Chapter 190

At 0900 I was in the command center with a couple of aides who were going to take notes for the official records.

“Good morning Madam President, how are you doing this morning? According to the early morning media the campaign fundraiser rally last night was a gangbuster event,” General Ingram said.

“Yes, things went well! They were a good crowd,” I said.

“The commanders in the field want to begin working around the edges in the Northern sector. There are hundreds of small towns and villages that they want control of before they take on the remaining big cities.”

“Bringing those into the fold will eliminate the cities being able to draw reinforcements from them, cut off communications and possibly lead to a quicker end,” he said.

“That sounds like a good idea and there would be a much larger force to put against the cities when we decide to take them. When do you plan for them to start?” I said.

“As soon as I dial the phone,” he said.

How many prisoners have we captured so far?” I asked.

“A little less than fifty thousand,” he answered.

“Makes you wonder where the million man army went to,” I said.

“The prisoners are all saying the same thing - the troops sent to check known bunkers and bases corroborate that - tens of thousands died in the deep bunkers that they thought would survive a nuclear blast. Seismic bombs did their job and collapsed the ground and rocks on top of them,” he said.

“It would be nice if we had solid evidence. We can get that after the war ends with investigative teams,” I said

“That is all I wanted; I’ll go make the calls,” General Ingram said as he closed the line.

I had to assume - something I never liked doing - that the heavy bombing campaign had indeed killed the majority of the Republican Guard soldiers in the bunkers and other underground facilities.

We spent the rest of Sunday sorting and packing clothes - the proper clothes in which to meet King William and tour Moscow. Moscow was already having cool fall weather. Air Force One was leaving at 0900 Monday to be on the ground in plenty of time to be able to take in some of the sights before dark. Our ambassador to UK was making the arrangements for the sightseeing trips.

Of course there was Presidential business to be done. Air Force One was going to land at the RAF Fairford US Air Force base.

I was going to give the flight crews a pat on the back for the work they had done and the hours they had put in.

At 0600 I was reading the daily updates from the CIA and joint chiefs. We were all packed. It was going to take a dozen trips to carry all the bags to Air Force One.

I had never paid attention to the amount of luggage it took to make a visit abroad until it was stacked in the living room. We were only going to be gone five days; it looked like five months. But then there were going to be twelve of us - six ladies, the four kids and two sitters for the kids.

Believe it or not the flight left on time. That was one thing about the White House travel office; they planned it close and expected things to be carried out.

It was a five hour flight and I spent most of my time in the flying Oval Office.

All of the news crew were allowed ten minutes for an interview. When I was through with them I started with the important things. The updates were on top of the pile. The troops had started, the terrain was difficult and they were meeting some resistance. A10s and helicopters were dealing with the resistance. I expected the final push to get difficult and expected the push into Tehran to be a blood bath.

Adam sent the outline for Saturday’s fundraiser for me to review. I closed the door and used the practice teleprompter to go through it. I made some changes and additions on the paper copy and called Adam on a video call. When we were finished it looked good enough to satisfy me.

I asked if he had received the speech I had written for the convention. It was basically an outline as I had started doing for Adam the last dozen or so speeches. Adam spiced them up and made them crowd moving.

“Yes I got it, doesn’t look too bad. I will work on it and send you the first draft before the end of the week. It’s a very long speech,” he said.

“I have a two hour block of time. I wonder if I don’t need two separate speeches to give? Maybe a break like an intermission between the two,” I said.

“A two hour long speech is very unusual. Most people aren’t long winded enough to give it, plus the audience will soon grow tired listening unless you are a comedian and can keep them laughing that long,” Adam said.

“I can understand all of that. I might be long winded at times but not that long,” I said.

“Adam, take a look, see what you can do with it for me,” I said.

I went back to the presidential passenger section to be with my family. We talked a while about where they wanted to go sightseeing. There would be several hours each day that I would be in classified meetings. There was no need for them to sit around when there was so much to see.