Bjjonesmylife. Book 2

With the funerals finally behind us, only thing left to do was to put this horrible situation to bed was the paper work. At breakfast I pulled Jenny and Marcy aside and asked them to crank it up on the insurance company. I wanted to personally hand deliver the 275,000 dollar insurance check to Linda Koons.

The JBG employees came through in a big way for me; they donated to the Koons college fund that we set up. They raised a whopping One hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the cause. Before Marcy set up the CDs she made it an even two hundred thousand.

This way, one hundred thousand would be set aside for each of the girls; I think that was a good start for them. I just hoped they chose a good career path. I was going to deliver the CDs – the paperwork for the fund at the same time I gave Linda Koons the insurance check. The funds for the CDs were held by Mid-West Bank at a good rate.

When we woke up, we had a big family breakfast as if it was a normal Sunday – it was the first in over a week and I loved it. Not to put a damper in the gathering, but Vicky and I had to go.

Vicky and I said our good byes and then drove across the bay to the Landover Metro stop. We took the metro into DC so I would not have to drive in the madhouse Friday traffic. The metro stop was right at the Capitol.

At 9, Victor Edmonson and Amy Lockerman met us on the capitol steps. There were a lot of people going into the senate office building. There were reporters from dozens of stations. They each had their own spot picked out. We walked by without anyone recognizing me, and I was glad of it!

We were in our seats by 9:45 after going by security. The ID cards that we had allowed entry without going through the security process. Vicky and I had split my computers into separate cases so Vicky and I were each carrying one as we went in.

Protocol dictated that everyone be seated before the senators came in and took their seats. When they came in I knew several of them from their time on TV. Two of them from the meeting at the gym office they were Senator Malcolm Fordes and Senator Colin Harrison.

The first questions went to Victor.

Senator Harrison asked, “Have host countries placed additional restrictions on the security at US embassies?”

“Any restrictions are part of the negotiation process before the embassy was agreed upon and constructed. There are annual meetings between the parties to tweak those agreements,” Victor replied.

“The administration has taken a dim view on intelligence that doesn’t serve their political agenda. Has this affected security at embassies?” Senator Fordes asked.

“We collect intelligence as we see fit and share within our security umbrella,” Victor replied. Then he added. “We also access DHS, CIA, FBI and NSA bulletins.”

“What? You place reduced value on the traditional services,” Senator Harrison exclaimed.

“No, but you have to understand that DHS and FBI are primarily tasked with protecting the homeland and are handicapped on the international front.” Victor replied.

“The CIA spends as much time trying to influence the world arena as it does Intel gathering. The NSA is tasked with analyzing all the Intel and issuing timely alerts. That was fine in the past but not any more,” Victor said.

“Why do you say that? Isn’t that a slap in the face of those services?” Senator Harrison responded.

“Those services are doing all they can do. The technology carried them to the forefront but now it’s leaving them behind. Drone use has taught the terrorist to shun the ways of Bin Laden. As to ISIS who used the internet and social media to grow their cause. Now they are returning to the old school ways they used in the past,” Victor said.

“They have learned that cell phones, Facebook and Twitter will deliver a missile in the middle of the night sooner or later,” Victor added.

“Is that why no one knew the Morocco attack was coming?” Senator Harrison asked.

“As part of our intelligence gathering there were 32 terrorist that were killed in that attack, and only one of them had a cell phone. He was the leader and it was turned off. There were no computers or cell phones found in their dwellings. The investigators found a few hand written notes with a day and time of the attack,” Victor said.
Then he added: “Only by interviewing the wounded did we find out that the group traveled to Libya for training and weapons two months ago.”

“What actions have been taken to improve security of our embassies and how is JBG supporting this improvement?” Senator Harrison asked.

“I ordered a security audit of the eighteen embassies that are in the hot spots the day after the Morocco incident. Those audits produced a series of request from those embassies to enhance security,” Victor replied.

“The department is going to improve local intelligence gathering along with working aggressively with each country’s anti-terror agencies. We are going to expand our work together with our sister agencies,” then Victor added.

“We have expanded our contract with JBG for additional embassy protection at those 18 sites. Roberta Jones – President of JBG – has also been doing audits and can give you an update of her findings.”

“Senators, ladies and gentleman, it is a pleasure to be here in the lion’s den for the first time.”

“As you know, JBG took over the contract a month early for reasons that were beyond anyone’s control. Since that time I have personally been to 9 embassies in South America and the Middle East. Our aviation division has delivered replacement helicopters to three other embassies.”

“I was in Riyadh last week during the attacks there and when the Moroccan embassy was attacked. I saw first hand the damage from the attack in Riyadh.”

“First, in responding to the audit items, JBG will add one additional armored SUV at each of the 18 sites. Each site will get 5 additional security employees. The rest of the choppers will be exchanged as soon as the logistics can be arranged. According to the records and contact with the pilots, they have had no real maintenance in two years. They are in rough shape.”

“With all that said, none of the employees at those embassies meet JBG employee standards. There will be retraining for all former Black Water employees. According to the documentation available to us, none of them have been recertified in firearms, first aid, CPR or defensive hand skills in the last two years. This does not meet our requirements for field personnel,” I said.

“What exactly are defensive hand skills?” Senator Fordes asked.

“That is where I teach you to defend yourself and kill with your bare hands. In that kind of fight, living or dying is usually decided in the first two minutes. After two minutes, the odds of you being the one living are not in your favor,” I replied.

There was a lot of throat clearing and shifting when I finished that statement.

“One more asset that JBG is developing at the moment is a Rapid Response Team. It will be made of highly trained, equipped personnel and they will be able to be at any of the 80 embassies that JBG has contracts with within 24 hours notice,” I added.

There were a few more questions directed at Victor then Vicky and I went with him to the press conference. We stood in the back row with his support group and listened while the press peppered him with questions.

While standing there Jason sent me a text, “I hope you have an interest in corn and soybeans – you are now renting the 1400 acre farm that backs up to the airport for whatever you are going to do with it. It is a ten year rental as you asked for.”

The next text I sent was to Bob of Bob’s Construction, “If you need work, be at our meeting tonight.”

While I was standing in the back waiting for the press conference to end, I saw Marley Kendall in the reporter pool. She had finally gotten the promotion she wanted, – the Washington beat.

When the news conference was over we walked over to where Marley was giving a live feed to her news desk. I walked up from behind her, cut right in on it and gave her a hug, “Hello Marley, congratulations on the new job,” then Vicky and I kept on walking, leaving her momentarily flustered on camera.

“Hey, you owe me an interview for that!” she yelled.

“You know where to find me,” I said as I gave her thumbs up and walked away.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.

After my fun with the senior Customs official, we all were treated to a coming home dinner in one of the large meeting rooms at the airport – catered by the Morton Field restaurant. All the hi-dollar tables were covered by silk table cloths stacked with the best foods they could serve. I was seated at the head the head table with the girls minus Ching Lee. Mom, Dad, Jake, Mindy, Vance, and his wife, Josh and his girl friend, Bob and Linda Jackson finished out the table. Other tables were seated with the rest of the pilots and college security personnel.

Tonight there was no talk of the upcoming events of tomorrow, it was about the new plane, the Jackson’s trip and Vance’s ribbing me on the after effects of my first takeoff as copilot. The other pilots joined in the good hearted ribbing about how they would be able to take naps in flight now when I was on board to fly the plane. Vicky did not escape the banter by Josh either.

When we finally got home, as late as it was we hugged and expressed intimacy as we normally did and called it a night. Vicky, joined lorry and Marcy in Marcy’s king sized bed and I was finally able to hold Jenny in my arms all night. With all the time changes and day and night changes, I still managed to get up on the right side of daylight. I helped Jenny with a soapy fun filled shower she loved the hot water running on her back as I gave it a generous cleaning with her favorite soap. My first decision of the day was how to dress for today’s solemn task.

Was it to be a business suit or the dress blues? Albert Koons had served 15 years in the army – a soldier’s soldier. There were no blemishes on his military record. Upon his discharge, he continued serving his country by working at our countries Embassies overseas. The dress blues it was; Marcy could represent the company. I would stand with the rest of the JBG honor guard. He was military and we would honor him that way.

Because it was cold and windy and even colder in Lancaster layers were called for; panty hose covered with long johns were a must.

As to the JBG honor guard details, thirty five in-all answered my request for former military with dress uniforms in order to give Albert and Phil the honor they deserved and had responded to Cindy.

I had to give it to the girls and to Jason; they had put together all the logistics to make it happen for me. The last of the thirty five had been picked up at BWI at 8 PM last night. They all had rooms ready for them at the Holiday East Motel on the island.

The Holiday East motel loved us even with the corporate discount they were gave us. They even provided us the direct line to the courtesy van phone for faster pickups and were sending Marcy the number of rooms available each day in an e-mail, if we needed their help.

Our former country ride vans picked up all 35 at the motel and brought them and their baggage to the Morton Field restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast we loaded our baggage into the 200s cargo hold.

We had plenty of time so I called a meeting in room 2. I laid out the events for today and tomorrow as best I knew from combining the information from several e-mails I had received this week.

Then I answered questions about the e-mail that Cindy had sent out about the rapid response team and the 100 new embassy positions. The hazard pay was attracting interest.

After the meeting I gave the pilots the packets containing all the information that they would need to land at Dover AFB. It had the radio frequencies and the transponder numbers and the authorization code. At 9 we boarded the planes for the 30 minute flight.

General McJames’ e-mail confirmed that we had the necessary approval to land both planes at Dover AFB. That the coffins with Albert Koons and Phil Adams remains would be ready for transport at 10AM. The job of the C130 was to carry the remains of Albert Koons to the Lancaster Airport. From there a hearse from Groffs Family Funeral Home will take possession of the casket and deliver it to the funeral home, then carry it to the church.

As for Phil Adams, a hearse from the Smith’s Funeral Home will transport him to their funeral home and then to the VA cemetery for the service.

The C130 was to carry the body and the 200 to carry the girls and the 35 honor guard plus a few people from the office who wanted to participate.

At Dover, the Air Force was going to furnish Military personnel to transfer the caskets – they said it was procedure – after the transfer, the JBG honor guards would carry out that duty.

As an afterthought, just to tweak Hanna – I had sent her a text that JBG was receiving possession of the bodies of our fallen comrades at Dover at 10 AM.

The C130 should arrive at Lancaster by noon. It will be a closed casket, Time of reflection, was at 1 with the funeral at 2, then the internment in the cemetery behind the church.

The process was to be repeated on Thursday at the VFW cemetery at Preston tomorrow for Phil Adams at 1.

We landed without incident and were directed to the area in front of the morgue. The C130 crew dropped the rear door and made ready to receive and tie down the casket. I was standing in the back of the 130 with several of my men watching the things they did.

I noticed a Humvee was headed towards us. I continued observing and counting the jump seats along both sides of the plane. A tap on the shoulder by the 200 pilot, “Boss – BJ, the officer in the Humvee wants to talk to you.”

I met the public relations officer at the Humvee. He filled me in on the policy and procedures that General McJames had already sent me in writing.

Then we were ready. They brought the first flag draped coffin containing the remains of Phil Adams. We lined both sides of the walkway standing at attention. The hearse pulled slowly away.

The flag draped coffin containing the remains of Albert Koons were treated the same. Six Air Force men in dress uniforms carried the coffin through our honor guard and into the plane.

I observed as they tied down as the Albert Koons casket. For a moment I had a flash back to my last few days of my military service, instead of Albert Koons it was Betty in the casket. The vision only lasted a few seconds. I saluted each of the men when they reached the bottom of the ramp. I thanked the Air Force public relations officer for all their assistance.

I announced to the girls that I was going to accompany the body to Lancaster in the C130. “I hope you understand, I’ll see you in Lancaster,” I said to them as I picked up my double computer case, just in case there was another emergency.

Jenny not liking what had just happened volunteered to come with me. I told her no – that the 200 would be a much smoother ride for her and the babies.
I wanted time alone to focus and digest the events of the last week and the next few days. I was wondering what to expect in the Senate hearing on Friday and a dozen other projects that were now important and in the works.

I walked up the rear ramp of the C130 and nodded to the loadmaster to close it. I chose the front jump seat behind the pilot and pulled the lap belt tight.

It was a quick flight; forty five minutes later the rear door was again being lowered after we came to a stop on the tarmac. The JBG honor guard was forming up behind the plane. The hearse and Ching Lee’s Suburban were coming through the tarmac side gate.

The local TV station had a camera crew there as were Hanna and her crew was filming the transfer to the hearse. The honor guard performed perfectly for having no practice.

The Koons family was standing by the hearse as we slid the flag draped coffin in. Once the casket was in the hearse, Ching Lee made the introductions and I expressed my condolences and promised to help in any way I could.

Ching Lee had a dozen rental cars to carry the group to the funeral home. The funeral was tough even though I did not personally know Albert, but we were still extended family.

It was dark when we closed the door on the 200 to head back to Morton field. The C130 had left after the hearse left for the church. It had another no-paperwork flight after it picked up freight in Texas.

Albert Koons had been laid to rest. The family had great support from their extended family and the church community and would get it from JBG.

Tomorrow was more of the same – another funeral – only this time there was no family except JBG. Jenny had tried to find any possible living relatives of Phil Adams. There were none to be found, a family tree in which all the branches had perished. It was so sad. On the good side Jason had found some of Phil’s high school friends and they did the eulogy.

The Phil Adams funeral was a morning funeral at 10 AM and there was only an hour scheduled. It had never occurred to me that so many veterans were passing on from the Great War and Korea that funerals had to be scheduled like that.

We were back by noon and ate lunch at the Morton restaurant. A lot of the guys wanted to know more about the 60 day embassy jobs with hazard pay. I filled in the details as best as I could. I still had not received the detail packet from Amy. I left them with ‘As soon as I get the details you will have them.’ An hour later they were all headed in different directions and home.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.

We refueled in Madrid as planned and had lousy airport food at the restaurant. Then we began the two planes 8 hour trek across the Atlantic. The airport was so busy Vance did the takeoff this time and I was glad of it. The wheels left the runway at 7 PM.

Vance flew at a reduced speed until Josh and Vicky caught up to us, then we flew in a staggered side by side formation with a mile between the planes. The winds were more favorable at 45,000, close to the maximum ceiling the G5’s could fly.

Vance sent me to the back to lie down and rest; it had been a long day. Tomorrow would not be any better and would be a lot more stressful. Vance had napped during the day while I was at the embassy. I checked emails and did a quick VCATS with the office; it was one in the afternoon there.

I slept for two hours then I went back to the co-pilots seat to let Vance get up, stretch his legs and hit the head.

“BJ, it’s on autopilot; if you touch any of the controls it goes to manual and you will be flying the plane,” he said as he climbed out of his seat.

Twenty minutes later Vance was back with two cups of coffee. “We left at seven Madrid time and it is an 8 hour flight which would put us on the ground at Morton Field at three tomorrow morning. But, because we are crossing 5 time zones we need to back up the clock up. We should be landing around ten pm eastern time by any luck,” he said.

“Good, we will be able to get a good night’s sleep in our own beds,” I replied.

I sent a text to the girls to tell them the new arrival time. I then texted Jake and Mindy incase Jake wanted to see his plane land the first time.

They were very long hours sitting in that right seat. I took breaks every other hour to break the boredom. I worked on emails and typed up my notes from all the embassies we had visited on this trip.

I even reread the new guidance directive from Victor and Amy. In light of the Morocco incident, they were requesting advanced training and capabilities from JBG employees. I wondered if we had made a mistake and we were trying to grow too fast now.

By swapping every hour it gave Vance a chance to walk around. The first time he was only gone 20 minutes. The third time he was gone almost an hour. I was sure he was sitting in a position where he could watch over my shoulder to keep an eye on what was going on up front.

I understood why pilots always had books and magazines with them to read. With the plane on auto-pilot and computers monitoring everything else there was little to do, sometimes hours on end. I even resorted to looking through the operating manual that was in the console between the seats.

The more I read and looked through the operating manual and looked for that particular item and read the explanation of what it did and why, the less intimidating the instrument panel looked to me.

With an hour to go Vance took his seat, “BJ, take a quick break and come back. When you do we should soon be able to see the lights of the east coast as clear as it is and I will walk you through everything we need to do to set up for landing at Morton Field.”

When I was back in the seat Vance produced a cheat sheet for landing, pointed out where each item was, what it did for the landing, and even more – why it was necessary.

I could see the glow of the New York City lights at over 200 miles away. Vance was talking to Josh on the company frequency and our radar had him on our screen. They were coordinating the approach and landing as I was sitting in the copilot’s seat.

A hundred miles from the coast Vance pulled the power back and set us up on a long descending glide. He then called Morton field.

“Morton Tower N397G in bound for landing,” Vance said.

“N397G this is Morton tower, set transponder to 1294.”

“Roger, Morton 1294,” Vance replied as I set the transponder digits.

“N397G we show you to be 90 miles out at 40000 feet and descending. Continue on present course and descend to 10000 feet,” the controller replied.

A moment later we heard Josh call in and he received the same instructions with a different transponder number and a different altitude, along with instructions to maintain a 3 mile separation from us.

“Inform the tower we are at 10000 heading 250,” Vance said.

“Morton tower November 397 Golf we are at 10000 with a heading 250,” I replied.

“N397G this is Morton tower. Reduce altitude to 4000 ft, heading 249 intersect the glide slope at point Yankee, heading change to 150 then follow glide slope.”

I repeated the instructions back to the controller. Then Vance explained what it all meant as he dialed in the electronics to detect the glide slope and set up the GPS for point Yankee alert.

Vance explained to me what the computers were doing and how they controlled the plane as the computers followed the guide slope to the 15 runway at Morton field. As we reached 50 feet Vance turned the auto landing system off. “I like to do it from here myself,” he said.

The touchdown was smooth, barely a chirp out of the tires as the weight firmly set them on the runway. Vance let the plane coast out on the runway all the way to the end of the runway and the turn around ‘P’ loop.

“N397G make the ‘P’ turn and hold – welcome home boss,” the ground controller replied.

“Roger control – and thank you,” I replied.

We watched the landing lights of N297A as it made the approach and landed, rolling to the end of the runway. Then we both taxied back to the terminal tarmac.

As we taxied I asked Vance what he thought, “Did we got our money’s worth on the plane:”

“It’s a beauty and flies like a brand new one but only you girls and Jake can decide if you got your money’s worth,” he relied.

“You mean Marcy,” I corrected.

“Yeah, you are probably right on that,” he replied with a chuckle.

As we taxied to the terminal, I saw Jake, Mindy, Mom, Dad and the girls waiting for us looking out the front windows. As I stepped off the stairs with my go – bags and my mobile office computer bag I was surrounded.

“She is a beauty; go take a look,” I said. And they did.

I was expecting the girls to be there but not the crowd that was there with them – I guessed them to be honor guards and others working at the airport. Besides the girls, Mom, Dad, Jake, Mindy and some of the agency guys, there were about 50 JBG employees from various college sites.

As I got off the plane, I had a better appreciation for Mother Nature, for the last five days Vicky and I really enjoyed the 100 degree weather, now we were back home in the middle of winter, in my nicest voice I could muster – “can we move our reunion into the terminal building please?”

The last thing I was expecting and it was a bit of a surprise, seeing two customs officers standing with the group – they were never in their office in the terminal. Sidney Armstrong – the senior Customs official – pulled me aside with a clipboard.

“BJ, do you have any gold, silver or other precious metals, antiquities, cash, electronics, or clothing to declare?” he asked.

“No, I didn’t buy any of those things on this trip,” I replied to his question.

“No contraband, drugs, ivory or restricted lumber or lumber products, animals as pets or insects?” he asked.

“No, nothing on that list either,” I replied.

“OK, sign at the bottom,” he replied. And I did.

He never asked about the 50 million dollar plane I had just stepped off of and I never volunteered anything about it either. I just signed the sheet as he instructed.

I met everyone in the cafeteria, shook the hands of all the security guys and talked with them while we waited for the folks to finish looking at the plane.

Jake and the girls were ecstatic when they came back in from looking at the plane.

It was good to be home with my mates, but Ching Lee was the only one missing at the moment. There was a lot of missing affection to be made up for, but we did our best.

Edit by Alfmeister

Proof read by Joe H.

Waking up with Vicky this morning wrapped in my arms kept me grounded in this life I am now in. It’s been almost a week without Jenny in my bed and I missed her so much even though I swapped partners night to spend equal time with all my mates. I missed the all of them equal, the hugs the intimate touches even more I missed feeling the babies move in her big belly when I held her close.

Today finally came, Monday the day to go home. It started like the five previous mornings, waking up to a little mischief to end in a searing shower, followed by packing and breakfast to finish our visit this embassy. When we finally caught up with Vance and Josh at the plane we discussed a plan of attack for today’s activities.

Whatever happens today it depends on what transpires in the next few minutes –will we go to the last embassy together or will we split up? We will find out when I see if Jakes jet is ready to be picked up now or later today. If it’s ready now, we will fly back to Dubai for the plane and split up or go to the embassy as a team then go get the plane. After I checked my emails the decision was made for us, the plane was ready – we were going to Dubai

When we landed in Dubai, I transferred my clothes to Jakes plane and Vicky and I went our separate ways.

Vicky and Josh would fly in the JBG plane to Riyadh and pick up Bob and Linda Jackson. Then they would fly to Madrid Spain and wait for us to meet up there. We would refuel both planes there and then fly home. If all the timing was right we would arrive at Morton about 7 AM Tuesday.

The information was that the bodies would arrive at Dover between 11 and noon. This would give Vicky and me some family time before going to the base.

The reason Vicky and I split up was the rules required two to fly a plane of that class, a pilot and a copilot so that’s what we were going to do act as copilots. Vicky and I could fill that function for the airport security cameras at least. Once the plane was airborne it could fly on auto-pilot, once the information was programmed into the computer anyhow. The pilot could take off and land the plane by himself so the copilot was just a backup.

It was a little white lie we did, but it was the best we could do today. I did not want to tie up two of our pilots for three or four days on commercial flights getting the plane back to Morton Field. We were going to be short as hell on pilots again after having to supply four more to the embassy security division.

I emphasized that I wanted both Josh and Vance to rest during the day as much as possible.

Abdul-Hakim Mohammad and his son met us at the plane with a hand-full of paper work. Most of it was to do with warranty and copies of the inspections and sale receipts.

Thirty minutes later we were in the flight line waiting our turn to take off. I was in the co-pilots seat trying to concentrate on everything Vance was telling me.

Jack did the same thing on every flight we flew with him. If there was an experienced co-pilot on the flight, Jack had us change places with the co-pilot. If it was an inexperienced co-pilot, then I would crouch between the seats and he would coach both of us.

I was surprised as hell when Vance – after engine run-up and equipment checks at ground control’s instructions – said, “Pull it onto the runway and stop at the white line. Leave your hand on the throttles.”

“November 397 Golf, this is the tower, you are cleared to take off.”

“Tower N397G Roger, we are cleared to take off,” Vance said.

Vance put his hand on mine, “Steady acceleration to full throttle,” as he pushed the throttles and my hand to the throttle stops.

“Now put both hands on the yoke, maintain it in the neutral position. Do you see the air speed indicator on your panel? Use the glance method – don’t stare at it – look mostly at the planes position on the runway keep it on the white line please. Now call out the airspeed as we go,” Vance said.

“60 knots, 70, 80.”

“Do you remember what I said rotate speed was?” Vance asked.

“Yes, 150 knots,” I replied.

“90, 100, 110, 120,” I said.

“130, 140,”

“Do you feel the plane getting light like it wants to fly?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“At 150 pull back on the yoke somewhat slowly, maintain the 150 air speed, no more that 20 degrees climb. Not too aggressive, don’t bang the tail on the runway, and don’t stall the plane,” Vance said.

At 150 I pulled back on the yoke and quickly lost sight of the runway.

“Fly 280 and level off at 20 thousand feet, secure the landing gear,” Vance said.

“Roger,” I said remembering more of the things that Jack had taught me as I glanced for the landing gear switch and then flipped it to the closed position.

“Gear doors are closed and I have three red lights,” I replied.

“That’s good,” Vance replied.

“We are climbing through 18000, throttle back to 60% and level out,” Vance said.

I pulled the throttles back, watching the computer display and lowered the nose. “We are at 19500 and 490 knots,” I replied.

“I’ve got the plane,” Vance said.

As soon as I saw him take his yoke, I took my hands away from mine. My palms were dripping sweat and my muscles hurting. I did not realize I had been that tense. I dried them on a paper towel.

“In 20 minutes we will start setting up to land. I will handle that. You did outstanding, an excellent job. Jack was not kidding when he told us that you picked up things quickly, were a fast learner and remembered what you were taught.” Vance said.

Half an hour later we were parking in the general aviation section of Kuwait International Airport.

With my smarter than smart phones – one clipped on each side of my belt – and my briefcase holding my two laptops left sitting by the stairs, Vance and I walked around the plane with him pointing out more things he said I should for as a pilot, like looking for oil leaks and anything else that could be wrong.

After all, this was the first flight in a while and a seven thousand mile flight was tomorrow; we wanted everything to be right. He did a more thorough job than normal.

Without having Vicky by my side, I needed to be more diligent taking notes of the conversations. Vicky always took her own set of notes and if I missed anything we could compare notes.

The day went on like all the rest minus Vicky, meet, greet, and interviews – same procedures, just a different place. Ambassador Rick Abbott – like the others on this trip – had the workup sheet from the security audit that Victor had ordered. He wanted to know what actions were being taken from the audit.

Ambassador Abbott didn’t know that I already had a copy of the report in an e-mail on my laptop, but also the approved request from the State Department.

“You are getting another 407, five additional employees and an additional Suburban as action items from the audit,” I replied.

“What? When? The audit was just completed Friday! It’s not even had time to get to someone’s desk yet,” he said.

I turned the laptop around after I opened the folder for Kuwait. Then I flipped through the pages of his audit, only now there were hand written notes and initials of high-ranking State Department officials. Then I opened the sheets stamped ‘Approved’ for the additional people and equipment.

“The when is within the next ten days for the people and the Bell 407? The Suburban’s were ordered a couple months ago as part of the normal replacement cycle. The old ones will just have to stay in use a while longer. I will use the new ones to fill the extra request,” I said.

I finished my business and an hour later was sitting in the co-pilot seat again. We had to make a circle back over Saudi territory to avoid the continuing insanity that was Iraq. Then it was over Jordan, Israel and then the Mediterranean Sea. Josh Vicky, Bob and Linda were already in Madrid enjoying the sights. We had a long night ahead of us.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.

It was another new day and another new embassy that needed visiting to day. The routine was beginning to be a habit. I was beginning to miss Jenny and the girls back home. Vicky was so tired last night that when we finally hit the bed that she fell quickly asleep. But it was a different story when she woke up, She has that look in her eye that Jenny had when she was horny and was not going to take no for an answer. A quick solution was to shower together and quench our needs for now saving the best for later tonight.

We enjoyed a light breakfast. Our short flight today was to Doha Qatar; it would be just 500 miles, but first things first.

Carl Roe drove us back to the airport where we met Vance and Josh by the plane. I asked Vance if he had heard anything from the Gulfstream dealer.

“No, not a word boss, but they know we are here.”

Because all the embassies left on this trip were just 500 to 700 miles apart we did not need any fuel and would not until we departed for home on Monday. With such a short flight we had a little time to kill to check out the plane again.

“Josh, Vicky, Vance and I are going to walk down to the plane to look at it again. Did you see if the avionics shop had the adapter you were looking for yesterday?’ I asked.

“I did not to think to ask them here, while you are doing that I’ll go check,” Josh replied.

“While you are getting your part, if someone comes out I have an offer to make. If they don’t, they can keep the plane. I am not going to beg anyone to take my money; that is just not my nature,” I said.

“When we got to the plane we walked around the plane and looked at it again. The stairs was locked like before so we could not get inside. As we were looking I received a text that needed to do a VCATS with Victor.

“Vance, I need the APU started, it looks like this VCATS is going to be a long one,” I said as we walked towards our plane.

I settled into my padded seat and fired up the computer, logged in on the VCATS system and accepted Victor’s page.

“Good morning BJ, at least I think it is morning there. I just have a couple more things I need to add to yesterday’s list. You need to get two more Black Hawks, two more 407s and they need pilots to go with them. The contract changes are in the email to Marcy. The hazard pay will apply to the pilots too,” Victor said.

Victor the Black Hawks are not going to be a problem, we bought two extra in the military purchase. One of the 407’S that came back should be done by the time I get home and I think the other is 50% complete. They are not in as bad a condition as we were led to believe,” I replied. I wished Victor a good night’s sleep and signed off.

I sent Lorrie an e-mail with the new request and location where the choppers were to go. I added a note that I would call the Iowa air national commander to schedule a pickup for the two Black Hawks on Monday and to talk to Jason about starting the paperwork for the new pilots.

“Fire-em up as soon as Josh gets back; let’s go, Vance,” I said.

“Boss, There are people outside waiting to talk to you first,” Vance replied.

“Ms. Jones, I am Abdul Mohammad. My father sent me out to negotiate with you on the purchase of the N397G that you were looking at. As you can see I am not set in the old ways like he is,” the young man said in perfect English. I noticed he was wearing a UCLA class ring.

I introduced Vicky as the executive vice president of training and security of my company.

“Let me open it up so you can look inside. My Father said a couple of your representatives took pictures of the inside yesterday,” Abdul said as we walked towards the jet with my representatives.

The pictures that Vance sent in his email were great, but actually looking inside it was incredible – the jet was as fantastic on the inside as it looked on the outside. It was a 2010 and only had 1200 hours of flight time that included only 600 landings. It had a well – equipped forward galley with the head in the rear. For the passenger area, it had the king interior, 14 plush heated leather seats with 2 fold out day couches that turned into single day beds.

“What’s the price?” I asked.

Abdul handed me a folded paper with a number on it. I shook my head no, “That is more that it is worth,” I said.

I took my pen and drew a line through his price and wrote my own that was 3.5 million below what Marcy said it was worth and 7 million less than he wanted. Then I slid him the piece of paper.

Abdul looked at the amount and said, “I am sorry, but our numbers are too far apart- I cannot take this back to Father. We need to close the gap; surely there is some room for negotiation.”

“We can split the difference – with the plane cleaned, full of fuel, checked out and ready to fly out tomorrow afternoon,” I replied.

“How are you planning on handling the funding? Do you want us to arrange the financing – we can get you good rates,” Abdul stated.

“No financing. I will pay it in full by EFT,” I replied.

“I will take this to Father to approval. It will only take a moment,” he replied.

“The EFT can’t be done until the banks open in America at 5 PM local time,” I added before he left.

When Abdul returned he was not alone, this time he came back in a very high end air-conditioned golf cart with a Mercedes emblem on the front and his father in the passenger seat.

“MS. Jones, BJ, this is my father, Abdul-Hakim, he has the sales contract for us to sign,” Abdul said.

I thought for a moment and then said, “Abdul-Hakim, if I remember correctly that means ‘Servant of the Wise One’.”

“Ah, you have studied well?” he said.

“No, not well, just a little,” I replied.

“I accept your offer on the plane MS. Jones. I have the standard Gulf Stream Sales contract for you. I will only take a few minutes to fill it out. I understand that you cannot do the Electronics Funds Transfer until the banks open in the US,” Abdul-Hakim confirmed.

“That’s correct, I need to spend the day and evening in Doha, Qatar. I’ll call the office and have our banker call you direct to make all the arrangements,” I replied. As I wrote Marcy’s office number and took one of Abdul-Hakim’s cards and after we signed the of letter intent to buy.

‘We need the fueling and clean up to be done so we can leave with it Monday morning,” I stated. “I know that is not much time but that is all we have,” I said

Thirty minutes later we were airborne, an hour later we landed in Doha Qatar. The routine was the same, interviews with the Ambassador, embassy staff, and the JGB employees with time left over for shop talk.

The Doha Qatar US embassy was one of those on the list to receive five more employees and one chopper from JBG. There was a lengthy discussion about when and how this was to happen.

I excused myself at five to make the call to Marcy about the EFT with all the details. I read all the numbers off the card Abdul had given me. I need not have worried, Abdul called while I was on the phone.

Of course there was another grand state dinner with all of the important guests. Vicky and I escaped again without creating an incident. It seemed that the numbers of important guests grew at each consecutive state dinner and the conversations more detailed as each one passed by. The talks began to move in directions that I knew were above my security level.

It was nearly midnight before Vicky and I turned in. I responded to a few emails from the office and a quick VCATS for updated information on the Koons family. The next couple of days were going to be busy.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.

To all Loyal readers, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

After wrapping up with the last of the interviews we excused ourselves to the guest quarters under the pretenses of freshening up for dinner – our intent was to VCATS with the whole gang at the office. All the players were there with Queen Jenny and her big baby filled abdomen sitting in my office chair, looking like she owned it with Marcy and Lorrie at her sides. Behind them stood Jason, Renay Reese, Cindy. Ching Lee joined us by remote.

The more I thought about it, we should set up one of the meeting rooms under lock and key for emergencies only and high end executive meetings like this.

“OK we will deal with the bad things first,” I announced.

“First off, I heard back from Amy and the General – Amy has confirmed that the bodies will definitely be landing late Tuesday morning at Dover AFB. General McJames has been able to get approval for our C130 and G5 to land at Dover. The casket of Albert Koons will be transferred to the C130 and then be flown to the Lancaster Airport,” I stated. I finished that statement with, “I think that will be better than trying to motorcade that far,” I said.

I would like the honor guard to meet the C17 when it lands at the base.

“Vicky and I will land at Morton Tuesday morning and will change, then fly to Dover with our honor guard. From there, we go to Lancaster to transfer to the funeral home hearse,” I said.

“Ching Lee, the service needs to be on Wednesday if it can be done. Work with the family, the pastor, the funeral home and let me know as soon as it is firm,” I said.

“Have you received any information from the VA for Phil Adams yet?” I asked.

“The VA uses Smith’s Funeral Home for the burials at the Preston VA cemetery. I have also done a complete search on Phil’s family he is the last on his family tree,” Jenny said.

“OK, Smith’s will need to be there to get the body on Tuesday and they need to plan the service for Thursday,” I said.

“On to the order of business, what have you learned about the plane,” I asked.

“BJ, have you seen Vance’s pictures of the interior of the jet yet?” Marcy asked.

“No, I have not had the chance to check my emails,” I replied.

Marcy continued by saying, “the picture of the outside that you sent were great- when we got Vance’s pictures of the interior I thought Lorrie was going to have one of Jenny’ babies,” Marcy said.

“Marcy!” Lorrie uttered.

“As I was saying, Jake fell in love in love with it too – as we all have” Marcy replied.

“Jack looked at the avionics list, they are first rate and apparently there was an upgrade on the jet before it left the factory.”

“After Robbie looked over the copied log books from Vance, he called and talked to the representative who he uses for technical support from Gulf Stream. They pulled the complete history on the plane.

“In Gulf Stream’s report it states there have been no repairs and the plane has been back to the factory for its annual inspections.” Lorrie said.

“Jake is working with Jeanna on the money part. I will have firm numbers later today for you,” Marcy said.

Then Marcy commented by saying, “Lorrie wants us to buy it even if Jake does not want it. We are going to be hurting for jets at the end of January and all of February; the vacation rentals are nearly full and that means more flights than we can handle without an additional plane.”

“You don’t know the half of it yet,” I replied.

“Jason, how is the hiring for the 30 going?” I asked.

“Roseanne has made contact with the first 30, and only couple have not responded yet. Those who have will be here on Monday for all the fun, “Jason answered.

“Well, that is good start, but here is another problem. We need to hire another 80; we need a total of one hundred and twenty. Vicky and I had the pleasure of sitting through a meeting with Victor Edmonson and Elmer Hobart – the topic was on yesterday’s review of the embassy security audit. The state department has authorized 18 embassies that are in high risk areas, North Africa and the Middle East each get five more contract security personnel from JBG ASAP,” I replied. That means we need a grand total of 100 more employees,” I said.

“In order to get the numbers up quickly, pull all the college security employee files of those who are former military and closely look them over. What I am thinking is we offer them a temporary assignment to the embassy group for no more than a 60 day rotation with hazard pay,” I suggested.

I finished the statement with, “It will take that long to get the new hires up to speed – to get them equipped, to train them and get them in place,” I said then added.

“The hazard pay for the time they are there will be set at, five hundred dollars a day – tax free, is the new pay rate at those 18 embassies now. I will send you the list in a few minutes Marcy it goes into effect on Monday.”

“WOW” Marcy said, “That is really going to cut into our profit margin.”

“No, the bill back to state is now eight hundred a day per employee,” I responded.

“Whew, that’s better,” Marcy replied.

“Here is the rest, Marcy, you need to order 18 more armored Suburban’s for those embassies. They each get another one and you are going to have to torque on the up-fitter ASAP is the word.”

“As a result of the audit the rest of the choppers need to be swapped out as soon as we can get it done. We need to rebuild all that come back, if it is financially feasible. The State Depart is looking at requests from the embassies for more choppers,”

“To fulfill this order we will use the Iowa National Guard they have a C130-30 – the extended model. We can put the Black Hawks in without disassembling so much of the choppers, just the rotors I was told. The guard has a bunch of pilots who need flight time. We pay fuel and expenses and they will ferry the choppers for us.”

“When we have 8 suburban ready to go, the DOD will fly them out of Dover on a C17 to wherever they need to go. The back bill to us $12000 an hour. If they can schedule a return with DOD freight, we will only have to pay one way. Marcy, the add-ons are to be billed to the State Department as we.”

“Jason, a couple more things; find out from the gun club if any land is available. We need to build a mock town for hostage rescue and live fire training. Check all the existing employees and possible new hires for demolition and explosives experience.”

“As a second thought, see if the farmer will sell us his farm that butts up to the airport. If not, see if he will lease us the property for a 10 year term. If it comes to that, make it worth his while. Jason, pull any help you need from any department to get these things done,” I said.

“Jenny, get with Jamie; tell her the firearms training is going to go ballistic. It is time she had a staff of her own. Ask her if she knows of a couple of people who she would like to have work under her to help with the training – maybe a few members from her Olympic team might fit the bill,” I said.

“Before I forget, I have the pleasure to go to Washington with Victor on Friday, we will be testifying before the Senate Embassy Security Committee. That’s why I hope the funerals will happen before then,” I said.

“I know this is a lot to dump on you guys so quickly. I wish we were there to help. Vicky and I have to run; we have to play politics again and play nice to people who would just as soon cut our throats. Keep me informed, I will try to VCATS again before we call it a night.”

Vicky and I went to another embassy feast with the powers to be from Dubai. Ambassadors from other countries were invited guests. I was introduced to the British, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Indian ambassadors. Again, the evening ended without me causing an international incident. I was starting to relax a little at these events – was it a good thing, or a bad thing? Only time would tell.

It was midnight in Dubai, 11 AM at Summers Lane, we had another VCATS with the back home – it was a quick one. Things were moving on all fronts. By the time we got up in the morning, there may be more new on things in the works; at least I hoped so. We expressed of love and loneliness at being away from our mates again and then called it a night.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.

Vicky and I were up early; I guess we were getting used to the different time zones we had traveled to. As usual there was a quick shower together as we did back home then a quick breakfast and a short trip to the airport where Josh and Vance were waiting on us.

Checking the time I called to wish my mates a good night – it was 10 PM there – with words of love and how much I missed them; the feelings were mutual. I promised to spend quality time with them when I returned.

I called Ching Lee and repeated the same message to her. She told me that she had just sent her e-mail for the funeral arrangements. Linda Koons wanted to use the Groffs Family Funeral Home for his wake and Lancaster Methodist Church for his funeral- with the Pastor leading the service. The only thing missing was the date and times.

I sent an e-mail to all the college security sites and the office group, “As you all know by now, JBG embassy security division lost two of our fellow employee’s in a terrorist attack this week.”

“My wish is to form two details that would act as honor guards for our two fallen soldiers in arms.”

“I need all former Military personnel who have their dress parade uniforms, for an honor guards at Dover AFB and the transfer at the funeral home and place of internment.”

“The dress uniforms of the JGB College police force are welcome to.”

“Flights will be arranged as dates and times are confirmed.”

“If you can participate, please contact Cindy to sign up – ASAP,” I said.

After I finished it, I let Vicky proof read it before I sent it as a mass-email to all the college security sites, and the office group – including the new college police force.

The flight to Dubai was a short hop – less than five hundred miles – but it allowed us to finish all the emails. The gym office was in the process of shutting down for the night; it was 11 EST now. I pulled up the live video of the gym to see all the normal agency groups staying in shape.

In all my travels I have never come across an airport like Dubai. Dubai International Airport. It is a monster on eight thousand acres, employing ninety thousand people.

According to the airport information guide over seventy-five million people passed through its turnstiles last year.

It was so large that it took thirty minutes for Vance to navigate the jet to the general aviation parking.

The general aviation parking for us was in the section next to the Gulf Stream dealer. It was a huge Gulf Stream dealer with a row of new and used planes, with specifications on a pedestal in front of each plane.

Not having any real exercise for a couple days, Vicky and I decided that we would walk to the end of the line of new and used planes and back while we waited on our embassy ride to get here.

We walked down the row of planes and looked at them. There were G2 and G3s in the used row, G5s along with the newer G550 and G650 models in the new row – but then I should not have been surprised, Dubai was the billionaire capital of the world with all that easy mid-eastern oil money.

Lorrie had been looking for a G5 for Jake and coming up empty, Gulf Stream insisted that there were none available on the market or in dealer inventories.

Then it hit me; these were not on the inventory list because a wealthy investor bought them as an investment. The investor paid cash after negating a bottom line cash deal that may have involved more than one plane. Lorrie and Marcy had done the same thing when we bought the Bombardiers. Gulf Stream didn’t care as long as the sold column kept growing and the factory stayed busy.

As we walked, a maroon G5 came into view. It was the same year as the one we flew in on; it was in the used row. Maroon was Jakes favorite color and the way they had worked the stripe was beautiful.

I took out my smarter than smart phone and started taking pictures. I began with the pedestal in front of the plane containing the spec sheet that did not have a price on it. Then I walked around taking a complete set of 360 pictures of the plane. I wanted to look inside but assumed that the cabin steps were locked. When I was done snapping pictures, I sent the entire set of pictures and data sheet to Lorrie, asked that she evaluate the plane with Jake and that I would get interior pictures too. I asked Lorrie to research what it was worth ASAP, and to see if Jake was interested.

While we had been walking and looking, the embassy pickup team had arrived and was headed our way with Vance and Josh in tow. A golf cart blew past them with two men in traditional Arab garb.

As the cart was going past us, they slammed the brakes so hard they left black skid marks on the tarmac. One of them began gesturing and speaking in a mix of Arabic that I thought was unusual. I listened to him tell me that they would take us to the terminal, that a woman’s place was not on the tarmac.

Boy, you they in for a surprise in about a minute, I thought.

Vance, Josh and the four men from the embassy – two of whom were JGB – almost walked right over the two from the cart, simply moving them aside.

“Hello bosses, it is great to see you two finally made it here in one piece. I’m Carl Roe; are you thinking about adding another plane to your fleet? I heard you bought another dozen helicopters to add to the ones you already own not so long ago.”

“Yes, we are looking to add at least one more long range jet to our fleet, possibly more. These four to five day embassy trips are taking the plane out of its normal day to day operations for one of our other division. It is normally assigned to our Delmarva Air Charter & Florida Vacations division. The southern vacation season is in full swing making things complicated,” I replied.

“On top of that, my brother has a contract to clean up the Japan nuclear plant that had the meltdown. His contract requires him to go from Maryland to Japan for a week once a month. Using this jet would allow him to fly there and communicate with his people there, while using one of the choppers when he is in Maryland to deal with his construction business in Pennsylvania and Virginia. He wants to buy one and lease it back to us – the chopper is on us,” I replied.

“Vance, if you can be so kind, find a salesman to open this plane and take a complete set of interior shots and send them to Lorrie,” I said.

“Will do, boss, and I will look over the log books, call Robbie and read them to him,” Vance replied.

I handed the one that had been less mouthy a business card with my cell number circled, “I will be here until tomorrow morning, but in the region for a couple more days, work me up the cash price; fueled, inspected, certified and ready to fly,” I told him. Lorrie would have all the data and the pictures when she logged in to her email in the morning – 3 PM our time today.

“The Ambassador is waiting for you to go over the security items we determined with yesterday’s audit, he has already sent the list to Victor Edmonson.”

Vicky and I sat through the review of the security audit on VCATS with Victor Edmonson and Elmer Hobart. Elmer controlled the money request when it came to Congress. It was a very informative meeting and some of the things were going to be difficult for JGB to implement right away.

The first terrorist attack that was at Benghazi had been a fiasco from every angle there was. It started with poor intelligence gathering, a bad response, then the handling of the events after and the attack and a lack of truth in reporting to the media, severely damages the administration, the powers to be learned from their mistakes.

Victor was going to hold a full blown press conference in Washington on Friday and we both had to testify before congress, the day after the final funerals. I was expected to be there to make a statement and do at least one of the Sunday morning talk shows. “O – Joy,” I thought, next week’s embassy visits would be postponed. I wondered if Vicky was up to the task, maybe with Mark assisting.

By the time we finished 3 VCATS and MTAC conferences and finally got through the employee and embassy staff interviews, there was just enough time for a VCATS with home office before another state dinner.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.

There were two versions of chapter 310. Which one do you like the best?

I opened the e-mails pertaining to my two deceased employees and started looking through them. The information on Albert Koons and his family was quite thorough especially for the short amount of time I gave them to collect it all. As to Phil Adams files, there was not much to work with, he had no living relatives on record that they could find. They even tried going the genealogy route. I have to say, my group might put Eric’s and Frank’s people to shame – Damn when the team goes digging for me they leave no stone unturned.

The first e-mail I looked at was labeled ‘Albert Koons JBG service Number SD1601695’. When I opened the email there was a list of attachments, with a statement from the gang, “BJ, this is the first time preparing a document of this magnitude for you. In regards to Albert Koons remains, at this time there are no attachments in regards to taking possession of his body, but we did get tentative information for his burial arrangements. We hope those answers come when Amy relays the necessary information to us. All the questions you asked us to find on Mr. Albert Koons that we could find are in these labeled files.

1) home address & Koons family tree
a. Home address
b. Name,
c. age,
d. occupation,
e. Tel.
2) Family finances
a. Were family stood before the death
b. Why it stands now
c. Possible outcome
3) Albert Koons military records
4) Albert Koons Black Water/JBG records
5) Burial arrangements

File 1 home address & Koons family tree:

I flipped to the first attachment to find out a little bit about the family. As indicated, it was about the family members. It still hurts when I have to read a family file. Albert Koons left behind a family of 3 – a wife and 2 daughters 8 and 12. The general information on the family told us where and how we could contact them if we had to.

Albert Koons
1340 K Street
Lancaster PA. 17573.
Home Tel. 717-555-3390

Albert koons: age 40 DOB: 01/13/1976
Husband & father DOD: 01/10/2016

Occupation:
JBG Employee – Service number SD1601695

Head office: Stationed at:
JBG Gym Morocco Embassy
1000 Summers Ln. Embassy Row
Kent Island Md. 21658 Rabat Morocco
410-404-5555 202- 235-1903 *Public affairs US State Department

Linda koons:
Wife age 39 DOB: 03/28/1977
Occupation:
Management Walmart

Name of work: Walmart Corporation USA
Address Walmart circle
Atlanta Georgia
Tel. 717-555-9000 * Lancaster Store

Caroline koons:
Daughter age 12 DOB: 09/15/2004
Occupation:
Student
Name of school Lancaster Elementary
Address 1232 School Drive
Lancaster Pa.
Tel. ***********

Mindy koons:
Daughter age 8, DOB: 05/12/2008
Occupation:
Student
Name of school Lancaster Elementary
Address 1232 School Drive
Lancaster Pa.
Tel. ************

File 2 Family finances:

When I opened the second file labeled Family finances – at first this file did not sit well with me. Then after looking it over a few times I started to feel a little better. The team dug deep into the Koons financial situation. Not going to college and not having a financial background like Marcy and Jeanna – they wrote it in terms that I could understand with Vicky’s help if I needed

The Koons financials were typical of most middle class American families. They had a house with a mortgage, a car that they made payments on and credit debt that all families cannot live without. The Koons did not live paycheck to paycheck.

The team put in a few charts.

Income and savings:

Salaries:
Albert Koons
Base salary $73,000
Hazard pay $73,000
$146,000 Note tax free international, work assignment

Linda Koons $46,000.00
Total income… $192,000.00

Banks, trust fund, stocks:

House bills
Annual House mortgage payment. $ 33600.00
Remaining BAL …$180,000.00
House insurance……… $ 1700.00
House Taxes ……….. $ 4850.00
Electric bill…………. $ 1800.00
Total ……….…$41950.00
Motor vehicle
Car payment annual…. $ 6780.00
Remaining BAL……$ 34000.00
Car insurance…………. $ 1250.00
Car taxes………………..$ 0
Total…………… $ 8030.00
Life insurance policy
Albert Koons ins. Policy… $ 75,000 annual cost $480.00
Linda Koons ins. Policy…. $ 75,000 annual cost $480.00
Total………………..$960.00
Medical insurance
Annual cost $15000.00 currently paid by JBG

Changing for monthly bills:
Average Credit card debt…..$28,000 minimum payment $480.00 X12= $5760.00
Rough totals for the year
CYTD $8423.00 Albert
$2653.00 Linda
Total $11076.00

Total debt … ……..$242000.00
Total life insurance $350,000.00
Annual expenses
With out food and clothing $71200.00
Food and clothing estimate $15000.00
Total $86,200.00

Albert contributed two thirds directly into the family house hold with Mrs. Koons bringing in the remaining one third of their income. The rest of the money that Albert made went in to a joint investment portfolio that would be used for retirement. I noticed in case of a death, the Koons took out a life insurance policy on each other. According to Jeanna, the life insurance policy for Albert was $75,000. It was too low to be of much help on its own to Mrs. Koons. But when added to the Black Water policy of $275,000 that JBG picked up – the two life insurance policies combined at $350,000 to give Mrs. Koons an amount good enough to pay off the house and car with some money left over.

Jeanna projected the family finances after everything had settled down as long as Mrs. Koons continued receiving the same income. As long as the family did not have a devastating financial loss, the family will most likely make ends meet. The family could stay in the low middle class without ever touching the joint investment portfolio.

There were two things that stuck out that bothered me. The first was the family medical coverage, that plan was what Black water had – that sucked. We had not been able to replace it yet. It was by contract that held in place by orders of the bankruptcy court until Jan 1 the following year before we could change it over to our better coverage. The second was that there was no plan to help put her kids through college.

Another bright spot in Albert’s financial planning was that he chose to participate in Black Water’s company savings and thrift plan; he had contributed the maximum 3% that Black Water matched. At JBG the limit was 5% not that that would do him any good now. That plan now had $48,000 a little cushion but not much.

With the projections that Jeanna gave Mrs. Koons and her children were not well off but not on the street. The family needed some kind of help especially planning for the children’s college.

After reviewing their finances, I turned my attention to his military and Black Water/JBG’s records.

File 3: Albert Koons military records

Albert had spent 15 years in the army and received an honorable. I was a bit surprised that he did not do the full 20 to receive a decent military retirement package. He served in the first Desert Storm and did one tour in Afghanistan before working at the pentagon for 5 yrs.
At the same time his wife stayed with her girls in Pa. As to Albert’s military retirement income, I will have to ask the general that question. Because he only put in 15 out of the 20 years needed for a good retirement package, I don’t know what Mrs. Koons will receive. It won’t be as good as a 20 year deal.

File 4: Albert Koons Black Water/JBG records.

After an honorable discharge from the army, he joined the embassy security corps. Under Black Water he served 5 years and was given good evaluations. One thing that stands out is that he served at two different embassies. There were no evaluations under JBG because I had not scheduled a visit to the Rabat Morocco embassy.

File 5: Albert Koons burial arrangements:

This set of files was limited. It simply said that the Koons Family was members of the Lancaster Methodist Church.

At this point I gave up and took a bathroom break, upon returning – I dove into Phil Adams email labeled – Phil Adams JBG service #160194

When I opened Phil’s email I was surprised to see very little information. Instead of seeing a file with next of kin, and a burial request all I saw was a footnote. I did get his military and Black Water records.

As to Phil Adams personal life the office kept hitting dead ends. Phil’s records indicated that he was orphaned at an early age and had no siblings, as well as any living relatives. The office took the research one step further by doing a genealogy search. What bothered me the most was there was no record of religious beliefs. They had no luck there either. I did not like it but the VA might be the only solution to help him find his final resting place.

As to Phil’s military service, like Albert he had joined the Army after high school and went right to war and also served in the first Desert Storm. What was different was that Phil had served two tours in Afghanistan before entering the embassy corps as a security officer to continue serving his country under Black Water.

When looking at his finances, like me, he had invested wisely and saved almost every penny as I did into investment accounts. I bet he made Marcy proud, putting every Lincoln to good use. Phil also had the company life insurance policy for the $275,000 and made the beneficiary, “The Army’s Children’s College Fund.” This fund was set up to help children whose parent or parents were killed in action to attend college. What I noticed was that his funds were not added to any beneficiary. When I call the gym I will ask Jason and Jenny if we can tie his investment portfolio to the trust fund.

When I gave up reading I moved on to the phone calls. First of the calls was to Amy at the State Department, “Has anyone notified the families yet?” I asked because it was now two in the afternoon on the Eastern Shore.

“No; no one has been notified anyone yet. There has been no detailed information released to the media either, a press briefing is scheduled before tonight’s 6PM news cycle. The media is pushing hard for any information,” she replied.

“Amy, hold off on the names until I can notify the Koons family. I am sending representatives to the Albert Koons house. I want them to hear the news from us, not a news person knocking on their door. I will do what I can to reach your 6pm deadline,” I said. Thin I asked what the status of the bodies was.

“It is not looking like the bodies will be flown out for another day at least,” Amy added.

The next call was to the office; it was two in the afternoon on the shore. During the conference call I decided to send Ching Lee and Lisa to Lancaster. Marcy and Lorrie needed to stay in the office – Marcy and Lorrie because it was so hectic. As to Jenny, there was no way I would send her anywhere in her condition or allow her to be under any more stress then she already was. Ching Lee was the best choice because her staff had thing well under control. When it came to Lisa, that was easy, she didn’t need any gps, she knew her way around Lancaster like the back of her hand; she had every antique shop etched in her memory and she was compassionate, understanding and caring.

Also, Lisa had volunteered almost before I finished.

“Take clothes for a week – you need to be there as soon as you can. There is a press briefing is scheduled before tonight’s 6PM news cycle. Call the Lancaster Methodist Church from the plane, talk directly to the Pastor and ask him if the Koons family are members of his church. If they are, tell him there is an emergency and you need his assistance as soon as you arrive there,” I said.

“As it stands, it is going to be a couple of days before the bodies will leave Morocco and I assume to Dover AFB. With Phil Adams we will most likely have to work with the VA to have him buried at the Veterans Cemetery in Preston, unless some family comes forward,” I replied.

Four hours later I received an e-mail.

“BJ; Lisa and I met Pastor Timothy Bounds at the church at 4PM. We explained the tragedy and our desire to inform the family before the news of the story broke. Pastor Bounds followed us to the Koons house. BJ that was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Linda turned into a basket case, and I didn’t fare much better – it was really bad. I am really glad we had Pastor Bounds with us; he was a miracle worker. I hope I never have to do something like this again.”

“I called Amy to tell her that the notification was taken care do.”

“Pastor Bounds and we are going to stay for a couple more hours then return in the morning. We have a room at the Lancaster Holiday North Motel. Let us know as soon as you get any information.” Love C Lee.

My heart ached for the family and Ching Lee. I had seen and been involved with so much death – in so many places – my emotions are now hardened to its effects.

Morning came quickly after a troubled night’s sleep. We were up early and enjoyed a good American breakfast by the ambassador’s personal chef. I wondered how they got the bacon in a land that considered pork the kiss of death. After breakfast we packed and headed back to the plane.

Looking out the window as we passed the King Khalid International airport, if one didn’t know there was an attack there yesterday you would think that a few plane just caught on fire. The bodies were gone, the fence repaired, all the vehicles gone too, the only things left were the carcasses of the three jetliners that were blown up.

It looked like they were in the process of scrapping them in place. There were dumpsters next to them and they were pumping the remaining fuel out of them. A big excavator with some kind of shear on the end of the boom was parked near by.

As we came to the gate, Captain Horsey was there to meet us. The base had put on double lock down as a result of yesterday’s attack. The security was so tight it took two levels of approval for non-military personnel to get on base.

It was eight hundred miles to Masqat Oman – our next stop on this trip – no more than a two hour flight. Masqat international Airport was spared the latest round of attacks. It was no wonder; they ran a very tight ship on security.

The process continued with more interviews with our employees and the embassy staff. Today was a little different. I sat in on the Embassy Security Review meeting that was ordered as a result of yesterday’s attack. This order was sent to embassies worldwide in order to complete a review today and upgrade their security protocol

It was three in the afternoon – Oman time – when I was finally able to have enough time to myself to make the first call of many back to the states. The first was to the gym, then Washington and finally Lancaster. It was 7AM eastern time.

My first call was to Jenny to see how she was doing and feeling. She had a good restful night and that made me feel a lot better. I asked about the mood in the office.

“It’s Solemn; Marcy is sending an all employee email this morning with what we know along with family information. It is also going to have a link to donate for the Koons family,” Jenny said.

My next call was to Marcy for a general update on everything.

“Everything is good, just wanting you home soon,” she replied.

“We will be home Tuesday morning. I think the Koons funeral will be before the end of the week I want to be there for that. What kind of progress is Jake and Dad making on the bullet stops? We are going to need them sooner than expected if we hire for the rapid response team with any kind of speed,” I replied.

“I know that some of the materials came yesterday and Bob’s Construction and the J&J welders are coming Friday,” Marcy replied.

Next on the list was Lorrie, even though I could look online I asked for an update on flights. Then I asked if either of the C130s would be back Wednesday and after.

“One will be back Wednesday morning but leaves again on Sunday, the other one is on an extended mission and won’t be back until midweek next week,” Lorrie replied.

The next call was to Amy for an update from the State Department.

“A C17 will pick up the four bodies from Morocco tomorrow and will go to Rhine Mein Air Force Base. The morgue there will do their best with what they have to work with. They will be there at least two days, then flown to Dover on Tuesday. Then they will be turned over to JBG,” Amy replied.

I had to remind myself that today was Friday. The bodies would be picked up on Saturday with two days in Germany, so the earliest a funeral could be held would be Wednesday or Thursday.

The next call was to Ching Lee to fill her and Lisa in on what I knew.

“Please be delicate but find out what funeral home the family wants to use,” I said.

The next call was to General McJames. I needed information and permissions that only he could arrange for picking up the bodies at Dover and I knew it would take several days to get approvals.

The day was nearly finished – one last duty to do and that was another state dinner with Oman’s rulers as guest.

Then Vicky and I spent the night as guests of the ambassador in the embassy guest room.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.

I opened the e-mails and started reading the first file labeled Albert Koons JBG service number SD1601695. Albert Koons 40, married, wife Linda and 2 kids, both girls, Mindy age 8, Caroline 12. The family lived in Lancaster PA. They had a mortgage, a car payment and credit card debt like most families. They were members of the Lancaster Methodist Church.

According to Jeanna there was one life insurance policy for $75,000, not enough to pay off the house or their debts. He also had the JBG life insurance policy that we carried over from Black Water for $275,000.

Albert had spent 15 years in the army before joining Black Water. The record from both his military (the army) and the evaluations from Black Water were in good standings.

I opened the next file labeled Phil Adams JBG service number SD160194. Phil had a similar had a similar life history with a few exceptions. He was orphaned at an early age and had been an only child. HR could not find any records in regards to any living relatives. Like Albert he had joined the Army and went to war in the first Desert Storm and had done a couple tours in Afghanistan before joining Black Water. The beneficiary on the $275,000 for the company life insurance was the Army’s Childrens College Fund.

First I called Amy at the State Department, “Has anyone notified the families yet?” I asked it was now two in the afternoon on the Eastern Shore.

“No; no one has been notified yet. There has been no detailed information released to the media yet either, a press briefing is scheduled before tonight’s 6PM news cycle. The media is pushing hard for information,” she replied.

“It is not looking like the bodies will be flown out for another day at least,” Amy added.

“I am sending representatives to Albert Koons house. I want them to hear the news from us, not a news person knocking on their door,” I said.

I called the office; it was 2:30 in the afternoon on the shore. On the conference call I decided to send Ching Lee and Lisa to Lancaster. Marcy and Lorrie needed to stay in the office and there was no way I would let Jenny go there, she was under enough stress as it is. Lisa knew her way around Lancaster like the back of her hand; she had every antique shop etched in her memory and she was compassionate, understanding and caring.

Plus Lisa had volunteered almost before I had a chance to finish what I wanted to say on the mater.

“Take clothes for a week – you need to be there as soon as you can get there. Call the Lancaster Methodist Church, talk directly to the Pastor and ask him if the Albert Koons family is a member of his church. If they are, tell him or her that there is a family emergency and you need their assistance as soon as you arrive there,” I said.

“As it stands, it is going to be a couple of days before the bodies will leave Morocco and I assume to Dover AFB. As for Phil Adams, we will most likely have to work with the VA to have him buried at the Veterans Cemetery in Preston, unless some family member comes forward. See if he has any type of will registered anywhere, maybe we can find some answers there,” I replied

Four hours later I received an e-mail.

“BJ; Lisa and I met Pastor Timothy Bounds at the church at 4PM. We explained the tragedy and our desire to inform the family before the news broke the story. Pastor Bounds followed us to the Koons house. BJ that was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Linda turned into a basket case, it was really bad. I am really glad we had Pastor Bounds with us; he was a miracle worker. I hope I never have to do something like this again.”

“Pastor Bounds and we are going to stay for a couple more hours then return in the morning. We have a room at Holiday North Motel. Let us know as soon as you get any more information.” Love C Lee.

My heart ached for the family, Ching Lee and Linda. I had seen and been involved with so much death – so many places – my emotions were hardened to its effects.

Morning came quickly after a troubled night of sleep. We were up early and enjoyed a good American breakfast by the ambassador’s personal chef. I wondered how they got the bacon into a land that considered pork the kiss of death. Then the reminder of our first day here cam back as we rode past yesterday’s attack on our way to the jet. The bodies were gone, the fence repaired, all the vehicles gone too, the only things left were the carcasses of the three jetliners.

It looked like they were in the process of scrapping them in place. There were dumpsters next to them and it looked like they were pumping the remaining fuel out of them as well. A big excavator with some kind of shear on the end of the boom was parked near by.

Capt. Horsey met us at the gate. The base had double downed on security after yesterday’s attack. It took two levels of approval for non-military personnel to get on base even with our ID’s.

It was eight hundred miles to Masqat Oman – our next stop on this trip – no more than a two hour flight. Masqat international Airport was spared the latest round of attacks. It was no wonder; they ran a very tight ship as far as security.

The process continued with more interviews with our employees and the embassy staff. After yesterday I was able to sit in on the newly ordered Embassy Security Review. Every embassy world wide was ordered to complete a review today and upgrade their security protocol as best as they could.

It was three in the afternoon – Oman time – when I made the first call of many to the states: to the gym, to Washington and then to Lancaster on this day, it was 7AM eastern time when I started the calls.

My first call was to Jenny to see how she was doing and feeling. She had a good restful night and that made me feel a lot better. Then I asked about the mood in the office.

“Solemn, Marcy is sending an all employee email this morning with what we know along with family information. It is also going to have a link to donate for the Koons family,” Jenny said.

My next call was to Marcy for a general update on everything. “Everything is good, just wanting you two home soon,” she replied.

“We will hopefully be home Tuesday morning. I think the Koons funeral will before the end of the week I want to be there for that if I can. What kind of progress is Jake and Dad making on the bullet stops for the airport target range? We are going to need them sooner than expected if we hire for the rapid response team with any kind of speed,” I replied.

“I know that some of the materials came yesterday and Bob’s Construction and the J&J welders are coming Friday,” Marcy replied.

Next on the list was Lorrie, even though I could look online I asked for an update on flights. Then I asked if either of the C130s would be back Wednesday and after.

“One will be back Wednesday morning but leaves again on Sunday, the other one is on an extended mission and won’t be back until midweek next week,” Lorrie replied.

The next call was to Amy for an update from the State Department.

“A C17 will pick up the four bodies from Morocco tomorrow and will go to Rhine Mein Air Force Base. The morgue there will do their best with what they have to work with. They will be there at least two days, then flown to Dover on Tuesday,” Amy replied.

I had to remind myself that today was Friday. The bodies would be picked up on Saturday with two days in Germany, so the earliest a funeral could be held would be Wednesday or Thursday.

The next call was to Ching Lee to fill her and Lisa in with what I knew, “Please be delicate but find out what funeral home the family wants to use,” I said.

The next call was to General McJames. I needed information and permissions that only he could arrange and I knew it could take several days to get the approvals.

The day was nearly finished – one last duty to do and that was another state dinner with Oman’s rulers as guest.

Then Vicky and I spent the night as guest of the ambassador in the embassy guest room.
Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.

I had just signed off with Amy when Marcy came online with rest of the girls. They were watching the breaking news stories about the attack on the King Khalid International Airport by unknown militants but had no clue what had happened and what was still on going at the Morocco Embassy. I began the dreadful task of filling everyone in on the details. After questions with the limited answers because it was still a active assault, it was time to take control of the situation.

“Jason I need you to pull the files on Albert Koons and Phil Adams. I want to know everything about them then we need to do some advance planning. You guys need to brainstorm our part of the funerals,” I said. “Send me a copy of the files in an email,”

“The State department will fly the bodies to Dover AFB. From there things will depend on JBG and the families,” I stated.

“Marcy, will you and Jenny research the insurance end? I know we picked up equal insurances to what Black Water had. I want to know how much the life insurance coverage was. Also have Jeanna run a personal financial statement on each of them,” I said. “I want to know what JBG needs to do to help the families.

“Also Marcy, get an update on the new armored SUVs; if a couple are not ready we need to rent some,” I said.

“Jason, one more thing, when we took over from Black Water, in the HR part of it there were several dozen applicants wanting jobs and I know we have been getting some on our own. If I remember right, we sent both of those lists to Eric to run checks on them. Has Eric sent them back yet?” I asked.

“Yes, they are here. I put them in the pre approved file until we needed them,” Jason replied.

“Go through the lists and pick out the 30 who look the best, then have Roseanne call and find out if they still want jobs. Get them interviewed as soon as possible, pay their plane tickets to BWI if you have to and pick them up from there,” I replied.

There was almost a chorus, “What have you got on your mind – what are you planning?” the group asked me.

“We have to replace the two people who died right away. The other thirteen who are there need to come out. They need time to mourn and heal. They need to see the docs. For that to happen, we need replacements and we need them now,” I said.

“We will call the new group of ours The Rapid Response Team. I want them fully trained and ready to go at a moments notice. We can have them at any of the eighty embassies in a day. We can use them at the colleges if necessary. With all the recertification’s we have to do, simply rotate one or two complete embassy teams at a time,” I said.

Keep in mind, key to hiring this is that they must know the languages of the places we want to send as a response team.

The discussion went on for a few more minutes, and then two or three things happened at once that pulled me away from the meeting on the SVOL system. I left Vicky to hash it out with them.

One – A new fuel truck pulled up followed by a Humvee carrying none other than a one star general and a major by his side.

“Ma-am, I believe there has been some misunderstanding between your pilots and our fuel truck operators. General McJames put everyone on the right page in the book a few minutes ago. I want to apologize for the misunderstanding. Major Braxton will insure that the fueling is done properly to the satisfaction of your pilots, along with the paper work that is needed,” the smiling general replied.

The second thing was Captain Horsey, Bob and Emily with Bob Jr. in tow, still in his flight suit walking our way. When they stopped in front of us I said, “Bob, it looks like you found someone who you know.”

Bob made the introductions, and then Vance and Josh helped them gather up all Bob and Emily’s bags.

“The on-base guest quarters were locked in for the Jacksons, and your ride just cleared the gate – so we are good to go here,” Captain Horsey commented.

“Bob, if we don’t see you before we leave, we will see you in four or five days,” I said. “Be careful.”

The third thing was two of our black Suburbans along with a Humvee in front and one bringing up the rear – both with mini guns manned – pulled up to our plane. ‘Let the fun begin,’ I thought.

Brad Johnson, the driver and Brendon Kunder stepped out of the first Suburban, “Hello boss, we are here to take you and Vicky to the embassy now that the Saudis have things under control in their sector.”

“Ok by me, but first I need to finish up a meeting I am having on our SVOL system.” I went back in the plane, told the gang back home that our rides were here and that we needed to go. Vicky and I would pick up this conversation at our check-in time. We grabbed our things and headed to the SUVs.
“BJ, you ride with me, Vicky, you ride in the second SUV with Kyle Sanders and Chris Roseburg,” Brad said.

“That’s the way we are doing things today just to be safe,” Brad said. As we made our way to the embassy district we had to go by the International Airport.

The International Airport was the target for sure, several jetliners had been hit with RPG’s and were still smoldering; they were just scrap metal now. As we passed, I noticed that a lot of planes had bullet holes in them. I need to have a talk with Vicky so she could decompress a little after seeing all the devastation as we drove by.

There were plenty of bodies lying around near the perimeter fence and six pickup trucks that the terrorist had used were full of holes and burnt or overturned. Several had gotten inside the fence but did not make it far. I was glad we had been diverted; I wanted no parts of this mess.

The rest of the day went without incident and we followed the pattern we set from our previous embassy stops.

Vicky and I interviewed our employees then met with the State Department embassy officials for a squawk sheet of things that needed improvement.

There was another state dinner we had to attend with Saudi princes on the guest list too. The department knew how to throw a first class party; they even had a band for entertainment.

There was dance music but it seemed that no one wanted to be the one to break the ice with so many Saudi guests in attendance – even though there was a large dance floor. I surmised that they were afraid that they would insult some prince.

Sitting across from Vicky and I was a gentleman I took for a career diplomat. From the dinner talk I gathered he was well versed on the social arena of the diplomatic business. Austin Freeman was slowly nodding his head to the beat of the old classical music the band was playing.

“Austin, are there any rules forbidding dancing here?” I asked.

“No, it’s just that no one wants to be first,” he replied.

“I’m game if you are. Something old fashioned would fit the bill, do you know how to waltz to Blue Danube by Strauss?” I asked.

His eyes lit up, “Yes, shall we?” I nodded.

He wrote the name on a slip of paper and our waiter gave it to the conductor who immediately nodded.

I stood and met Austin on the end of the dance floor and waited for the band to start. The Blue Danube was an easy waltz and one of my favorites from years ago.

We started smooth and just got better as the dance progressed. The band played forever, it seemed. Apparently there was a long version. There was applause when we finally finished.

Austin asked if I knew another one that was again one of his favorites. “It has been a while – I think I still remember it – see if the band can play it,” I replied.

Austin and I danced to two more and this time there were over a dozen couples on the floor with us. The ice had been broken and the party was now a party – it was still a restrained one – but never the less, an embassy party.

Vicky leaned over, “You know you are going to teach me how to do them when we get back home; it looks like fun.”

Ambassador Cale Harper and his wife made their way over just before Vicky and I were ready to call it a night. Our room for tonight was the guest room in the ambassador’s residence.

Vicky and I accompanied them to the living quarters for a nightcap before calling it a night. For us it was a cover story; there were several large files in my e-mail that I need a laptop to view and needed my attention tonight

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Joe H.