM was talking to the Army Chief of Staff.
“So it is all set up?”

“A very special education program for a very special officer. First they will evaluate her and see what she needs to learn; then they will teach her. This is really the first time this has been tried and there was some resistance to it.”

“Same old excuses about how she must fit into the system.”

“Just about. The joke is that this sort of thing was done decades ago; a really gifted officer was given a tailored program.”

“Let me guess; it was the McNamara influence that ended it.”

“Got it in one.”

“I really hope he is roasting in hell for all the damage he did.”


On the 8th of September Liz was notified that she would be detached from command of the 161st and would report to Carlisle to attend the Army War college. Change of Command would be on 1 October. She would report 15 November.

Liz sat holding the message. Pensively she sat and thought. It was as expected; and she knew it was coming. But it was still a blow to the gut. Then another message was given to her. The Apache she had been using would be demilled and would be taken to the Smithsonian to hank with other famous aircraft. She smiled at that. She liked it. She got up and walked out of her office and went home early that day.

Max was surprised as Liz walked in and kissed him.
“Got the message today. Change of Command 1 October and report to Carlisle 15 November. Get this: they are going to shell out my Apache and have it hang in the Smithsonian.”

“Not so bad, is it?”

“It is still a blow to lose the Regiment, but it is time.”

The next day she announced it to her command. Then in the next week she took a quick tour of the British Regiments that she had worked with over the three years she had been there. The Air Vice Marshal was about to retire and they reminisced.
“General you have had quite a bit of influence. I notice many training exercises are no longer run like theatre plays; every scene scripted to the last detail.”

“I guess that is good. I am going to miss you and all the regiments and officers and men I have worked with.”

“They and I will miss you.”

Liz was informed that the Parliament had given her a Commendation of Appreciation; and the Queen had signed a Royal Proclamation in appreciation as well.

On 1 October 2017 she stood with the honor guard and relinquished command to newly promoted full Colonel Sam Young.

The day before she had walked around the base one last time and said goodbye to many she had gotten to know so well.

Her Apache had already been sent away to be stripped of its engine and electronics. By the beginning of the year it would be hanging with other very famous aircraft. She had flown it one last time and had found herself crying when she had landed it.
The next day she and her family boarded a C-20 specifically sent for her. The entire Regiment and an Honor Guard from every active British Army and Royal Marine regiment, plus the SAS and SBS lined the runway. She waved as she got into the jet and sat down. She was finding it very hard to not cry.

There were government quarters at Carlisle that they would be staying in. It had been decided that the children would not attend school; James was big for his age and Aliya was already a High School senior. When they got her next posting they would resume schooling at a public school for James and a college for Aliya. Her three good friends from Campbell would be attending the University of Tennessee starting the next year and Liz was sure that was where Aliya would want to go. James would be home schooled for the year. Aliya would be boning up on things ready for college; she had already taken her SATs and had done very well indeed.

Liz was able to put aside her feelings about leaving her Regiment by spending time with her mother and her friends. That helped a lot.

After a week with her mother, Liz went to stay with Maria for a week and see her friends. Just what she needed.

The first night was a Friday night and they had an old fashioned slumber party.

Liz looked around and noted that none of them had appeared to age that much; but then they were all still young. She was the youngest at 34; the rest were only a year or so older.

Tess started first.
“So Liz, how does it feel to be going back to school?”

“Weird. I have been told they are constructing a special curriculum for me. First time that has been done in a long time.”

Maria snorted. “They better make it special; I am trying to think of who could be arrogant enough to think they can teach you anything about leadership.”

The others laughed at that. Liz smiled in appreciation, but was serious.
“I am going to have to learn how to stand back and send people out to fight and die. Before I was always right there with them; taking the risks. It is going to be very hard for me.”

Isabelle smiled softly. “For you it will be. It will be a big adjustment.”

Maria smiled then leaned forward. “OK, Liz spill your guts. You must have some real doozies saved up.”

The other two leaned forward in anticipation. Liz sighed but decided some things could be said to them.
“Remember just before I went to the 160th I had to rebuild the Campbell ASP and Ordnance company again?”

They all nodded. “Well here is what really happened…”

They were all agog. Maria whistled. “That never got out. Amazing.”

Liz shared a few other things but nothing as deep and dark as that. It was a good time and after the emotional leaving of the 161st she needed this.

She spent a couple of days in Nashville visiting the Crew and Posse and had a fun time. When that was done she headed out to get back to her family who had been staying with her mother and Ted. Then they headed to Carlisle. Liz wanted to get in and settle down then look around Gettysburg as she had wanted to for a long time.

Liz looked around as she stood where Pickett’s Charge had started and looked towards where its goal had been. She tried to imagine what it must have been like to march towards that point almost a mile away with artillery tearing holes through the formations. She had gone to Little Round Top and looked over that; but this hit much harder. She marveled at their bravery. It was a little known fact that at least one woman had participated in this charge. She and her husband had stayed and fought together for over a year; they were found only a short distance from the objective; the clump of trees. Hand in hand; in death as in life. She looked around and thought about that and many other things.

The VIP quarters at Carlisle were very nice and Liz certainly had no complaints.

She decided to check in; realizing that as a General Officer she needed to do things a little differently she called in and found that the Commanding General wanted to see her at her convenience. THAT was interesting since he was a Major General. She had looked up his record and he had been a grunt; commanded a company and a Battalion. And a brigade in Afghanistan. She had just missed him as she looked at the dates. Well he looked like someone that could teach her some things. She checked what uniform to wear and found that for this she could wear ASU B, with slacks which she liked better.

General Barton was very much looking forward to meeting General Parker. They did not have many students that were Generals. Calling her a student was frankly a little uncomfortable for him. He had had an excellent career but nothing compared to hers. This was going to be a very different situation.

Liz took a deep breath and walked in the main building returning salutes as she walked down the hall. Luckily there were not too many people around as she walked into the main offices. She was quickly escorted right to the Commandants office.

Even though he knew as everyone else did that Elizabeth Parker was small it still amazed him how small. Yet her presence as she walked in the door was undeniable. He had never met the like.
“Sit down, General.”

“Thank you, General.” And she gave him small smile.

“Absurd. Call me Tom.”
“Call me Liz.”

They both grinned.

“I missed you by about a month getting in country after you left the second time. Even then I had heard about you. Frankly was hoping they would keep you around. I know you have heard this but it’s coming from me as well; it was simply believed that you kept people alive.”

Liz blushed slightly. “Thank You Tom. That became a huge burden. Especially my last tour. It got very heavy.”

“I cannot imagine. Liz, let’s get something straight. I have had a very good career and have done well. But you are someone that is rocket propelled. And you have earned everything you got the hard way. I can speak for myself and if anyone says otherwise in this facility I will have their hide but this is straight. No one here has a thing they can teach you about leadership. We are not even going to try. What we are going to do is interview you intensively and see where you need to learn things. And in the next 10 months we are going to do our best to fill in those gaps.”

Liz nodded. “That is good to hear. I know there are a lot of things like systems management and that sort of thing that I need to learn. If I stay in I need to know the lingo and such. I am guessing that I get special treatment not only because of my record but the fact I have no college experience at all.”

“That is true. But as it has been made screamingly clear by your record, college is not everything. That mindset was one of the things that needed to be changed and the last SECDEF and the Current one have made that clear. That was one of the reasons I was chosen because I am one of those that think college is not for everyone and there are some leaders such as yourself that are born and you damn well make room in your army for one.”

Liz blushed a little more and he grinned.

“You went through OCS and Aviation School then the preparation for SOAR, so frankly to say that you have not gone through higher education is bull. Anyway, if you are willing to start I will have my Chief of Staff arrange the interviews. This will probably take about a week.”

Liz blinked at that. “Wow, I guess you are being thorough.”

“That is MY job.”

And the next day she talked to his Chief of Staff who was a brisk no nonsense type.
“General, it is our job to get you ready for senior commands. Simple as that. We have a responsibility to prepare you and frankly quite a few of us are looking forward to it. Your kind of talent does not come along very often. I look upon you as a blue chip recruit who knows a lot but needs to learn more.”

After five days of interviews Liz was a little wrung out but thought they had been really thorough and felt ok with it.

The General chaired the meeting as his entire senior faculty attended.
“OK. Let us get the overview from Colonel Tower.”

“General Parker is without serious weakness. Simple as that. She has the entire leadership package in a way that I have not encountered before. It should not be a surprise with her record but still I was. I suggest we give her a basic ground tactics and strategy tutorial, and I am willing to bet she will eat that right up. With the way she came up with tactics in the air I see no reason she cannot do it on the ground. Logistics support and the basics there are next. Realistically there is nothing aviation related that she does not know probably better than anyone here so we will not waste our time. Everyone that interviewed her absolutely agree that we can also ignore all leadership courses. Diplomatic niceties will be something we can brush through with a basic course in. Systems management is the one area she really lacks knowledge in and will need the full course. Now the basic courses as regards sea power I would also recommend. The Joint Services department can handle that. Considering how much she has worked with other nations services that area can also be ignored. That is pretty much it.”

The General looked around. “Anything anyone wants to add?”

There were no comments.

“Very well then, Colonel Tower how long will this last?”
“8 months sir.”

“Very good. Let us get started – frankly people we might very well be judged by how she does and what she says about us in the future. If something goes wrong I seriously doubt it will be her fault.”


Liz would look back and call the next 8 months some of the most exhausting of her life; in some cases tougher than Aviation school was. She was poked and prodded and stretched like salt water taffy sometimes. Sometimes the complexities of Systems management almost beat her; but with her usual grit and fire managed to lick it as well.

Her favorite parts were Ground tactics and strategy and the Applications of Sea Power. Space Command was interesting but not that tough. Diplomacy was almost boring. She had gotten a lot of experience at that as it was. Logistics interested her; but she was frankly of the mind that they took themselves way too seriously when the bottom line was moving item A to point B when it was needed. And have it ready when it was needed. Strategic planning and thinking was interesting; tying what happened in one part of the world with other parts elsewhere. Staff Planning and Management was also interesting but frankly she thought they were a little behind the curve on that one. Too rigid. General Barton had specifically asked her to take notes on what she thought were weaknesses in the courses she was taking and she did.

In late July, General Barton and Colonel Tower reviewed the progress of their prize student.
“Systems management was the one area that she did not do outstanding in; but still very well. Everything else she excelled in. Ground tactics and strategy was an area she really shined in; no surprise since tactical has always been an area she was a master of. Staff planning and management – that area made me think she was humoring us. I will be very interested to read her evaluation there. The rest of the courses extremely well. While perhaps not a 4.0, not far off.”

“The Vice Chief of Staff for Personnel wants this evaluation fast; they want to make the pick for her next position soon.”

“Any ideas where they are sending her, sir?”

“None. Clearly high profile but I have no idea. Have to assume it is a staff position somewhere but where?”

“SOCOM would love to get her back.”

“Forget it; she needs to spend some time back with us regular folk for a while.”

The First week in August Liz handed her course evaluations in to the Colonel and later that day he went over them with the General.
“She has a wicked sense of humor; she manages to hide it but these evaluations are funny as all hell.”

“But very pointed; and in a couple of places downright brutal. Staff Management really got reamed.”

“Not surprising; I think that course needs reorganizing.”

Liz was presented with a special Diploma that basically said ‘done with her’ and that tickled her.

The next week she was summoned to see the Vice Chief of Staff for Personnel.

The Pentagon always depressed her; even with the 50% cuts that had been done 5 years ago she still felt the place was bloated.

General Larson greeted her and had his aide close the door to his office.
“General Parker, your transcript from the War College is rather glowing, but should come as no surprise. I have submitted your name as a candidate for several posts but the Chief of Staff wanted to read this first. He will contact you when he has made a decision.”

Liz raised an eyebrow. “Is that the usual procedure, Sir.”

“No it is not but you are not the usual brigadier so it is not that surprising. I have no doubt each of the major commands have put in a bid to grab you for their own so he might be doing some horse trading.”
Liz sighed. “So I might have my teeth examined?”

He cracked a smile. “Would not surprise me. But I would expect a decision within a few days.”

3 days later she was called back to the Commandants office. He handed her a message.
“This surprises me, but then maybe not.”

Liz looked at the message and it announced that Elizabeth Parker, Brigadier General (P) was nominated for command of the 101st Airborne Division.
Her mouth dropped open and she looked at the General and he grinned. “The Alternate promotion board was going to do it but the regular one beat them to the punch. I think they are trying to show that they get it.”

Liz was in a bit of a daze as she got back to her quarters. Max had been working part time at the War College in their library; he liked it there. Aliya had been accepted to the University of Tennessee and was due to start there in a few weeks and she was spending the weekend with Susan in Nashville to figure things out. James was playing with some of the kids of some of the other officers who were taking classes there. They had in the end sent him to school there at the college which was set up for this.

Max saw Liz come in and went to her.
“Honey, what is it?”
She blinked and looked at him.
“I am the next commander of the 101st Airborne. I am getting my second star in October and assuming command then.”

Max was dumbfounded.


Liz took two weeks leave and spent it with her mother and her friends then saw Aliya installed at the University of Tennessee. Her three old friends were all there as well so it was like homecoming for Aliya and Liz was glad to see it.

Max had contacted the contractor he had worked with before at Campbell and got hired on as supervisor of their airfield maintenance crew. Liz had been told that her appointment would be announced on September 1, with change of Command October 1. She would formally get her second star September 30 at a ceremony at SOCOM HQ in Florida.

The Commanding Generals house at Campbell was quite plush; Liz was amused at it; it was really almost a museum as well. Way too big for just her, Max and James. They got James enrolled in school; he would be starting 3rd grade. He was an outgoing cheerful sort and Liz was glad; being an Army brat he needed to be.

Liz decided to seek out and talk to the 101st General who had been in command when the ASP mess had hit. She wanted to talk to a division commander who had been there and done that.

Retired Major General Al Watson had not gone to work for a Defense Contractor; he did not need the money and frankly liked to golf; besides he did not like contractors on general principals. So when he got a call from General Parker wanting to talk to him he was intrigued.

He had retired to Florida near Jacksonville. His wife worked part time as a volunteer and he was slowly working on a book about army life. He was content so when he opened the door and saw the petite figure of the former Major Parker he was very interested in what she had to say.

“First off since I am no longer in call me Al, and everyone I have heard about says you like to be called Liz.”

“Works for me Al.”

“So why are you here talking to an old retired general?”

“You commanded a division. Specifically the 101st. On 1 October I take command. I need to talk to someone who has been there and done that.”

He sat back and blinked. This was unusual; not often someone who has been only in aviation gets command of a Division. But then she was not just someone.
“This is a test for you. To see if you can make the transition. Many very good commanders at lower levels do not do as well once they reach brigade or Division command. And so on. They want to find out.”
“Probably. Makes sense. Anyway I needed to talk to a former division commander and I thought of you.”

“Why me? I was not exactly considered a success since I was retired right after that command.”

“And we both know why. The ones to blame in that fiasco besides the four criminals was the G4 and former Base Commander who SHOULD have caught it. You and the others were collateral damage. Same with the SF G4 who also should have caught it. Those three should have been the ones to carry the can. Instead they got you and the current Base Commander, the CID Commander and the SF commander. And that was really not correct.”

“That is the way the system works.”

“Bullshit. I have seen other screw-ups that did not take that kind of toll. Not as bad but still some went out smelling like a rose when they should not have.”

“Too high level. I understood at the time. Still do. Accountability needed to go higher; did not matter that I did not know; I should have been in better contact with my soldiers. If I had I would have suspected something. My Advice to you is to do what I have heard you did while commanding the 161st and while being that Brigade Commander in Afghanistan. Poke around and talk to the grunts down at the real work areas.”

“Technically I was Brigade XO.”
“To turn it back on you, Bullshit. You commanded that Brigade and everyone knows it.”

“OK. But I need more advice than that.”

“As a division commander you do have to step back most of the time; you cannot be as hands on as you were. My mistake was that I got caught up in all the meetings and BS at HQ and never really got around to talk to people. You have to strike a balance. You are much more likely to do that too much then not enough. So you will have to watch it. In one respect it will be easier since you probably will not see any of your brigades deploy unless something comes up. It has been only 5 years since we were deploying one or two brigades if not the whole division. Constantly. That was a huge problem for a division commander. I personally think that if we get into that situation again something has to be done better than we did last time.”

“Like what?”

“To start with, deploy a whole division if you can; do not take one brigade out of three different divisions. I think that was a mistake. I know why they did it but it was still a mistake. OF if you cannot do that have one brigade at a time relieve the next; continuity is the key. We never had that. You never knew if you were going to Iraq or Afghanistan or where in which place.”

Liz was thoughtful. She had not really thought about it but he was right. This was the sort of thing she had to learn.
“I had not thought of that but you are right. This is an example of why I wanted to talk to you. I need to get a wider view of things and I really had not figured that out.”

“You would have.”

“Maybe not in time enough to not make a big mistake. I have been very lucky in my commanders. There never has been one I did not respect or learn something from.”

“You were lucky. But then again I can only recall a couple that I did not respect so I guess maybe the situation was not as bad as we thought it was.”

“True. But then again I was really with pretty elite units for most of my career; so maybe I have not seen the whole picture.”

“You have seen the worst. The ASP mess and that NG brigade fiasco. So I don’t think you have had exactly as easy a path as some might think.”

Liz nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe. What do you think of the latest reorganization plan?”

He snorted. “About time. The whole idea that we were going to a brigade structure with divisions and corps as coat holders was dumb. It was a misreading of the situation that we found ourselves in with Iraq and Afghanistan going on at the same time. What that ended up doing was putting the brigades out there without enough oversight; and that is never good. For a while there I heard from some of the other Generals I knew who commanded divisions; they felt that they had very little control and could not do much to fix problems. It took the army years to figure that out.”

Liz nodded. There indeed had been some problems; and finally just little more than a year ago it was admitted and the DOD had ordered the Army to get its act back together. Brigades would still be able to deploy separately, but they would still be firmly tethered by their division commands. The Sustainment Brigades had been reformed and were once again a division asset. That way they could deploy more with a brigade if it needed it; instead of the brigade having to make do with what it had originally. Depending on where the brigade went that could have a big effect on its ability to maintain itself and its capability. That of course put more pressure on Division Command to make the call correctly; but that is the way it should be.
“I guess I should be grateful; there is nothing worse than seeing something going wrong and not being able to do a thing about it.”

They talked for more than two hours and the General’s wife got in and was surprised to see who he was talking to.
“My stars, you are tiny!”

Al laughed hard. “That is what just about everyone thinks the first time they meet her. At least until she whaps them upside the head with a 2 X 4.”

Liz really enjoyed that time and stayed for dinner after Jenny, his wife, insisted.
She left that evening realizing she had made two more friends; that made it a very good day.

Two days later the announcement was made and it generated a fair amount of comment.

“Today the Department of Defense announced that Brigadier General Elizabeth Parker will be promoted to Major General and will assume command of the 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. General Parker is perhaps the most famous current military officer due to her exploits in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. She returns to Fort Campbell after a previous assignment there while first as a member of the 101st Aviation Brigade and later as part of the 160th SOAR before she stood up and commanded the 161st SOAR in Scotland. General Parker has a number of firsts and this is another; the first woman Commander of a US Army Division.”

The outgoing general who would be moving to deputy commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps had gotten notified some time earlier but had kept quiet. His deputy commanders came in to talk to him.
“Sir, have you heard?”

“Of course. You two better have your chin straps tight or Doberman will bite your heads off.”

The two brigadier generals look at each other than at him.
“Sir is she coming in to clean house?”
“Because that frankly is her rep. They bring her in to start new units or clean up old ones in trouble.”

“Not as far as I know. She is the rising star of the US Military and this is a fairly high profile position. Makes sense to me. Now you two will find yourselves in deep shit if you screw up. You might remember that.”

Liz had told the Posse and Crew at a get together about her new command and they had laughed their asses off.
“First time that I wish I was back in to watch you tear a whole division a new one.”
Said Susan.

“I am willing to bet there are a number of officers scared shitless right now.”
Said Ellen.

“You guys make me sound like Attila the Hun. I am not that bad.”

Which got a round of even bigger laughs.

Maria and the others were also laughing.
“Chica, those poor troopers have no idea what is about to hit them.”

Liz looked over the command situation; she would inherit the staff; due to illness the last general had come in mid-way and had changed out the staff last year. So they would be settled in. She would see if they were good enough; Liz was determined to make sure that she accepted nothing less than the best.
Brigadier General Anthony Roberts was deputy division commander for Operations and senior to Brigadier General Adam Jones who was deputy commander for Support. Colonel Jack Forrest was Chief of Staff. She noted that the Division Sergeant Major was retiring. And that a new one had not been appointed. She sat back and thought then made a call.

Command Sgt Major Sid Winston answered his phone. As the Sgt Major of the 1 St Aviation Brigade at Ft Riley he was fairly busy. He had come to the Brigade three years ago after being promoted from Battalion Sgt Major to Brigade Sgt Major. This was not a bad posting but sometimes he felt he wanted more.
“Sgt Major Winston.”

“Yo, Sid. How is your hammer hanging?” Came a familiar female voice.
A big grin came out.
“Well, short stuff. Heard you are getting the 101st.”

“Shore enough. I need a Division Sgt Major. Interested?”

Sid blinked. He would normally have another few years before rating a division posting. But then she tended to get what she wanted.
“Why not? Kind of miss the strange and weird that is Campbell.”
“Good. I am inheriting the rest of the staff so I want at least one there that knows me and what I expect. And who can keep his eyes and ears open.”

“Well then, General, you have yourself a Sgt Major.”

“Good. I will talk to whoever and get your orders cut ASAP. How long would it take you?”

“Two weeks.”

“Good. See ya.”

Nancy, Sid’s wife, knew something was up as soon as he came through the door.
“OK. What is the what?”

“Liz Parker just asked me to be her Division Sgt Major.”

“Wow. You are not due for a few years.”

“That has never stopped her. I said we can get there in two weeks, in time for the change of command.”

“No problem, but will the orders come that fast?”
“With her, definitely.”

Liz called the personnel section and made it clear she wanted those orders cut immediately.
“General, it is not that simple.”

“Yes it is. Make it happen.”



“What is it?”

“General Parker wants this guy as her division sgt major.”

“So what is the problem?”



Liz made a point of not wandering around the 101st before her assumption of command. She thought that was impolite and since they were not at war at the moment not necessary. However she had no compunctions about visiting others there.

“Holy Shit! Look who is coming.”

“Get in there and warn everyone Doberman is prowling.”

Liz walked in the HQ of the 160th and looked around. “At ease, you rotorheads.”

She headed into the Commanders office and found him on the phone; she walked in as he was looking at something behind him and he put the phone down to realize she was sitting at the chair in front of his desk. He started to stand and she waved him down.
“Joe, take it easy. This is not official; I am just wandering around reacquainting myself. Nuts when you were in my Battalion you were not worried about appearances so why worry now?”

“That was then and this is now that is why. I mean you have to start getting dignity somewhere. I chose here.”

“Oh, well if that is what floats your boat. How are you doing?”

“Getting used to it. But unlike you I really cannot keep flying which sucks. How in the world did you manage to do it?”

“Well to start with I was in Scotland and that helped; then I had a top XO who was a great ADMIN guy who took care of a lot of that. And finally since I was the one that stood it up I could do pretty much what I wanted. But I was really lucky in a lot of ways.”

“I guess. But then you remember the fun and games here a couple years ago.”

“Well that is what happens when you get a dud commander; the whole unit goes down the Calcutta Crapper. But you guys got it together in the end.”

“Yeah after you kicked our butts hard enough. Actually that is what ended up putting me here; your evaluation pushed me up to Major faster than what it would have been; then when the last commander went bad I got picked and groomed for this. I really doubted I had the experience; luckily working under the old man for almost a year helped a lot. We are in good shape; I got a training officer almost as mean as you and that is what is important when you are not getting shot at.”

“Way too many people do not get how important training officers are.”

“Well that is not a problem here. So you just visiting or looking to poach?”

“Already did that to the 1st Aviation Brigade at Riley; I took their sgt major for the division. Sid Winston.”

“You really want a mean one.”

“With no deployments likely any time soon, this division will get soft if it is not pushed in training and otherwise; I can do the training part but a top Sgt Major is vital to keeping people on their toes. As long as it is a Sgt Major who realizes that is important and his job. I know some do not get that.”

“Yeah, the Sgt Major we got right after you left was not a good one. We wanted to get Sid but he got snapped up after he left the command sgt major school.”

“So have the fly boys got over being butt stroked yet?”

“Nope. The Swab Jockeys wanted to take us on a carrier and do it in the middle of the ocean but SOCOM told them to get stuffed. Fly boys are just pouting.”

Liz stuck around a while to talk then headed over to 5th Group.

She noted they were not as surprised; word must have gotten around.

The Group Commander greeted her.
“So general, want to look at our ASP?”

Liz grinned. “Why not?”

The Group commander was rather fiendish as he had not warned the ASP.
They walked in and pretty much panicked them. Liz grinned evilly and asked to see the SOP’s. Then asked some tough questions. They seemed reasonably competent and Liz got no bad vibes. She then asked to see their Cat 1 mags.

They looked good and she noted that all the Cat 1 rds were banded to pallets.
She looked around. “Looks pretty good. When were you last inspected?”

“6 months ago. From what I understand they took your suggestions to heart and now have random inspections with only a month of warning.”

Liz was glad to hear that; she was certain that lack of oversight contributed significantly to problems in support units. Just like in line units.

“So she is poking around the 160th and 5th Group.”

“Yes sir.”

“But not any part of the 101st?”

“No sir.”

“That is very polite of her.”

“Yes sir.”


Liz got permission to fly her family to see her get promoted in Florida.

It was a fairly short ceremony but a few of her friends made it including a certain congressman.
“So, how do you like staying in?’

“It seems like it will be OK. We shall see down the road but so far so good. I read where you are thinking of retiring?”

“Been in Congress 24 years. Thinking about it but probably not yet.”

“I have to admit knowing you were around has helped. Probably kept some people off of my back as well.”

“Could be. But I doubt you need my help anymore. You have reached the level where you have clout of your own not connected to anyone else.”

“I am not going to be falsely modest; I know that is true. Well I am determined to go as far as I can without selling out. So far I have been able to.”

“I hope that you can keep that up.”


Nancy brushed some tears from her eyes and leaned against Ted.
“Sometimes I cannot believe what has happened in her life.

“She can’t either.”

Meanwhile in Hollywood there was a push to have a bio made on Elizabeth Parker. The anti-military crowd did not like it but the women’s groups did. The problem they all had was that she refused to talk to reporters and that gave them little to build on.
“Before we can do it well we need to be able to have a long talk with her. Have you tried talking to her friends?”

“They are all ex-military and will not give us the time of day. Let’s face it; the Military hates our guts and spits on us every chance they get and who can blame them after the way Hollywood has treated them over the years. For every Saving Private Ryan there are two or three others that trash them. And for those that say so what, how many bios are made of Hollywood? The few that have been are usually white washes.”

“I don’t care about the past. This woman has an incredible story that is begging to be told. The real military haters have tried to find something bad on her and they have never been able to get a thing. I mean ZERO, NADA, NOTHING. No one should be this clean but she is.”
“Yeah. I am trying to remember who it was; one of the morons that used to hang around that fat slob Michael Moore, I think. Anyway he really tried his hardest to dig up dirt on her and could find nothing at all. Spent almost a year on it back in 2015 and came up with nothing. Heard someone talking about it and he was just about ready to be committed he was so depressed. He was so sure that no Hero is really a hero; they are all druggies or child abusers or racists or something like that. Then he finds out that she is the real deal. And what was worse for him was that he came across others who were almost as clean. Just blew his whole world view. Don’t think he has worked since.”

“Hollywood is so hung up on the so called flawed hero’s that are so messed up they should never be outside of an asylum that when a real one comes along we cannot handle it.”

The next day in a fairly elaborate ceremony Major General Elizabeth Parker assumed command of the 101st Airborne Division. That afternoon she scheduled a series of meetings with the officers and enlisted men of each brigade over the next week. Starting the next day at 0800 and going every two hours; officers first then enlisted men next. 7 brigades plus the Headquarters Battalion meant 16 meetings. She had 4 per day for 4 days. Then she proceeded to look around the entire divisional area. From the ASP to the Aviation Brigade to the Comm Center and everything between. This took another 3 days. Everywhere she went she had a staff officer taking notes.

The meetings Liz conducted were get to know you type meetings; she made it plain that she would have occasional bitch sessions for them to air their gripes.
“The 101st has a record second to none. It is my job to keep that up. I will do whatever is necessary. But I have to know about problems in order to fix them. For the enlisted men Command Sergeant Major Winston is your contact. For officers my Chief of Staff Colonel Forrest. They will both have open door policies. Let me make one thing very clear. Mistakes will be made by everyone including me; as long as we learn from them we will be OK. But anyone that repeats a mistake is on his way out. And this above all I want you to think about. Anyone that lies to me is gone immediately. Anyone that covers something up will not only be gone but if I have anything to do with it will do time. Good day and dismissed.”

After thoroughly going through the installation and all the attached units, Liz then called a meeting of all Brigade Commanders, plus the commander of the Headquarters Battalion. 1-4 Brigades, the 101st and 159th Aviations Brigades, and the 101st Sustainment Brigade. Her staff as well. She looked around the room and thought just how far she had come from that first day of Basic Training. Then shook it off and got done to business.

“As I told the units, my goal is to have the best division in the World. Not just the US Army. To do that means that is has to be ready. At all times. First thing on the agenda is that we make sure we all know which Brigade is the Alert Brigade when. With no deployments in the future as far as we can tell at this time, as of next month the 2nd BCT will be the alert brigade. The 101st and 159th will trade off being the Aviation Alert Brigade. Any questions?”

There was a bit of a stir and finally the 1st BCT commander spoke.
“General, with the exception of deployments, the 1st has been the Alert Brigade for over 15 years.”

“So?”

He did not know how to respond to that.

Liz saw the looks around the table and decided to have mercy on them.
“We share the load. Each Brigade will spend 3 months on Alert status and 9 months off. That will be the predictable part of this situation. What will not be predictable are the no notice inspections I will be doing as well as no notice exercises. Those of course will be for the non alert brigades. But I will stage some for the Alert Brigades as well. The difference will be that you guys will get a 24 hr notice. Being on alert should have some bennies.”

She looked at her watch. “And as of right now the 1st BCT has 24 hours notice that there will be an exercise. One hour prior to the start you will get the mission statement.”

There were more looks around the room; akin to ‘What are we going to do?’.

She looked around the room. “Anyone who wants a transfer out of this division will get it no questions asked. That will be the divisional policy.”

She then went down a list of things she expected of them. She ended the meeting 30 minutes later. She got up and walked out of the room leaving them all there standing. Finally the Deputy Division commanders looked at each other and both said. “Oh, shit.”

As promised the 1 BCT got its exercise that put it in choppers and moved them to the training site where a battalion of the 4th BCT was dug in waiting for them.

The exercise lasted until dark when Liz called it off. The 1st BCT, in the opinion of the umpires Liz had in place, had not completely dislodged the Battalion. Liz told everyone to get back and get rest; at 0800 the 1st BCT would get its critique.

The Amphitheater had been built so that a whole brigade could fit in it. Liz walked out at exactly 0800 as the Brigade jumped to its feet.

“Be seated.”

She looked around at them.
“You did not stink. That is about the best I can say. You certainly did not perform like the Alert Brigade should; let alone like a brigade of the 101st should. You had over 8 hours to dislodge that battalion and you did not get it done. You were sloppy and uncoordinated. Needless to say there will be another quite soon. Your Brigade commander will now take over.” And she walked out.


“She certainly hit the ground running.”

“Yes sir.”

“Why was the 1st BCT the only one on alert?”

“Only answer I can find was tradition.”

“Well it was a dumb one.”

“Yes sir.”

The XVIII Airborne Corps commander sat back and mused. “She certainly is shaking things up. You can hear the cries and screams from there already.”

“Yes sir. I think it is safe to say they will not be complacent.”

After Liz left the Brigade Commander slowly walked to the podium.
“Not much to say, is there people? I have to disagree with the General. We did stink. She was being nice to us, since this was the first time with her. I can tell you people one thing for certain. You will be working for a while.”

The two Deputy Commanders sucked it up and went into the General’s office. Liz nodded to them as they took the bare chairs sitting in front of her desk. Gone were the plush ones of the past. Another indication that this was a new regime.
“I cut the two of you out for a simple reason. I wanted to see how everyone would react. That will not happen again. But I want to make one thing clear; if I find out that news of a no notice gets out I will have someone’s head. There will be no second chances. There are some things I will not give anyone a second chance on and that is one. Now onto business. What did you two think of the exercise?’

Operations was first. “You said it, sir. Sloppy and uncoordinated. I was very surprised at that.”

Support nodded. “They were not ready sir. They were ready to move but they were not ready to fight. They did not have the time they usually have while deploying to plan and get ready and it showed.”

“And now you know the purpose of the no notice.”

They both nodded. “In the future it will be operations duty to coordinate the no notice and the 24 hour notice exercises. But mark this: I will have people watching to make sure no friends get warning calls. If that happens whoever does the calling is out of this division that same day. No appeals, no reprieves. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir.”

A while later Sid came in and closed the door.
“So put the fear of Doberman into those two yet?”

She grinned. An impartial observer would have noted blood dripping from her fangs.
“I think they do now. So what did you think of that exercise?”

“For a pretty simple and basic one I was surprised they did not do better. But that battalion had done a very good job of preparing and picked the best ground around for a defensive stand.”

“I agree. That is why they will get a 3 day holiday from duty starting tomorrow. I will announce it when I speak to them in an hour.”

Sid blinked then grinned. “Now that is motivation.”

“Ya.”

They both grinned then Liz got serious.
“Overall is this division as soft as I think it is?”

“Yes. I think it is clear why they sent you. The very interesting part is that no one I know of suspected it was soft.”

Liz walked into the critique of the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th BCT and nodded at them. “Be seated.”

She looked around. “Damn good job. Any nits I pick would be frankly bitching just to be bitching. So this is what I am going to do. From Midnight tonight for 72 hours this battalion is off duty. Have fun people.”

They jumped up and yelled “Currahee!” And she waved and walked out.

The first two weeks set the tone. One week later Liz let operations set up another 24 hr exercise; this time with the 2nd Battalion of the 506th. The 1st BCT did much better and dislodged the battalion after 6 hours; destroying it by the umpires judgment. Liz walked into the critique.

“Not all there yet but a huge improvement. 1st BCT will get a 48 hour no duty period next month once you are off alert status. Choose when and you will get it.”

She went to the 2nd Battalions critique. “You did well against a unit that was butt hurt and wanted revenge. You still held for 6 hours against 3-1 odds. During daytime. So you will get 48 hours off starting midnight tonight.
The Battalion, stunned that they were getting props, yelled “Currahee!”


Liz every month went through the division building by building. Poking her head in and talking to people. Sid acted as her Deep Throat and warned her of problems. She wasted no time in rousting the Sustainment Brigade transportation Battalion for low operational status. She made it clear to the Battalion and Brigade commander that they had 30 days to make it better or they were both out.

Three months in she was talking to Sid.
“OK, how are things going?”

“Much better but not all there yet. We have some dead wood to chop.”

“They got better but they are slipping again, right?” referring to the Transportation Battalion.

“Yes, sir.”

“The Battalion commander?”

“And two of the company commanders. Just not going to cut it.”

“I had hoped they would shape up, but so be it. I want to give the Brigade commander a little more time to do it himself; and the Deputy for Sustainment to push it. If they don’t then they are gone as well.”

Sid sighed. Liz was hard core, but right.

“I have been approached to run a divisional exercise against the Big Red One at the NTC.”

“Wow. That is major league.’

“Yep. They want to do it in 90 days.”

“I imagine the ops guys will shit a brick with that little warning but I agree.”

“That is why they are only going to get 30 days. I got FORSCOM to agree.”

Looking at Sid she had to smile. She remembered the meeting the day before with FORSCOM. It had been her, XVIII Airborne Corps commander and FORSCOM and TRADOC. TRADOC started it.

“General Parker, it has been proposed to have a divisional exercise at the NTC with the 101st and 1st ID. We are looking at scheduling it for June.”

Liz looked at them. “How about 30 days notice, sir?”

He looked at her as did the others. “30 Days?”

“Sir, with the exception of the second Iraq campaign, when have we gotten 90 days warning of anything? 30 days even but I am trying to be reasonable.”

XVIII was grinning at the other two. He was the only one there not surprised by her response. TRADOC shook his head. “That is too short.”

Liz looked at him. “Why?”

He opened his mouth then closed it. FORSCOM had a small smile. “I agree, 30 days.” Leaving TRADOC with nothing to say.
Liz then pushed it. “Sir, I request that this not be mentioned outside of this room until the 30 days. If we are going to be serious it cannot leak; it would defeat the whole purpose.” She was addressing this to FORSCOM since it was his office. He nodded, as did XVIII and finally TRADOC, who still looked gob smacked. The meeting was over shortly after and TRADOC left first. The other two looked at Liz.
“I do not think he was prepared for this.” Came from FORSCOM.

“I KNOW he was not prepared for this.” Came from XVII.

“Will he keep his mouth shut?” was Liz’s blunt question. FORSCOM nodded.

“He will. It would be his ass if he blabs. Frankly I do not think he is the man for that job.”


Sid took a minute to adjust and then smiled softly. “From what I have heard TRADOC must have had a cow with a virtual no warning like that. To him 30 days notice is no warning.”

“FORSCOM flat out said he does not think he is the man for the job.”

“From what I have heard and seen that is true.”

The next week Liz decided to talk to someone about her problem.
“General Watson, I have a problem and I need the advice of someone who has been in command of a division recently.”

“That was some years ago.”

“Maybe so but you were there. Here is my problem. The sustainment brigades Transportation battalion has two week company commanders. Neither the Battalion, Brigade or Deputy for Support has taken action. I raised hell when I first took over about low operational status and things got better for a while then are falling back. This has been going on for almost 2 months. I am about to chop all of them but I wanted your advice before I got out my ax.”

“You are absolutely certain about this?’

“Yes sir.”

He sighed. “Then you really have no choice, do you?”

“I was going to do it but I guess I still have a little doubt about being a divisional commander.”

“From everything I have heard you are doing a superb job. Better than I did easily. No time for doubts; if you have a weakness and those above them know about it and have not taken action then you really have no choice.”

“Thank You General.”

Liz put down the phone and made a call to the XVIII.

“General Johnson, I have a problem.”

XVIII put down his phone and thought for a moment then called in his Chief Of Staff. When he came in and closed the door at a motion from the General he sat down and waited with expectation.

“General Parker is going to roll her Deputy Assistant Division Commander for Support, her Sustainment Brigade Commander, her Transportation Battalion Commander, and two Transportation company commanders. They have a weakness down there and there has been nothing done about it. They know about it since she raised hell about it the first month; it got better but is sinking again. Low operational status.”

“My God. Everything we have heard says that division is doing so well.”

“Yes in its combat areas. But you know a lot of times that is where the weakness of good divisions usually are. But she certainly is taking action. And justifiably so; the status is clearly not good and has been sinking lately.”

“So what do we do?”

“She wanted transfers rather than relief for cause. Though in this case everyone will know it’s one and the same.”

“Maybe she is getting soft?” clearly sarcasm.

“Not likely. So I need you to see what is available for them.”

“Yes sir. Will get right on it.”

3 days later he came in. “I have the positions for them sir. Overall not too bad.”

“Best we can do. Let her know.”

Liz looked at the message and took a deep breath and called in her Chief of Staff.

“General, you wanted to see me?” It paid to be careful around her in unexpected situations; she was always testing you then.

She handed him the messages. “See that these transfers are ready for my signature by 1700 today.” He looked at them and his mouth dropped wide open; he looked at her and saw a hard caste to her face, then he nodded and went out to get it done.

He got it done by 1300 and she took the transfers and headed out. The Deputy for Ops looked at him as he saw the General walking out with papers.

“What is up?”

“She is handing transfer papers to ….”

“My god.”

“She gave them a chance and they did not get it done. She did not relieve them for cause as she could have.”

“Not like this is not the same thing in all but name.”

“Warning for us as well.”

“Yeah.”

Liz walked down the hall returning salutes and walked into the Deputy Assistant Division Commander for Support office. His secretary stood up. “General?”

“Is he in and alone?” “Yes sir.” Then Liz walked into his office. He jumped up.
“General, what is it?”
Then she handed the paper to him. “You took no action. I have no choice.”

Then walked out. She went to the Sustainment Brigade’s office and did the same; then went to the battalion, then the companies. By the time she got to the Company they knew and just bowed their heads as they took their transfer papers.

Needless to say this hit the division like the proverbial ton of bricks; multiple grand piano’s dropped on their heads.

“A General, Full Colonel, Lt Colonel, 2 captains all in about an hour. She walked into each of their offices and handed them their transfer papers.”

“Well, no one can say she does not do her own dirty work.”

“Yeah.”

Liz came back to the office noticing that it was very vacant. She could see people spot her at a distance then all but run away. She sighed; but that was the way it was. She stopped by the Chief of Staff’s office. His secretary looked at her with terrified eyes. She just walked in and shut the door.

Jack Forrest had had a very good career; for the first time he was in fear of it.
“Have you made out orders giving their deputies authority for acting?”

“In the process now, sir.”

“Good. Schedule interviews with each for tomorrow one hour apart. Not the two company XO’s. The rest of them.” Then she walked out.

The word spread beyond the division quickly, as one could expect. Shock and Awe was probably the first reactions; then gladness that the person thinking about it was not part of the 101st. Those who remembered her from the 160th and 101st Aviation were not terribly surprised.

In bases around the country the word slowly spread of the Thursday Afternoon Massacre (or Doberman’s Rampage). Then elsewhere as things tend to do inside the military.

Jim Harkness, about to leave to assume command of Fort Hood, as Base Commander, sighed. He knew how hard that must have been for Liz. He had gotten his Birds, no doubt due to her recommendations and evaluations, just a month ago. He looked at the 161st Commander.
“That was hard for her.”

“Yeah. And you know she did it herself.”

To say that this happening increased the pucker factor for the 101st Division is to say the Pacific Ocean is wide and deep.

Meanwhile Liz kept the pressure up with more no notice exercises for all but the alert units. But it was noticeable that all Brigades began to do better. Liz certainly noticed that there was visibly more effort being put in.

Finally on 1 May she put out the 30 day notice that a divisional exercise would take place at the NTC vs the 1st ID. Normally a light airborne division vs a Heavy Division is not much of a fight; but in this case it was designed as a maneuver exercise which evened the odds some. The 1st ID would have to be considered the favorite which suited Liz fine. In holding with her views, there was very little put out about what was going to happen; just that they had to get to the NTC and be ready for a week’s full bore war.

Everything indicated that the 1st ID was indeed caught by surprise. The Division would have to more little of its heavy weapons as the NTC had a permanent set for a division. Liz decided that to do things right would take both offensive and defensive scenarios. All about moving and maneuvering. At 1300 on 1 May she had all the brigade commanders in. The Sustainment Brigade acting Commander had been doing a good job; she was looking at making his appointment official and permanent after the exercise if he did well. She had also allowed the Deputy to the Assistant Division Commander for Support to continue in his acting capacity; she was less sure about keeping him but would wait for the conclusion of the exercise.
“Sam, she flat out told me the decision on whether I keep the position would not be made until after the exercise. That can only mean if I can do well there I keep the job.”

“Probably. But it could also mean that she is ready to cut you loose but will give you one more chance.”

“That is possible. But everything I hear about her is if you get it done you stay.”

“True. So you do have a shot.”

The Deputy Assistant Division Commander, Operations, understood that his career might ride on this exercise. She was letting him plan it mostly; while giving some input. He had never felt pressure like this before. They were going up against a heavy division so the odds were already against them. The only way they could even that out was to maneuver faster and better; and to use their extra Aviation Brigade. The General was doing most of her input in that area; which was natural since she was an aviator.

Liz had gotten a lot of tutelage on ground combat and maneuver since she took over the 161st. She had learned a lot and the brigade commanders were surprised at her insight. After the meeting a couple were talking to each other.

“You sure she never had a ground command? “

“Her only time on the ground was when she was an 89B. Rotorhead ever since.”

“Well she picked up a lot somewhere.”

Liz was surprised how well she could read and interpret the ground maneuvers; somehow all the time in Afghanistan must have helped. They had gotten a copy of the 1st ID’s maneuver procedures and gambled they would not change much for this exercise. The Brigade commanders and Liz brainstormed on how to confuse and befuddle them.

“OK. Clearly we do not want to try anything head on into their tank brigades or into their heavy weapons. But hitting them from the flank or rear is another story. We need to use our aviation assets to even the odds. If we lose 75% of the division and take down them that is a victory in this exercise. So we need to be ruthless. We need to obscure their recon and surveillance assets as much as possible. Our geek squads need to look at jamming and the like. As far as I am concerned there is nothing not on the table. Sneaky, devious, cheating, nothing is banned.”

The 1st Brigade mused. “Actually I would rather attack then defend. Defending means they know where you are and with their muscle advantage we are in deep shit if we try and hold a position.”

Liz nodded. “True. In that case it is a matter of causing the maximum number of casualties before being destroyed ourselves if we cannot retreat.”

She looked around the table. “That is the name of this game people; destroy as much of the enemy as we can before being destroyed ourselves. Our mindset going in should be that this is happening on American Soil. We have been invaded and we are willing to die if it means taking them with us. That is not something that is done on these kinds of exercises and that is wrong. That will be our biggest edge.”

The 1st ID staff was scrambling to adjust to such a short notice operation with no real guidelines. Their general was not happy.
“This is all her idea. Short notice and virtually no directions.”

His brigade commanders looked at each other and kept silent.

“All right. We have the power edge. We will use it. Hammer them and hammer them. They are a light division; they cannot match us. They will try and bob and weave and not let us get in good shots. We will use our advantage to the maximum.”

Once again his brigade commanders stayed quiet.


Liz had asked that the 101st start out on offense. That was granted. So they went with their maneuver and movement scenario.

This exercise was being watched by more than a few. FORSCOM, TRADOC, CENTCOM, EUCOM and others got the predator feed.

At the end of 18 hrs the first scenario was over. 101st won by a narrow margin; but the casualty factor was decidedly in the 101st’s favor.

Ist ID general was not happy.
“You all knew that they would be using maneuver and you still let them get away with it.” One of the Brigade commanders had the guts to respond.

“They were much more aggressive than we planned for. More Reckless than we expected.”

“Well big surprise. They have to take risks. We do not. So do better.”

FORSCOM looked at his deputy. “She did very well in that first day; used their advantages as well as you could. I wonder if the 1st ID will adjust.”

His deputy was pokerfaced. “Sir, I doubt it. He likes to bull ahead using speed and power, not maneuver. He might just play right into her hands.”

The next day the 101st was moved to a position and told to defend it. Liz then pushed the umpires on what they were defending and they agreed that it was a blocking position. So she worked with her people to make it a fighting retreat to a certain point then basically do an Alamo.

That ended at 12 hours with the total destruction on the 101st but 90% of the 1st ID went down. Technically the 1st ID won but once again as regards practical accomplishment enough of the 159th survived that the remainder of the 1st ID would not move any further so overall it was a tie; since the 1st ID had a larger force, they actually lost more personnel and virtually all of their heavy weapons.
In a real war it would have been considered a victory for the 101st.

Once again FORSCOM looked at his deputy. “Talk about a pyrrhic victory.”

“If that, sir. Overall the 101st won again.”

The 1st ID general was truly steaming. He knew he was losing and that frosted him totally.
“No fooling around this time. We stay in place and use our power to attrit them to the point we can counter attack.”

The third of 4 scenarios was a decisive win for the 101st as they broke through and fragmented the 1st ID, their communications jamming and the like finishing the job. The 101st lost 60%, but the 1st ID lost 90% and was unable to hold.

The last scenario was one in which the 101st was holding a position and in this case Liz took a chance. She had her sustainment and support units dig in and used her aviation assets and maneuver battalions to virtually surround the attacking 1st ID, like a pack of wolves tearing at a lion from all sides.

Livid, the 1st ID filed a complaint, complaining that training rules had been violated. His brigade commanders could not believe it.

The head of the NTC looked at his staff. “Were there any safety violations?”
“No sir; it got close in a couple of areas but no safety violations.”

“What about the jamming of communications?”

“Emergency and medical frequencies were not interfered with.”

“His complaint about violating training procedures?”

“Without merit.”

FORSCOM was talking to CENTCOM and EUCOM.
“I cannot believe he actually filed a formal complaint.”

“The dumbest thing he could have done. He got his butt kicked and now he is claiming that she cheated.”

The collective out brief was very tense. Liz kept an impassive face as the NTC commander informed the general that his complaint had been rejected. They left soon afterwards. Once everyone got home Liz informed the whole Division that they had the next week off, she had arranged for the 82nd to cover the alert brigade requirements, agreeing sometime in the future to return the favor. Liz listened to the happy calls and cheerful talk of her division; they knew they had really won a big one. And she smiled.

When the Division got back to Campbell, Liz had gathered them all on the parade field. Using the PA system there she gave them the word.

“Screaming Eagles just kicked butt. I want to congratulate the Deputy Division Commander for Operations for doing most of the planning. The Aviation Brigades for evening the odds. And who says Sustainment means just hauling supplies? You dug in and made it count. The Maneuver brigades rang rings around them. OK, people, you have 7 days off duty starting now. Get outta here.”

It would be understating to say that parade field cleared very quickly. Liz went to her quarters and just relaxed with her family.

The results of this exercise proceeded to reverberate around the US Army. The fact that an airborne division, a light division, basically kicked around a Heavy Division shook some very widely held beliefs. The tread heads were horrified; worried that this would be used to try and get rid of more tanks. Those who believed in lighter forces were overjoyed. Bean counters liked the fact that light divisions were cheaper than heavy divisions. FORSCOM and XVIII Airborne Corps talked about this a week later.
“The debate just got reopened.”

“Yeah, that can of worms is all over the place again.”

“Never ceases to amaze me how one side or the other never seem to realize that you cannot be all light or all heavy; you need a mixture.”

“I think most of them get that you need a mixture; but one side or another is always looking at a 65/35 split. To me a 45 -55 split with light forces having the edge seems about right. We have to look to the future with Korea and China and maybe Russia; those fights would be tank heavy. BUT most of our fights outside of there will be light; just as they have mostly been since first Korea with the exception of Desert Storm and the first part of the second Iraq war.”

FORSCOM grinned at him. “Surprise that you liked the current split; even though you have a heavy unit.”

“I am quite happy with what I have. I think overall the XVIII is set up just the way it needs to be.”

Meanwhile at the 1st Armored and 1st Cavalry as well as the 3rd and 4th Infantry divisions were not as happy. Though the Infantry divisions were not as worried as the two heavy armored divisions were. They were worried that they would end up getting made lighter. They were all certain that the commander of the 1st ID had simply walked stupidly into the trap laid for him. And had thus made all heavy divisions look bad.

The fate of the 1st ID commander was being debated high up in the Army and the DOD. The SECDEF called in the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army to discuss it.
“I want your recommendations now.”

The Secretary was quiet for a moment. “He has had a good record up to now.”
The Chief of Staff was blunt. “Filing that complaint clinched it in my eyes. Whining after getting your butt kicked is no way to act no matter what. What he should have done was congratulate her and then ask for a rematch in 6 months or whenever it could be arranged. But he acted like a spoiled 4 year old. And it has been pretty much a given that when a division disastrously; and make no bones about it that is what it was, fails a large exercise then the division commander is relieved. He still has two years to go and frankly I do not want him there.”

SECDEF nodded. “That is my opinion as well and I shall so recommend to the president.” He then sat back.

“She did better than I expected in her first exercise; especially just a few months after the massacre.”

The Chief of Staff smiled. “One could probably say they were more frightened of her than anyone else. That tends to concentrate one’s mind very well. But I have to say I have not seen some of those tactics tried before on a brigade level. She gambled and won; but they were not crazy gambles. They were cold blooded calculated risks. I hope we never find out if she is like that in real combat. Though some of her exploits already hint at it.”

SECDEF looked at him. “Explain?”

“The last scenario and the second one. She basically sacrificed her entire sustainment brigade in the last one and in the second one virtually her entire division. In both cases she achieved her objective at huge costs. But if we were in total war, such as we would have been if the Warsaw Pact had ever attacked, that is exactly the kind of commanders I would have wanted.”
The SECDEF mused on that. “I admit I did not expect her to act so cold-bloodedly; but then once again this was not the real thing.”

The Chief shook his head. “Listen to those tapes again, sir, during the Pakistani operation. Totally cool and calm the entire time. I think I can say for virtually certain that if she saw the need she would sacrifice her entire division. Coldly and calmly. But I would also expect her to share their fate.”

SECDEF looked at him. “Travis at the Alamo?”

“Yes sir. No running; just take as many as you can with you when you go down.”

All three men contemplated that thought.

Liz looked up as her chief of staff came in.
“The General commanding the 1st ID has been relieved and will be retiring immediately.”

Liz sighed. “I am of two minds on that. One, I think it is warranted with the way he acted. But on the other it’s a sad end to a good career.”

“Filing that complaint is what I think did it. Not just doing it but the mindset of doing it. I am pretty sure that was the final straw.”

“I cannot believe that his people did not try and stop him.”

“General, from what I have heard he was a bit of a bully. I think he had them intimidated into not going against him.”

Liz shook her head. “Very stupid. If that is the case then I am glad he is gone. Would not want to have to depend on him if we went to war.”

After the Division got back from their leave, they began to talk about the exercise. And they began to see just how ruthless Liz had been. And they began to wonder what would happen if they really went to war.

As usual Sid had his ear to the ground and heard the whispers. He had to admit that he could see where they were coming from. So he talked to Liz.

“Bottom line is they wonder if you would be that cold blooded and ruthless in a real war.”

She looked at him. “What do you think?”

He paused for a moment then nodded. “If it was important enough you would do it.”

She nodded. “Yes I would.”

“That scares them some.”

She sighed. Then leaned back in her chair and looked at him pensively.
“War is Hell; to quote Sherman. Who was perhaps the first person to really understand total war. The Romans leveled Carthage and salted the land. The Greeks destroyed Troy completely. But in each case that was an isolated happening. Sherman understood that if you want to really finish a war you have to destroy your enemies ability to wage war. Really the US Civil War was the first time that became policy. Carried out to the ultimate in WW2. People really do not think about that anymore. It is not taught that way. And that means that commanders have to be willing to sacrifice their command if it is important enough. If sacrificing my whole division would stop a nuclear war I would do it.”

Command Master Sargent Major Sid Winston shivered. She meant it.

After he left Liz thought about it; and decided her division needed to know this about her. So she put out a message that would be read to every unit.

“Many of you wonder at my tactics during the exercise. Sacrificing all or part of the division to achieve the objective. This was a training exercise; you are allowed to do things there you would never do in a real war. But I need all of you to understand this: If I was put in the situation of preventing World War III by sacrificing the entire division; I would choose to sacrifice the division. Now I promise you one thing: if it ever comes to that I will stand with you to the end. And I promise you something else. I would not go to extremes like that if there was any other choice. But know I would do it if I believed I had to.”
That message in some respects relived people; but in other ways just scared them; they realized they had a commander who would to that if she thought she had to.

That message got out to a few people not in the 101st; and one of them was the former SOCOM who had just retired. He read it and thought about things. He talked about it with his old Aviation Chief who had also retired.
“So what do you think?”

“I think that is what has always been there; she just finally showed it.”

“But when you think of how hard she fought to keep her people alive…”

“Because she could without sacrificing anything important. With the exception of the operation to keep the Pakistani nukes out of Al queeda’s hands she always had a choice; it was never so critical that she had to consider it. In that operation you can hear it in her voice; she was going to do whatever it took to keep those nukes out of their hands. If she had to sacrifice her whole command to do it she would have; if she had felt the need she would have rammed her Apache right into that bunker. Like I said it has always been there; for the first time she showed us a glimpse. In that exercise she showed the pragmatic thinking that would do it if she had to. But once again it would have to be something so big that accomplishing her mission was worth everyone and herself dying to get it done. I find that hard to imagine where she is right now. But it is there.”

Liz had never really confronted her inner willingness to die or to sacrifice her command if necessary. But she understood that it had always been there. The Pakistan operation was the first time that she had faced that possibility. She had quietly determined that no matter what it cost her mission would succeed. If there was any way out of it she would take it; but if there was no other way she was prepared to sacrifice everyone including herself. She had deliberately not thought about it after the operation; but having to speak to Sid about it had brought it right back to the top. She then in her typical fashion faced her fears and came to terms with them; in this case not her fears but her determination. She would do whatever was necessary if it was important enough. She accepted it and placed it in its box; hoping to never have to open it again.

In the next few months Liz went back to her pattern of no notice inspections and training exercises; and for the Alert Brigades she gave them only 24 hours. She borrowed a regular apache now and then to keep current from one of her brigades; she found it hard to accept the limitations of the regular apaches after flying their big brother for so long. So she began to now and then borrow a spare Super from the 160th. Frequently challenging them to keep up with her. She looked upon this as her relaxation therapy.

Aliya seemed to be thriving at the University of Tennessee and seemed to have found a boyfriend; her first as she had dated very little while in Scotland. Liz did not hesitate to investigate him thoroughly. He seemed OK, but she made it a point to show up in Uniform once and accidentally meet him. Aliya of course saw through all this and scolded her mother for trying to ruin her love life. Liz just smiled.
“Of course I am. One of a mothers sacred duties.”

2 months after shredding the 1st ID there was a training exercise with one of the Brigades of the 82nd; held at Bragg. Liz chose the 2nd Brigade and they did quite well; winning the scenario. Liz pushed TRADOC to let her get a full Brigade training exercise for each of her brigades against another divisional brigade at least twice a year. The former TRADOC had been moved on to another position as it was quietly seen he really did not have what it took; the new TRADOC was more aggressive and agreed with her.
“I guess you know that some of the heavy divisions want to even the score; to show you that your light division cannot really compete with them. That the 1st ID got its head handed to them because their division commander screwed up.”

“Of course. Brigade to Brigade with the Aviation Brigade with mine; and a part of an aviation brigade with them. To make it fair.”

TRADOC had smiled and had arranged for the 3rd Brigade of the 101st plus the 159th Aviation to go to Ft Hood and fight it out with the 1st Brigade of the 1st Cavalry. This happened in September and once again with only a 30 day warning. But the result was not far off from the first time. Liz had carefully prepared her people; and they had used their aviation edge to the maximum; once again showing how much an edge speed gave you. It was not the total knockout it had been before; but the 3rd Brigade after 4 days had a distinct edge.

Once again Liz rewarded the Brigade with a 72 hour off duty pass. And once again it caused talk about a Light Brigade outpointing a Heavy Brigade.

“Aviation was the difference; they could not overcome it. They were growling about that.”

“Let them growl; the fact is that we will send any light division or brigade with more aviation assets than a heavy brigade every time. Because they need it. The heavy crew has claimed that they don’t.”

“I do not think you will hear that claim much anymore.”


They got back to work again after the latest exercise. Liz was glad to see that the new sustainment people were doing a good job; and had decided that the acting Deputy Assistant Division commander for Support was good enough to keep; so she pushed for his promotion. And the others as well.

After 6 months as division commander Liz did an assessment of the situation. Overall she was satisfied that she had them about as ready as she could make them; her no notice exercises and inspections on the non alert brigades and the 24 hr warning on the alert brigade seemed to do the trick. Sniffing around, Sid had not been able to come up with any problems. So as she tried to do every month, she would have separate meetings with the enlisted and the officers of each brigade in the amphitheater; basically a bitch session for them. That seemed to work well as did her poking her nose into each area once a month.

They were now used to her wandering in and asking how things were going. She would just appear and tell everyone to just keep working; it took a few months for the majority of her people to realize she was just staying in touch and wanted to know what was going on. It was through these kinds of visits that she learned about problems that never seemed to make it up the ladder; bad equipment or contractors not doing a good enough job.

In her 6 months as commander, Liz had run out several contractors that did not live up to their contracts; and forced renegotiation on several more that had unreasonably badly written contracts. She caught some heat from some of the army bean counters but she basically told them to sit down and shut up. Reminding them that they were supposed to be doing this sort of thing not her.

Since a couple of those contractors were from large corporations that had a lot of influence in Washington, she did get a few calls from higher up; especially DOD contracting. She reminded them that it was their responsibility to make sure the troops were taken care of; not the contractor. Basically she told them as far as she was concerned they had been bought off. Needless to say, that was not received well.

The Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics looked at his assistant.
“She said what?”

“She did not quite come out and say it, but basically she said that him complaining about leaning on the contractors basically meant he was in their pocket.”

The Undersecretary sighed. “Well tell him that from her point of view that is probably what it looked like. And that it is his duty to look after our people first, not the contractor.”

“Sir that means we will probably start to hear from congress.”
“I know. Well I should maybe talk to her.”


“General Parker.”

“Hold for the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.”

“General Parker, I felt I needed to talk to you about a conversation you had with the DCMA head.”

“With all due respect, Mr Undersecretary, my point was clear. I had contractors hear either failing to live up to their contracts or contracts that should have had people in jail and I canceled them as I am allowed to do by law. As far as I am concerned he was more in the pocket of the Contractors and I was not going to waste my time with him. If he got butt hurt too bad.”

The Undersecretary blinked. Took a deep breath.

“General, you do know there could be consequences from that.”

“Let them come. I really doubt he wants to testify in front of congress about that, does he?”

Damn. She is playing hardball. The Undersecretary was an old Washington Hand and knew a losing argument when he was in the middle of one.
“I would say that is very much the case, General. I hope you are prepared for there to be some grumbling about this from corporations that have a lot of influence.”

“I am sir. Let them growl. Like cockroaches, they will shut up and run for cover if the light of publicity is shed on them. And I would have no trouble calling a press conference and talking about it. Let them know and I doubt you will hear anything more from them, sir.”

“Good Day general.”

“Good Day Mr Undersecretary. I do not envy you your job.”

Liz knew she was taking a chance but if they wanted to get rid of her she would take them down as well. She did not need this position; she could be quite happy outside the military. That was her edge and she was going to use it; she was going to do it her way or leave.

The Undersecretary knew he needed to kick this upstairs. So he buzzed SECDEF’s office.

SECDEF was surprised; this was pretty far even for her. He decided to talk to someone that knew her fairly well. He put a call into the recently retired SOCOM.
SOCOM had found retirement a little boring but very relaxing so he thought he could get to the point where he was comfortable. The call from the SECDEF surprised him a little.
“Sir, what can this old broken down retired grunt do for you.”

“Cut the crap, Sam. We have known each other way too long.”

“OK, Joe. What is up?”

“Your favorite general is raising hell again.”

“What did she do this time?”

“Fired a bunch of contractors and canceled other contracts forcing renegotiations. When the DCMA head called her on it, she pretty much told him to go have a drink on the bribe money and leave her alone.”

The former SOCOM whistled softly. “Wow. That is pretty extreme even for her.”

“It gets better. The Undersecretary called her about it and she told him that if the contractors or the DCMA head made noise she would call a press conference and talk about it.”

“Holy shit. Not that it would surprise me; we both know how bad the process is.”

“I know; even with the improvements we have made over the last few years it is still bad. But she sounds like she is ready to pop a nuke.”

“And if she called a press conference and talked about this it would be one in the megaton range. But you know, that might be what would be required to reform this once and for all. A whole lot of publicity.”

“Maybe. But what it would mostly do is threaten the budget. There would be a lot of people in congress that just would cut without changing anything. Not even talking about the ones who are bought and paid for by the contractors.”

“True. But I admit that her willingness to kick the table over is a bit of a surprise. I will talk to her and see what is behind it.”

“Please do. I need to know what is going on.”

The ex SOCOM thought for a bit then made a call.

“Could you have the congressman call me at his convenience?”

The Congressman sat and thought about things after the phone call. What was she up to?

The Ex SOCOM then put in the call he was dreading somewhat.

“Sir, what can I do for you?”

“I hear you are raising hell about contracting. I was asked to try and find out what was going on. The SECDEF and I go way back and he asked me.”

“I really doubt I need to tell you how bad it is?”

“No you do not. But why are you being hard core?”

“I decided when I made the commitment to stay in and accept promotion that I would do it my way or get out. I will not sit down and be quiet about things like this. If they want to toss me, fine. I do not need to be here.”

He sighed. “Liz, this army needs you and this does not help to get you where we need you to be.”

“Sir I will not back down on things like this; I owe it to the people I command NOW not who I may command in the future.”

He was quiet as he realized that not only would she not bend; in her mind she could not. This was the price you paid for being a maverick.
“Just try and watch your back, Liz. They have a lot of power.”

“Too much power and if they are able to take me out I will make them pay.”


He called the congressman and relayed what they had talked about.
The Congressman nodded slowly.
“I was not going to run again but she needs my help. They will be gunning for her; and while I have no doubt she could take them down as you said the Army and this country needs her. I will talk to some of my colleagues.”

The SECDEF put down his phone and sat back and thought about things. He knew she had some serious support; and she was absolutely correct that public opinion would be overwhelmingly on her side. Especially as she described the reasons for her actions. The Congressman would pretty much take care of any grief from congress; once they were made aware of how far she was willing to go they would NOT want to have any part of it. And without any congressional or DOD support the contractors would find out quickly just how weak their position was; they were businessmen first and the realization that the costs would far outstrip the benefits they would indeed sit down and shut up.

The Base Commander looked at his Contracting head.
“So for all intents and purposes she can do as she pleases?”
“Yes sir. I got this back door from someone I know in DCMA. She told him that he needed to take a drink on his bribe money; then told the Undersecretary the same thing. They have backed off and the DCMA head will not have anything to do with her now. The word I get is that no one wants to tangle with her; you know she has that congressman on her string so Congress is out. I think the contractors just found out how little power they have when it concerns her.”

The Base Commander sat back and thought as he left. He had known that when she was made divisional commander things would not be normal. He just had not realized how abnormal it would be. Contractors running scared was very rare; especially those from large companies. Not that it bothered him; he had no liking for contractors at all; but they had always been considered a fact of life to anyone who had been in the military for the last 25 years. It was very refreshing to have someone come in and kick their butt.

The CEO put down his phone and considered things.
“I think we need to pull out of Ft Campbell. I was just told that she has total support in congress and elsewhere. If we try and push this we will regret it. We are a business; and this is bad for business.”

The Contract officer could not believe it. All of the major contractors that had been involved in the controversy had basically cut and run. The smaller ones were being told to do what they were supposed to do and otherwise shut up. He sighed; this meant he had to solicit new contractors and that was a pain. He decided to talk to the Base Commander; maybe they needed to talk to the General about this.

Liz looked at the Base Commander and the Contracting officer and smiled. It was not a pleasant smile and both of them wanted to get out of there fast.
“All contracts at this installation that have anything to do with my command will be done right. They will be written tightly and enforced to the maximum. The Free Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner contractors have gotten here like elsewhere is over. We will follow the law and the regulations; which were written to first make sure the soldier is the priority. No matter how that has gotten warped and twisted since. That is all gentlemen.”