Chapter 154

Friday morning was another early morning breakfast with the Emir Bello. The Secret Service brought him to White House at 0600. I was sitting at my desk in the Oval Office discussing the Saudi agreement with General Ingram.

An advance team from the Air Force would arrive in a few days from our airbase in Ad Dammam. At one look the map at the base at Ad Dammam made one question the necessity of adding another base in the area. But to have armor and infantry so close to Iran made a lot of sense. Plus to be able to land thousands of troops in C17s and C5s that close was an ace in the hole for operations - if and when it came to that.

I closed my folders, placed them in the pile on my desk and walked the Emir Bello back to the map room. On the wall was a map of Africa that had all the publicly known US bases in Africa marked. The secret were missing as were the ones that were conditional use or temporary.

The reasoning for this direction was to gain another Doppler radar site and listening post in the eastern central Africa to close a gap. If our sales pitch was successful, it would complete the circle to give the DOD total surveillance of the entire Atlantic Ocean from the Arctic to the Antarctica.

The Doppler radar system coupled with submerged ocean listening buoys would box in the Russians in the Atlantic - in the air, on the sea and underwater. If they moved, we would know it. It was the same thing they were trying to do to the US with Cuba, Venezuela and in the Arctic Ocean.

It was lunch when we finished - not only had I negotiated for the Doppler radar but the deep water port of Lagos was now approved as a port of call for the US Navy and for Naval support services when necessary. The International Airport was now open for Air Force transport planes - that was normally always a touchy subject with many countries.

Lunch was a state dinner, the last for Emir Bello with invited guests. After lunch there was a news conference and then the Emir was flying home. He had arrived on a commercial flight but was going to be carried back on a private flight.

I offered to have one of the Air Force executive jets but he was afraid that it would create political problems. One of the JBG business jets was arriving at Andrews to make the flight to Nigeria. It was one more conflict of interest in the eyes of some. The Emir and his group were happy and thankful.

The week was gone and there were so many thing I had put on the back burner, so many meetings I put off by being in Europe and then devoting so much time working on Nigeria contracts.

I was going home for the weekend. The rock fish - the Maryland State fish - also known as the striped bass were making their early run in the bay. Marine One had us on the island in thirty minutes.

The new family fishing boat that we had designed and had built at a Baltimore boat yard was picked up by Dad, Jason and Jake while we were in Europe.

It was bigger than most party boats that worked out of the commercial dock at the narrows. A party boat took dozens of fishermen and fishing parties for a daily fee. The commercial captains used a variety of tools to follow the schools of fish and the hot spots to keep customers happy and coming back.

Our boat was seventy feet long and sixteen feet wide. It had an enclosed half cabin with a full potty. It wouldn’t look very good for us to hang our butt off the side and take a leak - easy for men, not so much for us. There were three small beds to rest on and for the kids to nap on forward. There were two small refrigerators, a small stove, a beer cooler and a table for meals.

The top bow section of the cabin was flat with all kinds of railings so we could sunbath it on if we wanted. It had built in bait boxes in the back with rod pipes across the stern and down the port and starboard sides.

With twin seven hundred horsepower Cats to push it thirty knots, radar and an enclosed cockpit, it was an all-weather family boat.

We had the channel dredged behind the house and a dock built for it last year after we ordered it. We had steel sheeting driven along our property and around the pond that was at the end and our neighbor’s property to end the erosion requiring it to be dredged every few years.

There was no more waiting at the boat launch in line on good fishing days. Jason, Dad, Jake and we could just throw the lines, start the engines and go. No more excuses not to go fishing or out on the bay just for a relaxing pleasure cruise.

Dad, Jake and Jason had done the outfitting after it was docked behind the house with life jackets, floatable devices, two inflatable life boats, flares, beer, rods and supplies. Friday night they brought more beer and coolers, ice, and snacks. They also brought the boat licenses and all the required papers to keep us legal.

I told the senior agent at 2200 that we were going fishing tomorrow morning at 0500; I didn’t want them to have too much time to complain. I also told the chef I wanted breakfast sandwiches ready to go at 0500 and gave him a list for cold subs for lunch.

At 0515 the engines were running and warming up as we climbed aboard. We had us six girls and two boys with Dad, Jason, Jake, Mindy, six agents, Ziva and Abra plus the two White House photographers and the two with the suitcase. It took twenty minutes to run the creek to get into the waters of the bay.

In the bay, Jason headed south down the bay. The marine radio traffic from the commercial guys were saying the hot spot was off Cambridge and was producing a lot of fish today.