Chapter 27

The 101^st Airborne and the 82^nd Airborne were positioned on a military reservation in New Mexico. The 101^st was the defending Blue Force and the 82^nd was the attacking Red Force. Mike and Kelly agreed that the 101^st was as ready as it possibly could be. They thought they had an edge because the very survival of the 101^st depended on its performance against the 82^nd in the Red-Blue War Games, while to Jim Ames and the 82^nd it was only a game.

It was February 1^st. Kelly had not had her command for even ninety days and she knew the unit was marked for extinction if it didn’t perform. Cathy Adams had told her the full story in an off-the-record conversation held with Sam’s full knowledge. She learned that the only way Sam had been able to get Kelly a combat command was in a unit that was considered to be virtually dead anyway. Kelly was determined to prove that the 101^st was very much alive. They were going to whip the 82^nd! Although both units were Airborne, the exercise was going to be run as if they were ground troops.

Kelly grinned thinking about her argument with Mike. She was with a volunteer provisional company positioned on top of a cliff that loomed vertically 300 feet above and behind the 82nd’s command post. When she introduced the idea, Mike had gone pale. He said, “Kelly, you’ll kill yourself! That’s like going down the side of a thirty-story building in the middle of the night.”

They were sitting with their senior staff and senior unit commanders. She smiled fondly at Mike and asked innocently, “Is it more dangerous than running barefoot through a minefield?”

Mike suddenly grinned, took her in his arms and kissed her. The other officers just smiled. Colonel Collins asked about the remark and Kelly said, “Didn’t you know? That’s what we did on our first date. Mike had me running barefoot through a minefield. That was fun. Then I wanted to dig in a sandbox. We didn’t have any sand or a box, so I used Mike’s leg instead. It was much more fun!”

Collins looked at Mike who shook his head resignedly. Mike nodded and said, “Unfortunately, she’s right. She did run barefoot through a mine field. In fact, she was running naked. I took a hit from an AK-47 and Kelly removed the bullet.” He kissed her again and said, “Okay, honey, if Colonel Collins agrees. Tom, what do you think?”

Collins just shook his head. He was from the Tennessee hill country and could affect the mountain idiom in his speech when he wanted to. He said, “My mama didn’t raise no fools! When the commanding general wants to do something, I was told that whatever fool thing it might be, to be sure to say it’s a great idea. General, I think it’s a great idea.” He grinned at them and they continued their planning.

At the foot of the cliff were trees and dense undergrowth. Mike was in command of the main body of the 101^st while she and the special assault company were going to rappel down the side of the cliff and then capture the 82nd’s command post. They were waiting for 0400, a time when they thought guards at the 82nd’s headquarters would be the least alert. Meanwhile, the main force of the 101^st had been falling back. The plan was to let the 82^nd chase a rear guard into a trap in which they would suddenly find the men of the 101^st on both flanks. Then Kelly intended to hit the command post, put it out of action, and with luck cause even more confusion.

She checked her watch and checked her rappelling ropes. In the darkness she could scarcely see the men on her right and left. All had camouflage paint on their faces and hands. Kelly was wearing her Kevlar vest and helmet for luck.

She gave a thumbs-up signal and started to drop. She had almost reached the bottom when she grinned to herself. Being so preoccupied with getting the troops positioned and checking all the equipment with the company commander, she had not really stopped to think about what she was doing. But Mike was right, of course. It was like going down the side of a thirty-story building in the middle of the night. She slowed her rate of descent as she neared the ground. She had told the first men to be very careful because they weren’t sure what the ground surface was like at the base of the cliff. After she felt her feet touch, Kelly eased her way out of the rope. After tugging twice she felt it soar up to be used by the next men.

With men at the bottom of the cliff it was now much easier. They could signal to the men coming down and let them know when they neared the bottom. They also increased the number of ropes in use. Kevin joined her and they eased through the undergrowth moving toward the CP. When they crawled to a point within sight of the command post, she tapped Kevin on the helmet. He went into his pack and brought out a highly directional shotgun microphone.

Kelly took the earphones and put them on while she aimed the mike at the headquarters tent. Listening for a moment, she gave Kevin a thumbs up sign and grinned, then gave him the earphones. A signalman came crawling up to them as Kelly worked her way back towards the base of the cliff. So far, so good. The microphone was working perfectly: It was almost as if they were standing in the middle of the tent; they could hear everything being said. Kevin and the signalman were taking careful notes to identify the call signs of the units of the 82^nd. If her plan worked, there would be more than enough confusion to help Mike and the main body.

The company was now off the cliff and the ropes had been retrieved. Now all they had to do was wait. Kelly was with the company commander, Captain Jensen. She motioned him to come back into the woods where they could talk without their voices reaching any sentries patrolling around the CP. She found there were no sentries between the CP and the cliff. As she had guessed, the cliff itself was considered to provide all the protection necessary. She had been counting on it being considered an unbreachable defense.

She turned to Jensen and said, “Bill, how are you feeling? You look like you’re getting a little nervous.”

It was hard to see his face because of the combination of darkness and the camouflage paint. He said, “Yes, ma’am, I’m afraid I am. Ma’am, may I ask the General a question?”

Kelly whispered, “I don’t know about ‘the General,’ but you can certainly ask me. What’s on your mind?”

“Ma’am, aren’t you ever frightened? I’m scared that I’ll do something stupid and really louse things up.”

He couldn’t see Kelly’s face with her camouflage paint, but he saw her white teeth as she smiled. She said, “Bill, that’s the nice part of my position. What could possibly be expected of a teenage high school dropout? If I screw up, people just point out the absurdity of having a teenage girl serving as a commanding general.”

She could see the motion as he shook his head. “But ... But you have the Cross of Liberty. General, I ... it’s a genuine pleasure serving under your command. It’s not my place to say, I guess, but there’s no one alive who could have done what you’ve done with the 101^st. It’s not just that you got us squared away. It’s that you did it in less than ninety days! General, I learned a lot about the meaning of leadership just watching you. I never heard you give an order. You always go first and show us what you want us to do and then we try to do it, too. We almost never can, but while trying we do accomplish far more than we ever thought we could. Thank you, sir.”

“Bill, thank you. But please do me a favor? As long as we look like refugees from a cat and dog fight, I’d appreciate it if you called me Kelly. I am younger than you are, Captain, by a good bit, I think.”

She could see his teeth gleam as he smiled. “I think you’re right. My wife, Cathy, can’t believe that she’s older than my commanding general, and she’s only twenty-four!”

Kelly looked up and could see the first signs of dawn. Looking up through the trees, they could now see the branches against the lightening sky. Then they heard a rustle of leaves as a messenger came back to where they were sitting. He had the first sheet of information gathered from the microphone. Using a carefully shielded light she and Bill Jensen looked over the paper. Someone had carefully recopied the notes onto a form Kelly had worked out earlier. Virtually all the blanks had been filled in, including all of the important ones. The sheet had the call signs of all the units of the 82^nd. Kelly grinned, tipped her helmet down over her eyes and went to sleep. Bill Jensen saw her and in no time heard her breathing become slow and regular as she fell asleep.

He motioned to the messenger to bring a couple of men back to stand guard. He said, “My God, have you ever seen anything like it? She is cool!”

The messenger whispered back, “Captain, I guess when you’ve done all that the General’s done, you don’t lose much sleep over a war game! I’ll bet she slept in Germany, too.”

The first moves in Kelly’s plan were scheduled for 0800. At 0755 Jensen saw Kelly’s hand move and lift her helmet off her eyes. She whispered, “Good morning, Bill.”

She checked her watch and nodded. He just shook his head in amazement. There was a new Kelly Jackson story to be told. She gave him the sign and he went to the troops on the right flank. Kelly was taking the left. She checked over her men, making sure their Blue Army arm-bands were correctly positioned.