Author Archives: jackballs57

It was a normal weekend for a change. The last five of the Rapid Response group went home Thursday. They were coming back Sunday night and were then flying to Bogota. The return would bring back the five there. The … Continue reading →

I managed to quietly leave without getting tangled with the cluster of reporters massed at the administration building, waiting for some official word. As I drove south through C-ville over the last bridge leaving town, there must have been every … Continue reading →

When I walked into the meeting room I was pleasantly surprised to see the boys in carry seats on one of the tables, sound asleep. Our meeting would be a quiet one, for sure. I listened to Marcy’s updated finance … Continue reading →

I held the boys a little tighter when it was my turn to hold them. I wondered just what kind of world they were going to be growing up in. To me it looked bad; the economy was getting worse … Continue reading →

“In January 2014 in the town of Sidi-Slimane, Morocco, a wanna-be jihadist named Haamid Muhammad put out a call for fighters against the great Satan – the United States – from a local internet café. Sidi-Slimane is 50 km north … Continue reading →

The extra hours spent dealing with the wreck and an unusually long joint question and answer session put us a lot later returning home than I wanted. What I had hoped to be a 16 hour trip turned into a … Continue reading →

The flight continued on without incident. We were 20 minutes from landing when I received a text from Brooke Haywood clerk EIT team, “Success, Robert and Burt got the break they were looking for today – you will be surprised.” … Continue reading →

The training of the response team continued until Friday afternoon, including a revised hostage rescue. Hanna and her cameraman participated again. Not because it was newsworthy but because I wanted video to critique the training and to document the training … Continue reading →

While the babies slept and Jenny napped and we watched over them with watchful eyes, I read 200 pages of gobble-de-gook and nothing. An orchestra could have not been better played or a play better choreographed. I hoped the next … Continue reading →

We had an excited conversation on the way home about having babies in the house. Vicky and Ching Lee were making list of the things we needed to do tomorrow to bring the boys home. That was so easy to … Continue reading →