tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19265389.post-1134038252443991832005-12-08T02:27:00.000-08:002005-12-15T01:00:58.246-08:00<strong>The Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C.<br />May 15, 2005</strong><br /><br />Sergeant Jackson entered the hospital reception, and asked for Sergeant Allen's room. The woman at reception typed on a computer, and gave him the room number and directions to get there.<br /><br />Jackson walked into Allen's room and found him propped up in bed reading a book.<br /><br />“How are you, Joe?”<br /><br />“I'm fine. Good to see you, Delisle.”<br /><br />“How's the shoulder?”<br /><br />“It still aches. The doctors say I'll get some use back and even some feeling, but it will never be like it was before.”<br /><br />“That’s too bad. Is the army going to invalid you out?”<br /><br />“The Colonel himself, came by yesterday, and told me that I could be invalided out if that’s what I really wanted, but the Army needs all the Special Forces it can get, and that means it needs all the Special Forces instructors it can get. So I agreed to stay in, and they are going to send me to instructors school.”<br /><br />“Good! Any idea what you want to specialize in?”<br /><br />“I thought unmanned and autonomous weapons. From what I've heard, I think we will be doing a lot more ops using robots in the future. It looks like the future of warfare, at least our kind of warfare, but I will miss being on active service.”<br /><br />Jackson nodded his agreement, and wondered how many of those operations would need men and how many would just use machines.<br /><br />“You remember what happened?”<br /><br />“I was firing single shots at the terrorist who were about two hundred and fifty meters away. I had hit at least eight of them, when an RPG round came arcing over, and exploded way behind me, then the next one came directly at me. You can see those things coming because of the propellant burning. Next thing I know, I'm lying on the ground and I can't get up because my left arm doesn't work. I managed to sit up, and tell you I'd been hit.”<br /><br />“The same guy nearly got me. He had a launcher with a thermal imagining sight. I brought it back. If you are curious, it's hanging up in the base museum."<br /><br />“Delisle, I never got a chance to thank you for saving my life.”<br /><br />“We saved each others lives. That’s what a team does.”<br /><br />“Still, I owe my life to you.”<br /><br />Jackson silently acknowledged Allen's statement, before changing the subject.<br /><br />“Pasco is back on duty. He only spent one day in hospital. You would think he would have the decency to get a real wound after what he put me through.”<br /><br />“Pasco is a good soldier. He's a lucky soldier too. Good and lucky are what every soldier wants to be. Are you still working on that classified project?”<br /><br />“You should know better than to ask about classified projects. I can tell you, the project wants me back as a technical adviser, and pulled some strings to make sure it happens.”<br /><br />“Are you happy about that? You were always a soldier's soldier; by-the-book, and always keen for training and exercises. I find it hard to see you working in an office with a bunch of geeks.”<br /><br />Sergeant Jackson thought for a moment, and said, “When I was a boy, my uncle was a soldier. He was my father's older brother. Everyone in the family respected him, and went to him for advice. He always looked so smart in his uniform, and while the other boys wanted to be lawyers, policemen or professional athletes, I always wanted to be a soldier.<br /><br />“My uncle twice went for Delta Force selection, and both times failed. He told me years later, how disappointed he was. So when I found out I had successfully completed the selection, I was overjoyed. It was my highest ambition to be a member of Delta Force, and achieve what my uncle wanted so much. I thought becoming a Special Forces soldier was the best thing that could ever happen to me. There was nothing else I wanted to do, but that was until they assigned me to the classified project. I now realize, developing robotic weapons is something I want to do more.<br /><br />“I am not a brilliant engineer or a computer wizard like some of those guys, but what they don't have, is a soldier's perspective. They don't see things the way a serving soldier does, and they need that perspective if they are going to develop robotic weapons the Army can use – weapons that will win battles and save soldiers' lives. I know I can contribute a lot.”<br /><br />Allen thought Jackson was also a lucky soldier, but then luck was what happened when preparation and opportunity met.<br /><br />“I hear you and Pasco are up for real medals.”<br /><br />“They are talking about the Silver Star”<br /><br />Jackson switched to another topic. “What happened to the Iranian? He was a strange one.”<br /><br />“I don't know, the CIA took him, and the mechanical bird, away as soon as we landed, and I never saw him again. You are right, there was something strange about him. I was conscious the whole time in the chopper. He clutched that dammed bird to him all the way back and just stared at me. Didn't say a word.”<br /><br />Allen paused before continuing, “I would have happily killed the motherfucker. He led us into a trap.”<br /><br />“I don't think he knew about the shepherd or that the shepherd would fire a gun.”<br /><br />“I think we got lucky. I've thought a lot about that night lying here in this bed. I think he meant for us to be attacked on the way back, and the shepherd’s gunshot prematurely triggered the ambush. The Iranian knew about the terrorists in the village, and deliberately didn't tell us. He didn't know about the helicopter. He must have thought, once we were on the other side of the village, we were trapped with no way out. I think he wanted us to die there, or worse get captured and paraded as spies through the streets of Tehran, and then spend years in a stinking prison cell.”<br /><br />“Maybe! I thought it might have been a deliberate trap.”<br /><br />Sergeant Jackson had told his debriefers more-or-less as much, but he had thought more about having to kill the Iranian if he jeopardized the team's safety, which he unquestionably had. As the person in command, he thought he could not have possibly ordered someone else, but then he hadn't known Allen would have willingly done it.<br /><br />Allen said, “Some Army Ranger buddies of mine came by to visit. They told me that Army Ranger Captain you met, Freedman got promoted to Major.”<br /><br />“I'm not surprised. He seemed good enough at working the system to make General.”<br /><br /><a href="http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/2005/12/chapter-62.html"><strong>Chapter 62</strong></a>Philnoreply@blogger.com