John Ringo - Islands of Rage and Hope

“Perhaps spring bud, then,” Hamilton said.

“Are we actually having this conversation, sir?” Faith asked.

“Not anymore,” Hamilton said. “More important item. I’ve convinced Squadron that Gunnery Sergeant Sands is more valuable to us than to Guantanamo.”

“Oorah, sir,” Faith said.

“Oorah, indeed, Lieutenant,” Hamilton said. “So he and the captain are on their way down. The captain wishes to talk directly to our astral visitors, and the gunnery sergeant will take over as platoon sergeant as well as running training. Issues?”

“No, sir,” Faith said, a slight tone of surprise in her voice. “Looking forward to it, sir. NCOs handle training, sir. That’s how it’s supposed to be as I understand things, sir.”

“I understand that you ran the training of the Iwo Marines, Lieutenant,” Hamilton said.

“That was before the gunny was back on his feet, sir,” Faith said. “And I wasn’t an officer then, sir. And it was showing them the difference between regular clearance and zombie clearance, sir. NCOs handle training, sir.”

“Very well,” Hamilton said, ticking off an item on his checklist. “When the gunnery sergeant gets here he will coordinate training for all Marine personnel as well as Navy Landing forces with the appropriate senior NCOs on the Navy side. Once training is complete, or as complete as we can make it given time constraints, we will consider doing a night sweep as further supplemental training.”

“If I may add, sir?” Faith said.

“Yes?”

“There are sure to be some liners tied up over in St. Martin, sir,” Faith said. “No training like crawling around in the bowels of a ship, sir.”

“They also take a good bit of time to clear, Lieutenant,” Hamilton said. “And we are already well over our planned time for this sweep.”

“Yes, sir,” Faith said. “Permission to ask when the gunnery sergeant will arrive, sir?”

“They’re supposed to be arriving this evening,” Hamilton said. “Apparently they left Gitmo in your father’s fast boat, then sent the message. If I’d had more warning I’d have had everyone do a nice GI party.”

“Yes, sir,” Faith said.

“As it is, we will have a greeting party,” Hamilton said. “Go get with Staff Sergeant Barnard and have her ensure the greeting party is prepared. I’ll have Sergeant Major Barney do the same on the Navy side.”

“Yes, sir,” Faith said.

“And that’s it,” Hamilton said. “We’re on short time. Roll it, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir,” Faith said.

“Welcome aboard, sir!” Hamilton boomed, saluting Captain Smith.

“Thank you, Colonel,” Smith said, returning the salute, then saluting the colors. “Very nice turn-out.”

There was a line of sailors and Marines in surprisingly neat uniforms lined up to greet the arriving Commander Atlantic Fleet.

“Thank you, sir,” Hamilton said, returning the gunnery sergeant’s salute. “Pleasure to have you aboard, Gunnery Sergeant Sands.”

“Thank you, sir,” Sands said, running a gimlet eye over the Marine guard. He didn’t look all that pleased. “Looking forward to joining your force, sir.”

“Shall we repair below, sir?” Hamilton asked.

“Of course,” Smith said. “Though, you’ll need to get a working party together. We didn’t just bring ourselves. One of the containers we opened was destined for a hospital in Ghana. It didn’t have much in the way of materials to produce the vaccine but it did have useful medical supplies. So we arrive bearing gifts. What we could fit in the Achille . There’s more on the way via the Pit Stop, which is following us.”

“Yes, sir,” Hamilton said. “Sergeant Major Barney. Manage that.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” the British sergeant major said.

“Get those to Mr. Walker, Sergeant Major,” Smith said. “Now let’s repair below. You lead, Colonel.”

“The materials on the Achille are mostly what Fontana thought Walker would need for a recovering gunshot wound,” Captain Smith said as soon as they were seated in the colonel’s office. “Notably, Keflex. I’m not putting that on you, by the way, Colonel. I didn’t give you time to get trained before you went on the float and the short time your units had together was doing police call. In retrospect, I should have had the gunny run them through combat action training. My mistake. One I’m not prone to repeat.”

“Yes, sir,” Hamilton said. “My man, my failure, sir.”

“Not if you were under other orders, Colonel,” Smith said. “And it touches on one of the main issues I have, both upward and downward, with the current situation.”

“Sir?” Hamilton said.

“In the pre-Plague military, that sort of thing could have been a career killer,” Smith said, taking a sip of the scotch Hamilton had produced. “Just as this might be. It would depend mostly on politics, I suppose. But as with my decision to essentially not give out awards like so many Christmas presents, I’m trying to get both the newly inducted civilians and the professionals to grasp that this is not pre-Plague. The military culture can’t be, exactly, pre-Vietnam in nature. We don’t have the sort of personnel numbers to afford that degree of fatalism. We cannot afford a Somme or a Hamburger Hill. On the other hand, we also do not have an infinite supply of even vaguely trained officers and NCOs, so we can’t kill any career over any fault without it affecting our overall efficiency. That, as much as any reason, is why I’m here. I have already pointed out to the Joint Chiefs that the blue-on-blue was as much my fault as anyone’s and offered to retire in favor of Mr. Walker, whatever or whoever he is.”

“I… don’t see that working, sir,” Hamilton said, frowning. “There are cultural psychology issues…”

“Which is sort of the point, Colonel,” Smith said. “They said the same thing. Nor can I kill your career over it, demote you or something. It wouldn’t be honest and I need you just as the Joint Chiefs need me . In fact, we can’t even get all that down on PFC Curran. We’re that short on Marines. And it was a training failure which falls on us, not the PFC. Now, if he can’t seem to control his fire in the future…”

“He won’t stay a Marine, sir,” the gunnery sergeant growled.

“And where are we to get a replacement, Gunny?” Smith asked. “But that is probably the way to go. I leave it up to you two. The subject is closed except to say that you don’t continue the mission until the gunnery sergeant is satisfied with the small unit tactical training of the Marine Force. We’re going to have to be a bit more lenient with the Naval Landing Forces.”

“They are…honestly about as good as could be expected, sir,” Hamilton said. “Sergeant Major Barney has been taking their training in hand very well. And they’re not used for missions that are…”

“Difficult?” Smith said. “I think you and I both realize that daytime clearance of one of these islands is not difficult by pre-Plague standards, Colonel. Which is another philosophical issue I brought up with the JCS.”

“Sir?” Hamilton said.

“Does your career stretch back to Grenada, Colonel?” Smith said. “No, it wouldn’t, would it?”