Chapter 411

All of us were at the office early; the boys decided they were hungry half an hour early this morning and let the house know it. Once fed and burped, they went back to sleep. They were now in Jenny’s office resting in their carriers.

I looked to make sure all the tickets had been purchased for the group on Monday’s flight to Africa and confirmed they were expected. This group was filling the manpower requirements at existing embassies that had choppers and Suburbans. Next week’s group of 80 would complete that part of the contract. That would be the last small group of trainees.

After that they would be big groups - 120 and larger - depending how fast they adapted and grasped the training.

Everything looked good for that part of our business for today as I closed out of the computer program.

At the Monday afternoon meeting - after I found out for sure what the Iowa Guard was going to do - Lorrie and I would plan the first flight for the C5.

Marcy, Lorrie and Vicky had spent time yesterday finding space to keep the choppers and Suburbans in at the airports we had picked as centralized locations, until they could be moved around by the C130s.

JBG was now the proud lease holder of 5 hangers in some not so savory places in Africa. At least they were at rather large airports, a requirement necessitated by the C5. The runway had to big and thick enough to hold the heavy beast.

Jack had helped Lorrie verify that those airports could land a plane that large.

Then I went back to the e-mails that I always seemed to be behind on. I was surprised to see an e-mail from Roger Gifford, president of New England Pharmaceuticals. It had been so long I had forgotten I had even sent the e-mail to him.

Dear Ambassador Jones,

I am terribly sorry to be so slow in getting back to you but your request had to go through channels before it was sent to the executive board. The board approved your request yesterday.

I am writing this e-mail to inquire if you could supply a list of additional drugs and medicines the DWOB may need at Nimule to include with the shipment.

It will take about 3 weeks for us complete and acquire the necessary federal approvals to ship the meds to you. We will need a US doctor’s ID number for the paperwork. I assume you have a doctor who you have been using for this purpose. Please respond as soon as possible with the numbers. With the approvals, we can kick this in high gear.

R. Gifford

I called Ambassador Morrison; it was afternoon in Kampala. I asked him to call Dr Palermo and get an updated needs list. I would be back in the area in four or five weeks and that I had a promise of more meds for them.

Then I had a thought; I wondered if the Advanced Academics School would allow Rachael to go on a week long field trip. Then I thought about the two from KCC - Robin Parsons and Phil Jameson. I would see the two of them on Monday.

I had an email address for Rachael and sent her one saying to have her Mom and Dad call my cell ASAP. I would see Robin and Phil on Monday.

I had just finished up when Frank called to say he would meet me at Morton Field in 30 minutes. All of us went; the girls wanted to look at the inside of the plane again.

When we arrived I was surprised that the people we had sent to pick up the plane were working on Saturday. They had unloaded all the spare parts and equipment the Air Force had sent with the plane and were busy cleaning up the inside of the plane.

Adam was giving us a tour of the plane - now that we could walk around inside - when Frank walked up the ramp.

“Sure is a beauty. How long are you going to have it?”

“Long enough to get all the equipment to Africa for the embassy contracts,” I replied.

“In between those flights can you do a couple for the agency? We can use the Air Force but they ask too many questions for certain things we need to move and where they are going. We have some things in the works I would rather they not know about that are too big for the C130,” Frank said. Then he added, “And then we still have to pay the premium price after all the BS.”