Chapter 5

Checking both the Clock on the wall behind the front desk and the Antique Grandfather clock in the lobby of the hotel shows that it is indeed ‘just after’ 6 pm aka 1800 hours so Bucky walks around to what he hopes is the ‘back entrance of the Ballroom. He stands there for a few moments and just as he is about to crack open the door to see if either Sgt. Ross or 1ST Sgt. Senate are there, he sees a door 3 or 4 down from where he is crack open. He hurries over to it and it is indeed Sgt. Ross, aka Mike.

When Bucky had first met Mike Ross he had been surprised that he was both a full-grown man and that he was a father. When his father told him that Mike was actually in his Late-30’s he was even more surprised. Mike had what could only be called ‘a perpetual babyface’. Add to this his short thin stature, Mike was maybe 5’6” and weighed 145-150#, and it just amazed Bucky when his father passed on that Mike was also a highly skilled and trained killer. Mike had not joined the Army until he was in his mid-20’s and until then he had trained in various martial arts forms. When he did join the Army he went into the Regular Army and then directly into the Rangers, Special Forces, and eventually into the Green Berets. He changed to Recruiting a few years ago when his 2^nd child was born so that he could be home more.

Bucky never had a problem calling this man by his given name, but only because he had asked him to in front of his father and his father had said “Mike has said it’s okay and I know he knows how to hide your body”. Even though his father had said it with a smile and a chuckle, Bucky wasn’t willing to take a chance so when he got close to Sgt. Ross, said, “Hi Mike, thank you for coming out to get me.”

Mike was smiling as he held the door open as Bucky walked through and, as observant as he was of everything, said “No problem Bucky. And I see no cast. Does that mean we’re back on for training next weekend?”

With a grimace, Bucky had to say “No, unfortunately. Mom pulled it off because it got wet and was so loose but she thinks my finger might still be broken. I have to go to the doctor Monday to probably get a new one put on. It’ll probably still be December before we can train.”

“Bummer man. Well, keep working on those kata’s man. Just ‘cause we can’t spar doesn’t mean I want you falling behind, otherwise, Mike Jr. will be kicking your but.”

Nodding his head to him slightly Bucky says with a smile “Yes sensei”.

Mike claps him on the shoulder and then directs him to their table now their whispered conversation is over but says one final thing, “That’s a good attitude to have son. Now, let’s watch some assholes get some awards and cheer them on.”

Mike sits down next to his very pregnant wife Shirley. As the 1^st Sgt had said earlier she did look like she was ready to pop at any moment. After just seeing how large his sister was just days before she gave birth to his niece, Bucky could only guess but would be willing to guess that Mrs. Ross was at least 8 months pregnant if not more. He hoped that she would at least make it through this ceremony as while he had health class, and had looked at pornos before, he did not think he was ready to see a live birth.

Looking around the Ballroom he could see that it was huge and that it was filled with at least 4 or 5 hundred people. He knew that his father worked with a lot of people, but never knew it was this many. But as he had been told by his father “This is the biggest conference of the year, it is our whole Command and their spouses.”

Mike saw him looking around and said “A lot of people huh?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think there would be that many people here.”

“Yeah, this is the big one. You know our year goes October to October, so this is where we give out the big awards for the year, announce best-recruiting stations, stuff like that. So they tally all the points up and it really hits home for some guys.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, it’s a big deal.”

All the time they had been getting settled and talking quietly there had been someone up front at a podium speaking, basically droning on giving stats about the total number of recruits for the previous months, year, etc. The guy went on for a good 5-10 minutes without stopping, even to take a drink of water. He eventually looked up smiled and said “Did you get all of that? There will be a test.” To which almost the entire room erupted in a laugh. Bucky realized that the guy had just been reading nonsense and wasting time.

The guy then grabbed the microphone off the stand on the podium and walked to the front of the stage and looked out of the crowd, cleared his throat, and said “Well guys, I’m going to put it as plain as I can for ya. We did good in some areas, we did badly in some areas. We had some soldiers that excelled and we had some soldiers that didn’t. We had some stations that performed better than we ever expected, and we had some stations that command is wondering if they were ever open let alone staffed.

“Numbers don’t lie guys, some of us do, myself included. I could lie to you right now and say ‘everything is going to be fine’, but would that help you, would it help me? No, it won’t. Changes are coming. Be it to some of our stations or personnel, but be aware changes are coming.” He turned and grabbed his beer off the podium and took a swig and then set it down. He continued with “Command has said they are happy with our overall numbers, but it’s the outliers that we need to nail down. Some of that we talked about in today’s meetings, some of them we’ll talk about more in tomorrow’s meetings, but don’t worry about it anymore tonight.” And he again turned and picked up his beer from the podium taking a drink from it and saying “So, let’s focus on why we actually are here tonight, to award our coworkers on their achievements and accomplishments throughout the past quarter, year, and maybe even careers.”

He then raised his glass in the air and said “And with that in mind, would CSM Masters and CPT Gold please join me on stage so we can get some of these awards handed out.”

As the crowd started clapping, some of them hooting, you could see 2 men down front stand and join the man on the stage. The three men went to one of the tables in the back and grabbed a pile of paperwork and started organizing it. After a few moments, a woman stood up from one of the tables near the front and walked up to join them. Bucky heard 1ST Senate scoff and say “Look at the 3 blind mice, they would never accomplish anything without Ginny around. Dumbasses.” He then heard Mrs. Senate say “Honey, stop. It’s not their fault, I’m sure they don’t even know half of these people.” To which he responds “Exactly my point.”

Bucky leans over to Sgt. Ross and asks who the guy speaking was “Hey Mike, who’s the speaker. I don’t recognize him. I thought I knew all the officers my father reported to.”

Mike leaned back and said “That’s Major Thomas McMasters. He just took over the command about 6 months ago. He’s a ring-knocker and acts like. We have a pool on how long he will be here and if he will either leave on his own or by accident. And if that accident if it will be by feet first or by his own choice.”

Bucky looks over at somewhat shocked to just see a wicked grin on Mike’s face. Bucky starts to laugh at the thought that Mike might have made a joke at his expense, but then he notices that the grin/smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes so he’s not quite sure if maybe Mike is not quite kidding after all. Bucky turns back towards the stage to see that they have figured everything out and are now starting to announce the awards and are starting with the lower level awards, just like his mother said they would.

They went similar to “Through perseverance and hard work, the following recruiters have earned 1^st gold star: SGT. Adams, SGT. Cary, SGT. Davidson, Franklin, SGT. Michaels, SGT. Smith, and SGT. Young”. And then Bucky saw a bunch of guys walk up to the stage and accept their award and walk back to their seats.

This started over with “Through perseverance and hard work, the following recruiters have earned 2^nd gold star: SGT. Ari, SGT. Ash, SSG. Bell, SGT. Matthews, SSG. Pope, SGT. Stevens, SSG. Timmons, and SGT. Youthers.” And then these men walked up to receive their awards and returned to their seats.

This process continued until all of the minor awards were announced and they started announcing the major awards, the Recruiter of the Year, Station of the Year, things like that. It was at this point that 1ST. Senate looked over at Bucky and said “Ready son?”

Bucky just nodded and stood up at the same time as he did. They walked along the outside of the Ballroom in the slight darkness with Bucky on the outside to hide him as much as possible. As they got down towards the front of the room they stopped about 10-15 feet behind his parents’ table. He could see from the empty beer bottles sitting in front of his father that he had already had a few drinks so he appeared to be pretty relaxed.

Major McMasters looked down at his piece of paper and then looked back up and then over at Ginny and said “Hey Ginny, can you come here for a minute, there appears to be something wrong with the agenda. It says I’m not handing out the next award. What the fuck does that mean?”

Ginny got a confused look on her face also and then joined him at the podium and picked up the piece of paper and said “I’m not sure sir, I didn’t type it up, Marcia did, but you know how she is, she never makes a mistake.”

He looked at her in apparent disbelief and said “Tell that to my tuna sandwich on rye that always winds up being chicken salad on wheat.”

As a round of laughs and chuckles cycle through the ballroom, he simply shrugs and says “Okay, never mind then. Screw it, this guy outranks me so I’m not going to argue and I saw him in the hallway cause if I do he may just decide to reassign me to Presque Isle. So, everyone please join me in welcoming someone that some of you know very well, Lt. Colonel Eamonn Boden.”

After a few moments of shock, the room almost erupts into spontaneous applause because almost everyone in the room either knows of or has worked for or with Lt. Col. Boden, some, like Bucky’s father, as far back as when he was an enlisted man. He previously held Maj. McMasters position until he was transferred to D.C. and was extremely well-liked by his entire staff, enlisted and officers alike. As he walked up onto the stage he was just as surprised as anyone when Maj. McMasters came to attention, saluted him, and shouted “SIR!! The Room is YOURS!!”