Chapter 281

Monday came too fast for me, but it was here. Flights were leaving Minnesota at seven; the planes had left Morton Field at 5 to pick up the second group of employees for training. Another plane was returning from Michigan with the last of that group to be trained here.

Any more training of those groups would be done at the respective colleges on site. Most of the training left was for the part time people.

At nine several people from the agency and the state department, plus the FBI came in as a group and requested the use of a private office. They were going to begin the top level investigations of JBG employees who were going to have access to any related documents.

Marcy had generated a list of those employees. Luckily the agency approved pilots or any of our mechanics who needed this treatment. Since our talk on Friday the scope had been narrowed down.

Marcy's list now included, Marcy, Jeanna, Lorrie, Vicky, Ching Lee, Jason, Roseanne Cindy, and Mark, two of Marcy's clerks and my two clerks and me. The investigators promised to have all but the in-depth background finished by the end of the week. I was to be the last one to go through the polygraph and interview process.

True to their word the, State department was finished Friday morning as I was wired up for the polygraph. I spent four hours being interviewed while wired up.

We trained very hard for two weeks; I put in 16 hours a day' for those two weeks in the gym. For all my hard work, I started losing weight again. I increased my protein intake but that did not help, I was working out so hard.

In between the training sessions there were conference calls and updates from everywhere. Good news came from a few places. Dan called to say that Sonny had been discharged and was in good spirits. His football team had won the Thanksgiving Day game by a field goal in overtime without him and the team had been invited to a bowl game. The old doctor promised he would be able to play in it.

The MAAR manager at Cherokee County airport had sent Jason an envelope of receipts and the leftover cash that Jason had given Sonny's dad.

Sonny's mother has included a two page heart-warming thank you letter for all the help and assistance we had provided them.

Sam and Artie had been interviewed by all the agencies. Curtis Warren supplied an attorney to be with them through the process.

The second week of December had come to an end and training was over. All the employees were back to their respective colleges. I had a new Security Director and a second in command at each site.

East Coast Security was more than fifty percent completed with the camera and equipment installation. Marcy had the complete office package delivered to both sites. The new people had plenty to keep them busy until the students returned.

Between Christmas and New Years Day both sites would be paid a visit/inspection so things could be tweaked before students arrived. I had not decided if additional help was going to be sent there to help with all the new ID cards to be issued.

On the 15th of December the State department was satisfied with all the security checks and investigations they had done. The State Department then issued a preliminary letter of intent to award JBG the contract. That meant that it was a done deal except for official signatures.

With that in hand Lorrie purchased 6 Bell 407 TS low hours choppers we needed for the contract. Lorrie contracted with Bell to inspect the choppers at Morton Field before we would make final payment on them. It was the owner's responsibilities to have them there on December 21 for the inspection.

A helicopter is a piece of equipment that is designed to self destruct. It simply shakes it self to death one hour at a time and requires a host of continuous inspections to find loose, missing parts and structural cracks from the vibration.

On the 17 of December six Blackhawks were posted on the government site. JBG bought all six sight unseen with Frank's recommendation. We paid 15% of the original cost.

All six were at a marine base in North Carolina. We had four days to fly them out to Morton field. Luckily the ex-Air Force pilots we had hired with the last group had time in choppers. The pilots were being flown down in the morning to fly them back.