Chapter 73

The weekend was great; we just put work out of the way. I did have to go over to the Horsey Hotel to answer questions a couple of times for Bob’s crews.

The days were getting shorter and occasionally there was a little touch of fall in the air. We began to tidy up a few things in preparation for the coming colder weather.

We spent time both Saturday and Sunday evening in the hot tub. Sunday afternoon we had another cookout for just close family. Then there was the playing with the boys. The building blocks had progressed to more complex games and tricycles were giving way to little bikes with training wheels.

Monday came quickly and became complicated. Andy was at the office early and we met with Milton and Charles. When the meeting was finished those two and the five supervisors over the on call people had work to do. Contact all of the on call employees was needed to find out if they wanted to continue the arrangement, then fax or email them the forms to update HR along with the new HR policies.

One of the questions was how many and which languages are you fluent in? How soon you could be ready to deploy if called and what was the location you would be departing from? There were a dozen more questions - all important - with France, Mexico and Oklahoma City on the horizon.

After that meeting I filled Andy in on the bid awards for the MRAPs and Humvees. He and I had the same thoughts - instead of bringing them here and then shipping them to Texas, just ship them to Texas and send mechanics to check them out.

This potential operation had pitfalls that Andy and I both knew something about. Where you send men and equipment you need to send repair equipment, spare parts, fuel supply trucks, kitchens, cooks, and mechanics.

Together we made a beginning list. Jack Winslow was the foreman of our repair shop that maintained all of the airport support equipment as well as the MAAR vehicles that were assigned to Morton. When Marcy had a question about repairs done at other sites or dealers, Jack was the go to man. He had also been discussed as being the top candidate to run the truck dealership repair shop if he wanted the job.

‘‘Jack, I have a problem. I need to send a couple of your heavy equipment mechanics to Texas and Mexico in a few weeks. Be thinking about it and I will stop by and talk about the details sometime today,’’ I said.

Then there was spare parts for the MRAPs that we could need. I knew the military had a recommended spare parts list for everything they ever put in the field.

I called General Ingram to see if I could get a copy of the list for the MRAPs and Humvees. We had dozens of Humvees long enough that Jack should be able to develop a parts list on his own.

In the conversation I asked if there was any way we could get a loan of the most used parts during field operations for the MRAPs until we could get spare parts from the various manufactures. His answer was vague but was not no.

Marcy could get the two service trucks and fuel trucks. I wondered about a couple of food trucks to fill the gap until a mobile kitchen could be set up. Nothing was going to be ordered until contracts were finalized and we had all the authorizations from the Mexican government.

I met with Robert, Tom and the men they had assigned to check on all things Mexico. It lasted more than an hour. The Mexican cartel in the field did practically all their business on cell phones. Tom had found email traces by back tracking suspected cocaine traffickers. I suspected those emails were between middle and upper cartel leaders.

DHS and the DEA monitored all known suspects that frequented border area. We had access to but had never needed it before. It just didn’t fit into what we were doing at the time.

After lunch is when things got hectic. President Martinez and the AG started faxing the documents we were to sign on Wednesday for final review. We faxed them to Curtis Warren so his group could go over them as well and made several copies for us to hold.

Jenny was not even finished with the first group before she called me to come to her office. We read them together along with her and Vicky comparing the documents to our notes and then the long hand versions that been transcribed and signed as the preliminary agreement at the news conference.

There were changes - significant changes. The restriction on operating area was gone - in the original document we were limited to one half mile on either side of the pipeline. It was replaced with access to all government lands and any land that bordered any right of way authorized by the government for any oil producer or refiner.

The restriction limiting us just those two grass strips were gone. In its place was authorization to use any grass strip on Mexican state property and near any pipeline, not just the Mexpo pipeline.

The limit on personnel was gone replaced with ‘This agreement authorizes the use of any and all personnel without restriction that are prudent and necessary to complete the terms of this agreement’.

Another fax was a list from the Mexican federal prosecutor Inez. It was a ten page list of police departments, police chiefs, judges, magistrates and politicians who were on the cartel take and did their bidding. They were from North Colima on the west coast to Colima east and on to the coast at Poza Rica. It covered the northern third of Mexico.

Another page was an authorization for JBG security employees or any agent of JBG to be considered legal agents of Mexican Federal Police Force. It was needed to authorize JBG or agents of JBG to pursue any individual or group anywhere in Mexico in execution of the contracts and agreements.