Chapter 15

07:50 Monday, August 19th, 1991

Rm 4 Building 1091

NAS Alameda, CA

"I got a class date," PO1 Dillon told Lenore. He'd picked her up after her morning workout and run with the Gunny, and Lenore had insisted Dillon sit and have tea with her and Xun Ming, much to the Chinese lady's amusement.

When Lenore relented and let Dillon whisk her from the house, he'd driven toward NAS Alameda. "This means I've got to go jump out of airplanes with the Army. I leave Wednesday. After the Army teaches me how to fall towards the ground, I'll be in Coronado for a while, and probably unreachable. I should finish about ten days before Christmas, unless something goes wrong."

"Class date?" Lenore inquired.

He looked over at her. "I keep forgetting how new you are to being a sailor. You go to schools to get qualifications and skills you progress in your career. Most of those need a school, but not Boatswain's Mate."

Lenore nodded. "Like my brother and the Rangers, he had to go to a school to get a 'parachutists' tab."

Dillon answered as he entered the line for the checkpoint at NAS Alameda. "Yeah, kinda like. I wanna meet your brother someday. Wonder what's got them all riled up?" He was referring to the slower ingress of traffic to the post, caused by the SPs talking to each individual driver entering the NAS. "Anyway, yeah, I get to go through a Navy version of the Airborne school, they'll make me jump out of perfectly good airplanes."

Eventually they made it through the SP at the gate, where they learned there was some sort of major upheaval in the USSR, causing the high alert state. Dillon took Lenore back to the office she'd been to before and presented her with a key to the office.

"Sorry about Friday," he said with a shrug. "I had some other stuff to do. We'll go get you some rank for your uniforms."

Lenore went with him into the Navy Exchange Uniform Shop, where she opted to buy the more expensive shiny plated accoutrements rather than the duller 'issue' pieces. Two pairs of Bates patent-leather shoes joined the rank and insignia in her shopping basket. She wrote a check on her Bank of America account – the 'permanent' checks had just come in Saturday's mail – and winced. "Dillon, when do I get paid?"

"Should have been the fifteenth, Lenore, but it might have to wait for the first of the month."

Crossing her mental fingers, Lenore wrote out the check.

Back at the office, Lenore carefully applied the National Defense Medal ribbon and her other rank to her Enlisted Summer Service uniform, while referring to the diagram in the book she'd gotten on the Navy Uniform Regulations. She swore at the small sewing kit's thimble. She swore again when Dillon told her any of the tailor shops outside the gate would have done the job in seconds for five dollars.

Dillon called Fales' Lieutenant j.g. and wrote pages worth of notes. Lenore was to use the office once a week and check in on the phone to the Lieutenant, and check on the TTY printer for orders. She was to expect that Lieutenant Wheeler would have any orders or official correspondence for her from Commander Fales' office otherwise. Lenore was expected to be available for general errand-running for Commander Fales, much as Dillon had been doing. As such, she'd have to account for her expenses and submit forms for reimbursement. And, as such, Fales ordered her to obtain enlisted-type uniforms, and would fax orders for her uniform to be Officer Candidate while attending school or an NROTC function, and Enlisted, her choice of which type, as the situation and day dictated.

When she knew her class and NROTC schedule, she was to fax it to Fales' office. Dillon told her that in her errand-running duties, she'd receive another ID, one that indicated she worked for ONI. Lenore was also to make sure the NROTC Battalion understood she was to keep her weekends free for Kostowe and the Joy Redux.