Chapter 25

The next morning Kelly and Mike were up at five o’clock. They were surprised to find Bill and Chris up, too. Somewhere the two reporters had found BDUs and combat boots. Then after a quick cup of coffee the four went outside. At five-thirty it was still pitch dark and quite cold. Kevin and Katrina were waiting in jeeps and drove them over to the parade ground. They took their positions at the head of the formations. It was obvious from the confusion that the division had never been assembled like this before.

Exactly at 0600, Mike passed the word, and a bugler sounded officer’s call. Instantly, they could hear platoons, then companies, then battalions, and finally regiments reporting ready. The regimental commanders were lined up in front of Mike.

Kelly marched to where they were standing. Mike executed an about-face and saluted Kelly reporting, “The 101^st Airborne Division is all present or accounted for, sir!”

Kelly returned the salute and ordered them to stand at ease. She said, “Gentlemen, this division is going to get into combat trim ... fast! I thought we might start slow. We’re only going to run five miles before breakfast this morning.

“General Callahan, give the orders to move out by regiment.”

Kelly saw some of the regimental commanders go pale as they heard her orders. Mike had checked maps and had laid out a five-mile course. The first unit started to move out, followed by the others. Kelly grinned at Mike and said, “Shall we join the party?” She started to move out at double time accompanied by Mike and the others.

Katrina had taken particular care to be sure that the clerks from the office were in ranks and running. Kelly ran alongside the troops carrying her standard pack and her sidearm. Even Bill and Chris were running. As they passed units the men grinned and waved. Finally, they had passed the leading unit and reached the finish line where they waited. Soon the first units came by. It was apparent that not all the men had finished. Unit by unit, there were gaps in the ranks where soldiers had fallen out.

They went over to the mess hall for breakfast. Again, she was cheered when she came out of the serving area into the mess hall itself. The men had all seen the senior officers pass them on the trail. That morning there were over 100 requests for transfer, including all the girls in the office except Pfc Smith. Kelly had appointed a division adjutant and suggested to him that Smith be promoted to sergeant. He agreed with alacrity.

In a conversation with Sam Adams, Kelly had told him what she expected to do and what the probable reaction would be. He wasn’t surprised. She called him and told him about the transfers. All the transfers were to be sent to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, pending final disposition. Replacements had been positioned at Ft. Bragg as well and would be flown in that afternoon.

In the weeks that followed, Kelly drove the men and drove herself. She and Mike seemed to be everywhere, watching every exercise. The training continued and the improvement was visible each day. Kelly astounded the men when she led them in repeated parachute jumps onto frozen landing areas. They practiced vertical envelopment with squadrons of helicopters. Kelly was on the phone to Sam Adams cajoling him to give her more aircraft for training jumps. During the entire period, no one ever saw Kelly order anyone to do anything. She showed them how she wanted it done, and they tried to follow her example.

In the afternoon of the first day of training, Kelly was on the firing range. She overheard a major tell his men that a range score of twenty-five out of a possible fifty was pretty good. Kelly went over to the major and, after a word with the range sergeant, offered to shoot the course with him.

The major fired first. The course was set up in an antiterrorist mode similar to one Kelly had fired at Quantico. After shooting they brought his targets back for scoring. Kelly sorted through them and found a target with a terrorist behind a female hostage who was holding a baby. His bullet had gone between the woman’s eyes. Kelly said, “Major, are you sure twenty-five out of fifty is good enough? You beat that score, but killed at least one innocent civilian.”

Then Kelly fired the course using an assault rifle set on full automatic fire. She ran down the course firing short bursts. When she finished, she removed the clip and cleared the breech. Her targets were brought back and scored. All were tens, in spite of using automatic fire. Every bullet scored. The range personnel went bugeyed as they looked at the targets. No one working the range had ever seen a perfect score, and no one had ever fired the terrorist course using automatic fire.

“Try to do better, Major,” Kelly ordered, as she walked off.

Each night Kelly would stagger back to the house and take turns with Mike massaging each other. They shared a hot shower and slowly made love before going over to the mess hall for dinner. They ate almost all their meals there, a point particularly noted by the men. As the word spread, more and more officers started to eat in the mess hall, too. Chris asked Kelly what she did for aches and pains. Kelly told her about massaging Mike and being massaged by him. Chris looked interested but said nothing.

The first Sunday on the post, Kelly slept late for her. She didn’t get up until seven o’clock. Going down to the kitchen, she found Chris waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. The girl had her legs spread wide as she sat on a chair. Kelly looked at her face and saw she looked beautiful but tired. “Chris Collins, have you been a bad girl?” Kelly asked.

Chris grinned and said, “No, I was actually pretty good. At least Bill said I was. Kelly, you couldn’t have been more right. I never did have an orgasm before I met you. Now ... last night ... I must have cum over a dozen times.”

She smiled at Kelly and said, “Would you do me a favor? Please never mention that ‘personhood’ bullshit I was trying to sell you, ever again? Kelly, I’m a cunt! I’ve got good tits, a great ass, and great legs. My cunt is getting to be pretty talented. Kelly, I love to massage the big lug and feel his muscles. We have a deal. I massage him and finish by doing his cock. He enters me and when we cum, I get to lie there while he massages me. God, it’s great. And Kelly, I thought I was in good shape when we met. I didn’t know what physical conditioning was! You absolutely define it.

“Could I make us breakfast this morning, please? I’ve been practicing, and I promise I won’t poison us.”

Kelly relaxed in a chair and watched as Chris prepared a monstrous breakfast that included country ham, eggs, pancakes, and hash-brown potatoes. Kelly just grinned. Bill came in and went up behind Chris at the stove. When he put his hands over her breasts, Chris turned in his arms and kissed him lovingly. Kelly watched in amusement as Chris just melted in his arms.

When he lifted his head from their kiss she heard Chris whisper, “Good morning, darling! Did you sleep well?”

Bill replied, “As well as I could.” He looked at Kelly and asked, “How does Mike get any sleep? Kelly, I didn’t know when I was well off! I discovered that Chris has been a repressed nymphomaniac all these years. Now it’s all come out. This girl is going to be the death of me!” Then he grinned and added, “But what a way to go!” Then he kissed her again.

On Monday morning, Kelly sent for Sergeant Major Franklin, the division sergeant major and the ranking enlisted man on the post. A few minutes later he appeared and saluted smartly. Kelly shook hands and asked him to take a seat. She said, “Sergeant, how long have you been in the Army?”

Franklin was a very big man, standing over six feet three. He had very broad, heavily muscled shoulders and biceps. He was black, and it was impossible to estimate his age. He replied, “Nearly thirty years, General.”

Kelly smiled. “Then you’re certainly from the old Army. What do you think of the 101^st?”

He returned the smile and said, “It’s become a lot better in the last week. May I ask the general a question?”

“Of course,” she replied.

“Why are you commanding the 101^st?”

“Because that’s what my orders from the Chief of Staff say I am to do. That’s the only answer I can give you.”

Kelly smiled wryly. “Let’s face it, I have two strikes: First, I’m a woman. Second, I’m a kid. It’s really a little ridiculous to give command of a first-line assault unit to a girl who isn’t even twenty years old. There’s no precedent for it.”

“Begging the General’s pardon, but there is. Alexander the Great conquered the known world when he was in his teens.”

Kelly grinned at him and said, “I stand corrected, Sergeant Major. Let me amend it to say there’s no precedent less than two thousand years old. How’s that?” She looked at him with a question in her eyes. “I still need to know how I’m doing with the troops. Will you tell me, please?”

“Ma’am, you’re doing just great. The men are 100 percent behind you. I thought the only way this unit could be shaped up would be by kicking out hundreds of officers and men who aren’t suited for what we do. You didn’t do that. Instead, you just started to drive us and waited for the ones who couldn’t hack it to quit.”

He looked at her thoughtfully. “Your way is better. I thought I knew who was good and who wasn’t. It turned out that I was right on some and wrong on some — both ways. It seems there are some guys I didn’t think would make it. Some of them are thriving while others bailed out. Then there are some officers and men I thought were pretty good. Some have turned out to be as good as I expected, while others have quit. The cream is rising to the top.

“There’s one thing, though, that everyone comments on. Whatever you ask us to do, you’re doing faster and better. Believe me when I say no one can remember a division commander running past his entire division on a five-mile run. You really have the respect of the men. As far as your age is concerned, I’m not sure how many of the men even know it. They do know you’re very beautiful.”

Franklin stopped and smiled. “Actually, my daughter is 26 now. It was only a short time ago I wouldn’t even let her back my car out of the garage. General, you don’t act young. You inspire confidence.”

Kelly’s face became serious. She said, “Sergeant Major, I’m going to have to do something I really don’t want to do. I’m canceling all leaves and furloughs until at least the end of January. I know there are a lot of men planning on going home for Christmas but I can’t let them go. I think what we do is important. I think there is a tremendous combat tradition in this unit that has been allowed to die. If this unit isn’t back where it belongs — a first-rank assault unit — by the end of January, it’s going to be disbanded ... permanently. I don’t want that to happen.”

Although his face remained impassive, Franklin was amazed to see tears coming into Kelly’s eyes. She continued, “Sergeant Major, this is my first and only command. I’ll be damned if I want to see it go down the drain. I’ll be damned if I want to see the Screaming Eagle go down the drain.” The tears stopped and her voice became very firm. “I’m sorry. All leaves and furloughs are canceled.”

Then her expression and tone of voice changed. “Would it help if we had a Christmas party or a Christmas dance? I’m not a soldier. I’m a dumb high-school dropout who was awarded a diploma essentially by an act of the German parliament. I don’t want to have a children’s party for grown men. What do you think?”

Franklin’s face remained impassive. He said, “When will the General get back?”

Kelly looked surprised. “Get back from where?”

“From New York City. That’s where you live, isn’t it? I’ve heard that you are New York’s Debutante of the Year for this year, and Christmas is the time for all sorts of gala society parties.”

Kelly’s eyes blazed with blue fire. “Sergeant Major, when I said leaves and furloughs are canceled, I mean all leaves and furloughs, particularly mine! Mike and I will be celebrating Christmas right here.”

Franklin smiled. In fact, he beamed at her. “You still don’t understand, do you?”

“Understand what?”

“What a natural-born leader you are. I don’t think it would ever occur to you to give an order that didn’t include yourself. Ma’am, I’ve heard a lot of Kelly Jackson stories. I’m beginning to believe they were the truth toned down in the interests of believability.

“I think a dance would be a fine idea. There are many wives and girl friends in the area. I suggest the dance be formal. The NCOs would like that. We don’t get a chance to wear our dress blues very often.” He suddenly looked concerned. “But what about music?” he asked.

“I am assigning the division’s band to the enlisted dance,” she replied. “We could have it in the mess hall. I’ll get a local band for the officers’ dance at the O-Club.”

Franklin shook his head. “Ma’am, that’s why they’ll go through hell for you. You automatically think of the men first. The idea of ordering the band to play for the officers — standard procedure, by the way — never occurred to you. The band plays for the men, and you look elsewhere.”

Franklin stood up at attention. “Ma’am, it’s a real pleasure serving under your command.” He saluted smartly, turned on his heel and left.

The dances were scheduled for the Saturday night before Christmas. Kelly and Mike were surprised that there was only minor griping when the announcement was made that leaves and furloughs had been canceled. Mike kidded her about going easy on the men the day of the dance. Training knocked off at noon, and there had been only a ten-mile hike that morning.

In the afternoon, Kelly and Mike toured the base together. In spite of the very heavy work schedule and the winter weather, the base was starting to look very good. They went out through one gate and back in at another. At both, MPs were alert and saluted smartly. As they entered the second gate, a private on guard duty asked for ID, although both were in uniform. Kelly gave him her ID card and Mike’s.

He looked at Kelly’s picture and then at her. He gave her his very best salute and said, “General, that picture doesn’t do you justice!”

Kelly gave him a bright smile and returned the salute as smartly. She said, “Thank you, Carson. But you’re a flatterer!”

They drove to the mess hall where preparations were being made for the dance and then over to the Officers’ Club. That afternoon, Mike and Kelly treated themselves to a nap. They could hear the unmistakable sounds of Bill and Chris making love in their adjacent room. Mike pulled Kelly even closer to him and murmured, “Remember when we were young and made love all the time, too? Before we became old marrieds?”