Chapter 18

During the dinner hours Jerry Smith just played soft music that complemented the food and table conversation. When the tables were cleared following the main course, he changed tempo and went into the band's dance music. His eyes had been locked on the large table directly across the dance floor from where he was conducting and he had recognized Ken Carlson the instant he appeared.

Jerry silently whistled as he got a good look at Hank Conroy. He had never seen her look so beautiful. Then he looked at the other woman and just shook his head. If anything, she was even more beautiful than Hank, who Jerry had always considered to be the most beautiful woman alive. Clearly, he thought, this must be Kathy of the Kathy-grams.

As he watched them sit down at their table, he realized how much alike the two women — indeed the two couples — were. The women seemed to have eyes only for their husbands and seemed to have a need to touch them in some way. He had been amused as he watched them enter the dining room and be shown to their table. It seemed like every pair of eyes in the room was locked on the two women. The men drooled at the revealed beauty — and with the dresses they were wearing, a great deal was revealed — while the women just looked with ill-concealed envy at their perfect bodies. But the two women, if they cared at all, only did because it made their husbands feel better to have such exquisite women on their arms.

When the band swung into Glen Miller's String of Pearls, Hank and Jim Conroy came out on the dance floor. The two were jitterbugging and whenever Hank was turned out, her spin would send her skirt flying out straight revealing the most beautiful female legs Jerry had ever seen, along with her tiny lace bikini. The bank leader marveled — and rejoiced — at how beautifully they moved together on the dance floor. He knew of Jim's wounds and had also heard the story of the doctors saying he would never walk again.

When that number ended, Jerry slowed the tempo for the next number and was delighted to see the Carlsons come out on the floor. When they did, he signaled the band and they smoothly shifted into Glen Miller's (and their) signature, Moonlight Serenade.

For Kathy and Ken this was a first. Never in their entire lives had they danced together — not even at their wedding. Because of lack of money and time, there had been no formal reception, just wedding cake served to the guests in the church basement. Kathy teased Ken about being as big as a bear and that's exactly what he felt like as he escorted her out onto the dance floor. She kissed him lightly and teased him about getting up on his hind legs and showing the people what he could do.

Actually Ken was scared. He knew he didn't know how to dance and was scared of stepping on one of Kathy's feet and crushing it. When he mentioned his fear, she had merely pointed out that as long as it wasn't her cunt, she couldn't care less. To his utter amazement, Kathy just floated in his arms with her cheek against his while his hand was on her bare back. She just murmured happily at the feel of his big hand on her bare back. When the music ended, she tipped her head up and he saw the wanting in her eyes. Still holding her in his arms, he lowered his lips to hers and the two pairs of lips fused together while the electricity flowed between them.

Jerry was standing on the bandstand which was only about a foot above the dance floor. When the Carlsons embraced, he could see the electricity flowing. Picking up a cordless microphone, he waited for their kiss to end and then asked them quietly to please remain where they were. Kathy and Ken were puzzled, but did as he asked.

Using the mic for the first time, Jerry said, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Kapalua resort. First, I have been asked to make a special announcement. Tonight, we are having a private party with all of the guests in the hotel invited — all of you people. The occasion? To honor the couple standing here on the dance floor beside me, Kenneth and Katherine Carlson, who arrived yesterday for their honeymoon.

"Why, you may wonder, would the hotel have a party like this for a honeymooning couple? They are hardly the first couple to come out here on their honeymoon and management certainly hopes they won't be the last. Well, why then?"

Jerry stood up even straighter as he continued, "It is to honor probably the greatest military hero in the history of the United States, Kenneth Carlson. You see, in Vietnam a few years ago there was an interesting military unit: Alpha Company of the First Ranger Battalion, U.S. Army. However, it was known to everyone as Carlson's Rangers.

"I was over there, too, you see. Because I get interested in strange things from time to time, I always wondered why it was a company. After all, it only had about forty men; in size it was sort of a heavyweight platoon. Why, then, call it a company? Well — and I found this out firsthand — it has the combat power and force of a reinforced battalion. So anyway, I guess the brass split the difference and called it a company.

"There's more, you see: In this room tonight are three people whose lives were saved by Captain Ken Carlson. And I mean personally saved. First, we have twin sisters, Marie and Celeste Trang."

Jerry's eyes became icy and his voice hardened. "For those of you here who thought we were wasting our time in Vietnam persecuting a bunch of poor agrarian reformers, I would like you to talk to the Trangs. These girls were in high school when the North Vietnamese hit their village. The first thing they did was take their father out to the square. All of the villagers had been rounded up and were made to stand around under guard while they made their father kneel and then shot him in the head!

"His crime? He was the mayor of the village. That's all. Their mother broke free of the guards and ran to her husband to hold him in her arms as he died. They shot her in the head, too. Then they tied these two girls to a frame they erected and made them watch as, one after another, all of the girls from their Catholic girl's high school were taken to the middle of the square and raped repeatedly until they died.

"Then all the attention was focused on the two girls. They were tied together, face to face, and suspended from the frame by their wrists. As they slowly turned in the air, two men began to whip them until their backs, buttocks and legs were nothing but bloody lacerated strips. They were heating an iron red hot. Why? So they could brand the girls in different places to be able to tell them apart for purposes of their betting."

Now Jerry's voice was ringing around the room and he couldn't any longer conceal his anger. "Betting? Yes, betting! Betting on which of the two would live longer. You see, while they had raped and quickly killed the other girls, because of the Trangs' surpassing beauty, they wanted to stretch their deaths out. The betting was that they could survive at least two full days.

"Anyway, they were about to cut them down in order to repeat the whipping with the girls tied back-to-back, when there was a fusillade of bullets coming from all sides of the square. Remember, all of the villagers were present. Nevertheless, most of the enemy were killed while no villager suffered even a scratch. The few survivors surrendered. In spite of the fact that the village was over one hundred miles away from the nearest Allied position, it was Carlson's Rangers. Ken Carlson personally cut down those two girls and brought them back. We're delighted that they are here with us tonight."

Looking up, he motioned for a spotlight to be trained on the girls who were wearing their uniforms while still wearing the big white bows that had been their entire uniform while they were serving cocktails. The spotlight picked out the two girls who smiled and waved at the crowd. Everyone in the room got to his feet, applauded, and then cheered.

"I have just introduced two of the people Ken Carlson saved. There is another, sitting at the table with the Carlsons, our own head golf professional here at Kapalua. Will Major James Conroy, U.S. Air Force (retired), please rise?"

Although he was embarrassed, it was a small enough price to pay tribute to the man who had saved his life. Jim stood up and the spotlight picked him out. After waving to the crowd he sat down again.

Jerry continued, "I have gotten to know Jim very well over the years. You see, he is another authentic hero. He has the Air Force Cross with oak leaf cluster, the Air Medal with two clusters and the Purple Heart." His face grew serious when he added, "Please believe me when I tell you that the AFC is not obtained for fifty cents and a boxtop. Rather, it ranks immediately below the Medal of Honor — and Jim has two of them!"

Then he grinned and added, "You saw how crippled up Jim is, I hope? That's why he's retired: medical disability. Of course, I have it on good authority that after he was retired at a ceremony at the Hickam Field Air Force Hospital, he and his wife, Hank, went skipping together down the front walk. Then, after a short time Jim went to the Air Force and wanted to get rid of his fifty-percent disability pension on the not-completely-unreasonable basis that he wasn't disabled. After receiving a sympathetic hearing he did as he was told: He filed an appeal with the Armed Forces Disability Review Board.

"Well, he had his hearing and a few weeks later received a letter that said, 'Dear Major Conroy: After carefully reviewing your file and hearing testimony, we are pleased to inform you that we agree with your position. You are absolutely correct that a fifty-percent disability in your case is inappropriate. Accordingly, we are awarding you a 75 percent disability pension, to be paid retroactively to your date of retirement.'" Jerry grinned and said, "How's that for a successful appeal?

"Incidentally, he appealed again about a year later and they increased it to 85 percent. He's afraid to file another appeal, though. The next step is to declare him dead, pay off on his insurance, and bury him ... with full military honors, of course!" At this, the crowd broke up in laughter, while Jim, grinning broadly, put his face on the table and covered his head with his hands.

"At any rate," Jerry continued, "Regardless of the disability, there's no question that first, Jim Conroy is a great hero, and second, he was seriously wounded in action. You see, it happened on his last mission flying a special chopper on a classified mission deep behind enemy lines. His helicopter was badly hit and all of his crew were killed. Somehow he managed to get it on the ground, more or less in one piece, and get clear just before its fuel ignited and it blew up. Jim's leg was a mess. It was a combination of a bullet wound and a shrapnel hit that shredded his left thigh — he wasn't going anywhere in a hurry.

"An enemy patrol finally found him. Since he was deep in the jungle — somehow Jim had found the only clearing for miles and put his chopper down in it — the only way they were going to get him out was to carry him. The officer in charge didn't go for that idea in a big way, so he drew his sidearm, cocked it, and aimed it at Jim's head. As he was squeezing the trigger, his gun hand seemed to explode. Just then Jim heard the sound of a shot. While the officer was staring stupidly at the bleeding stump where his right hand had been, a hole appeared in the middle of his forehead, right between his eyes. Then all hell broke loose, and the enemy patrol suddenly ceased to exist."

Shaking his head, Smith asked rhetorically, "Who was it? Who else could it be, deep behind enemy lines? Carlson's Rangers. And, of course, doing the shooting was Ken Carlson himself. He did all the long-range shooting in the outfit. Anyway, Ken operated on Jim's leg and removed the bullet and the shrapnel — putting the pieces in a pocket in his flight suit, by the way, where they were found days later when he was finally in the hospital." Jerry grinned and interjected, "That's another nice thing about Carlson's — they even provide souvenirs."