Chapter 11: Hold the Line Part II

May 2019

The spring moved along, slowly at times, quick and harried at others. February saw Chris Balvin sending out advanced copies of his final draft for everybody involved to do a final edit. We were supposed to review it for any technical or factual errors; it was sent not just to Tolley and me, but also to Jose and Bob. The deal we all had was that any proceeds from the book would be split three ways. Chris was paid a flat $150k up front to write the book, and then he got a percentage of sales. The balance was split, half to Tolley and half to the three survivors of Bravo Three. That might seem like she was getting three times what we were getting, but it wasn’t that simple. Tolley didn’t need the money, so she was donating her portion to veterans’ groups in California. The money Bob, Jose, and I were getting was ours to do with, and we all smiled and decided to pocket it. We had already donated our butts rescuing her, we didn’t need to donate anything else!

None of us had any significant edits; the story was actually pretty good. Tolley called me and told me that the publishing company was surprisingly pleased with the book. The alternating chapter format of the story worked well at building suspense throughout the book, combining biographies of the people involved with an overview of what was happening in the Middle East generally and Iraq specifically. Technically the book ended with the big concert Tolley gave during the Fourth of July after the rescue, but there was a long epilogue that took Bravo Three through the end of the tour, where we died at Whiskey. Then it gave histories of all four of us since then.

A publication date was decided on - Tuesday, May 21. The week before that we were supposed to do a publicity tour, but that looked to be a logistical impossibility. Tolley might have the money and time to go flying around the country pushing the book, but the rest of us had lives to live. Bob Givens worked for Quicken Loans in Detroit and couldn’t just break free for a few weeks. Jose Montoya was stationed at Fort Irwin and the Blackhorse wasn’t going to just let him go either. As for me, while the spring semester at UGA was over, I was in the middle of the second Basic class of the year. The best we could do was take some vacation or leave and do something a week later, the week the book was published.

The book tour would begin with an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday, May 23. One of the things I had learned during the publicity tour when I had received the Medal was that most of the nighttime talk shows were actually taped during the day, usually mid-afternoon. That meant we had to fly to New York, where the show was produced, the day before, Wednesday. I flew in from Atlanta Wednesday afternoon, right after class. Bob flew in Wednesday afternoon, taking off early from work. The guy with the long flight also had the easiest flight. Tolley lived in Malibu, and she simply chartered a jet and had it fly to Barstow, the nearest airport to Fort Irwin. She picked up Jose and then they flew non-stop to New York, no fuss, no muss. He told me later that he spent most of the trip napping or playing with Tolley’s daughter, Lily.

We spent the night at the Park Hyatt, which was supposed to be the nicest hotel near the Ed Sullivan Theater, where the show was taped. Since I didn’t know Manhattan at all, Tolley had one of her people make all the arrangements. A first-class ticket was waiting for me at Hartsfield on Delta, and a small limo was waiting for me once I picked up my luggage. I thought this was all very nice, and seemed like a great way to sell books, but I later learned that this was not at all how book tours normally ran. Usually, they sent you on the cheapest flight available, you used a cab, and stayed at the cheapest hotel imaginable. The planes might have propellers that didn’t all work and the hotel might rent rooms by the hour. You got a per diem allowance to spend on meals and rooms, and if you overspent, tough luck.

I arrived about an hour before Bob, so I had a chance to drop off my luggage and grab a quick shower. I left a message for him to call me as soon as he arrived, and we could grab a drink. We met in a bar in the hotel called the Living Room where we had a chance to sit and relax and catch up. Tolley and Jose had the longest flight and would arrive after we did. They had about a five-hour flight from Barstow, but they also had to travel three time zones. If they left Barstow at nine, they wouldn’t touch down until five. Even with limos, they wouldn’t be getting to mid-town Manhattan until six at the earliest.

Bob joked about Jose and Tolley joining the Mile-High Club flying cross-country, but I laughed and waved that off. “You have no idea the kind of group she travels around with.”

“Like what?” he asked.

“Like she almost always travels with a manager or agent, and a personal assistant. There’s always at least one makeup-artist-slash-wardrobe-assistant. If she’s got her daughter with her, which is almost guaranteed - she’s not old enough for school yet - she’ll have a nanny with her. At least three or four security people. Jose will probably get drafted to carry luggage!” I answered.

“For real? All that many? That’s crazy!”

I nodded but continued, “It can be worse. That’s what she calls the small entourage. The large one only gets called out when she’s on tour or doing movies. Take everybody I just mentioned and double or triple them. The assistants have assistants.”

“Jesus! You’ve seen this?”

I nodded again. “Several times. We’ve stayed in touch over the years. She’s a really nice person, once you get through all the people. She did a concert in Atlanta once and invited us. You go backstage and it’s just one assistant or hanger-on after another. Another time she was doing a cop movie in Georgia and hired me as a police consultant. It was the same. Even when she visited our place for dinner, she’d come in a secure limo with an assistant and a security detail.”

“Man, that’s insane! How can somebody live that way? And she’s normal?”

I shrugged. Jose and Bob had never had as much contact with Tolley as Kelly and I had. We had reconnected after Iraq when I had received the Medal. The other two weren’t as much part of that, at least not as regarded her. “First, she’s a billion-dollar business. She does a movie, it’s considered a failure if it doesn’t do a quarter-billion dollars. She releases a CD, it’s a failure if it doesn’t sell a million copies the first week. People chase her and stalk her and fly drones around her. She needs that stuff, the security and all. Otherwise, she grew up on Army bases all over. She’s a military brat. We’ve all seen that sort of thing. She grew up blue collar and middle class. From what Kelly and I can see, she loves her daughter and tries to keep things as normal as possible.”

I got a call around ten of six and it was Tolley saying they were about to land. “I’ve got Bob in the bar here. Should we wait for you or just order dinner?” I asked.

“If you can wait, that’d be great. We’ll be there by half past, and I’ll get Lily to bed quick. She’s already half asleep.”

“Okay, we’ll just have another round while we wait for you.”

Tolley laughed and we hung up. I looked at Bob and said, “They’ll be here by seven.”

“Well, we’ll just have to suffer through another drink. We just won’t tell our wives.”

“Hear, hear!”

Tolley and Jose found us at about quarter of seven in the Living Room. Tolley’s eyes lit up when she saw us, and she scampered over and hugged me fiercely. “Grim! It’s so good to see you again! How are Kelly and the kids?” She turned away from me before I could even respond and hugged Bob Givens. “And Bob! So good to see you again!”

Once Tolley turned from me I was able to reach over and shake Jose’s hand. “Good to see you, mano. How’s Juanita and the kids?”

Jose sighed. “Miguel is twelve, almost thirteen, and if he lives another year, it will only be by the grace of God. I’m not sure if I’m going to kill him or if his mother is going to beat me to it.”

“And Maria?”

“She’s probably going to be even worse! She looks a lot like her mother, and I remember what the guys were like when she was that age.” I started to laugh, and he just looked at me and said, “Don’t laugh, pendejo! Your daughter is the spitting image of Kelly! Tell me the boys aren’t going to be sniffing around her!”

I looked over at Tolley. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”

“The menu here is a touch limited, but it’s still pretty good. Unless you want to go out, the quickest meal is going to be here,” she replied.

“Quick would be good,” I replied. Bob added his agreement.

Tolley took command and waved the maître d over. We were promptly seated at a table and given menus. Another round of drinks was ordered, this time for all four of us. Then I looked at the menu. “I see what you mean about limited,” I commented. Most menus at fancy restaurants ran three to four pages, at a minimum. This one was only two pages. And the prices? I knew that midtown Manhattan was expensive, but really! Caesar salad for $24? Onion soup for $19? And the only steak on the menu ran $46! In Matucket I could buy all three for $46! Only the knowledge that as far as Tolley was concerned it wasn’t even a rounding error let me order without worry. I went with all three, followed by cheesecake for another $16. That was over $100 per person, not including drinks.

Back home, if I took Kelly out for a dinner and spent that kind of money, I would expect sexual favors like those of an Arabian potentate in his harem!

It didn’t really matter, though. We spent the next couple of hours catching up, talking about the book and Chris Balvin, and what would happen over the next few days. Thursday morning, tomorrow, we would meet again for breakfast. Tolley suggested that while we might want to dine at a better restaurant, she had a little girl and heading out to another place might not be a good idea. All three of us from Bravo Three now had children and understood about whiny little children; we decided to eat at the Park Hyatt.

Bacon and eggs at the Park Hyatt ran $45. For that kind of breakfast, Kelly was going to need to perform sex acts she refused to do on pain of death!

Thursday was mostly a goof-off day. The show was taped starting at 1900 in the evening, giving them about three hours to edit everything for commercial breaks. The reality, though, was that it was an all-day affair for most people. If you wanted to be in the audience, you needed to order tickets weeks ahead of time. Audience check-in began at 1500. We needed to be there around 1800, though earlier was preferred. That was the problem for us. Working backwards, for me to do this in a single day, I would need to leave JFK at 1700, which meant I would have to leave Hartsfield at 1400, which meant I would have to leave Matucket at 1100. That might be possible for me and Bob, who had a similar travel time from Detroit, but Tolley and Jose would have had to leave California at oh-dark-hundred, or even earlier. Bad enough for adults, but horrendous with a child.

Bob, Jose, and I walked over to Central Park, which was only two blocks away, and spent the day just walking around like a bunch of rube tourists. The weather was comfortable, mid-seventies and cloudy, though the rain forecast was holding off. We did get a drizzle at one point, but it was more a heavy mist than anything else. One of these days I’ll make a fortune and take Kelly to New York and walk her through Central Park. It’s an amazing place!

We ended up at the Ed Sullivan Theater after a five-minute limo ride. That included loading all of us up in the limo and driving through Manhattan traffic. The actual distance was maybe a klick. Jose, Bob, and I looked at each other when we got there and laughed. We could have walked there in about the same time. We ended up snacking in the green room, which wasn’t painted green. We never met Colbert ahead of the show, though Tolley knew him from previous appearances. Then it was show time.

The format of the show was relatively standard for a late-night talk show. A host comes out and gives about a five-minute monologue on something topical. After that there might be a short comedy skit, again on something topical. Then the show would segue into the interview portion. Depending on who was available, you had one or two segments. If the interviewee was somebody important, like a President, they might be the only guest. The other option was two less important people, and the most important would be interviewed first, with the less important delayed until later, or even cancelled if the first person was a good interview and went long. In our case, we combined the two approaches. Tolley would go out first and introduce the book and describe what had happened, there would be a commercial break, and then the three of us from Bravo Three would join Tolley on the couch. A nervous staffer ran around with a clipboard letting us know when we had to do something and where we had to wait.