Chapter 5

It was the first Monday in December after a Marine One ride to the White House I was on my way to Andrews and to the G8 conference. I had boxes of information to review on the flight.

I thought about the meetings and the things that Marcy was wanting to do. She wasn’t going for small; she was going all in and for broke. As usual she had all the reports and numbers to argue her points in what she wanted. When she finished, there was no way but to agree with her.

The business financial end was her ball game and she was sure she could make it happen in our favor. I wasn’t worried about that. It was the political fallout when it all went public at the end of April and the first of May. The six primary companies she wanted were very big and all had their stockholders meetings in that thirty day period.

There were a dozen smaller companies she was going to add along the way. All of them were a fit to the communications and energy division she had created with the oil wells and refineries. They in turn would supply part of our energy needs here for the truck stops and jet fuel for Morton Field, Africa.

The media was going to go crazy and so would the remaining liberal members of Congress. I pushed it to the back of my mind - no need to worry about it now. I needed to concentrate on government matters at hand.

I started reading the reviews of the interviews that my staff had done for the ‘Executive Investigative Agency’ as the media was now calling it. A few had already been disqualified by the staff for one reason or another. All had been good standing attorneys or prosecutors.

The final reviews came up with twenty that they thought would be acceptable - each; would have two clerks and two assistants. They would be divided into two teams of ten with two appointed as team leaders who could approve and issue subpoenas. They had been offered the positions and had accepted. They would be sworn in when I returned from Europe.

The GSA was already moving offices around so they would have space close to the White House. Let the fun begin!

The other important thing was the first draft of the base closing list from the DOD. I looked at the list and cringed. The only good thing, there were several paragraphs attached to each base with why they were on the list and where the forces would be transferred or why they were eliminated. It gave me relief to see it that way.

The Navy had not submitted a list for review yet. I could only imagine what they would cut.

I had finished all the work and was resting when the plane landed. I had dinner scheduled with President Orbatch and Anton Pavlenko in two hours.

It was a working dinner with beer and conversation. I asked if there was a chance about expanding our basing agreements to include a second carrier force and bomber group on Russian soil for a couple years to add more pressure on the China problem.

I would have an answer before we left to go home. It was the answer I was expecting. All things must be discussed with the appropriate people and I understood that. I opened the door and that was all I could do at the time.

We discussed at length the recovery that was slowly taking place. Military production plants were being retooled into making consumer goods for consumption and export.

The experts were back working on the oil fields to put them back into operation. The estimate was two years to fifty percent and four to full production.

‘‘I have more good news for you. The request you wanted for ten thousand Black Angus and Hereford live female cattle to rebuild your herds has been approved. Have your agriculture department contact ours to set up a schedule for shipment,’’ I said.

‘‘That’s great news. I am told that you may need to make another trip to Moscow soon. We are close to completing another benchmark on the agreement,’’ he said.

‘‘That is good news. For that I will gladly make the trip,’’ I said.

We talked a couple more hours before turning in. I spent another hour with Troy and my aides going over the latest updates. The Navy had finally sent its list of recommendations for base alignment and ship reductions. They did not want to acknowledge the growing issues in the Pacific.

At 0700 I was sitting with Prime Minister Attenborough in the restaurant at a corner table. We were discussing possible base changes and consolidations. I told him it was too early in the process, that it would be several months before there would be any firm answers.

I did tell him that I had instructed the DOD to get me a preliminary report in thirty days.

‘‘When it arrives and I have time to thoroughly review it, I will call,’’ I said.

The king arrived at 0900, just in time for the meetings to start after the customary photo sessions and musical chairs.

It was another wasted day; so much general talk and no decisions about anything. There were proposals to give more buckets of money to some area of the world.

I shut down US participation in any expanded G8 projects, ‘‘The US is fully committed to the continued rebuilding of Iran including establishing a democratic government.’’

‘‘We were committed in and expanding our relationship with Russia in overcoming the recent disasters that had befallen it. I am committed to building a strong robust trading partner to further prosperity in both our counties,’’ I said.

The luncheon was more musical chairs and photo sessions. I did get congratulated for winning the election. Every one of the country’s leaders wanted one on one time with me before leaving tomorrow. It was a long three days.

I landed back at Andrews early Thursday morning at 0100.

My first meeting with President Santos was at Andrews when he landed at 0900. He rode went to the White House in Marine One with me while his entourage rode in Secret Service Suburbans.

We went through all the public nuances - the photo sessions, the musical chairs, and the VIP meetings - while behind the scenes the Joint Chiefs were reviewing all the condition reports of the bases and estimates to put it back together again. While that was going on, the State Department was looking at all the aid and financial request.

All that meant was while Santos and I were making nice, the hundreds of people who went to the Philippines to evaluate the former Clark Field and Subic Bay Naval Base were busy. Those people were now explaining the results.

The Navy report was better than expected. I knew it would be from the early report of General Ingram.

The previous Philippine President had Subic Bay dredged, planning to bring in container shipping. The problem was the infrastructure was not there for necessary traffic. The intent was build the infrastructure but then terrorism and rebellion on the southern islands consumed too much money and time. Other seaports were already equipped to handle container traffic.

While we had been doing all that China had been getting antsy. Their fleet had been actively visiting all the contested areas, cutting fishing nets. Those areas had several anchored Philippine gunboats and fishing boats working the area.

Philippine flags had been placed on newly installed lighted buoys on all the shallow sand bars which the world courts decades ago had said were Philippine territory.

West Coast carrier task forces were short ported and returning to sea. The two Pearl Harbor task forces were already a thousand miles west.

By the end of the day the DOD, State Department and the Philippine representatives had come to agreements that were acceptable.

Tonight was the official White House dinner with President Santos and his lovely wife as guest of honors. There was champagne, caviar, crab and steak with all the fixings. It was 2200 when the guests departed for the guest house. 2300 when I crawled under the covers. It was a cold night for the first week of December and windy. The document signings tomorrow would be inside for sure.

I was up early, wondering what was going on in the world today. The early briefing notes were on my desk. Another new terrorist group was wreaking havoc in Mozambique - it had all the appearances of an ISIS copy or a connected group.

The staff had pictures of fifteen years of Christmas decorations for the White House. My mates were coming over Saturday and we would decide how it would be done this year by using the pictures as a guide, along with staff suggestions. The official Christmas tree arrived the day after Thanksgiving and had been decorated by the maintenance crew.