Bjjonesmylife. Book 2

After listening to the arrangements between Chief Grimes and Robbie, I went back to my quest to find anyone associated with the C17. I finally walked the hall to the tower and went to the top in the elevator.

There were two agency personnel operating the tower today. Ryan Emory had been through the training program and a couple refreshers. The other man I saw in the restaurant with the spook crowd several times; he was always in white shop coveralls. I took him to be some kind of technician.

“Ryan, what can you tell me about the C17 on the tarmac?” I asked.

“Not as much as I would like to because I know very little. The pilot and crew was a transfer crew delivering the aircraft from Boeing to Dover AFB. Because Dover was still snowed in last night the crew diverted here. The reputation of the airport and the national coverage of Atlantic 709 has gone far and wide.”

“That is the last C17 off the Boeing assembly line before it was shut down in December. It was supposedly built for one of our allies with the standard prepayment schedule that Boeing requires. They were supposed to take delivery of it as soon as it rolled off the line in December. After several rescheduling, it was to finally happen on Monday at DAFB. Now after the plane landed, the ownership transfer has been canceled again.”

“The Boeing transfer crew is pissed. They have to fly the plane back to California or Seattle then fly it back to Dover again when the issues get settled, unless you lease them a tie-down spot. DAFB will not allow Boeing to store the plane on base. To complicate matters, they do not want it stored at a major airport for obvious reasons. The sales and transfer pilots are to be here very soon to talk to someone,” Ryan said.

“I will give Lorrie and Marcy a heads up so they can as least have a ballpark price for them, if it goes that way,” I replied.

“Boss, just for your information that thing will use most of a full load of fuel – 35,000 gallons – to fly back to California or Seattle. That’s 70,000 gallons to make the round trip to get it back Dover at 4 bucks a gallon – that’s $280,000. Marcie may want to faction that into the cost of a parking spot for a month,” Ryan stated.

“Thanks Ryan, I’ll pass it on,” I replied.

I closed Lorrie’s office door and filled both of them in on the conversation I had with Ryan, including the part about fuel. Lorrie started researching tie down fees for an aircraft that size. When she had finished I asked how much jet A fuel we had in the fuel farm, just to satisfy my curiosity.

“The tanks were filled before the storm. If the snow does not interfere with the vacationers, we have 25 flights to Florida Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Six of those are with the Bombardiers. All of the vacation houses are rented included the extra ones we leased. Everybody wants away from the snow and cold,” Lorrie replied.

The loud speaker called passengers to board Atlantic 709. All the baggage had been through the TSA scanners and now the passengers were going through it with the carry-on baggage and the body scanners.

The equipment had been installed when the terminal was built and was used very little. This was the first real test and use. DHS was finally getting a return on the salaries of four full time employees assigned at Morton Field.

But that was going to change very soon – in fact as soon as the local vacation season started. The Chesapeake Commuter Service was going to be a reality this summer after month’s talks and potential contracts, and finally contracts. The official county stop was Morton Field.

The service was going to run daily flights from BWI, Morton Field to Ocean City Municipal Airport. CCS had even entered in talks with Lorrie about contracting one or both Bombardiers on Friday, Saturday and Sundays if their ventures were positively received locally.

Lorrie, Marcy, Ching Lee, Vicky and I went to stand by the big heavily reinforced windows by the tarmac door to watch the boarding. Hanna was outside interviewing the passengers as they headed to the stairs to board.

When she was in between people willing to talk, I tapped on the window to get her attention. When she looked my way, I gave her a thumb’s up. I was rewarded with the mouthed word, “Chicken,” as she wrapped her arms around her and shook indicating that she was very cold.

I returned the gesture by indicating that I was hot and wiped the sweat from my forehead. A minute later she was inside with us. “Yep, this is the place to be,” she replied as she began interviewing again.

The last persons in line were the pilot and the copilot. The pilot and copilot both gave Lorrie their business cards, Lorrie handed one of hers back with, “If you think about a change sometime, give us a call,” she replied.

After a hearty round of handshakes and a thank you, they were on their way to the plane and the stairs was moved away. The plane made the turns to the runway and did engine run ups and equipment checks.

The control tower cleared them for take off. Then it was full power and black smoke as Atlantic 709 roared down the runway and into the air, headed for Kennedy once again. The pilot asked for and received permission for a runway fly over. Atlantic 709 dipping the wings at all of us standing on the tarmac was on national news.

With the exception of the C17 now parked beside the super hangar and huge piles of snow around the unheated runways, things were back to normal at Morton field.

There was one more thing to deal with then we were all going back to AAGH to see Jenny and the boys.

The C17 transfer crew and the sales team – for a total of 10 people – were in the restaurant having coffee. A conference call to Boeing was on agenda. Thirty minutes later they were told to rent cars to go to BWI and then wait for a flight back to Seattle.

The pilot replied, “There are only limited flights out of BWI for two days. Baltimore received a foot more snow than they did here.”

Lorrie picked up on that quickly, “I can do a charter flight to Seattle. If there is a pilot in the lounge, the flight can leave as soon as the plane is fueled. I will have to charge for round trip though.”

“What will they be flying in?” the voice on the phone asked.

“Gulfstream 5,” Lorrie replied.

“Ten spur of the moment one way tickets will cost $15000.00. Plus another round of hotel rooms for two days, meals and hookers. OK, fly them here, put it on your credit card Derrick,” the voice said and the line went click.

A quick call to the pilots lounge for 2 pilots for a round robin to Seattle was quickly answered.

Forty minutes later the G5 was doing run up checks at the end of the runway before takeoff.

The C17 was staying for 6 weeks at $10,000 a week for tie down and security. Lorrie sent a couple mechanics to put yellow security tape on traffic comes around it.

The five of us went home to shower and change and then we were going to see Jenny. I had hoped that my Mom and Lisa had allowed Jenny to get some rest.

There was still plenty of snow and slush on the road, but traffic was moving. It was the typical eastern shore snow storm. After the big snows the weather always warmed up into the 40s and 50s to do a fast melt and make things a general muck. The trip still took an hour.

When we arrived Jason was there with Lisa. Jake and Mindy were in the hall looking thru the nursery window at the boys. The Governor and the first Lady were in the room with Jenny, Jason and Lisa. It was a warm reunion with Jenny’s task force boss. We had met and had been in some meetings and fancy dinners some time ago. He remembered all of us and always treated us as extended family.

After the governor left little Jacob and Robert were brought in. It was feeding time and they were hungry little boys. Naturally there were plenty of pictures taken. The best one was when they both had a nipple looking at each other and were holding hands.

They had been cramped together for so long and now with the freedom to move they still wanted to touch each other; everyone thought it was so cute.

After feeding and burping all of us got to hold the babies; something I as well as the rest of the girls had been looking forward to for months.

Dr. Peterson made her rounds while we were there. The good doctor gave us some tips and special care the babies needed. The best news was that after tomorrow’s feeding and checking on the babies, Jenny could come home!

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Jenny was moved to a private room after she rested for a few minutes and the doctors finished with everything. Then the picture taking started, all of us with Jenny and the babies and then the grandparents holding the babies and all of us holding the babies.

Jake and Mindy were both beaming as they had their pictures taken holding the boys. Jake was often wiping tears.

Then it was time to feed them – we video-taped the first feeding. Some babies have trouble getting the nipple latch, but not those two boys. I even got pictures of both boys nursing at the same time. That was one of the pictures that we sent to the office and to the governor.

Jenny had plenty of help; both mom-moms’ decided they were going to stay with Jenny. Because of having twins, the hospital was going to keep Jenny two days instead of the new insurance company normal of one day.

While the mom’s were working out the schedule of when they would trade off being in the room, Jenny gave one of those big eye rolls at the ceiling. It was all we could do not to breakout in laughter including the grand-pops.

I stepped over to Jenny and whispered, “You know we girls were going to stay with you, don’t you?”

“Yes, but with the storm you all have so much to do – besides they would be hurt if I said no. You are going to get to spend plenty time with me when I get home. I have 12 weeks of maternity leave,” Jenny replied.

Jake and Mindy asked me to step out to the hall. Mindy was the one to start the private conversation. “I’m sure you know that Jake and I want kids and that I have no eggs. We were wondering if you would object to us asking Jenny if she would donate some eggs once she has recovered so we can try to have a child of our own.”

“I have no objection and I pretty sure she would say yes,” I replied. Both of them stepped forward and gave me a double hug.

I went back into Jenny’s room to say goodbye. It was hugs and kisses from us girls and how happy we were. I told Jenny repeatedly how much I loved her and how beautiful our babies were. Most of all that I would be back tonight to say good night.

The roads were much better but still one lane in places with snow in huge piles. The snow had stopped not long after we had arrived at the hospital and now there were snow plows everywhere. We were back at the airport in an hour.

We went to Morton Field because that is where the biggest challenges were. There was a 200 million dollar C17 in front of terminal, Lorrie and I both wanted to know why.

I was not concerned about the F16s after thinking about them. The key was that they went directly into the agency hangar. They had either been somewhere special or being outfitted to go on a special mission somewhere.

The other challenge was the 757 Atlantic 709 and how soon it could be on its merry way.

The girls and I arrived at the right time. The FAA engineers and FAA officials were celebrating the success of the runway deicing system. The part of the airport the system was on had been usable throughout the storm.

An unexpected side benefit was the aircraft setting on the tarmac under the hot water spray were void of snow as well. All those brilliant minds had forgotten that heat rises. Atlantic 709 and the C17 could take off without needing any snow or ice removal.

The flip side was we had four 30,000 gallon propane tanks that were now at 50% full. The system had used 60 thousand gallons. With quantity buying we had paid eighty one cents a gallon.

For a cost of $49,000 to run the system 30 hours, granted we may have saved money by allowing the engineers to play more with the settings. But, and it was an important but, Atlantic 709 was on the ground safe and sound in part because Lorrie gave the order to heat it up.

The other runway tarmac in front of the mega hangar was kept clear by traditional methods and use of the snow melting machines. Those machines used butane that was $1.27 a gallon.

We had a 10,000 gallon tank that was now also 50% full. The melting machines could be operated on either propane or butane by changing the orifices, but butane burned substantially hotter per gallon. More bang for the buck.

Robbie had been running both machines along with plows and two front end loaders. Eight hours after the snow fall ended both runways were fully functional.

Chief Grimes had been in the parking lot as the last of the snow was going through the machine. When he came inside, “Now that is a snow eating machine. I have never seen anything like that. Can I take them to C-ville when you are finished? I came to see if you needed anything else to care for the passengers.”

“I’m not sure yet; the pilot is on a call to his controllers in New York. If they can get a landing slot they will be on their way. All the passengers are either here or on their way here. Can you hang around for a few minutes until we sort it out?” I replied based on a quick conversation with Carson.

When the conversation was done Atlantic 709 had a landing slot for 10 PM tonight. It would take three times longer to load the baggage and passengers than the flight would.

The pilot and crew had their work cut out for them. The sad part – based on the news I saw – was when the passengers arrived at Kennedy they were still in for a long wait in the terminal if they were connecting to another flight. It would be two or three more days before anything looked close to normal.

Lorrie assigned several mechanics to help load the baggage and a couple of clerks to help the crew get everything organized.

At least Atlantic had emailed Carson a passenger list to cross check everyone getting on the plane.

Our refueling crew added another two thousand gallons of jet A to each main tank.

Marcy was in Lorrie’s office working feverishly on the accounting end to bill Atlantic for everything. I stepped in for a minute.

“Don’t forget landing fees. You may have to check BWI to come up with a number. Oh, add room charges for the Horsey house and the Crash pad on to the hotel side of the bill, plus however many meals,” I said.

Marcy looked at me with a scowl but that quickly changed. I could almost see the dollar signs in her eyes.

The next order of business was to find out why the C17 was sitting on the tarmac. I went looking for pilots or crew and found none.

Then I went out to the C17 to look it over for any information. The thing that struck me as odd was there were no US markings, no numbers other than the serial number, and no flags to add to the mystery.

While I was looking it over for any information, one of the gators with a heated cab stopped by, “Boss, congratulations – those are two fine looking little boys. You girls really look happy. Jenny was beaming even though I know she had to be tired. Do you want to take a ride around the Airport and see if you are satisfied with the snow removal?” Robbie asked.

Robbie drove me around the hangars, tarmacs, access roads and back to the fuel farm and propane farm.

“Robbie, you and your guys did a great job. I am really pleased with it. Now I want you to critique the snow event. I want to know what we as management could have done to make your job easier, whether it be more equipment, different equipment, more manpower,” I said.

“The next question I have for you is how long would it take to drive the snow machines into C-ville?” I asked.

“They have a road speed of about 20 miles an hour. C-ville is 6 miles away – twenty minutes to a half hour max,” Robbie replied.

“Would you have six men extra tomorrow who could take them to town and run them for a day as donation to the fire dept for all their help?”

“I should be able to do that,” Robbie replied.

“The chief is in the terminal. Go find him and tell him what needs to happen for it to work,” I replied.

Robbie dropped me back off by the C17. There was still no one to be seen that I thought would be associated with the aircraft. The next step was to go to the tower. Someone up there should have logged the C17 in when it landed and made some arrangements with the crew, especially when it came in during the storm.

Before I made the walk to and up the tower, I watched the reloading of all the baggage back on Atlantic 709. That led to another thought – I need to remind Marcy of labor charges for baggage handling. There were four of our guys loading the baggage and there had been just as many when it was unloaded. That was part of the ticket pricing and we sold no tickets.

As I was walking to Lorrie’s office I met Hanna and her camera man in the main lobby. She was holding one of the pictures of all of us with Jenny and the babies. Hanna gave me a big hug and congratulations, “Give that hug to Jenny when you go back over there tonight.”

“May I add this picture and information to the newscast tonight?” she asked. Then she added. “I’m going to do a live broadcast of 709 leaving. The last few days have been the best ever for the station. The rescue piece is being requested by a lot of other stations,”

“If you let any other stations run it, I want a list of them,” I replied. “Oh – by the way – the snow melting machines are going to C-ville tomorrow. We are donating their services for a day if the details can be worked out. That is if you want another public interest story.”

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Before I went out to start plowing I asked the girls to call the Bay Bridge Transit Authority to see if the bridge was open. I was finished pushing when Jake, Jason and Dad drove in to put the final touches on my job.

Mom, Lisa and Mindy made a bee line for the house to see how Jenny was doing. I wondered the same thing myself; I had been pushing snow for almost an hour. Where the snow was untouched it was to my waist and still snowing. I had one heck of a pile in the back and side yard.

The guys and I went inside to see what the situation was with Jenny. The contractions were 10 minutes apart and strong.

“Just when did the contractions start Jenny?” I asked.

“Yesterday afternoon, I think around 4,” Jenny replied.

“Why didn’t you say something?” I asked.

“With everything that was going on they were just a minor distraction and I thought it was just the boys getting active. I did not realize what they were until my water broke,” Jenny replied.

I did the mental math – four yesterday afternoon, water broke at four today, 12 hours of labor already. Maybe, just maybe, I had under estimated the strength of my dear Jenny.

We had a quick powwow. We were going to leave one plow here. Jake and Dad with Jason would each drive one. We would take two Suburbans to carry all us girls following the two plows.

Vicky had finally gotten through to Bridge Authority; one lane on each bridge was open for emergency vehicles and plows transitioning to the western shore.

301 was no better – barely one lane open with all the drifting snow and the wind was picking up. The state was working hard to keep the road open for utility trucks and those mandatory people that had to get to work. It was 6 AM when we got to the bridge.

The west-bound bridge is a three lane bridge; the plows were moving the snow to the right lane. There were several of those big snow blowers mounted on the front of large front-end loaders, simply blowing the snow over the side of the bridge.

Once over the bridge we made a little better time. There were more plows and more traffic on the road. It only took 45 more minutes to go from the bridge to the Jennifer Road exit where the hospital was.

It had been a two hour trip. Jenny was in the Suburban I was driving and I could hear every contraction getting stronger and more intense. One of the girls had called Dr. Peterson to let her know we were just a mile away.

We followed the sign to the emergency entrance. Dr. Peterson was there with several nurses and a gurney. Jenny was carried to labor and delivery. We had told Dr. Peterson that we wanted the biggest room she could get because Jenny wanted all of her family to witness the birth of our children, something that would never had happened 10 years ago.

Dr. Peterson did an exam on Jenny, “Oh my, 10 cm already – you have been in labor for a while.”

AAGH was one of the newer hospitals in the metro region and one of the oldest. Originally it had been in the old part of downtown Annapolis, was overcrowded and had no place to grow.

Finally in 1998 the hospital bought a 100 acre parcel on the outskirts of the city to build a modern hospital with the latest technology in medical care.

The local wealthy and famous people donated big time for the new hospital. One of the pavilions is named after a noted Hollywood game show host that calls Annapolis his home. He worked the local elite for donations to match his very generous gifts.

Their labor and deliver rooms were big and set up for families to be there for the delivery. Many hospitals forbid cameras in the rooms – not here. They even had video cameras mounted overhead to capture that special moment the baby made its appearance.

There were operating rooms on the floor with staff specially trained in neonatal care and C-sections. Babies or a mother in trouble could be in surgery in two minutes, the staff said.

We wanted it filmed for prosperity; there was no sure thing that it would ever happen in our family again. In the beginning the other girls were open to each having their own child but after seeing everything Jenny went through close up, I suspected that would not happen.

Each of us took turns by Jenny’s bed side. While there, we were also able to review what was happening to our business divisions.

I reviewed all the college security sites and was pleased to see everything was operating smoothly. I also checked the staffing logged in and on standby. I was pleased with what I saw.

Next I checked the embassy security sites. That was a different story. Everyday there were new alerts for some location. I hoped that the hiring process would stay on schedule but knew in my heart it would not be so. The compound was most likely done for several weeks. Getting the snow out of there would be a mess.

I finished everything I wanted to look at and then went to sit with Jenny and hold her hand. She moved over to the side of the bed. Every time she had a contraction she would close her eyes and squeeze my hand hard.

“You know I would trade places with you if I could,” I whispered to her in between the more intense contractions.

“Yes, I know you would, without hesitation. But I would not trade places with you. This is our love, our family for all of us,” Jenny said. Then she squeezed my hand so hard it hurt and so long that it started to go numb.

Lisa moved me away so she could hold her hand and talk with her. I walked out to tell the doctor that I thought the contractions were getting very close and intensive.

When I moved away Lorrie motioned me aside. “Did you look at the airport cameras?” she asked.

“No, why, is everything alright? The runway system is still working, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes, the runway looks good but there is one more plane in front of the terminal and when I looked back at the recordings they had pushed two smaller ones into the agency hangar as soon as they landed. Do you know what they are?” she replied as she turned her laptop to me.

“The one in front of the terminal is a C17, I wonder why it is there – with in-flight refueling it certainly could have flown well past the east coast storm,” I replied.

Then Lorrie changed to last night’s camera recordings. I watched in awe as two F16’s landed and taxied directly into the agency hangar.

“They are F16s and they look to me to be fully armed with missiles and bombs,” I replied to Lorrie’s question.

I wondered why they would have been at Morton Field at all. The only thing I could figure was that they were dispatched from some base not snowed in to respond to a radar sighting off the coast or else a high-level patrol.

Then they used afterburners aggressively – which suck fuel – expecting that an air tanker had been dispatched for refueling. It may have and had problems or been unable to make hookup to complete the refueling with the storm offered – the only explanation that I could think of.

I was jarred back to reality with an uncomfortable scream from Jenny.

“Delivery room the babies are coming,” as Jenny’s bed was being quickly pushed out the door into the hall.

Lorrie and I held Jenny’s right hand while Marcy, Ching Lee and Vicky held her left during the last big push.

Doctor Peterson cut the cord on the first beautifully healthy big boy and after the nurse did her duties, placed him in a blanket and gave him to Jenny to hold.

“Jacob Calvin Jones after your father and brother, BJ, he’s beautiful, here hold Jacob while I push again,” Jenny said.

A few moments later Robert Jason Jones, who was named after Jenny’s father and grandfather, was placed in a blanket and handed to Jenny.

I was crying, tears were running down my cheeks, tears of happiness. When my eyes cleared it was plain that I was not the only one crying. Our family was growing and our house would never be the same again.

Jacob had dark hair after the Jones side of the family while Robert – a lighter sandy blond – after Jenny’s side making the boys easy to keep straight.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Ten minutes later passengers started coming off the stairs. Hanna was still broadcasting live. She had been filling the time interviewing fire chiefs, then a group interview with Ching Lee, Marcy, Vicky and Jenny.

The camera was now on passengers who were very happy when they stepped on the concrete, high-fiving and cheering. The scene was repeated on the ZNN world wide news channel playing on the big screen on the TV in the restaurant.

While the passengers were eating, making calls and wearing out the bathrooms, the girls and I had a meeting in Lorrie’s office. We needed to figure out how to help 200 people for another day or two.

Half an hour later we had at least a partial answer. We just had to ask a few questions after everyone finished eating. But we could not wait long; it was still snowing heavily and accumulating.

We started in the restaurant, “I would like a show of hands of all families so I can get a count.” There were 39, some with 1 child, most with 2, and several with 3. That accounted for 140 of the 202 on flight 709. There were 30 single women, 28 single men and 4 flight crew.

The horsey house had 6 rooms with two twin beds.

The Crash house had three bedrooms with twin beds, a living room and a dining room that could each hold 3 army cots.

The gears in my head were spinning and my pencil making notes.

“OK, here is the reality of the situation. The storm is not going to clear out for another 24 hours at the earliest. Then it will be another day before the major airports are even marginally operational,” I said.

“We have army cots coming, plenty of dry beans and potatoes, cabbage and corn beef on the way so you should be good; Right?” I asked.

A chorus of groans was the reply.

“OK, I take that as you being open to other suggestions. Unfortunately our options are few. But here is what we can do. I know a few of you are going to be disappointed.”

“We have 40 rooms at the Holiday East that we reserved for our employees in this emergency. We are going to assign the 39 families to those rooms; all of them have two beds. If the children can’t share a bed somebody gets to play army and get a cot to sleep on,” I said.

“Now single ladies, I have 12 rooms with two beds each at two different locations.”

“That leaves the rest of the men on cots at our gym. As bad as the gym sounds it has unlimited hot water showers, a cafeteria, internet, and good heat,” I said.

“Can we use the gym equipment?” one of the younger passengers asked.

“Use it to your heart’s content,” I replied.

The next big task was getting the baggage off the plane. The baggage carts were pulled beside the plane and the offloading began. There was an estimated 400 bags to deal with.

The county officials started making appearances for the free publicity, along with a couple more news organizations.

Duke Justice, the county commissioner whose son had tried to kill me, came in and made a beeline straight to me.

“How can the county help? What do you need?” he asked.

“I could use three or four county ride buses to move these people around. I would like to get them where they need to go before dark,” I replied.

“I don’t know if we can find any drivers, but I will try. The plows are doing a better job of keeping the roads open,” Duke said as he was dialing his cell phone.

Things were happening as always with my people, the girls just gave instructions and things happened. Melanie handed me several copies of the list of all the families and with the number of cots if they needed any. These were going to the motel.

One of the aircraft mechanics handed me another note, “All the baggage is laid out inside the hangar closest to the pilot’s office,” it said. The second note he handed me, “Both buses are running outside that hangar warming up.”

I checked off enough families to put 25 people each in the bus. Even though they were 30 passenger buses, space would be needed for baggage. I selected families that did not need cots because they had not arrived yet.

“Melanie, call out these families, take them over to the hangar to collect their baggage and put them on the buses Get with one of the 4×4’s with a plow and lead the buses, make sure this group gets into the rooms OK. When you get back the other buses will be loaded, waiting. Be careful,” I said.

“10-4 Boss,” Melanie replied.

I looked up to see several firemen coming my way, “We brought the four county ride buses and we have 75 army cots along with the linen packages for them in the back of our utility truck. The chief said to do whatever you needed. There is a county snowplow waiting to lead us.”

Ching Lee called out the rest of the family names to get their baggage and load up. There was enough room in the second bus to take all the cots and linens packages. The fourth bus was a 40 passenger, and was going to carry the 28 single guys, the cots and baggage to the gym.

The bus was also going to carry 8 of the ladies who were going to stay in the horsey house. Ching Lee had the other four in her Suburban and was going to get both groups set up for the night. I told her to call before coming back. If things were slowing down she could go to the house; we would all be there soon.

The last 12 ladies were carried back to the Crash house along with breakfast cereals, fresh milk and a snack bag with the promise that we would pick them up in the morning and take them to the airport restaurant.

Everyone who had come in on Atlantic 709, with the exception of the two flight attendants, had a place that was warm, showers, and at least a fair place to sleep. The two flight attendants wanted to sleep in the terminal. The pilot and copilot went to the last room at the motel with the instructions that they were responsible for that group and to be the contact person.

It was 8 PM when I finally got to check all the colleges and then VCATS for embassy issues. All was quiet for a change. The rapid response team had had the day off from training to help with our blizzard. Tomorrow they would probably still be fighting the blizzard.

I walked to the two flight attendants, “Grab your bags, you are coming with us.”

Lorrie, Vicky and I (with me driving) drove Dad’s old truck with the plow and tire chains and headed home. Marcy, Jenny, Ching lee and the two flight attendants followed in the Suburban. I had to plow snow all the way home right up to the garage.

The guests were shown to their rooms upstairs and where everything they needed should be. It had been a strenuous day and I was hoping for a quiet night.

Monday night I slept half the night with Lorrie and then we switched back. Jenny was so restless and moved so much – let alone her sudden giggling when the boys moved – that she woke the girl sleeping with her up. I had long ago learned to listen with one ear and keep on sleeping unless there was a real problem.

Tonight Vicky and I did the same thing around 1AM. I could tell Jenny was having a tough night even though she seemed to be sleeping. She would grunt and tense up. I snuggled close and held her tight.

At 4AM Jenny said very loudly, “Oh ouch, damn” and sat up forcefully; I was wide awake.

“My water just broke and I have been having contractions all night,” Jenny said.

“OK, let me get you some towels to sit on and then I will go wake other girls, and then call the doctor. Here is your watch. Time the contractions,” I told her as I was getting dressed.

First was Lorrie and Vicky, “What’s up?” they both responded.

“Get dressed and go to the kitchen right away, I’m going to wake Marcy and Ching Lee,” I said and headed down the hall.

I shook the two of them awake and told them to go to the kitchen. While I was waiting on them I called Jake, Jason and Dad. All of whom said, “We are on our way.”

I called Dr. Peterson, not expecting an answer, “I’m already at the hospital. They put us in empty patient rooms to keep the hospital staffed. We will be ready for you, call if you have any problems. My partner delivered four during the night.”

Crash and Marlene showed up as the girls did, “Jenny’s water broke and she is having the babies today. I’m going out to dig out the plow then open the driveway so we can carry her in the Suburban. It still is snowing a blizzard out there. Jake, Jason and Dad are on the way. With the three trucks with plows, we should be able to get her to the hospital.”

I had thought about using one of the choppers but with 0 visibility, it was just too risky.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

“Atlantic flight 709 this is Morton tower please acknowledge.”

“Morton Tower this is Dover Air Force Base Tower; we are communicating with Atlantic flight 709. They are at 35000 feet 100 miles out, heading 180, transponder is 7700. Radio frequency is 129.75. We will relay for you if necessary.”

“Thank you Dover AFB, stand by please.”

“Dover tower relay to Atlantic 709, maintain altitude and heading, at way point Echo change heading to 220 and begin descent to 4000 ft. Intersect the ILS at point Yankee, contact Morton tower on 128.70. Morton tower over.”

“Atlantic 709, this is Dover Tower, vectors to Morton Field are as follows, maintain altitude and heading, at way point Echo change heading to 220 and begin descent to 4000 ft. Intersect the ILS at point Yankee, contact Morton tower on 128.70.”

“Dover tower this is Atlantic 709,” and then the instructions our tower had relayed were repeated. They were getting close enough that we were getting part of the conversation.

Fire trucks and ambulances were arriving. The gate had been opened and some of them were sent to park over by the super hangar, some on the tarmac and others by our hangar.

The ambulances and EMT’s were split up in different locations as well. Now it was a waiting game.

“Morton Tower this is Dover Tower – Atlantic 709 is 80 miles out on assigned heading.”

“Roger Dover,” our tower responded.

Hanna and her cameraman went outside on the tarmac – with my permission – to do an updated report and then waited out there.

“Morton Tower this is Atlantic 709 at point Echo, beginning controlled descent to 4000 at point Yankee, do you copy,” the pilot said.

“Roger, Atlantic 709 we copy, acknowledge point Yankee and a lock on the ILS,” Morton tower.

“Roger Morton,” Atlantic 709.

Point Echo was 60 miles out, point Yankee was 10 miles out. The world was watching through Hanna. ZNN world news had picked up the broadcast. One of the newscasters there said 709 was being been sent to Morton Field to crash land. Hanna was still outside giving a live report and her microphone was picking up the tower conversation. She was giving a running dialog of all the fire and rescue equipment coming in.

“Morton Tower, Atlantic 709 at point Yankee, no ILS,” the pilot relayed.

“Roger Atlantic 709; set up for landing at your discretion 9 miles out and descend to 3500 ft.”

“Roger Morton,” Atlantic 709.

“Atlantic 709, 7 miles descend to 3000,” Morton Tower.

“Roger Morton,” Atlantic 709.

“Atlantic 709 4 miles, descend to 2500 heading change 221,” Morton Tower.

“Morton Tower, Atlantic 709 ILS is locked. Critical fuel warning alarm; we are running out of fuel. We are running out of fuel. We do not have fuel for a go around heading 221,” the pilot replied.

“Roger Atlantic 709, do you still want distance and altitude,” Morton Tower.

“Roger Morton,” Atlantic 709.

“Atlantic 709 we show you 1 mile and 1000 feet,” Morton Tower.

“MAYDAY, MAYDAY, Morton Tower, Atlantic 709; we have lost number one engine – we are out of fuel.”

Everyone that was inside the terminal was now standing outside in the swirling snow.

“Atlantic 709 you are half a mile out on perfect alignment for runway 22,” Morton Tower, “hang in there you have it made, glide it home.”

It was now down to seconds for 204 people. Flight 709 was still doing 200 miles an hour. Firemen and EMT’s were scouring the sky with binoculars looking for anything. It was useless in this heavy snow fall. Robbie shutdown the pumps; the runway was clear but wet.

“Atlantic 709 we show you 100 feet from the runway,150 feet on the glide slope.”

Seconds later Atlantic flight 709 became an image coming into view in the heavy snow just feet off the runway. Intermittent fire and smoke was coming out of the number two engine as it was out of fuel. I hoped the fuel reserve for the APU would last long enough to power the controls and brakes to get the plane stopped.

“Atlantic 709 Morton Tower, 10 ft, 9 8, 7, 5, 3, contact.”

Smoke came from the main gear tires as the pilot put the Boeing 757 down hard on the tires. Cheers and screaming erupted from those outside to be broadcast live nationwide by Hanna’s channel 34.

Fire trucks pulled out behind the plane as it went by, slowing down as it did. Flight 709 came to a stop 500 feet from the end of the runway.

“Atlantic flight 709, welcome to Morton Field. A tug is on the way to pull you to the terminal. Change to ground 128.60,” Morton Tower.

“Morton Tower, wet concrete never looked so good. The flight crew and passengers send a thank you.”

Hanna was looking to interview me. I pointed and mouthed, “Lorrie first.”

“Lorrie, as executive vice president of JBG’s aviation unit and Morton Field this has to be a major accomplishment. How do you feel?” Hanna asked.

“This has been both ends of the spectrum, fear, anxiety and heartbreak when the pilot radioed that they had lost the engines for those 200 people on board.”

“Then when it came out of the snow still flying, joy and excitement and proud to be part of the success story. This will forever be a great memory,” Lorrie relied.

“BJ, as President of JBG and of all the things that have happened in the last few weeks, where do you place flight 709?” Hanna asked.

“Hanna, there are lots of people who made this possible. First I want to thank all the employees of JBG here today who braved this horrible weather, the worst in a decade. Some of them are going on 24 hours here.”

“Next I want to thank all the volunteers from all the fire and ambulance departments that answered the call today. If you look out there you can see there are dozens of fire and rescue trucks and several hundred volunteers. We have to thank them for the great job they do; not just today but every day.”

“Additionally we need to thank all the people that put Morton Field together. J&J Construction, Bob’s Construction, the FAA, the DOD for surplus equipment, the county commissioners and the 911 center for helping with the emergency plan.”

“Finally pride, I am very proud to be involved with all the fine people of JBG and the country that made today possible. But for as much as we have done there is more to do. Flight 709 will be parked in front of this terminal in a few minutes. There are 200 people who want to desperately get off and stretch their legs, get a hot meal and some place comfortable for tonight and possibly a couple days.”

Fire trucks were turning around and reassembling at the exit gate. I assumed that the mechanics had hooked up and were towing the plane.

“Big Bertha, are you hooked up yet? We need to get the system turned back on,” Lorrie asked into the radio.

“Yeah we are good; turn it on, this thing is so heavy we are going to need clear concrete. You may want to get the stair truck to the terminal before we get there. I am planning on going past the terminal and making a left turn to put the exit door to the terminal.”

“I’m going to open one of the meeting rooms and ask all the people in the restaurant to move to there,” Vicky said as she walked indoors with Jenny.

I walked over to the fire chief who helped with Little Gitmo – as the compound was being called. But I was going to change that real soon.

“Chief, can I get my hands on army cots from the counties emergency supplies stash?” I asked.

“Sure, I will have the ambulance bring them back to keep them dry,” he replied.

“BJ, there is a call from the President of Atlantic Airlines; he wants to talk with you,” Vicky said.

“Lorrie, why don’t you go take that,” I replied.

“He is a president – you are our president – equals need to talk,” Lorrie replied.

“We will both do it,” I replied.

“BJ Jones and Lorrie Smithfield here, I have you on speaker – how may I help you?” I asked.

“I’m Arnold Cross, president of Atlantic Airlines, I and all the people at Atlantic want to thank you for what you have done for flight 709 and all know that you are still going to have to do. We watched it unfold – talk about heart stopping and then the thrill. Bill us for everything. You can plan on a delegation from Atlantic to visit you soon,” he said.

When we walked back out the tarmac the stairs truck was backed into position and bid Bertha was making the swing with Atlantic 709 to position so the exit door was close to the terminal.

With 709 stopped and the chocks in place, the stairs truck was slowly backed into place. It was the first time we had used it. There was a lot of movement to get it in place and set up.

Even thought it was 30 years old, it still had all the features that a new one had and by Lorrie having it refurbished, made it look like a new one. Once in place the canopy was raised to keep the steps free of snow and the platform gently extended against the side of the 709.

I asked the girls who wanted to go make the welcoming speech and laid out how we were going to do things.

“You and Lorrie can do it; we are going inside where it is warm and start the planning for everything else,” Vicky and Ching Lee responded.

Lorrie and I climbed the stairs and then knocked on the door to let them know we were there and ready. The door swung in as all jets did today by regulation. I stepped in followed by Lorrie to meet the captain standing in the center isle.

“Hi, I am BJ Jones, President of JBG and this is Lorrie Smithfield, executive Vice President of JBG Aviation and JBG Morton Field. Welcome to JBG Morton Field.

“I am Captain Ernie Harvick and you have no idea how good it to be standing here at Morton Field,” he said. “Can we get some fuel to keep the APU running?”

“It is on its way. How much do you want and where?” I asked.

Lorrie keyed the mike on her radio, “Robbie, have the fuel truck put a 1000 in each main tank, the fills closest to the fuselage.”

The captain handed me the PA mike.

“Ladies and gentleman, welcome to JBG Morton Field. In a few minutes you are going to disembark the plane. They are setting up extra tables in the restaurant; I am sure everyone could use a hot meal and coffee. While you are doing that we will put the finishing touches on logistics for tonight. Please do not bring baggage to the restaurant; it is going to be crowded enough as it is.”

“BJ, everything is ready,” it was Ching Lee – this time on the radio.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Monday Patti and I made the trip to KCC as normal; in separate cars. Then I had to sit in on an emergency storm preparation meeting to listen to the maintenance department tell everyone how prepared they were.

Before the meeting was over there was another weather service broadcast for governments. It was worse than the earlier broadcast.

The administration promptly canceled all classes from noon Monday until Thursday morning.

Back at my office I went over the roster for the next few days and started making calls to the full time employees to see who could bring an overnight bag and stay in the spare dorm rooms for a couple days. Before I finished I had enough staff, along with the part time employees, to keep the staffing at safe minimum levels.

Patti was going to stay in one of the dorm rooms as well. There had been a flurry of calls between Patti and her boyfriend. I was pretty sure they were going to share a dorm room since he was on the mandatory staffing list.

I left at my normal time and stopped by Morton Field just in time to be in on the great debate; it had just started spitting snow. The FAA and the design engineers were having a great debate on when to activate the snow system.

One group argued that it should be turned on now to pre-heat the concrete runways. Their thinking was it would help in the long run with all the pipes and large amount of water the system used.

The other group wanted to wait until there was an inch or more of snow on the ground, saying that the snow would add extra runoff to the water, clearing the runway faster.

Lorrie, Robbie and I sided with the first group. While you were waiting for the accumulation, any aircraft would be at risk of possibly sliding off the runway or failing to stop at the end. There was also the risk of slush from the gear and tires ending up in an engine, shutting it down. That would be critical if the landing had to be aborted at the last instant.

Safety ruled and Lorrie gave the order to start the system. It was a good thing because the flakes were getting bigger and in increasing amounts. All of our planes and helicopters were in hangars and all of the hangar heating systems were on. The tarmac was clear and no planes were scheduled in tonight.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a white-out. It had snowed 2 inches an hour since before midnight, but luckily there was no wind. There was 16 inches of snow and it was growing fast. The forecast predicted it would be snowing at least the rest of the day. The state had technically closed all roads except to emergency personnel.

Lorrie was looking at the airport cameras, “BJ, come look at this, the system is running but it looks like there is a foot of slush on the runway.”

“We can’t have that – if it freezes it would take a month to get it off the runway. See if you can get Robbie and find out what is going on,” I said.

Lorrie put Robbie on the speaker when he answered. “It looks like the system is not working. Why are you not plowing the runway?” Lorrie asked.

“Its working, the engineers are slowly increasing the heaters and pumps to check out the settings and how effective they are,” was his reply.

“Have they got all the heaters on and the pumps at full pressure?” Lorrie asked.

“No, only half of the heaters are on at 50% and the pumps at 40%,” Robbie replied.

“Robbie, can a plane safely land in that mess?” I asked.

“Hell no, and I told them that,” he replied.

“Robbie, Morton is an emergency relief airport, light all the heaters and turn them on high. Turn on all the pumps necessary to run the pressures and flows to 95%. If the mess is not gone in 45 minutes, start plowing,” Lorrie instructed.

“They are not going to like it,” he replied.

“I don’t care if they like or not. Heat it up,” Lorrie replied.

“Are the contractors keeping up with the snow on the rest of the airport?” I asked.

“They are busy but keeping up, when the snow stops we will fire up the melting machines to finish the job,” Robbie replied.

The state has one lane opened here. As soon as we get the yard opened, we will try to get there to give you some assistance,” I replied.

After layering up with several layers of clothing and after telling Jenny and Lorrie to monitor the airport cameras, I went out to start the truck with the plow that was backed up to the garage to let it warm up.

It was Dad’s old four wheel drive one ton Chevrolet truck that he had for years. He bought the one ton to haul firewood and to pull the trailer with all his goose decoys. When he retired he had Marcy order him a new one but kept the old one. He and Jake had brought it last night with the body filled with firewood to give it traction. He also had chains on all four wheels.

While it was warming up Vicky, Ching Lee and I shoveled snow away from the garage as best as we could. When I thought it was warm enough all of us piled in the heat and away we went. Jake had give me the one minute crash course on how to use the thing, including locking the hubs before you got stuck – not after – just in case I needed it.

Ching Lee was operating the blade controls at my commands so I could have both hands to drive and shift the manual transmission. With the load of firewood and the chains, the thing was a beast pushing snow. Dad had even left chains and a tow rope on the floor.

I pushed the snow off the driveway and garage apron, way out onto the lawn just to make sure there was room for all that was coming. I opened the driveway all the way out to the road at least three cars wide. A few bushes met their demise. I intentionally plowed them over; I wanted a wider driveway anyhow.

When we were at the end of the lane I could see that the contractor at the gym was staying up with the snow over there.

Back in the garage I put tire chains on the rear of Marcy’s Suburban with Ching Lee and Vicky’s help. Actually, I used it as a training lesson to teach them how it was done. The second wheel was much faster and the two front ones went fast and smooth.

We went back into the house for a warm up and progress check on the airport runways. They looked much better. “Do you want to go 4 wheeling to the airport?” I asked.

I was not surprised when everyone including Crash and Marlene were ready to go. Everyone was ready to go stir crazy. Bundled up and we were off. Ching Lee and Vicky rode with me in the plow truck with Marcy, Jenny, Crash and Marlene in the Suburban.

The state was doing its best to keep one lane on the three lane highway open and they were gradually making it wider with each pass. It was going to be a long time before all this snow was off the road.

We made good time and had no trouble .We lucked out by getting behind state contracted plow truck. We lost the truck at the 301/50 split but picked up another one on 301.

I didn’t expect to see anyone at the terminal but the place was packed. The parking lot was filled with plows getting food and coffee. No wonder the road to the terminal was clear; never separate a working man from food or coffee, especially during freezing weather.

With computer case in hand – I dropped it off in Lorrie’s office – we walked straight to the big windows to look at the runway and tarmac. They were clear; the hot water was staying up with the snow fall.

Robbie and several FAA officials and engineers were headed our way.

“Boss, that looks much better, doesn’t it?” Robbie said.

“Yes it does, now that you have found out where the system needs to be, you can cut back on the heaters to maintain that setting,” I asked.

“Yes, we have 65% on the heat settings and have the pumps at 90% to keep the flow moving,” Robbie replied.

While we were standing there Hanna approached us, “Did you see last night’s segment?” she asked.

“Yes I did, looking good and I see they are running teasers today,” I replied.

“The producer is going to make four segments out of it. The numbers were way up, a lot of people were looking at it,” Hanna replied.

“How come you are not somewhere all hunkered down in this mess?” I asked.

“Look around – every state and county agency is here, this is where the real story is! All you get at the headquarters is the canned story,” Hanna replied.

A look around proved she was right – local and state agency foreman were sitting at tables with radios and phones directing the operations. That was another reason the parking lot was filled.

They finished their assignment, came here for food and a new assignment. Plows that did not have the state contract arrangement were here looking for work from the state and county and getting it.

The tower radio that had been quiet suddenly became alive. Carson was walking our way with a very grim look on her face.

“We have a 757-300 from Europe inbound, low on fuel; the wings are icing and 200 people on board. They were in a holding pattern a little too long for Kennedy and they are getting more snow than we are. It’s 40 minutes out max,” Carson said. “They are Atlantic flight 709”

I called the 911 center and explained the situation, “You have 30 minutes; can you get a couple fire trucks here for stand-by?” I asked.

I heard pagers going off in the restaurant; even when a volunteer fire man is not on call, he is ready to go on one. “Stations 11, 31, 22, 40 engines 18, 19, 34, 35, 21, 23, 45, 46 stand by for possible aircraft crash at Morton Field inbound 757-300 with 200 on board, low on fuel and heavy icing. Guides will be at the terminal to position equipment,” was the 911 center broadcast. Then there was even a bigger list of ambulances given.

Radios were again crackling in the restaurant, this time assigning plows to lead the fire engines from the fire houses. Men were leaving the restaurant at a run and there was the sound of diesels winding up as they were leaving the parking lot.

“Robbie, we are going to need to open the gate between our hangar and the terminal for the fire equipment. If there is time move some of it in front of or into the super hangar and leave some by our hangar and the terminal.”

“Atlantic flight 709 this is Morton Tower acknowledge please.”

“Atlantic flight 709 this is Morton Tower acknowledge please.”

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

There was only one thing left on Friday’s agenda and that was to meet Linda Koons at her house. We needed to be there at three. She decided she wanted an attorney there, who was a friend next door.

We left Morton at 1:30 and landed at Lancaster Airport at 2:15. We six girls, Jason and Jeanna made the flight. The paperwork for the CD’s needed to be signed and witnessed by a bank officer. Marcy did a quick audit on the MAAR site there then we took two cars to the Koons’ house.

There was cautious talk; none of us wanted to upset Linda or the children who were there. The attorney friend was in his early 60’s. After we were seated at the dining room table I opened my portable office and began.

“Linda, here is the check for Albert’s life insurance that was part of the JBG benefits. It’s $275,000.00 made out to you as beneficiary. I need you to sign and date the sheet attached to the check that acknowledges you received the check,” I said.

“JBG started a college fund for your two girls. JBG employees donated $150,000.00 dollars to the fund. JBG added $50,000.00 to make it an even $200,000.00 so each girl would have a $100,000.00 head start for college. If they go to college they can draw against it for tuition at age 18. If they do not go to college they have to wait until they are 26 to draw against the funds,” I added.

“There are 2 CD’s – Jeanna has checked all the places you need to fill in and sign in her presence. Jeanna is Executive Vice-president of Midwestern Bank, the holder of the CD funds. Jeanna has to witness the signatures,” I said.

“Next is a check for $50,000.00; it is for the rest of the year of Albert’s base salary. I am sorry that it is in a one lump check. A lot of taxes were taken out but that is the only way we could do it,” I said.

“The final item is health insurance for you and the children. The last thing we want is to see you get hit with massive annual premiums for that or end up on the Obama care plan. We had several lengthy debates in order to come up with a way to be able to continue insurance for you that we could get past the insurance company auditors,” I said. “This is what we came up with.”

“Here is an application for part-time employment at JBG as a regional consultant. The salary will be one dollar but it will carry full family health insurance as a stipulation. Should you get a full time job or remarry and have other health insurance available, you will have to change over to it. If it stays under JBG the girls will be covered by law until they are 26.”

“The one kicker in the thing is you need to come as soon as possible and go through the hiring process to make it official, the physical, interview and HR paper work and an ID card that will qualify you for discounts and other employee perks,” I said and then added. “You will not fail at any part; it is one of those cover your ass kind of things if someone from the insurance company ever challenges it.”

“Those are the things we came up with to help you out of a horrible situation. With proper financial planning you should be OK. I would suggest that you find a competent financial planner who is not going to rape and pillage your funds with excessive fees or risky investments and tell you the proper things to pay off and sequence to do it,” I said.

“Any questions?” I asked. I looked at her and the attorney; both shook their head no.

“OK then, please fill out the CD information so Jeanna can witness it and notarize the signatures. Here are our business cards should you need to contact us. Please – as soon as possible – schedule a visit to continue the insurance. If we can connect your visit to one of our flights close by, you can travel by plane. We will even pay for a hotel for you and the kids to stay overnight in if you like,” I replied.

We were there another hour and back home by 6:30 to call it an evening. The Rochester group was home and those of the rapid response team who were close enough to go home went. The others stayed in the motel.

Other than some strenuous exercise in the gym and of course, a real workout in the basement that left everyone exhausted, the weekend was quiet.

Hanna hand delivered all the film Saturday mid-morning to the house and wanted us to watch the edited piece she had put together on DVD. It was really very good; whoever the editor was had cut everything out should have not been there.

It opened with Hanna boarding the chopper “This is Hanna Page, today I am embedded with a JBG hostage rescue team on a mission to rescue two hostages held not far away in cooperation with the local police agency, two officials were kidnapped yesterday,” then a shot of the thermal images. Then there was the cut to Capt. Peters describing the mission plan and boarding the chopper. The JBG logo on the Black Hawk was in full view over her shoulder.

The missile shot and the car explosion was a Hollywood class production. Her camera man that was with the right side ground team had captured Hanna and the aerial team rappelling from the chopper as well as the team on his side.

Hanna, with the go-pro cameras she was wearing, caught the action on top of the building. Hanna was as close as she could get when the flash bangs were thrown down the stairs and then the race down the stairs with all the shooting and hostage rescue.

It ended with both hostages rescued and some bad guys as prisoners and shots of dead and wounded.

Her camera man had done an equally good job with the ground team. I wondered what they could have done if they had access to the film from all the cameras.

“Has your producer seen it?” I asked.

“Only on my laptop when I was reviewing the disc. He is begging to run it in a three or 4 part piece. I told him that it was a copy write piece I did for you as part of my side business,” Hanna replied.

“Let’s run it again and let us look at it from a different prospective. If we do not see anything that will hurt us it might be to our advantage for you to run it.” I asked Jenny to look at it from a legal standpoint and the rest of us from a security and training standpoint.

We ran it four times looking for problems. Jenny was satisfied that there were none.

“Go ahead and see what you can work out with your producer and use only from this DVD,” I said.

“You have all the uncut video in the box, which was the agreement. Here is my normal fee; a check will be OK,” Hanna replied.

Vicky made several copies of the DVD. I took one of them and sent it to Captain Peters by the courier service.

That was the last piece of work for the weekend. We cleaned the house and made sure everything was ready in case the weather reports of an impending blizzard held true.

Instead of going out Saturday night we did our own steak dinner. We cooked in or I should say outside the garage door. I rolled the grill outside and put 8 juicy steaks and a mix of potatoes on to cook.

Marcy and Lorrie worked on a loaded salad while Ching Lee and Vicky set up the table. Crash and Marlene were joining us for supper tonight; it was a wonderful family night together.

Sunday was just as relaxed and calm but storm clouds were on the horizon. The national weather service was filling all the channels with a winter storm alert and warnings for Monday night thru Wednesday. The accumulation predictions were in feet, not inches.

It was the perfect snowstorm of the century; a massive cold air mass from Canada, as if the 25 degree night time and 35 degree daytime weather we were having was not cold. And a massive moisture loaded Gulf storm skirting along the east coast with a high pressure front just off the coast, making sure the moisture carrying storm stayed over the coast and both met over the Middle Atlantic States.

The FAA scientist and engineers were arriving by the car load to see if their brainchild snow removal system would live up to its promise. They were trying to get rooms at the Holiday East only to find out that they were booked up. Marcy had booked all 48 vacant rooms at the Holiday East in case we needed them for stranded employees or flight arrivals and essential employees at the airport.

To make matters worse for the feds, the local utilities booked all the rest of the rooms in the county and Annapolis for out of state utility crews to restore power. They were so sure there were going to be outages that hundreds of crews and tree trimmers were to arrive on Monday before the storm arrived.

All of our backup generators were load tested and fully fueled on Friday. The house, the gym and every building at the Morton Field had generator backup.

At Morton field it was a distribution voltage backup generator, three phase 25 thousand volt on the main utility line. It supplied power to the entire airport when it came on. It was another government surplus deal. The diesel engine to run the thing was as big as a train locomotive.

All the propane tanks were filled and the propane supplier had brought 4 filled 8000 gallon trailers and parked them by the propane farm just to be sure there was enough to run the runway heating system. Over by the maintenance building there was one 10,000 gallon tank of butane for the new snow melting machines. Robbie assured me we were ready.

We had snow plows mounted plus the two front end loaders with huge buckets. Jason and Dad even brought the 2 big 4-wheel drive tractors from the farm over with push blades on them.

Sunday afternoon Hanna’s channel 34 began running teasers from the hostage exercise. The first part was Sunday night after the playoff games leading to the Super Bowl.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Friday morning I was in the gym an hour early. I had been awake for a couple hours; Jenny had had a restless night. I massaged her legs with her favorite lotion twice and gave her a back rub before she went back to sleep. I had taken her phone and placed it on the table so it would not wake her and placed a ‘do not disturb’ sign on our door.

I checked my emails first thing. The agency guys had done the favor I asked for last night. I had pictures taken from their nightly drone missions over the bay in infrared and several different night vision shots of the compound. I printed them off on my printer.

Then the fire chief called to say he had the equipment with him and would meet me in the restaurant in 10 minutes. I would make it in time by pushing hard.

I was exiting my truck when he drove in the parking lot.

“Let me grab some guys,” I went inside and found six of the RRT who had finished eating. The chief followed us back to the compound.

“What the hell is this? Your own special prison?” Chief Grimes asked when he and assistant chief Sammy Little stepped out of the Chief’s truck. They were obviously impressed by the razor wire.

“The final step in advanced training for a selected few of our security teams, depending on what part of the world they are going to,” I replied.

Bob was already there. I positioned my guys and myself and then the Chief and Bob went up in the JLG man lift to use his fancy equipment.

After they were satisfied, we moved to several of the other buildings and the chief took more images. We met at my truck and downloaded the images into my laptop. I would be ready with a couple more things if the captains wanted to play. The Chief left me with two bags of gear, “Call me if you decide to use it. I will come back and help you set it up,” he said.

When I dropped the guys back at the restaurant, Andy Riddick was there with Jamie, Jake and Dad. It was a perfect time to explain in detail what might happen if Peters and Hamilton wanted to spice up the last hours here, what I wanted the men to do and what I needed set up in a rush.

Jamie and I had been preparing for the hostage training ever since I had received the request from Victor. All the necessary goodies were in the armory.

I stopped by the pilot’s office to verify which choppers were there and pilots. I placed a 3 hour hold on my choice of both.

Back at the gym, Vicky, Ching Lee and I went through final training module with the Rochester SWAT team. Then we did the breakout bull session. While I was looking at emails I printed out the images from the chief’s equipment.

“What did we do wrong? What did we do right? Then, how do we improve?” These were questions that we needed answered in order to stay at the top of our game. We received some very good feedback; almost all of it positive, with just a couple things in the negative column.

With everything that had gone on here this week and with all the people here, I was relieved. It was not an A+ but it was good.

“You said that you had something special that we could do before we go,” Peters said.

“Yes I do, let me make a couple of calls first.” Then I called Bob, “Is the site ready?” I asked.

“All the debris is gone. I am ready to move the items you wanted. Jake and the gang are here,” he replied.

“It’s a go; set it up, have Andy and his group at the terminal building, Jamie has the gear they need.”

I called Jamie next, “It’s a go, remember the weapons that shoot blanks and blank rounds only! Make sure no-one has live ammunition. You will have no more than ½ an hour to get the group equipped so they can be in position before this group arrives to get their equipment,” I said.

Then I called Hanna, “It’s a go, be at the airport. Are you sure you are up to this?” I asked.

“You bet! We are on our way,” was her reply.

I picked up all the papers from the printer.

“OK, here is the scenario for this exercise. We have two people who were kidnapped last night and are being held at a site not far from here. We know this from photographs taken over the last few days.”

“The site was being watched. Here are thermal images from a day ago. There are no hot spots; no one is there other than a heating system running. Here are thermals taken early this morning.”

“As you can see two buildings have multiple hot spots and what looks like there is someone being held on the second floor,” I said.

Peters turned his head to me and with a raised eyebrow, “You have access to satellite thermal imaging?” There were markers and satellite identification markers on some of the pictures.

“A lady always keep secrets; every gentleman knows that,” I replied with a smile.

“Now here was my plan as boss. I and going to send two five man fire teams on the ground, one for each side of the street. There is a junk yard to use for cover here and a tree line here to get close,” I said as I pointed to the photo.

“Then I am going to have a chopper drop a five man team onto each roof of the two buildings. The buildings have stairwells with roof access,” I stated.

“I have a pyrotechnics team who will be on site and is going in to create a distraction. There will be two reporters embedded but I don’t know where yet. I will issue the weapons. Each man gets 20 rounds, each team gets 1 flash bang and 1 smoke grenade,” I said then added.

“You have until I get a call; you get to tweak the plan. I have the gear for the guys rappelling out of the chopper,” I said.

A few minutes later my phone rang; it was Jake, “We are ready. All your villain guys are in place along with the pyrotechnics. Did you know one of your guys was an explosive expert?”

“Of course, Jason checks them out very extensively. Better yet, he has a license for it that we can use if I ever need it,” I replied.

10 minutes later Jamie was issuing the weapons and the toys to the Rochester men. Among themselves they had decided who was going to be on the ground teams.

Hanna and her camera man were at the hangar. Hanna had all kinds of go-pro cameras on a helmet and on a chest harness. The jacket she was wearing clearly identified her as TV media. Luckily the jacket was big enough for one of our bullet proof vests to fit under. The camera man filmed the fitting.

“I feel like the Pillsbury dough boy,” she replied after we had finished.

“I’m going out with the guys in the chopper; my camera man is going with one of the ground units,” she said.

“I am not sure that is a wise thing for amateurs,” I replied.

“I am not an amateur. My ex and I were into mountain climbing, rappelling off cliffs, free falls – that kind of thing – this is a piece of cake,” Hanna replied.

“Hmm, another thing I didn’t know about the girl,” I thought – maybe I need to investigate her.

After that, they had a quick run-through and verified that everyone understood how to use the equipment. It was made much easier because all of the guys did it before the choppers were loaded.

The ground group was loaded into two vehicles and carried to the edge of the field. They had less than a hundred yards to the cover of the junkyard and hedgerow.

Jake even had some weird African music playing on a loud radio.

I drove one of the vehicles and trekked across with group that was going to take the left side. The reason I went with them was that was the side Sidney was on with the diversion. I wanted to see what he had cooked up. Jake’s text said it would be cool.

The burned out Suburban had been placed about twenty feet from one block building and two of the burnt cars on the other side by the block building.

I saw at least 4 people with video cams stuck out of various windows in the wooden buildings plus there was someone in the JLG basket with a big cam of some kind.

I looked around to where I had parked and there were a number of vehicles and a crowd from both the office and airport. I saw Jenny’s and Vicky’s Suburban.

Everything was set – I gave the go word, the choppers were already in the air and swooped in over the two buildings, six men and Hanna rappelled out onto the roof and then moved away. Hanna was right – she was no amateur to rappelling; she made it look so easy. That was one thing I had never had the desire to do.

At the same time the other chopper did the same thing and moved away. Jake and I were with Sidney by the corner of the first building. Ronnie was crouched by the corner of the building with one of the training Stinger missiles. It was just the empty tube.

As soon as the choppers pulled away Sidney yelled “Fire!” Just as he did Jake hit the handle on the CO2 fire extinguisher he was holding at the end of the tube for a couple seconds. The junk Suburban exploded in flames. Ronnie shifted the aim of the tube and the process repeated with the two cars in flames.

I was sure that if one of the cameras were in the right position that the cold white blast of CO2 coming out of that tube would look like the real deal.

The two ground units had working towards to two block buildings as the choppers were dropping their teams. When the cars exploded several men ran from the block buildings into rifle fire – promptly falling down and playing dead.

Flash bangs went off in the second floor of both buildings within moments of each other. Those teams were going in and there was rifle fire. Then flash bangs from the ground units they were going in.

The teams came out with the hostages and all the bad guys with their hands up; the games were over. We had film from 10 cameras. That film would be reviewed again and again. It was a start in a long process to develop a viable training module. Then it would be put together for training and a promotional piece.

The agency experts were coming over Monday to look at the site and recommend changes while all the construction equipment was there. Would more buildings and more obstacles need to be added? Only time would tell.

I knew one thing; there were 20 guys from Rochester who were happy. Peters and Hamilton were right with them. They were high-fiving each other and the guys who rappelled out of the choppers were ecstatic, Hanna along with them. I wondered if I had created a monster.

Jamie and her assistants accounted for all the weapons, unused blanks and smoke grenades.

The fires in the junk vehicles burned themselves out by the time we were done. I cornered Jake, Sidney and Ronnie; I wanted to know what they had used and to congratulate them on the rocket ingenuity.

“Three Ziploc bags of jet fuel, one bag of gasoline in each, one blasting cap, wire and a motorcycle battery did the trick,” he replied.

“Yes, it sure did. It looked great and whoever came up with CO2 trick needs to get an award,” I replied. “We will be using that one again for sure.”

Everyone went to the airport restaurant for lunch. The project was the only topic of conversation. Jenny, Marcy, Ching Lee, Vicky, Lorrie, Cindy and Mark were seated among all the players gathering information. Hanna and her camera man grabbed slices of pizza to go. An assignment came in as she was stowing her gear.

“You will have a copy of all the uncut film tonight. I will have one of the editors put together a film for you, getting rid of all the blurbs,” then she added.

“It was fun; call me, I will do that anytime.”

An hour later the 200 left the runway for Rochester. SWAT team 2 from Rochester was trained and satisfied with it all. One more team left to go on that contract.

But we may have opened Pandora’s Box; two dozen police departments had requested information on our training program less than two weeks after the Rochester group returned home.

As if that was not enough, there was all the new emphasis on rape at colleges nationwide. That was brought about by several bungled cases highlighted by major media. Cindy was receiving at least a call a day seeking information on that training program and scheduling seminars.

We were busy and it looked like we going to get a lot more.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

Thursday and Friday I was off from KCC and planned to work with both the Rochester SWAT team and the RRS team. Everyone had improved substantially this week. Vicky, Ching Lee and I spent the most time with the Rochester group. They were leaving at noon tomorrow to go home.

Marcy, Jenny and Cindy had designed a nice certificate that could be framed of the advanced training completion from JBG Security. At noon before they left we were going to present the certificates and get pictures. We were going to send certificates back with Capt. Peters for the first group.

Jamie took the lowest scoring of the Rochester men back to the gun club for one more run through to give them the opportunity to improve their scores.

Vicky and I along with several other trainers did the same thing with the rest of the group on the mats. We spent the biggest part of the day working on hand skills and nonlethal take-down techniques.

At three Robert and Burt came in and met with Jenny and Marcy. They had the salary request and an equipment list that they would need if wages and benefits could be agreed upon. I left the negotiations to Marcy and Jenny.

At four, just as we were finishing up for the evening I was standing and talking with Peters and Hamilton when Jake and Bob came in carrying several rolled up blueprints.

“BJ, I know you soon need to be in your meeting but if you have 30 minutes to come look at the compound, there are a couple of things to decide. All the carpenters will be finished tomorrow,” Jake Said.

“Compound – I knew you were building something but – compound. That sounds serious,” Captain Peters replied.

“Let me change into something warmer and I will be right with you,” I said to Jake.

I did the quick strip down and put on the clothes I had worn from the house this morning. That consisted of long johns, sweat pants, my bulletproof vest covered by a sweatshirt and then the shoulder harness and finally a jacket.

I walked back to Jake, Bob and the Captains, “Well, let’s go see what a compound looks like. Do you captains want to come along?” I asked.

“I would not turn down that invitation,” Captain Hamilton replied.

I drove with Jake in the passenger’s seat and the captains in the back. At Morton Airport lane we had to slow to almost a crawl; the blacktop patch just does not work very well in freezing weather and frozen ground.

We followed the road around to the rear security gate where I had to use my ID card to open. We went past the house that we built for Crash that we had yet to come up with a real use, now that he did not want to move back in.

Then it was past the fuel farm and maintenance building that I picked up the new road that led to the compound. I pulled up to the gate and waited as Jake opened a control box and started the generator. Then he opened the electric gate and turned on the lights.

It did indeed look like a prison at night; almost kind of eerie. There was one very small flood light in each corner aimed towards the interior. Some of the buildings had what I would have called antique light fixtures. They were just a flat round disc with a small light bulb hanging from it.

They were so dim they must have been a 5 watt bulb, if they made such a thing. Some of the buildings must have had one inside them. The second floor of the concrete buildings each had one.

All the wooden buildings looked to be completed. I wanted the third world look and I got it.

I took one of those new stream lights like the fire fighters use and we walked and looked at and in each building.

The concrete buildings were still under a plastic tent to fast-cure today’s block work. In one of the concrete ones Jake and Bob led us to the second floor and then on to the roof.

“I wanted to show you railings we put up. If you do not want them there, you can tear them down after you have accepted the work and paid us. For liability reasons the engineers insisted they be there,” Bob said.

“I am sure that you noticed there was nothing on any of the windows, I think you need something to keep the birds and buzzards out. Bob suggested that we use the thick plastic door guards like you see in the deli sections to keep flies out of the cutting section.”

“We can install it on the outside and put plywood on a slide inside to make it more weather tight when you are not using the place. When you want to play war games just slide the plywood out of the way,” Jake said.

“You notice that all the doors are just two sheets of plywood nailed to 2x4s and all swing in,” Jake added.

“OK, the hand rails are a good idea; after being up there looking down, they will stay. Your ideas on the windows make sense so do it that way. Everything looks good. You two out-did yourselves again. I expected another week at least. Are there any other things you need to know? I need to get back,” I replied.

“I will go to Annapolis tomorrow to get the plastic sheeting. While I am gone all the plastic tents can come down and the crews will clean up the place,” Bob replied then he added.

“There are a bunch of carpenters and block layers who wanted me to extend thanks to you for the weeks work. Some of them haven’t had a decent week since the weather turned cold,” he said.

“Well, you can tell them ‘thank you’ for me. If you have a list and if you will have all of them here tomorrow, I will have Jake give all of them a couple hundred dollars cash bonus off the record for the cold and suffering,” I replied.

“I don’t think I should be hearing this conversation, it might make me want to quit my job. What is that – third world gray money?” Captain Peters asked.

“LOL no, fourth world, it came through places where you need an armed guard just to eat lunch,” I replied.

“I have one more question, this looks like prison, are you starting your own Gitmo?” Captain Peters asked.

I laughed before I answered, “The State Department wants to teach at least a one day course on hostage rescue, just the basics to all JBG embassy personnel. The employees at hot-spot embassies are going to get several days and much more advanced training when the employees come for the recurrent training,” I said then I added.

“Next year they want a full week for the hot spot employees. They want JBG employees to be able to work with advance teams in an emergency. The department is going to supply instructors,” I said.

“Now if Bob gets the clean-up and plastic removal done early enough in the morning, do you want to run your guys through a hostage scenario before lunch? I have M16s and Glocks that will only shoot blanks, along with smoke grenades and flash bangs. Or I can do paintball guns. I will work with you on the scenario if you want,” I replied.

“The only condition is that I film it, for training purposes of course,” I said as I was laughing. “I will supply the hostages and the bad guys,”

“Hmm, let Hamilton and me think on that,” Captain Peters replied.

“If we decide to do it, can you have all the mess out of the way by eleven?” I asked Bob and Jake.

“Hell, I will even have the JLG man lift set up at one end for a high video camera. I have a good one with zoom and all,” Jake replied.

“Let’s go, I have a meeting to attend,” I said.

I was late to the meeting, Marcy held off all the important stuff until I was there.

Robert and Burt were employees. We matched their salary and benefits and Marcy was doing something with the retirement for them.

They would start on Monday. They had six weeks accrued vacation from the state. They would go on vacation and set up shop in one of the empty offices and then turn in their resignations if everyone was happy.

Island Broadband was going to run a separate cable for them with a PO Box as the delivery location. Our computer supplier had all the hardware they wanted and would be delivered no later than Monday afternoon.

Cindy and Mark had started working on the package from the politicians and were brainstorming different sections. A lot of input was going to be necessary.

At a break in the session I asked Lorrie if we had a Blackhawk that could fly tomorrow if necessary.

Then I called the fire chief who had been to the terrorist attack Monday night. And then one more call to the agency hangar, those little gears in my head were smoking they were spinning so fast.

Finally, I called Hanna Page, “Do you and your camera man do any freelance work?”

“Sure, anything to make a buck, the station does not pay top scale. I know you are into kinky – if you look at the c-list thing that is his ad for private filming; I am the lighting person. What do you have in mind?”

“I won’t know for sure until sometime in the morning,” I explained what I had in mind if it happened.

“I can do even better than that; I will bring my equipment if you call.” Hanna replied.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.

“Harvey, what is the general mood there, is everyone recovering OK?” I asked.

“There are some who are still taking it hard. The compound walls have been repaired so that has removed some of the long hours and stress,” Harvey said.

“Harvey, in two weeks I am pulling all 18 of you out. You are coming back to the main office for recurrent training. We also found out that there is a lot of information missing out of the Black Water HR files we received, we want to update everything, and get everyone up to speed on our HR rules, physicals and the like.” I said then added.

“Plus, there are some answers I want about the loss of Adams and Koons. The losses were a first for us. I want to make sure nothing was missed. Something just does not feel right.”

“The emails making the announcement are in the process and should be sent in a few minutes,” I said.

“Is the department going to let you pull us out? Black Water always said State tied their hands on personnel,” Harvey asked.

“I make the decisions about personnel placement, the state department only requests numbers and qualifications,” I replied.

“The replacement team will be at the new staffing levels for the Embassy. You guys will be here for a couple weeks, than a week or two off for vacations if you want before you go back,” I said.

“We can go back after the training?” Harvey asked.

“Yes you can go back, or transfer to any one of the other 80 embassies. They are all going to go through this process this year. But there are only 18 embassies that currently have hazard pay.”

“Once you get the emails, if you have any questions just ask. I have to run, good evening – we will chat soon again Harvey,” I replied and then I closed the screen.

The girls were waiting in the gym for me to go home for supper. All the day help had been gone for a couple hours. The night crew was doing their training routines. I was surprised to see both the Rochester and the most of the RRT back in the gym. I guessed the weather was too cold for them to go to Washington for R&R or the night life, or else they were afraid they would pay dearly tomorrow.

It did not hurt that Shelia Roush was in the gym with her group of fit female boxers. They were gearing up for the next round of pre-Olympics matches. They were fit enough and cool looking enough that when they got all hot and sweaty from sparring and shadow boxing, grown men lost all common sense.

Those grown men were now volunteering to spar with the boxers. I knew those female boxers – they would tag those guys along for a few minutes and then unload several rounds of killer punches on them. I left with the girls before there was any need for first aid.

Supper consisted of one of our favorites, homemade cold cut subs and hot soup. All the normal gang was there; Patti, Crash, Marlene, we six girls and two little boys waiting to be born.

After supper I had one more thing before we got comfortable and into a playful mood.

“Jenny, tomorrow call Robert and Burt, find out how much salary they need, have them put together what they need for equipment and don’t cut corners, I want them to have equipment to do the job right, then ask how soon they can start,” I said.

“What changed?” Marcy asked and the eyes staring at me said she was not alone.

“Two things, first I still have questions about the Morocco issue. I cannot believe they carried out that kind of coordinated attack of that size without some kind of communication. Either the electronic traffic was missed with another cover-up, or we are being lied to,” I replied then added.

“That is why I am pushing to get the replacement men in place and pulling those guys out so fast. I don’t want them influenced any longer than necessary. I have some intense questioning for them. Plus, the fact that they can choose not to go back may help bring the truth out.”

“Second, the debate is going to be protested by at least three groups – the Mad Matters, BAM and the BRMM – and you can be sure they are communicating. It would be nice to know what they are planning,” I replied.

“I don’t want them on our server. We will set them up as a separate business, computer consultants or something with their own internet address from the cable company,” I replied to Jenny questioning looks. “So that if anyone back tracks to them it does not show up as being a JBG.”

The rest of the evening was relaxed, a little fun and games, even Jenny seemed more at ease tonight. I was bringing Jenny to the doctor for another checkup tomorrow. In my heart I knew this was the last checkup. The boys had to be born soon. Jenny was big and every night we were giving her legs and back rubdowns.

I was going to KCC in the morning then training on the mats until 2:30, and then to the docs with Jenny.

The weather was not looking good after the weekend. The old farmer’s almanac was predicting a major winter storm for our area. I hoped that Bob’s crews were making real progress and had enough completed that we could use site after the weather shut down construction.

The morning started early. I was up by 5:30 and had coffee and breakfast cooked and on the table when my mates sat at their chairs. It was an unusual treat for my mates in the middle of the week.

KCC was quiet the whole morning, so quiet I had time to finish reports that were not due until the end of the month. I also sent both Chancellor Nobles and Bob Jackson an email that the replacement Suburban would be here in two weeks.

At noon I headed home, I was in the gym by 12:30 today. I was working both the Rochester group and the 30 man rapid response team. With this being the third day in the training cycle there was improvement. It was a good thing I was going with Jenny; I was going to need a rest.

Ching Lee had pushed them hard this morning. Stunts, moves, arm and hand action were beginning to make sense and the follow through was beginning to come through as a natural movement.

Those guys who were picking up the combinations made it necessary for me to work harder to stay on the top of my game. The thing that gave me a little relief was that Ching Lee had worked them so hard; they needed a little rest too.

Jenny and I left in time to make the appointment with Dr. Peterson. There were several doctors in the office today so the waiting room was full. Surprisingly, we only had to wait a few minutes. Dr. Peterson performed a lot more tests this time and asked a lot more questions. We listened to the heart beats.

Dr. Peterson said, “With the birth this close, we need to have the discussion about a C-section. Both boys are really big to be this far along; it is a good possibility that you may be early.”

“I would rather have them natural but their health is the first concern,” Jenny replied.

I tried to be creative and recorded the heartbeats on my smart phone so the other girls could hear them. I made a video of the sonogram – we could see the little arms and legs, the eyes and the little noses. Jenny and I were so happy; we couldn’t wait to see how it would look on the big plasma screen.

Jenny and I tried it on the plasma in my office as soon as we returned to the office. It worked. I called Mom, Dad, Jake and Mindy to see if they could both be at the office at four when we held our meeting to see it, as Lisa and Jason would be here anyhow.

Jenny played the recording of the heartbeats. The grand-moms were ecstatic as were everyone else. The recording worked better than I thought it would. We could hear the heart beats plain as day. It even picked up Dr. Peterson’s voice.

“The equipment can isolate each baby, Here is baby one,” then a moment later, “This is baby two; both heart beats are normal and strong,” she said.

Jenny then played the video of the sonogram, the little arms, legs, fingers and toes – I could even make out the closed eyes and little noses. The grand-dads both cleared their throats and I was sure I saw Mom wipe a tear. I had even recorded Susan’s statement about the possibility of being born early.

We finished our meeting early. Jake wanted to take us back to the site to see the progress they had made.

The gate was still open so we drove into the compound, as everyone had starting calling it. The crusher run road made a circle inside the chain link fence with the razor wire on top. It did look like a prison I had seen in some of my travels.

Under the big plastic sheets – with heaters still running – I could see that the second story block walls were up on the four concrete block buildings. Jake had added windows on the second floor that were covered with plywood.

“Bob is going to place the concrete pads on the blocks for the roof tomorrow afternoon to finish off concrete buildings, with the exception of the top railings.”

“The trencher broke down today, but tomorrow they will finish running electric to all the buildings. Charlie’s electric crew decided to run cable to all the buildings and just blank them off on the outside. That way it will be there if you want it.”

“The generator will be here tomorrow. The carpenters built the enclosure today. The crane will set the generator and then sit the enclosure over the top of it,” Jake said.

“Looks good Jake, lets hope the weather holds out so you can finish it,” I replied.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.