Chapter 17

Chuck

A speaker in the room was broadcasting reveille. It had the desired effect, as I swung my foot and stump out of bed. Across from me, Lisa was sitting up, rubbing her eyes. She looked up at me and said, "Old habits are hard to break, aren't they?"

Wanda was trying to pull a pillow over her head, but Lisa gave her a shake and said, "You better get up, or you won't get a shower and breakfast." Lisa looked up at me, "Since you're fast, go do your thing, and I'll go next after I try to wake Sleeping Beauty."

I was in and out, having done my triple S, and dressed in a fresh set of clothes from my underwear out to my unmarked fatigues. I couldn't help wondering how they knew my exact sizes. I was finishing up as the two girls came from the bathroom, dressed, but with damp hair. Lisa turned Wanda around, handed me another brush, and said, "Do me while I do sleepy head."

Wanda was complaining, "What the hell time is it anyway? Didn't we just go to bed?"

I told Wanda, "It's five here and already seven at home, as I know exactly where we are."

Wanda said, "Aren't we in Nevada? Somewhere near the infamous Area 51?"

"That's too famous and is north of Las Vegas, but I'm sure of where we are. Remember, we have a GPS, and we are a little farther east and south of Las Vegas."

Lisa was trying to explain to Wanda, so she said, "The GPS showed us exactly where we were going and where we are now. We're in some restricted air space in northern Arizona. If you think about it, we didn't fly far enough for this to be New Mexico and too long for us to still be in Nevada." Wanda made the observation, "I don't think they want us to know exactly where we are."

I told both of them, "Not true. I'd bet if you asked, they would point out exactly where you are on a map."

I finished brushing Lisa's hair and put the brush into her kit. My shaving bag was already in the footlocker at the end of the bed. Wanda just stared as Lisa put their stuff in the footlocker, made sure their bed was tight, put her cap on, and said, "What do you want to bet we're supposed to push the button."

She reached over and pushed the button, and the door swung open. Another guy in fatigues smiled, said, "Good Morning," and getting our attention, said, "Come with me to the dining room, or as we call it, our chow hall. We have a great gym if any of you want a quick workout after breakfast, but I was told you three would be better served getting right to your training."

We followed the man to the dining room and lined up to get a good breakfast. They had what most guys love, SOS. Thick gravy with a lot of sausage or hamburger over biscuits or toast, with some fried eggs mixed in, is, or was, my favorite. Both girls had a biscuit, a little bacon, and an egg. Lisa did go back for seconds and came back with some SOS with an egg on top this time. Wanda asked what it was and Lisa told her, "SOS, and if you're wondering what the term 'SOS' has to do with hamburger and gravy on toast, it stands for 'shit on a shingle', and got the name during World War II. It does look a little grey and lumpy sometimes."

After we had our second cup of coffee, Mouse and Red Dog came up to us and asked, "Ready for another day in our whirlybirds?"

Our contact also came over and said, "Wanda, I'm going to be working with you today. You're going to have fun learning this stuff."

Lisa and I each took up two more helicopters of foreign origin before we took up one of the U.S. combat aircraft. I was making runs at targets to see if I could hit them with cannon fire. Lisa was a hundred eighty degrees from me, and as we made the rounds, I could see her hitting the targets continuously. She did have the touch.

I was a little better with rockets than she was, but it was easy for me to guide it using the helmet. It was a real point and shoot, or in this case, look, shoot, and stare. Lisa must have kept turning her head to have missed on her first three runs.

Around noon, Red Dog said, "It's past time for lunch. Let's put this baby down and get some food. Just drop it on the platform in the hangar. Both of you are good pilots."

When you set a helicopter down and switch everything off, you have a momentary loss of where you are and what you are doing. You were so busy with both of your hands, feet, and eyes while flying, the inactivity is almost overwhelming. When you step out of the cockpit, you almost stagger, similar to getting off a boat. I suppose your equilibrium does get screwed up with the tight turns, diving up and down, and running at targets.

We did our postflight inspections, followed by briefing the aircraft crew chief. Their professional manner gave you a feeling of comfort and safety.

Lisa and I yakked non-stop through lunch. We were both excited to have done some live fire, along with the experience of flying foreign aircraft. As we wound down while having a cup of coffee, Mouse said to us, "We're a little ahead. Let me rephrase that, we are a lot ahead. We've covered everything we thought it would take two and half days to do. This afternoon, we're going to play that same game we played before. This should be a lot of fun with you two. Remember there is no winner. This is practice. We're going up with cannons and guns equipped with laser targeting devices that will set off cockpit alarms if you're hit. We'll let you switch starts and follows to get both sides of this adventure, same as before. Ready?"

We were in the AH-64 Apache combat aircraft once again, and I noticed that there was no armament loaded such as rockets, when Mouse explained, "You have a forward cannon with a laser beam. This is different than before only in that you control a laser beam. In these helicopters, you have a co-pilot-gunner that sits in the lower seat in front of you. Red Dog and I will be acting as gunners for you both and as an advisory safety backup. You two are doing the flying, evading, and attacking."

As Lisa and Mouse flew out to the range again, he radioed us and said to wait fifteen minutes, then come hunting. As they left the area, I flipped the radar on to watch them. Red Dog said, "I don't think that's allowed."

"Why not, this is simulated combat, right? We have to use every tool to stay alive. See that, they are dropping into the deep hole that I hid in before. This is what I'm going to do. I'm sure they will be using their radar, so we'll criss cross their path to make it look like we're hunting for them. When we get close, I'm going to rev this thing up, pass them, and spin to fire as they lift off. If I wasn't supposed to use the radar, Mouse will tell me. If they have their radar on, which I bet they do, I'll bet they think they defeated ours by dropping into that hole."

I did exactly as I had said. When we were almost over their position, I twisted up the power, flew over them, and did a very tight one eighty, lowering until I was almost at tree top level. Sure enough, Lisa came popping out of there thinking she was going to see our ass end, but instead, she was awash in our laser beam.

Over the radio, she said, "Darn, did you know we were there because it's where you hid before?"

I said, "Think about it. You obviously watched me fly up to your location with your radar. What do you think?"

She said, "You sneak, okay, you hide and I'm going to catch you. We'll go back to the starting point and you leave first."

I figured to use the same technique I used before by getting some terrain between Lisa's radar and me. When we left, we burned all the way to a low mountain with a heavy rock structure. I dropped down on the other side, but continued heading around until I was right on the edge and hovered. We were so tight to the butte that we would blend in with the radar ground clutter, so we watched our radar as Lisa followed our previous heading to the top of the hill, keeping right on the deck. She was planning on surprising me when I popped up to get her.

Instead, as soon as she began her steep ascent while trying to stay in a good offensive position, I swung around, went straight up and kept my nose pointing at her helicopter. My beam did it again.

Lisa said, "You suckered me. That's an old VSTOL fighter technique. I should have thought you might pull something like that. But you haven't ever flown anything like that, what gives?"

Red Dog looked at me and shrugged, so I told Lisa by radio, "I knew you would follow me with your radar, so I stayed concealed until you were at the peak of the hill, concentrating on me popping up at you. The rest was easy."

Mouse radioed, "What do you think, Dog? Want to call it a day? I know it's early, but do you know what else we can do with these two?"

We flew back to the base and put down on the platforms again. Mouse was bemoaning the fact that he didn't get a shot and Lisa was hit twice. The two instructors were telling the crew chiefs about the game until Mouse said to Lisa and me. "You two are the best. I've been doing training flights for six years and I've never had someone hit me twice in one day. I know you were right on him with the radar and lost him over the butte, Lisa, but he obviously knew you would follow him up and waited in a defensive position to nail us. Good flying, both of you," the instructor complimented.

Lisa was still grumbling as we were let out of the cart at the dining hall. The four of us got some coffee and sat down to relax a few minutes. We had been sitting only a minute when Wanda and our contact came in. They got two mugs and came to sit with us. The contact said, "It's too bad you two probably have this evening and tomorrow to fly yet. Wanda has this stuff down and could leave today."

I said, "Well, Mouse said we were done. If you think we really should do some weapons training, we'll stay the night; otherwise we'll be on our way home."

Our contact looked at his watch, "Tell you what, the range officer wanted both of you to review some foreign weapons and for Lisa to do some explosive training and long range explosive rounds with the fifty. We have plenty of time to get that done by five. Let's go."

Wanda came with us as we headed to the range with our contact. The first thing we did was to be shown several types of handguns and machine pistols our enemies use. Some I recognized, some I didn't. We didn't fire for accuracy, but we fired a few rounds from each weapon before going to the next.

An hour later, the range officer was giving Lisa a refresher about explosives and detonators. Next he was directing Lisa on how to fire the fifty at long distances. She fired several rounds before he turned on the wind. It took her a couple of rounds to find center again, but she adjusted and was accurate. He next had Lisa load a single explosive round and lifted the curtain on the same fake car, or at least one similar to one I had shot at before. Lisa fired quickly and the whole target exploded. Lisa let out a whoop, "Damn, that is awesome. I've seen Chuck use this, but it's a rush to see a target go up like that."

The range officer cautioned her, "Remember the result of hitting most anything is a pretty big explosion. Make sure of any collateral activity before you use one of those rounds."

We took all of the weapons that had been fired to the cleaning station and put them back into their original condition. We had some problems breaking some of the foreign weapons down and putting them back together, but the range officer was directing us as we went.

Our contact looked at his watch and said, "It's your choice, you can leave for home right now, stay for supper, or even the night, and leave in the morning."

I looked at the two ladies before saying, "Take us back to our room so we can gather our gear. I think we'll take advantage of the extra time and head home."

The contact used his handheld and gave a couple of orders. "Your personal apparel and items will be on the way to your aircraft and ready by the time you are there. You should retain the uniform you have on now, and we will retain the other set for future visits if you don't have them with you when you are called."

Wanda stood, "Times a wastin'! Let's boogie."

I had to smile at Wanda's enthusiasm to leave. I think Lisa would have stayed another day to play with the unusual helicopters and more time on the range.

Our contact gave us a ride to the main hangar where our G-5 was positioned near the door, waiting for us. While I went over the outside of the aircraft, Lisa went right to work on the cockpit checklist. Wanda was about to enter the aircraft when another cart came up with our gear. She loaded our luggage and found a seat to buckle into.

The contact entered the aircraft and handed Wanda a cell phone. He told her, "Use this to report your observations and if you should need immediate assistance. This unit is similar to Chuck's and Lisa's, but is set up with a different number than your personal cell phone. It has been a pleasure to work with you, Wanda; have a good trip."

As soon as I had the door secured and was buckled up in the cockpit, we spooled the engines to idle and watched the big doors of the hangar slide open. They only opened to just slightly wider than our wingspan, but since we were so close to the door, it would have been difficult to touch either side.

As we followed the lead truck with the flashing "Follow Me" sign, our radio announced, "Eyes, Mother."

"Eyes."

"Check your transponder and keep it shut down until you hit the Flagstaff VOR. Stay below five thousand feet until that time, then file whatever flight plan you want to initiate. You're cleared to runway three zero, altimeter two niner eight five, wind three four zero degrees at 10 knots, surface temp, 8,4 F, 2, niner C. Good flying."

We paused at the end of the runway to spool power up before racing down the stretch of tan colored pavement to leap into the air. I suddenly realized something and would talk to the man about runway color next time we were alone together. This runway was as difficult to see as the one on the island.

As soon as we leveled off, Wanda was in the jump seat behind us in the cockpit. She said, "Now that was an experience. Those people are very unique, but extremely nice. It's strange the way they all wear the exact same uniform with no names or insignia sewn on. Our contact wouldn't even let me address him by name. He said to call him 'Teach' if I needed to address him. I asked him why you had the call sign 'Eyes', but Lisa and I didn't have one. He said that Lisa has had a call sign for a long time, but he didn't say what it was."

Lisa actually blushed as she lightly held the yoke in her hands. Wanda said, "Okay, Lisa, give. What's your call sign?"

With a slight smile, Lisa said, "Froggie."

I looked at her sideways, curious as to how she had been labeled that. She answered, but with her mouth twisting a bit, and said, "When I began my flight training in a VSTOL Harrier, I kept jumping up and down in my attempt at a smooth, steady vertical lift off. After two days of almost bouncing off and on the landing zone, I thought I was going to be washed out, but the instructors saw something in me and kept on. My third morning of training, I came to my locker to put my flight suit on and there was a call sign shoulder patch and a green helmet with 'Froggie' in big letters across the front. You only get one helmet, so I couldn't do anything but stroll out to the briefing room with my green helmet. All of the instructors, duty pilots, and students stood up and applauded, probably because I had enough guts to show my face. Anyway, when I launched that morning, it was perfect. My vertical landings after that were so soft I could have put down on an egg, but the handle stuck. From that point forward, I was 'Froggie'."

You could tell Lisa might have been a little embarrassed about the handle, but I could see the satisfaction she had from being able to handle the joking, and kept the handle as a badge of honor.

Lisa smiled, "It's better than the guy they nicknamed 'Skunk'. He earned that name one morning when he lost control of his vertical ascent and wandered about two hundred yards until his jet blast blew into a sewage sludge pond on the other side of a blast fence. That was one hell of a stink. His ground crew was holding their nose when he came down. His IP made him help wash his bird down. While he was washing his aircraft, his instructor had Skunk painted on the guy's helmet."

If the tailwind continued, we should be home in a little over three hours. Now was the time we needed the Citation, as it would go a hundred knots faster. I had Wanda use the sat phone to ask the family to save some food for us because we would be later than six. Wanda made the suggestion, "What do you think? Should we wear these fatigues, or should we change into our other clothes?"

Lisa said, "We probably should change into our civvies, so we don't have to answer questions we can't. You go first, Chuck, since you have to swap footwear on your leg." To Wanda, she said, "You sure aren't hostess material; we've been in the air for over an hour and still don't have any coffee. Get on the stick, Sweet Thing, I need my caffeine."

We were all dressed in our regular clothes when we gave the G-5 to the night crew. We made our log entries and headed to the patio.

Steve

I had enjoyed today, as Sue, Mercy, and I went up to Atlanta to check out the distributorship there and to give Sue's plant a once over. We were both happy with the condition of our two enterprises, and flew home contented. Sue said, "You know we could use one or more fast jets like Chuck's. Jimmy told me that, with the recent mods, the ten is almost as efficient as the little Citations, and a lot cheaper than an early Gulfstream. Why don't you have Chuck look into leasing a couple more so that when you and I want to check out our distributorships, we can do it with speed? Chuck has his Citation fixed up inside so it's not a sterile passenger aircraft, but a luxury ride. He can only carry eight now, but he does it with a lot of room and comfort. We could do that. If the charter company needs a twelve passenger fast jet, we can have one without cabin modifications."

"Sue," I told her, "I'll talk to Chuck to see what he thinks, but he's in a 'help other people' mode right now. He may not go for something as ostentatious as a couple Citation Xs."

Henry heard our conversation and said, "Don't let Tiny hear you, or you'll be up to your ears in those airplanes. He's been pricing every kind of aircraft imaginable. You would think he was a pro at aircraft values."

I told my brother, "He may be by now, Henry. You know how Tiny is, he researches every aspect of something he's interested in until he has his answer. He and Ben make a hell of a pair, believe me. You're just as bad, since you look for ways I could get screwed, and kill anything that could possibly hurt me or my family."

"Isn't that my job, Steve?"

"It is, Henry, but don't shut out an opportunity that could be good for us. Let me look at it, feel it, taste it, then we'll talk about it and make sure if it's a deal or no deal."

Nancy was sitting next to Henry and said, "Just like the TV show with that comedian with the earrings, Deal or No Deal. You two are hilarious. You watch out for each other like a couple of old ladies. Relax, Guys, you two are always on top of everything."

I told Henry, "Chuck should be landing anytime now; I'm going to call out to the airpark so I know when to get their supper warmed up. Those pork chops were delicious tonight."

The night charter desk girl told me Chuck's G-5 was parking at the hangar as we spoke. I told her to tell them that supper was waiting for them.

I walked over to Chuck's family, who were all gathered at one table discussing something only they knew about, and said, "Chuck, Lisa, and Wanda just landed and will be here in fifteen to twenty. You should warm up their supper."

That sent them into a frenzy. The Fab Five, along with Gina, Julie, the two Chinese girls, big Tina, Lena, and Maria were in the kitchen, warming up the oven and their food. It looked as if Chuck was going to be fed something special, as they were cutting wedges of a Dutch apple pie for their dessert. I wondered what I could do to barter for a piece of that.

When the three travelers arrived, Wanda went to John for her hug, while Chuck and Lisa were swarmed by their family, including Gina's two kids. Even Peaches and her two girls were right there greeting the pair. That had to make them know where home was.

I watched as they finished greeting everyone and came to the bar to make a drink. They made the usual and sighed after a healthy drink; not a sip, but a drink of their tall glass of Beefeaters. Everyone welcomed the couple back, and they gravitated to the table where food was being put out.

Sue and I sat at Chuck's family table, where John was sitting next to Wanda, and he said to Chuck, "I'm just warning you, Chuck, there is a conspiracy to get a couple of more Citation Xs for the charter service. I think Steve and Sue want one, and I know we can keep a couple in the air every day. I'm just giving you a heads up on this, in case you don't think you can handle a couple more twenty million dollar aircraft."

Chuck smiled, "Sure, why not. I have at least a half dozen of these debit cards left. I might as well give the charter company a couple to buy the aircraft they need. The only thing is that I'll now have to pay taxes on what I spend here. I guess I'll get Marty and Moleson to earn their keep."

Lisa said to Chuck, "You know that you may be leaving yourself wide open if you give them too much at one time. How about just one of those cards if it's for the amount that I think it is? Get Ben to help you with the taxes before you decide. John is talking about two or three, not four or five."

Chuck gave Lisa a hug and said, "You're right. I'll make arrangements for two or three more of the tens and have Ben work out the taxes on one card. I'm like a kid with his first paycheck; these cards are burning a hole in my pocket."

Lisa laughed, "You, the original miser of all time, have money burning a hole in your pocket?"

Chuck said defensively, "I resent that. When have I ever denied any of my family anything?"

Lisa blushed, "I'm just kidding. You are overly generous, and the girls are still trying to figure out how much was on the cards you gave them. I'm sure Brandy has it figured out, but the others are merrily having a good time at Wal-Mart."

Chuck gave Lisa another hug and told her, "That's what they're for; to give them the ability to get whatever is necessary for the babies and themselves."

The ladies around us were trying unsuccessfully to hear our whispered conversation, until Tiani finally said, "Will you two quit whispering. You know we're in this family too."

Julie said, "Don't pick on them; you know they have to have some business secrets."

Chuck looked up at all of the inquisitive faces, "All of you are precious to me. Every one of you is important to me. I may sometimes have business stuff that would be better spoken out of the house. Some of what Lisa and I do can never come into the house. Please, Ladies, be patient with me. I'll keep you aware of everything I can."

There were blushes and smiles surrounding Lisa and Chuck. John leaned down to talk to Chuck again; "So what do you think, do you want a couple more Tens?"

"Sure, let's get three," Chuck smiled, "See what you and Tiny can do. Let's get Jimmy over here so I can tell him how I want them tricked out."

Jimmy was summoned by Tiani and came over to sit with us. Chuck told Jimmy, "We're going to get a couple or three more Citation Xs for charter and our personal use. Steve and Sue need one, and I need mine. I want two to be fixed up like mine, and one to be the standard twelve passengers for chartering, the same as we have some of the G-5s for straight passenger service."

Jimmy smiled, "Bring 'em on, Boss. I'll do all of the new economy mods and get the coach guys out here to trick them out inside and get Shawna and Hank to give them the S&S treatment or should I say the CS&S treatment. I think we charter the Lears because we have the painted up monstrosities we have. The two new Learjets we just received from the camel jockeys will be painted by the end of the week."

Jimmy looked at Chuck and asked, "What do you think about painting up at least one of the 737s with the various themes similar to the King Airs and Lears?"

Chuck asked, "Do you think a 737 should be painted like that? Isn't that a little beneath an aircraft like that?"

Jimmy told him, "Naw, companies are painting them up all the time. You might not get a lot of the neat cartoons like the smaller aircraft, but you will have one hell of a neat plane. Try one, if you like it, keep painting them."

Chuck smiled, "Good advice, Jimmy. Are you doing okay with personnel? Is everything working out?"

"Perfect, Chuck. There is another thing I need to take up for you and Steve to consider. I think we should move some units around. How about moving the helicopter group behind the maintenance and existing helicopter hangar, and have them use the two hangars there. I need to expand my maintenance area to accommodate the new big aircraft. We still get a lot of contract maintenance from some of the other instruction services, in addition to all of our own. I'm even leasing my own airplane out to our instruction group as they need them right now."

Chuck nodded to me, so I turned to John, "Look into buying the Citation Xs. At the same time, make a decision about getting more training and instructional aircraft, okay?'

John nodded and said, "You know Tiny will want to be the one that will do the bargaining. The man feels he has become an expert on aircraft values. All he needs is a good technical evaluation and you'll have a deal or multiple deals. Trust me; Tiny is salivating, wanting to buy more aircraft."

I had to laugh at that, as Tiny wasn't Chuck's guy. He was my guy. The lines between the companies were becoming more blurred with each business day.

As we finished our Dutch apple pie, and the ladies were all congratulated for such a great supper, I was still sitting with them, so I told Chuck to hold that thought as I wanted a beer refill. Lisa made the gesture that she wanted one too, so I took out three frosted mugs and pulled some beers.

When I sat back down next to Chuck, I asked, "What do you really think about buying three more Citations? That's a pretty big chunk of change, isn't it?"

"Hell, I'm sure I have it, plus what we just brought back from Vegas. You know I've funded everything I'm involved with at this moment, so let's go see how much I have left on my debit cards."

I shook my head at Chuck about letting others hear how much he was carrying around with him. I figured he may have close to a billion dollars still on him right now, maybe more. He didn't need to advertise it. Chuck saw my concern and nodded to me. Chuck looked up to me, "Thanks, Steve, it's great to know you're always there for me and mine. I have great comfort knowing that."

Lisa caught what Chuck said, but none of the other girls heard except for Julie, who was looking at Chuck and me with a very penetrating, inquisitive, look.

It was bedtime for a lot of the kids by now. People began leaving the patio to put their kids to bed. This was also the usual time that most everyone began going home, leaving the patio with just my family and a few of our close friends.

Tiny, Ruth, Glenda, and my women, except for Mickey, were enjoying a last nightcap. It wasn't necessary, but we spoke in much quieter tones than we did when the patio was full. Tiny asked me, "Are you going to discuss with Chuck what the airpark folks talked about this evening?"

I said, "Do you think I should? I think Chuck is still uneasy about owning so much of the operation. His new office out there should help him get more comfortable and give him the opportunity to interact with the folks at the airpark."

"You're probably right, Steve. I keep forgetting that he is not Steve Sharp. You're always head down and straight ahead, but Chuck is still hesitant about business stuff. But then, he's jumping into the island resorts with both feet. Do you think he's doing that because it was his idea, or because he feels this will benefit so many?"

I told Tiny, "Probably both. Chuck is still a lawman and wants to be one. He can separate what is going on down there, but this is where he lives. He's been able to do the veteran stuff, but he always just directs what he wants, and lets those who are able to do it get the job done. He needs to learn that's how all good businesses are run. He'll get it soon, and go nuts trying to improve everything around him."

Juanita said, "It's too bad Chuck can't do something for my Cuba. I'm a U.S. citizen now, but I still think of how a man like Chuck could help the people there be better. Chuck has that something that makes me feel safe. It's like when Chuck and Lisa are near, nothing can harm you."

I smiled at Juanita, "I feel the same way, Nita. We all love Chuck, Lisa, and his whole family, and know he is around to watch over us. We have to watch over him too. He's still young, and in a lot of ways, still not knowledgeable of the ways of the world. Have someone break a federal law and he's right there, but he doesn't nitpick the small stuff. Come on, I think it's time for bed."