Chapter 8

The kids were late getting up and it gave us time to get filled in on all the things they were doing. The list had been expanded several times and was still growing. I listened and cringed at some of them. I could just see the subpoenas from the alphabet federal agencies.

“You have run all this by the corporate lawyers and other specialists, haven’t you?” I asked.

“We are doing everything by the book and they have approved each step,” Marcy replied.

“OK,” I said.

By the time they were finished, the kids were up, ready for breakfast and another day of playing. Breakfast took nearly an hour between the lack of staff and kids unable to make up their mind on what they wanted. I told my mates and the kids that I had a few things to do but would be back in a bit.

Washington was dead this time of a morning on a holiday. With a few Secret Service agents and Ziva, Abra and Farah and one White House photographer, we rode to the Tomb of the Unknown in four of the GSA Suburbans. We were a few minutes early so I got to watch a lot more. We were the only ones there.

I stood at attention and counted every step and mentally timed every turn. It was a solemn few minutes; no one said anything. I watched the changing of the guard as I had done so many times. Other than a few Secret Service, no one knew that I came here late at night to clear my head and keep my thinking going in the right direction.

After a few minutes watching the new guard I asked to be taken to the cemetery where so many American soldiers were buried. I walked the rows to Betty’s grave. I had the row and numbers memorized and placed several small flowers by the marker. They would be gone on Monday when the caretakers made the rounds. I said a prayer while on my knees by the cross. I could hear the photographer’s camera clicking, even though he was well away. I wish he wouldn’t but there needed to be a record, or so they said.

Thirty minutes later I was back in the Oval Office. I glanced at the intelligence updates and then went back to my family. On the floor I played with the kids and talked with my mates.

There were no fires that needed to be put out anywhere in the world that I could do anything about. The Christian population in Iran celebrated its first Christmas without the heavy hand of an oppressive Muslim government restricting them.

In Egypt several Christian churches were attacked. It was the same every year and Christian holiday. The government promised swift action, but no one was ever arrested or prosecuted.

The same happened in several other countries in Africa. Some things in the world never changed. Just the places, dates and times.

Marcy and Jenny had brought the checks that gave away the forty million that I received as my share from the sale of JBG to TSCIC. They were certified checks drawn on my Midwest Bank account. Even so, I needed to sign them.

Ten million went to the Shriners Children’s Hospital, another ten million went to St Jude Children’s Hospital and eight million went into an account to buy food for the Nimule refugee camp. I would match all the donations from the public or finish out a C5 load.

The rest was divided among the three volunteer fire companies that always helped at Morton Field and the one on Chincoteague Island where Uncle John’s beach house is that we used from time to time.

The animal lovers had finally stopped the annual pony penning and sale that was their major fund raiser. They had petitioned the National Park Service and protested while including false adds that the adopted ponies were being mistreated. The liberals had caved in and forced the Department of Interior to shut it down.

The penning and sale were to control the size of the herd. The Island could only sustain a certain number of wild horses. Everyone who bought one had to prove they could financially care for the pony and had an approved place for them to stay. But it didn’t matter.

What the animal lovers didn’t know was that all the stallions had now been neutered. In a few years - as they died of old age - there would be no wild horses on the island.

There was always someone from the city that just had to ignore the signs and tried to pet the wild horses or crawl into the corals to get a better picture or to feed them. They always ended up kicked, bit and hurt and it was always the horse’s fault. No horses - no problem.

All of recipients had to sign a nondisclosure form that they could not discuss or make any statements about who the donor was. I wanted it to be totally anonymous. Two lawyers were going to deliver the checks before the end of the year and explain the form.

We had discussed in depth about me giving the money away. There were no objections from the girls; we had beautiful children and each year it was heartbreaking during the holidays to see the children needing so much help in the fund drives. With all that Marcy was doing and had planned, we would be anything but poor.

With all that out of the way we had more family time. In two days we would be back on Summers Lane for the family Christmas gift opening over the weekend.

We left Washington late Friday afternoon, the girls and kids in two JBG Helicopters and the White House team in three Marine helicopters. I had to land at Morton while the girls landed behind the office.

The supper that was waiting for us had been made by the chefs. Tomorrow I was going to spend time in the gym, much to the dismay of the agents that had been assigned to work out with me.

Some of the boys and girl’s toys were left at the White House for them to play with when they were there. Most were brought home to join the collection they already had. This year’s gifts were loaded up with educational toys for JJ and RJ. Takeo and Sara got toys to play with.

We had plenty of time to play with the kids together now that we were forced to have a Secret Service cook. I had no idea that cooking and dishes took that much time out of the day.

We planned another vacation to Deep Water Cay at the end of February. That would give me two months to work with the new Congress and my agenda for the first year.

Sunday came and went, the family time was well enjoyed by all. The kids had too many toys to play with and more clothes they would out grow long before they were worn out.

Monday, I alone went back to Washington after spending time with Andy and Robert and long goodbyes with the family and the kids. There were a million things still to do in the JBG organization. Marcy was working on the business change and that was keeping everyone busy.

Vicky was still working short the one thousand security people that had been that had been contracted to the State Department and DOD as interpreters. There were still thirty days on the original contract and both agencies had requested a sixty day extension. Ching Lee was short several hundred from the college security division.

Time was running out on the planning and zoning to deny the permits for the two projects. I hadn’t thought about the timing, but with the holidays thrown in there were only sixteen working days in the thirty day window they had to approve or reject. Two public hearings were scheduled in the next ten day period.

There had been no raging ‘fire and brimstone’ letters in the letters to the editor in Elmo’s paper and that was surprising. It was a different story in the papers from Baltimore and Annapolis.

Baltimore and Anne Arundel county were a different story. Both county commissions were threatening lawsuits to stop construction if the county approved the projects. They were being pushed by the ‘Save the Bay Foundation’ and the Baltimore construction unions - plumbing, electrical, stone and iron workers.

Those unions had no special influence in the county like they did on the western shore. ‘No union approval’ over there was the kiss of death for a project. The commissioners were scared of the unions on the western shore; not over here.

All the commissioners were re-elected in our county and I knew what they thought of the unions.

Janet Ashworthy - the EPA design engineer certified by the EPA - had done all the sewage studies of the county sewage plant. She designed the expansion that would be needed and we had agreed to pay for. She had also done the studies on the ground water necessary for the water tower that we were going to pay for.

Those studies were delivered to the county environmental department and the planning and zoning department the day after we made the presentation.

On Monday my office was full from the opening bell. The agency was watching another new terrorist group making noise in Somalia and Ethiopia. NSA and the CIA wanted me to authorize getting a more detailed intelligence gathering put in place. Of course, they wanted help from the JBG embassy people, Robert and Andy.

I wondered if they were self-funded, or who was funding them. For me that was the most important thing, without money they would have to resort to kidnapping and ransom attacks. That would supply intelligence so we could find them over time.