Chapter 138

Monday morning the big house was empty and felt empty. I was happy to get the mug of coffee and have the breakfast delivered to the Oval Office. It was already humming. I had left a note on my desk telling Troy what I wanted to do.

Today’s calendar was open with the exception of a few small items and I could take care of them on the flight to and from California. The Secret Service was upset - they did not have time to get the Beast out there.

It would be far better PR if I was shown riding in a Humvee for the TV cameras. I had ordered invitations sent by emails and cell phone texts to the ten Senators, ten Representatives and six department heads to be at the Capitol entrance at 0800 to catch the bus to Andrews to accompany me for an inspection of Camp Parks. The Air Force was already prepping Air Force One for the flight.

My staff were packing briefcases with the things we were going to discuss on the way. The White House news reporters from the news room were drawing numbers to see which four of them and a camera man were going, since they liked the lottery system so much. Melinda and Hanna were already told to be on the bus.

The other people going were the communications officers and the two individuals carrying the football and codes. They followed me everywhere.

General Wainwright was notified of our arrival time and to furnish transportation for approximately forty individuals. He was also to ask the other generals to join us.

Marine One carried me to Andrews; my staff were in the other helicopter. I was there before the bus arrived, sitting at my desk reading, with a mug of coffee.

Troy and I discussed the weekend and the media results. Everything in Washington revolved around media in one way or another. I really couldn’t care one way or the other, but I listened. He was excited about the numbers for the fundraiser and the sneak appearance on the Sunday news show.

Then we got down to business. First were the updates from Camp Parks. With the rioting over, those numbers were zero. The homeless pickups were down to a few hundred. We would get the actual numbers in the meetings there.

Then we discussed the Middle East with the generals, there were an unusual number of terrorist attacks. Some places there were more, some places there were less.

I intended to apply more pressure on the Russians and Chinese to work with us to eliminate the terrorist cells in Africa. The attacks were growing there.

I got an update on the progress by the Navy. Another carrier was scheduled for end of maintenance sea trials the end of this week and another by the end of next week.

The Air Force update was good news! Twenty one B21 bombers had been recertified for flight again. They were out of service more than they were in service. That only left twenty more out of service.

The Air Force General and the manufacturer’s representatives kept saying these were just growing pains with new systems. I had heard that before from the Navy.

The first twenty were five years old and so far the Air Force hadn’t flown them across any oceans yet. I wondered - no confidence? President Thomas had ordered the B52 to stay in service until there were ninety days of ninety five percent availability before any B52s were to be moved to storage. I continued that order, to the dismay of the generals.

The B52s were like the A10s - old and unwanted - as new wizard planes were talked about but were still the go-to planes day after day. Tough, reliable, hard as nails and easy to fly old school.

It was customary that all the media were each given 10 minutes with the President in the flying Oval Office. Who was I to break tradition? By the time I was finished, we were landing on the Camp Park runway.

The media was the first off the plane so they could record the arrival for tonight’s news. The generals met us with a salute for the cameras.

First up was a tour of the camp setup including the special tent that had been restricted to homeless families and women with children.

Luckily there were two dozen homeless picked up this morning. I suggested and the Congressional delegation agreed that they would each take one and follow them through the process. While that was going on I met with the generals and listened to how things were going on behind the scenes.

Connie was taking notes as the official decision was made to pull down the troop level in two days. I needed to make the decision in twenty four hours if they were going to Oregon. By the time we were finished, the Congressional people were back.