8 October @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2183: deviation

Image by Thomas Staub from Pixabay

“Working with my little Ludlow cousins is somewhat like being the next commander to come in after a beloved commander is out on injury – which is like being the substitute teacher in a classroom, but the class is 'Kill or Be Killed,' and getting to the end of the school year is by no means guaranteed. Of course, working with my seven little cousins is not that serious, but they don't know that – so, as things generally go, some of them get to know you and are willing to work with you, others are just putting up with you, and others hate any kind of deviation and you are the deviation.”

“And the fun thing about little kids,” said General F.L. Weiss, “is that they can be any of those things in any given moment.”

“Exactly, sir,” Col. H.F. Lee said to his former commander who had just called to check on him.

Gen. Weiss and Col. Lee had a unique relationship … deep respect and loyalty forged in the most terrible moment of both men's military lives. The general had observed several of his colleagues behaving strangely after a mission known as Five Bright Nine because they were surprised that Col. Lee got himself and four of his men back alive. Unit 5 had indeed been ambushed by eighty men, so on its face, this was surprising – equally surprising was that none of those eighty men had survived. But this was within the reach of Col. Lee and his favorite adjutant, Maj. Ironwood Hamilton – both men had green berets and long tabs already, and for good reason.

Still, Gen. Weiss had suspected that something else was wrong with this reaction from his colleagues. They looked like haunted men after that … and Gen. Weiss soon found out what Col. Lee was about to find out: those men wanted Col. Lee dead. It was a betrayal at the highest levels for very complex reasons, the most understandable of which was sheer human jealousy, but also: Col. Lee was incorruptable. He had no patience for good old boy games, caring far more about the safety of the army's men than his own comfort or the pecadillos of his peers and superiors in rank. He was on track to be a very young general, and would have decades at that rank to get things the way he generally insisted they be.

Gen. Weiss knew Col. Lee -- a man who had devised the death of 80 men in five minutes to save his men, an elite killer even by Special Forces standards -- was literally going to go ballistic when he found out what had happened, and the resulting cataclysm had the possibility of going far beyond that division of Special Forces.

So, the general thought fast and deep – he knew that there were some cases involving Special Forces officers coming up in the next year for the Judge Advocate General service to handle, so he suggested that Special Forces officers ought to be invited to pass the bar and make a mid-career move in the name of justice. His friends in JAG thought it was a good idea … and so he got the word quietly to Maj. Hamilton, who he knew was going to have to talk Col. Lee out of killing every single person who had betrayed him and their unit. The general also set up a trap for Col. Lee in case that didn't work … but part of the reason it was not necessary was because the colonel knew the general as well.

“I knew you weren't corrupt, I knew you weren't involved, and I also knew you would have to stop me,” Col. Lee said. “You might not have succeeded in that, but I didn't want to hurt you, or the whole army … so I let Maj. Hamilton talk me back into my right mind and into JAG with him.”

All the rest was details ... years of gritty, terrible details of destroying the traitors in the ranks from their perspective positions. Much later, when Col. Lee had his second great crisis when he discovered the diagnosis the Army had kept from him from age 18 to age 44, Gen. Weiss who had the same diagnosis had stepped in and mentored the younger officer ... and preserved the colonel's once and future career instead of the younger officer utterly flipping off and flipping out on the entire army.

Gen. Weiss knew the Army intended to eventually recall the colonel as a general because the gaps Five Bright Nine had made meant there were not enough men with specialized skills and training available to command at that level. He also knew how loathe Col. Lee was to carry the title his ancestral uncle had once carried while also bearing such a strong physical resemblance. So, again, Gen. Weiss stood in the gap.

"Your record says what it says, Colonel. The Army is loathe to let a man like you go young ... but the other side of your mental health record that was kept from you also says that if you say to me, 'General, I can't' when the time comes for your recall, I'll back you up, Colonel. I'll find a way to shake you loose from all this, because we don't lie to each other, and if you can't, Colonel, then you won't have to."

Because of this, Col. Lee had retired from active duty to the Army Reserve instead of full retirement ... and had quietly stayed past his intended cutoff date of the end of 2019. Such was the respect the general had inspired in the general-to-be ... and such a friendship, although they never spoke of the matter as such. Since both were living with bipolar disorder, they both had a reason to check in with each other as much as time zones permitted.

“Oh – I'm in Berlin and it's late afternoon, but I forgot it's almost church time where you are – I'll check in with you later this week, Colonel.”

“Certainly, General. Thank you for calling, as always. Is there a day for me to call you and return the check-in that is convenient?”

"I would love a midnight bedtime story tonight about how you are going to catch that rat Zeus Vann -- him and that too-tight and too-thin ski mask with that Habsburg chin!"

"Oh, you saw that too -- I'm picking him up yet again this evening, and as far that bedtime story, your wish is my command, General. I'll call you at midnight Berlin time."