Chapter 1A

Forward Operations Base Herbert H. Burr, Iraq

Wednesday, September 19, 2007, Colonel Linder's Office

Sergeant First Class Carol Thomas, Staff Sergeant Juan Ortiz, Sergeant John Smith, and Sergeant Robert Michaels stood at rigid attention in front of Colonel Linder's desk. The desk was one of those nondescript desks which blighted most government offices. Trying to distract himself, Sergeant Michaels examined it as if he never saw a desk before. The metal sides were a bland cream-beige color with a top covered with a wood grained laminate. From personal experience Sergeant Michaels knew that under the laminate surface was a particleboard core that started breaking down the minute you exposed it to air.

Looking at the four Sergeants without appearing to look at them, Colonel Linder felt pride in the four NCOs standing in front of him. He would not let them know that yet. They were lined up from his left to right by order of rank just like they were in formation. The four of them were a microcosm of the Army.

SFC Thomas stood straight and tall in her ACUs. The pattern actually accentuated her skin which was the color of coffee with cream. Her piercing black eyes sat on either side of a straight, medium width nose that spoke of at least one Caucasian ancestor. In Iraq, to save time, she quit straightening her hair and worked it into cornrows, which accentuated the shape of her head. The Colonel met her husband at several Battalion events; he was a lucky man indeed. Off duty Thomas had a winning smile and pleasant disposition. At work she was all business, a soldier's soldier.

Next to SFC Thomas was SSgt Ortiz. As a student of pre-Columbian art Colonel Linder had seen noses like Ortiz's more than once. All of them were in pictures of Aztec warriors and royalty. It fit well with the rest of Sergeant Ortiz's face. His slightly hooded brown eyes completed the image of a warrior. Unlike the Aztec warriors in the paintings, the Sergeant's high and tight haircut was short enough you could comb it with a wash cloth.

Sergeant Smith looked like a fresh faced kid with his freckles and close cropped red hair. When he opened his mouth, his native South Georgia poured out. With constant applications of sunscreen the Sergeant managed to keep his skin a medium pink. Just thinking about Smith's sunburn made Colonel Linder wince.

Sergeant Michaels was the newest Sergeant and the farthest to the right in the line. Michaels, with his dark tan, brown eyes, short brown hair, solid good looks, 173 centimeter height and 77 kilogram weight looked like the model for a recruiting poster.

Except for "don't ask, don't tell," he would be a career soldier. Although some of the senior Generals thought it was a good policy, it had cost Colonel Linder's unit its best Arabic speaker and Michaels. The Colonel was beginning to think maybe it was time to change the policy.

The four Sergeants had been standing at attention in front of the Colonel's desk for the last five minutes while Colonel Linder shuffled the papers in front of him. Looking at the papers in front of him the Colonel thought: About two more minutes of silence ought to do it. Of all the boneheaded stunts, they go out and give an international press conference without clearing it with anyone in the chain of command. The worst of it is, I agree with what they did.

Not only that, the raid Sergeant Thomas planned was a piece of tactical brilliance, which is one thing that is going to save the four of them. That and the fact Michaels probably knew his career was over, so he had nothing to lose as the public face of this end run around the administration.

The current Secretary of Defense would have buried this thing so deep no one would ever know. At least he is better than the former Secretary of Defense. The man ignored any fact that didn't fit his opinion. If I did that, the Army would bust me to private for pure arrogant stupidity.

Raising his head, the Colonel slowly turned his head and stared into the eyes of each of the Sergeants in front of him. "Sergeant Thomas your plan to capture the Raznits ship showed very good tactical sense. All four of you executed the plan well and promptly adapted to the changing situation. I read all of your after action reports. I'm very proud of the four of you. Normally, I would recommend Sergeant Thomas for a Silver Star and the rest of you for Bronze Stars.

"Then the four of you fucked the whole thing up. You know Sergeants do not take captured prisoners to the media and give press conferences. If you don't know that, then you really are too stupid to keep your stripes. I know the official after action report states Sergeant Michaels acted entirely on his own to organize the press conferences announcing an alien threat to this planet." Pointing at the light grey eagle on his ACUs he continued. "Do you think I earned this eagle by being that stupid?"

All four Sergeants immediately responded in loud clear voices. "No Sir."

"Michaels did you know about the don't ask, don't tell investigation?" As Sergeant Michaels started to respond the Colonel held up a hand. "Don't answer that."

For the next ten minutes the Colonel alternated between chewing out the four Sergeants and complimenting them on capturing the Raznits' spaceship the previous week. Finally, he added. "The President and the Secretary of Defense both wanted the four of you given Dishonorable Discharges. The Congressional Black Caucus and the Speaker of the House threatened to start impeachment proceedings for both of them if that happened. Not only that, a certain ex-Navy fighter jock in the Senate informed the President, if that happened he would ensure there was a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict the two of them. Thomas, the public wants us to give you the Congressional Medal of Honor for your actions.

"You will pay for your actions, but not quite in the way you thought. Sergeant Thomas, you'll receive the Distinguished Service Cross. You other three will receive Silver Stars with V's for Valor and the rest of your unit will receive Bronze Stars with V's for Valor. Tomorrow morning, the President will personally present the four of you with your awards.

"Afterwards you'll appear in front of a joint session of the House and Senate Arm Services Committees. First they will publicly commend your actions, then they'll grill you in closed door hearings. Thomas, because you locked everyone but you and these other three out of the Raznits' computer, the Secretary of Defense assigned you four to guard the ship. Your enlistments are indefinitely extended."

Colonel Linder noticed Sergeant Michaels raised eyebrow. "Michaels, the don't ask, don't tell investigation came to a complete halt after the stunt you pulled in Washington last Wednesday. For some reason the Secretary wants to keep you." The Colonel paused ominously, then added. "Forever."

With a conspiratorial look the Colonel continued. "You never heard me say this, but the only way out of this is with the help of Congress."

Colonel Linder then discussed travel arrangements for the four Sergeants. Two Sergeants would fly in each shuttle piloted by one of the captured Raznits pilots. Their destination was Patuxent Naval Air Test Center in Maryland. The Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense wanted to turn the entire project over to the Navy.

At Patuxent, Marine MPs would take the pilots to a holding cell. The four Sergeants would be guests of the Navy for the day and the Secretary of Defense would join them for lunch. Although it was already 0930 in Iraq, because of the eight hour time difference, it was only 0130 Thursday morning in Washington DC. The flight time for the two shuttles would only be forty-five minutes.

Friday morning a Marine helicopter would transport the four Sergeants to the White House for a 1000 presentation ceremony. The President would present SFC Thomas the Distinguished Service Cross and present Silver Stars to the other three. After the award ceremony, a car would take them to the Capitol for the hearings. The Navy wanted Sergeant Thomas to unlock the ship's computers after the hearings so their people could take control of the ship.

The Colonel released the four so they could pack all their gear. As he put it, this was probably the last time anyone in the Army would ever see them. This did not set well with the four Sergeants. Within the hour, the Sergeants were standing by the two Raznits' shuttles with their duffle bags. Per standard operating procedure, they were in combat armor, ACH helmets, and carried a fully loaded M-4 with six additional 30 round magazines in their web gear. In other words, they were dressed for another day at the office.

The Raznits' shuttles were a box three meters high, and three meters wide by ten meters long, with a slightly sloped front. The gravitronic propulsion system they used did not require wings or fins for lift or stabilization. The shuttle rested on four small skids. The skids and their supports provided a clearance of about 50 centimeters; so the gravitronic nodes on the underside did not touch the ground.

Before boarding the shuttles, each of the Sergeants shook Colonel Linder's hand. None of them saluted him. In a combat zone saluting an officer was a good way to help a sniper identify him as an officer. Picking up their duffle bags, SFC Thomas and Sergeant Michaels boarded a shuttle with Lieutenant Junior Grade Trinig Collut. Lieutenant Collut piloted the shuttle which attacked SFC Thomas' convoy.

Was it only last week? Now he was her prisoner for a few more hours, then he would be someone else's problem. As the junior engineering officer on the Raznits' ship, he was important for more reasons than his ability to fly a shuttle.

The two Sergeants spent most of their off duty time during the previous week befriending the Lieutenant. Meanwhile, Sergeant Ortiz and Sergeant Smith spent their time with Ensign Tolmac Rignow, the other shuttle pilot. The Ensign had been the assistant navigator on the 'IRSN Tavnit Oma' prior to its capture.

The rest of the surviving crewmembers were in one section of the military prison at The Guantánamo Bay Naval Base ("GTMO" pronounced Gitmo). Because SFC Thomson delivered the shuttles to Colonel Linder at FOB Burr, the two pilots also ended up at FOB Burr. By isolating these two from the rest of the crew, the Colonel hoped to convince them that cooperation with the U.S. Government was their only hope.

Sergeants Michaels and Thompson spent the flight trying to cement their relationship with Lieutenant Collut. If the Secretary of Defense was going to prevent them from ever leaving the ship, then they wanted some kind of Ace in the Hole to provide them with a better negotiating position.

Also during the flight, Sergeant Michaels practiced his Raznits with Lieutenant Collut. Michaels grew up on a 100-acre dairy farm in the Township of Milton, Vermont and attended school in the Village of Milton. Vermont's system of government dates from when it was a British colony. All land in the state is located within a township. Although the state has 13 counties, the basic unit of government is the township. For this reason every farm in the state is located within a township.

Growing up where he did, Michaels had a choice of five television channels. Three of the five were from Montreal, Quebec, and two of them only broadcast in French. Like many children from northern Vermont, he spoke some French by the time he was five.

His Father's sister, Aunt Valerie, managed to receive a full scholarship to McGill University. She wanted a degree in French Language and Literature. Reasoning that the French courses at McGill would be better than the ones at the University of Vermont, she accepted the scholarship. Her intention was to return to Vermont after graduating and teach high school French. Instead she met Jean Michel Bergér and married him.

Every summer Robert Michaels and his brother Phillip would spend two weeks with their first cousins in the Montreal suburbs. For those two weeks they spoke only French. His two cousins, Marie and Marc, would then return to the farm and spend two weeks milking cows, bailing and stacking hay, and learning about farm life. During their two weeks on the farm the cousins only spoke English. By the time they were in high school all of the cousins spoke fluent English and French.

In high school, Michaels took Spanish, not French, as his foreign language. For that reason, learning a fourth language was not that much of challenge. He was able to carry on long conversations with Lieutenant Collut and Ensign Rignow.

Michaels scored high in two areas on his Army aptitude tests, language skills and mechanical skills. He signed up to be a Light Wheel Mechanic, knowing that he wanted to study engineering using his Montgomery GI Bill money.

Sergeant Ortiz grew up in the Rio Grande Valley speaking more Spanish than English. Like Michaels, adding a new language was not that difficult. He could actually communicate simple ideas to Ensign Rignow.

Sergeant Thomas grew up in Memphis, Tennessee; speaking only English. For her, learning Raznits was the one of the hardest things she had ever done. After one week of trying to communicate with Lieutenant Collut, she was only able to cobble together simple sentences.

Sergeant Smith grew up in Cairo, a small town in South Georgia, which he pronounced Kay row. For some reason he retained a true southern accent. There were some of the other soldiers who actually thought English was his second language. That was not true; Smith just used a large number of regional expressions. He was always "a fixin' to crank his HMMV," which meant that he was about to start his HMMV. Like Sergeant Thomas, he had a difficult time learning a second language as an adult.

The four Sergeants worked on their language skills as the two shuttles streaked toward Patuxent, Maryland, at several times the speed of sound.

At 0320 U.S. Eastern Daylight Time, the shuttles were cleared for final approach at Patuxent Naval Air Test Center. The Raznits pilots landed them on the tarmac apron between the two main hangers. After the two shuttles landed, the four Sergeants and the two Raznits pilots waited on the tarmac as a dark van approached. The two Raznits pilots were finally starting to adapt to the heavy gravity. But standing for even a few minutes made them feel like someone was trying to push them into the ground.

Four Marine MPs in Class A Service Uniforms with belts for their M-9 pistols climbed out of the van. The Class A Service Uniform for fall and winter consists of an olive drab green long waisted coat worn over a long sleeve khaki shirt, a khaki tie, and dress pants that match the coat.

All four Marines had spent time in al Anbar province in Iraq. One glance at the four soldiers standing by the boxes which had just landed told the Marines that these soldiers were not what they expected. Their Company Commander told them that four Army soldiers would arrive with two prisoners. The Marines expected four Army MPs in Army Green Class A uniforms.

These soldiers definitely were not any MPs the Marines were familiar with. On their right shoulders were combat patches from four different units. On their left shoulders, each of them had a triangular unit patch. The Marines did not immediately recognize the patch of the 11^th Armored Division. The patch is a triangle with an 11 in the upper third. In the center of the triangle is a tank track with two road wheels. Over the tank treads is a crossed cannon barrel and lightning bolt. Under the triangle is a strip with the word "THUNDERBOLT" all in capital letters.

The way the three men and one woman held their MP-4's as they scanned the area, it was obvious that the weapon was as much a part of them as an extra arm. The biggest surprise was what the two prisoners wore. They both were wearing light blue short sleeve shirts and dark blue dress pants. Their shoes were a highly polished black with light blue socks. The four soldiers and two prisoners wore U.S. Army Advance Combat Helmets ("ACHs"). Looking closer, the Marines noticed that the two prisoners had gray skin.

The NCO in charge of the Marine MPs, Gunnery Sergeant Miguel Ortiz, scanned the four soldiers. He spotted Sergeant Thomas' rank insignia on the front of her ACUs. Realizing she was the senior NCO. Gunny Ortiz approached SFC Thomas and began questioning her about the prisoners. Captain Thomas McCoy, his Commanding Officer, told Ortiz to treat the prisoners gently. The government wanted their cooperation for some project.

All four of the Sergeants were scanning their surroundings as if they were still back at FOB Burr. As Gunny Ortiz approached, the doors of the hanger directly behind them started to open. The doors created a loud grating sound and a booming thud as the first movable door section slid into the one next to it. Sergeant Thomas and Sergeant Ortiz spun around facing the potential threat. At the same time Sergeants Michaels and Smith each grabbed a prisoner's shoulder and started pushing them to the ground. Gunny Ortiz watched the soldier's response, and then laughed out loud.

As soon as Sergeants Thomas and Ortiz recognized the source of the sound they turned back toward Gunny Ortiz. At that moment, Gunny Ortiz recognized his first cousin Juan. "Hey, Juan I thought you were in Iraq with an Armored Division."

Sergeant Juan Ortiz glanced at his watch. "Miguel, until an hour ago I was. Because I helped capture these two and the ship they were on, the Colonel made me escort them here."

"How the hell did a sand sucking soldier like you capture a ship out in the desert? For that matter, how the fuck did you get from Iraq to here in less than an hour?"

Pointing over his shoulder Juan Ortiz said. "Actually, Sergeant Thomas and Sergeant Michaels captured this space shuttle when it attacked them in the desert. My troops and I helped them capture the spaceship it came from."

After that, Staff Sergeant Juan Ortiz proceeded to introduce the other three Sergeants and their two prisoners to his cousin Gunnery Sergeant Miguel Ortiz. Gunny Ortiz then instructed them to move the two shuttles into the hanger behind them. Juan invited his cousin to ride to the hanger in the shuttle with him.

Walking behind Ensign Rignow, Gunny Ortiz noticed he seemed to move like an old man. The Gunny asked his cousin why if the pilot was so old he was still an Ensign. Sergeant Ortiz explained to him that the Raznits lived on a planet where the gravity is 80 percent of Earth normal. When the four of them reached the pilot's compartment, Gunny Ortiz felt like he was falling.

"Watch out, Miguel we keep the pilot's compartment at Raznits' normal so the pilots are comfortable. Otherwise they're too worn out to fly this thing."

"You fought the Raznits in this gravity?"

"Yes. It actually made it easier because the weapons were not as heavy. It definitely worked against them, as living in a gravity field 125 percent of theirs makes us 125 percent stronger. Between that and the 240 Bravos we kicked their butts. When Sergeant Thomas' people took Lieutenant Collut's shuttle they actually crushed the skulls of the Raznits soldiers in hand to hand combat. Half of Sergeant Thomas' troops were women. They still had the strength to crush the Raznits' skulls with one blow."

Gunny Ortiz expressed some doubt about the truth of his cousin's statement. Like most Marines, he did not believe Army soldiers, especially women soldiers could crush a man's skull. Had his cousin told him it was women Marines, the Gunny would have believed him.

During the two minutes it took for Ensign Rignow to steer the shuttle into the hanger and park it, the two Sergeants told Gunny Ortiz about the Raznits attack on Sergeant Thomas' convoy and the subsequent capture of the Raznits' spaceship. Sergeant Smith told about holding the shuttle bay while the Tuvet Marat tried to retake it. Gunny Ortiz could not believe the Tuvet Marat bunched up the way they did. His comment was, "Didn't they learn anything about combat in basic training?"

The translation program translated the entire conversation into Raznits for Ensign Rignow. A week ago he would have defended the honor of the Tuvet Marat. After spending the last week at FOB Burr with the daily mortar and sniper attacks, he was beginning to understand these soldiers. The Tuvet Marat practiced putting down slave revolts once or twice a year for about two hours. The soldiers at FOB Burr practiced staying alive in a hostile environment all day every day. Additionally, he heard the soldiers tell stories of their daily patrols into town searching for insurgents. He now knew the Tuvet Marat played at war, these men and women lived it.

The Ensign was beginning to realize that if the Empire landed Tuvet Marat on this planet, they would not last a day. The only way the IRSN was going to subdue this planet was by leveling most of the cities and killing most of the people. If he had any doubt of that, it quickly vanished when he realized how much trouble these soldiers were having suppressing the insurgency. Sergeant Ortiz made it very clear that the Iraqi insurgents were civilians and not trained soldiers.

When the Marine MPs started to take the two Raznits pilots away, Sergeant Thomas reached into the shuttle and pulled out an ACH. Throwing it to Gunny Ortiz she said, "Here use this, we have the shuttle computer set to translate anything you say from English to Raznits so the pilots can understand you. Otherwise you will be using hand signals to direct them. Even with the boost from the shuttle's transmitter the range is only 400 meters when you're indoors."

Catching the helmet Gunny Ortiz replied, "Thank you, Thomas. I'll remember that."

Sitting outside the hanger was a second van with a Lance Corporal as the driver. As the four sergeants entered the van, he informed them that they would be taken to a barracks until 0730. At 0730 he would pick the Sergeants up outside the barracks and take them to Fort Belvoir for U. S. Army Class A uniforms. The Secretary of Defense even authorized the Army to pay for their uniforms.

The first stop before the barracks was the Marine MP armory. The four Sergeants surrendered their M-4s to the Armorer who provided each of them receipts. The next stop was the barracks. By this time it was 0410 local time and 1210 Baghdad time. After receiving their room assignments from the Charge of Quarters ("CQ") the four Sergeants found their rooms. Like most soldiers, they learned in basic training to sleep anytime you could because you never knew when you would be able to sleep again. Five minutes after finding their rooms, all four Sergeants were sound asleep.

Sergeant Michaels performed one last check of Sergeant Thomas' Class A uniform, making sure there was no fuzz, loose hairs, or hanging threads. After he inspected her front and back, she turned her attention to his uniform. While the two of them were doing this Sergeant Ortiz and Sergeant Smith were doing the same thing for each other.

Above their other awards both Sergeant Ortiz and Sergeant Smith wore the silver and blue Combat Infantry Badge. Above her other awards Sergeant Thomas wore the Combat Action Badge, she earned on her first tour in Iraq. After tomorrow's award ceremony Sergeant Michaels would be able to wear the Combat Action Badge and the other three Sergeants would qualify for a single star above their respective Combat Badges. During his first tour in Iraq, although he dodged a lot of mortar rounds and IED's Sergeant Michaels was never directly engaged in combat. For this reason he did not have a Combat Action Badge.

The Army started issuing Combat Infantry Badges during World War II, to recognize Infantry and later Special Forces soldiers who were under hostile fire in a combat zone. The Army created the Combat Action Badge in 2005 to recognize soldiers without Infantry, Special Forces, or Medical specialties who were directly involved in a fire fight. U.S. Army Medical personnel qualify for the Combat Medic Badge in a similar situation. For each subsequent award, the soldier receives the basic badge with one star at the top of the badge. The Army only awards one Combat Badge per tour in Iraq or Afghanistan so a Combat Badge with two stars would indicate three tours in Iraq or Afghanistan where the soldier was directly engaged in combat with the enemy.

Chapter 1B »