Chapter 177

Air Force One landed at Andrews at 1800; I had worked the whole flight. It seemed the more paper I read and approved, there was five more added to the pile.

I did get to read through Andrew’s speech for the fundraiser. They were winding down and I was happy about that, even though my mates and I now enjoyed doing them. The last one was the end of August at the convention. I was the keynote speaker.

The convention started on a Sunday with the plank committee putting together the platform for the party on a host of ideas and programs. The platform was to be finished on Monday and voted on Tuesday or Tuesday evening.

The platform was certainly going to be a cluster fuck, to put it mildly. There were still four candidates closely tied in delegate votes and none were backing down; in fact all talks had stopped. Usually at this stage of the game they traded support for high spots in the prospective administration.

The platform makeup was usually controlled by the prospective candidate with things that would not cause the candidate a problem with the voters.

It was a quick ride in Marine One to the landing behind the office. I liked landing at the office; there were no reporters and no crowds there and it was a security plus that the Secret Service liked.

I had fun with the boys. They were anxious to show me their garden tomorrow afternoon. Sunday we were going fishing again. Tomorrow was meeting with Andy and then time in the gym that I desperately needed. I worked out in the White House gym but my mates worked out much harder than the Secret Service would let me.

Air Force One took us to Arkansas for the fund raiser. It was a round robin trip. Meet privately with the large donors first and then get them pumped up and another ‘in the mood to vote’ speech. Then the return trip to Morton Field. We were home and ready for bed by 2300.

We went to bed early with play time with my mates lasting several hours. After breakfast we went to the farm so JJ and RJ could show me their garden. Everything was growing beautifully. With the temperatures and rains their sweet corn was growing like crazy; in just a couple weeks it was twice as tall as they were. They were proud little boys as I heaped praise on them for their garden; there was not a weed or blade of grass anywhere in it. I was sure the pop pops were helping. The boys did check the rows of potatoes for bugs while we were there.

At 1000 we met Andy and Paul Drake in the meeting room by the command center. I filled them in on what was happening and when in the Persian Gulf and what I thought they needed to do to honor the contracts we had with the OPEC six when the operation began.

We talked until lunch. At the end I listened while Andy and Paul made plans to fit the possible scenarios. I left with confidence that Andy would have everything under control and well planned when it counted.

We spent four hours in the gym working out at a nice easy pace for me. The agents that were working out with us didn’t think so but that was their problem, not mine.

Sunday we left the dock at 0500. Today we were going off Rock Hall - the commercial guys had been catching a lot of fish there all week. By the time we got there the bait had been cut and the lines rigged, ready to drop into the water.

It was no story; there were plenty of fish there and they were hungry. We caught our limit of rockfish and flounder in two hours. We then smothered them in ice.

We decided that since it was so early and a gorgeous day, we would take boat ride to the top of the bay to Havre de Grace and sight see along the way. We had brought lunch in case fishing was bad and were going to need all day to catch a few.

It was a four hour cruise and was refreshing and relaxing. Even with the cruise we were back home at 1600.

There was still time for one more thing I wanted to do and that was shoot some targets at the gun club. It had been a month since we had practiced and we were due. I practiced with the Glock and m16. It felt good to shoot again and by the time to go, I was back to my old scores.

My mates and I had another good night together a little pillow talk about business and a lot of intimacy.

I left early for the White House. I had a busy day of appointments after the daily updates from my staff and the joint chiefs. Everything was going as planned - all ships for round one would be there in time. Even the Fordson task force would arrive on time. It had rushed the fitting out and left the base in two days, not three. The crew was eager to get into the fight; they were obviously tired of sitting at the dock.

Today five carrier task forces were going to transit the Suez Canal. That would raise eyebrows in Egypt, Israel and the Red Sea countries. Five were already in the Indian Ocean or off the coast of Africa heading there and two more were arriving from the west coast today.

My next unscheduled meeting was with the Chinese Ambassador Sing Yung Sue. He insisted that he see me immediately. After the normal round of pleasantries, ‘‘My government sent me to remind you that Iran and China have agreements in both trade and military,’’ he said.