Kombat Kids by GhostRyder
Chapter 37: The Return of Launy

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The weekend passed quickly, after the initial shock of being defeated by a bunch of kids passed, the Marines started interacting with the Unit's boys, showing them some tricks they had learned in training or during actual combat. Some of the Marines stayed to themselves not wanting anything to do with a bunch of gay kids, but they were in the minority. The majority of the Marines came to the conclusion that if these 'boys' could whip their asses in a fair stand up firefight, it didn't matter if they were gay or hetro. Monday morning, the Marines boarded the busses and headed back to the coast, thinking about what had happened and what they could have done better. This attitude was exactly what General Stanton had wanted, and he was pleased to see his idea was working.

Senior Chief Bailey had left early on Sunday morning, saying that he was going to return with a couple of his training people on the following weekend. He was now very sure that the Unit could provide his people with some very realistic training and he wanted to get things moving in that direction.

Late Sunday afternoon, the Gunny left the compound and drove over to the coast and the base hospital at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station for his annual physical. Wednesday night he called and told Matt that he had to remain on the coast for further medical tests, but that he would try to return on the weekend.

The twins were spending the summer at their aunt and uncle’s home, but spent a goodly portion of their time at the Bateman house with their boyfriends, helping out with anything that was needed and fucking their brains out at night. Justin and Tyler spent as much time as possible with each other, either at the English home or at Justin's foster parent’s home.

Phil Martin and David White were both fully recovered from the physical effects of the gang rape that occurred almost a year ago, but there were still some emotional scars that they had to deal with.

With the exception of James being still in a coma, everything seemed to be going well for the Unit's members.

Matt was in his office working on some paper work for the brothers’ business when the telephone rang; "Good afternoon, Bateman Brothers, how may I help you?"

The voice on the other end of the line said; "Afternoon Matt, this is Bill Martin, you mind if I come out and talk to you for a few minutes?"

Matt smiled at the phone; "Hey Bill come ahead, I'll even buy you a cup of coffee."

Fifteen minutes later Bill Martin drove up the access road and parked his Sheriff's car in the parking lot, as he was getting out, the front door opened and Matt stepped out to greet him. By the look on Bill's face, Matt knew there was something going on and whatever it was; it was not a good something.

Matt stuck out his hand, "Hey Bill, come on in and sit a spell, what's going on, you don't look too happy."

The two men went into the kitchen, got a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. Sheriff Martin sat there for a few minutes before saying; "Launy Prince and the others that were involved in the rape last year were just released on bail today."

"WHAT?" Matt shouted. “How the fuck did that happen, with all the evidence they had on them assholes, there ain't no way they should be out."

"Prince's lawyer went to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and got them to reverse Judge Morton's ruling on the no bail for them. The assholes used the fact that all of the boys were still in school, members of a church and that their parents were all gainfully employed in the town. They said that there was no reason for the boys to jump bail and that the State’s case was all hear say." Bill added in a very disgruntled voice, "Hearsay my ass."

Matt asked; "What can I do, what can the Unit do to help? I know that the first time Launy Prince or any of those boys come anywhere near any of our boys, someone is going to get hurt. I'll lay money it ain't going to be any of our guys."

The Sheriff sighed; "Yeah, I know, and that's the problem. All we need is for Launy or any of the rest of those little bastards to get beat up and that could fuck up the State’s case against them. Imagine them going into court and claiming they were the wronged parties and that they were being persecuted by a bunch of homosexuals for no reason at all?"

Matt thought for a minute or so and said; "Okay Bill, here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to get Jack Lawrence to file a restraining order against all of the Princes, all of the boys involved in the attack and their families so they have to maintain a 500 foot separation distance between them and all members of the Unit and their families. That means that any place our boys or their families are, the Princes, Launy's buddies and their families will be unable to go. Of course it means the same thing for our guys if the Prince group get there first, but we got a bigger base to work with then they do, so who do you think will be excluded from places more often?"

For the first time since Bill had arrived he smiled; "You know, that restraining order will have to be scrupulously enforced, that means the law enforcement agencies would have to ticket any one violating that order. Or, in the case of Launy and his friends, well they'd be violating the terms of their bail and would have to be arrested and put back in jail."

Matt got Jack Lawrence on the telephone and explained the situation to him and made sure that the restraining order would work the way he thought it would. Matt had switched on the speaker when Jack had answered so that the Sheriff could hear both sides of the conversation, but remained silent throughout the entire discussion. When Matt had hung up, Bill thought for a few minutes before saying; "Matt, it might be a good idea for you to activate all of your security measures for your entire property. I don't think that Don Prince will do anything dumb, but who knows what them asshole kids'll do, I mean look what happened to Keener. I can't prove it, but I swear to God I think it was Delbert who did the shooting."

Matt nodded; "I think you’re right Bill, in fact I know you are. I got the people from ADT coming out tomorrow and they’re going to install seismic detectors in all areas not already covered by my sensor net. I figure I may as well put in low light cameras along the eastern side of the property as well." Matt thought to himself about all of the things coming up in the next couple of weeks; "I don't know if Phil told you, but we're going to start entertaining the U.S. Navy here shortly."

The Sheriff shook his head; "No, Phil didn't mention anything about them, what's going on?"

"I can understand why he didn't say anything." Matt chuckled a little before continuing; "After that exercise with the Marines this past weekend, things got a little exciting. We had a Navy Senior Chief here for the last week or so, he's the training officer for SEAL Team 7 out of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and he wants to bring in a Boat Crew to play with our boys. It ought to be really interesting for the boys, the SEALS are more into 'snoopin and poopin' than the Marine Recon Force is."

The Sheriff got a puzzled look on his face; "Pardon my French, but what the fuck is 'snoopin and poopin'?"

Matt laughed; "Sorry Bill, 'snoopin and poopin' is a term used by the Special Ops, people for infiltration and reconnaissance. Their brand of warfare is 'in quiet, out quiet' and only fight if they got to. Don't get me wrong, they are perfectly capable of kicking ass and taking names, but they try to do it as quietly as possible. Usually, they only go in with a seven or eight man team, do what's required and make like sheep herders."

Bill had that puzzled look on his face again; "Sheep herders, what do you mean sheep herders?"

With as straight a face as possible, Matt answered; "You know, like sheep herders, they do what they gotta do and then get the flock outta there." Both men laughed and continued discussing what they could both do to ensure the safety of their boys and the boy’s families.

While the two men were discussing what they had to do to keep all of their people safe, Don Prince was at the County Jail picking up his youngest son who had just been released. Don was still pissed off at his youngest boy, not for what he and his friends had done to them faggots Phil Martin and David White, but for getting caught in the act by Phil's older brother Deputy Sheriff Tommy Martin. It probably would have been better for the Prince family if Tommy Martin had let his daddy blow Launy's brains out, but no, he went and stopped him.

When father and son were in the pickup and driving away Don Prince reached over and backhanded his son three or four times across the face before saying; "You stupid little fuck, you know how much money, trouble and embarrassment you and your buddies have caused me?"

"But dad...." Was all Launy could say before his father backhanded him again.

"Shut the fuck up." His father yelled, almost loosing control of the pickup because he was so pissed at his son. "From now on you little son of a bitch you keep your fucking mouth shut or I will kick the shit out of you, you understand me boy?"

A now terrified Launy whispered softly; "Yes sir."

Not quite so angry, Don Prince started laying down the law to his youngest; "Until I tell you otherwise, you will not leave our property; you will attend church and all scheduled church events, if anyone, and I mean anyone, calls you on the phone, you will not discuss anything that happened to you that day with them faggots or when you were in jail. Do you understand me, cause if you fuck up again, you surely will suffer a fatal accident, and I do mean fatal. As in dead."

Launy was scared now; "Yes sir I understand and I promise I won’t fuck up again." Launy really and truly didn't want to fuck up, he remembered his oldest sister who'd gotten herself knocked up and was killed in a suspicious accident when he was twelve. He knew that as sure as God made little green apples, if he caused his father any more problems, he would end up having an 'accident' just like his older sister had.

The week continued to pass, some of the people and families had fewer problems to deal with than others, but as is always the case, time passed. Friday afternoon Matt was once again doing company paperwork when his cell phone rang; looking at the caller ID he saw it was the Gunny. Hitting the accept button he said; "Howdy Gunny how they hangin, when you coming back?'

The Gunny hesitated for a few seconds before replying; "Hi Matt, I'm dong okay, but I got to stick around here until next weekend, I got some Corps stuff to take care of. How's everything going over there?"

Matt filled him in on all the latest news and especially about Launy and the others being released from jail. After the Gunny cussed about that for a while, they said goodbye and hung up.

Matt sat in his office staring at a picture on the wall for almost five minutes before picking up his desk phone and calling Phil Stanton. When the general answered Matt said; "Phil, this is Matt Bateman, you heard from the Gunny lately? I just talked to him and I never heard him so depressed."

The General hesitated before replying; "Not really Matt, I know he's been over here for an annual physical and that the doctors ordered some more tests, but I haven't heard anything else. I'll tell you what I'll do, let me give the Base Medical Officer a call and see if I can find out what's going on."

The two men hung up after saying goodbye and Matt remained at his desk thinking, until the front gate alarm sounded. Matt punched a command into to his PC and his monitor displayed a picture of two olive drab HUMVEE's waiting on the other side of the gate, Senior Chief Bailey was standing alongside the vehicle looking at the gate camera. Matt punched another command into his computer and the gate started to open. While the gate was opening, he went out of the front door to wait for them to arrive and shortly the two vehicles were parked and were disgorging their passengers. Matt walked towards Chief Bailey with his hand outstretched; "Hey Greg, I wasn't expecting you back so soon, what's up?"

After shaking Matt's hand, the Senior Chief said; "Matt I'd like to introduce the rest of my training department, this is Chief Macintyre, Petty Officer Whitney and Petty Officer Borne."

Shaking their hands, Matt said it was a pleasure to meet them; "You never did say what you're doing back here Greg? I wasn't expecting you until at least tomorrow."

Greg laughed; "What, you don't trust an old ship mate? Don't answer that, anyway, I come bearing gifts. Hopefully the gifts I got in the Hummers will convince you guys to let me bring a Boat Crew or six out to play with your kids.

Just as he was finished saying ’kids,’ the garage door warning bell rang and the doors started sliding open, when there was a large enough gap, George Babcock, and Keener Webb followed six boys started filing out of the garage. Matt and James' foster son Justin, Tyler English, Mitch and Shane Babcock and the Stanton twins lined up behind the two Marines, all eight of them were in MarCams.

Chief Macintyre snorted; "Geez we been invaded by the Marine Corps, I know they were hard up, but it looks like they’re taking them just out of the cradle."

Senior Chief Bailey turned to the chief; "Before you start getting down on them for being young. Bear in mind that these guys are part of the Unit that took down four out of five of the Marine Force Recon Teams sent against them in the last month and a half. In fact, I think their two snipers are as good or better than any one we have, so cut em some slack."

The boys, hearing the Senior Chief standing up for them calmed them down and none said what was on the tip of their tongues. The boys smiled at Chief Bailey and as a group said; "Thanks Senior Chief." Mitch continued for the rest of the group, "We almost fucked up the other night, but they won't catch us that way twice. We appreciate what you just said."

Matt smiled at Greg Bailey; "You said you brought us some presents, what kind of presents?'

It was the Senior Chief's turn to smile now; "How bout we back our Hummers into your garage and unload the stuff we brought, I think you guys are going to like what we got here." The Senior Chief hesitated for a bit before asking; "Are your two snipers around here to night, I really want them present for this."

Matt pulled out his cell phone and hit '7' on his speed dial; "Jap? Yeah this is Matt. Do you know where Jacky is? Okay, can you two haul your ass over here now, and I mean right now? Okay, see you in fifteen, oh yeah, wear your LOR outfits, bye."

"Okay Greg, they'll be here in about 20 minutes, they were, hmmmmm, how should I put this, preoccupied." Matt said laughing.

Greg Bailey knowing the story on most of the Unit's membership being gay blushed a little and nodded his head.

Thirty minutes later Jap's dad pulled the family mini-van into the parking lot and Stephen Peterson, his son and Jacky Hoffman got out of the van and walked into the garage. The Sailors, Marines and the boys were un-packaging equipment from travelalls, carrying cases and packing crates.

Stephen was the first to speak; "Hey Matt what's up, Jap said you needed him and Jacky over here ASAP (As Soon As Possible)?"

Everyone turned around when Steve spoke, before anyone could say anything Petty Officer Whitney sucked in a lung full of air and then expelled it; "Shit, first mini-Marines, now midget A-Rabs."

Jap was about to say something when Jacky moved forward with his fists clenched at his sides and yelled at the Sailor; "Who the fuck are you calling a midget? Deck ape!"

Matt hurriedly got between the boy and the Sailor; "At ease Jacky, and you, Whitney, back the fuck off."

Chief Bailey jumped square into Whitney's shit: "You want to continue in the training department, you better get an attitude adjustment Scott, I don't ever want to hear you flipping shit at any members of this group, you understand me Petty Officer Whitney?"

Senior Chief Bailey's attitude took Whitney totally by surprise, he'd known Greg Bailey for going on ten years and he had never had him come down on him that hard before. Whitney looked at the Senior Chief than at the little guy in the Arab outfit and said; "Sorry Chief, it won't happen again." Turning to Jap he held out his hand; "Sorry guy, please excuse what I said, I sometimes say things before I think. I promise it won't happen again."

Jap nodded his head and shook the offered hand; "I guess that makes two of us, except I kinda do things sometimes I don't think about first."

Whitney offered his hand to Jacky and apologized to him also. When everyone calmed down, Chief Bailey looked at Jap and Jacky and asked; "You guys use the Barrett 99 don't you?"

Both Jap and Jacky nodded their heads yes; "Yeah we do." Jacky said for the both of them. "It's only single shot, but it's really accurate out to 2000 meters and both me and Jap are good with them."

Turning to Matt, "Would it be okay if I take these two and Borne down to the Arms Room Matt?"

Matt had an idea what was about to happen and he had no problem with it; "Go ahead, you guys going to be able to handle those cases by your self?"

"No problem Matt." Before they could pick up anything, Jap ran to the far side of the garage and pushed a four-wheel dolly over to the cases he thought the chief wanted to move to the Arms Room. Between the two Sailors and the two boys, they had the dolly loaded with several hard sided carrying cases, boxes and several cans of .50 caliber ammunition. Moving the dolly on to the elevator, they soon were pushing it down the passageway to the Arms Room. When Jap opened the vault door, Borne gasped at the number and variety of weapons stored in the room, he had never been assigned to a unit that had near the number of firearms that were neatly racked before him. Senior Chief Bailey having already been in the Arms Room on several occasions was used to it.

Chief Bailey turned to Jap and Jacky and said; "Break out your Barrett's and set them up on the bench here so Petty Officer Borne can take a look at them please."

While the boys were doing that, the Chief and Borne were placing two hermetically sealed containers on the other end of the bench, leaving them closed for the time being. When the boys had their .50's set up on the bench Petty Officer Borne walked over to them, looked at Jap and Jacky and asked; "Okay for me to check them out?"

The boys both said yes then watched as he fieldstripped them. The boys watched wide eyed as he took the big rifles down faster than they thought was possible. Borne inspected each part thoroughly and then reassembled them. Turning to the boys Borne spoke for the first time since asking permission to handle the rifles; "Very good men, you guys really do a good job keeping them clean and lubricated. Please return them to their storage location.

While the boys were doing as the Petty Officer requested, Matt walked in to the Arms Room and leaned against the wall, watching and waiting for what he suspected to happen. Jap and Jacky came back to the workbench and found that the two cases had been placed end to end on the bench. Senior Chief Bailey first looked at Matt and smiled, then turned to the boys; "Okay boys open up your presents."

Jap and Jacky gave each other a puzzled look, shrugged their shoulders and went about opening the cases. Jacky was the first to get his open, first he took in a deep breath, then he yelled, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT, A BARRETT M107!!!"

Just as Jacky was shouting Jap got his open, but couldn't say anything, he just stood and stared at what he considered to be the most beautiful sight (other than Jacky's dick) in the whole world. He was incapable of speech at that point, all he could do was look at the rifle, then at the Senior Chief and then back at the rifle.

Looking at the Senior Chief, Jacky asked; "Are these for us, I mean for us to use? What, I mean who, I mean..."

Matt, the Senior Chief and Petty Officer Borne felt like they walked into the living room on Christmas morning and found the two boys opening their Christmas presents. Matt couldn't remember when he had seen these two this happy, he looked down and saw a pup tent in the front of their robes and laughed some more.

For the next two hours, Petty Officer Borne showed the two boys how to field strip, clean and reassemble the rifles. Then he assembled the Day/Night telescopic sight, a third generation NVWS-6 scope that would allow them to hit out to 1000 meters during full dark, no moon night time shooting.

Stephen Peterson asked if it would be okay to leave the boys over night, Jacky was going to spend the night with Jap anyhow and as long as they were here, it would be one less trip he'd have to make. Matt told him there was no problem, beside Stephen would have to use a baseball bat or some other blunt object to get them away from the new Barrett's.

Around midnight, everyone turned in; Matt put the four sailors in a separate room in the berthing compartment and told them they'd have breakfast around 06:30. Jap and Jacky went to their room and stripped out of their LOR outfits, then they climbed into one of the bottom bunks, both boys were exhausted and after kissing, they both fell asleep quickly.

Matt groaned when his alarm clock went of at 05:45, reaching over the top of Keener, he slapped it off and laid there for a while. Just as he was about to fall asleep again, he felt Keener nibbling on his ear and groaned a little. Keener stopped his nibbling and climbed out of the bed before saying; "Come on Matt, haul your buns out of bed and let’s take a shower." Matt knew he had to get up but he didn't want to. The next thing he knew, Keener had him by his dick, pulling him over to the side of the bed and laughing at him.

Matt whined; "Come on Kee, just a few more minutes, I'm an old man and I'm tired (Matt had just turned 25)."

Keener laughed; "If you’re tired, then I won’t let you fuck me anymore before a Unit meeting, now come on old man, drag your ass out of bed."

With a final whimper and a whine, Matt climbed out of bed and followed Keener into the bathroom. After finishing their morning shit, shower and shave, the two men dressed and headed up to the kitchen to get breakfast started. When they opened the stairway door to the first floor, the unmistakable aroma of coffee and bacon hit them. Walking into the kitchen, they found Justin, Tyler and the Babcock brothers cooking breakfast. When Justin heard them enter, he quickly poured them both a cup of coffee and set it on the table for them.

Matt sipped his and sighed with pleasure before saying; "You know Justin, I always knew there was a reason I pulled your skinny ass out of that snow bank, you do good work son."

Justin's face lit up when Matt called him son; "Thank you Matt, I'm glad I let you pull my nice, tight little ass out of that snow bank also."

When Justin said that, Matt almost choked on the sip of coffee he had just taken, while everyone else laughed. Looking at the boy who had started to blossom into a young man since he had come to live with them, Matt felt good that he was finally starting to feel well enough about himself and living with the Bateman brothers that he could fling shit as well as take it. He noted, with a few exceptions, that most of the boys in the Unit were starting to show more and more self-esteem and that really made him feel good.

Promptly at 06:30 the four Sailors entered the kitchen, followed by the rest of the boys who had spent the night. By the time everyone got their coffee or juice, the four boys playing messcooks had breakfast ready. About 07:15, the group was sitting around the table over the remains of breakfast talking, when the doorbell rang. Shane jumped and ran to answer the door, a minute or so later he came back following Phil Stanton, Phil was wearing Cargo shorts, a T-shirt and Nike cross-trainers with no socks. The Marines and the Boys all stood and said; "Good morning sir."

The Sailors not knowing who he was remained sitting, not paying him much attention. The General motioned the Marines and the boys to sit down before saying; "Morning all, any chance I can get a cup of coffee?"

Phil's son Ted jumped up and poured him a cup and handed it to him then resumed his seat. After taking a sip he turned to Matt; "I need to talk to you Matt, can we go to your office for a few minutes?"

Matt only nodded and led the General down the hall and into the company office. "Have a seat Phil, what's up?"

Taking another sip of his coffee and then setting the cup on the table alongside where he was sitting he said; "I got some bad news, I talked to the Chief Medical Officer at the base hospital and he says the Gunny has diabetes. He also said that he can keep it under control by diet and exercise, but that's not going to help him as far as being able to stay in. The bad part of all of this is that we have to medically retire him, I know this is really hard on him; he's been in the Corps since he was 18 and I know he has to be really depressed. Oh he'll get his full pension for 25 years, but the only thing he knows is the Corps and there's not a fucking thing I can do to help him."

Matt nodded his head before speaking; "After James was in the accident, I started to think about our manpower requirements for running the Unit and all of the gear we've collected over the last year. I didn't know how long we'd be able to continue having the support of the Marines for manpower so I wrote this up a couple of weeks ago and was going to run it in the various military branch papers.

WANTED, FACILITY SUPERVISOR

A full time position for a Facility Supervisor is now available at the Bateman Brothers Inc. Facility in Southeastern Washington State. The successful candidate would be required to insure periodic maintenance is accomplished on light and heavy vehicles, facility structures and support equipment. The ability to interact with boys, ages 12 to 18 is a definite necessity. Staring salary is $65,000 per anum, on site housing, company vehicle and a full benefit package will be provided. Send applications and résumé's to Bateman Brothers Inc., 10684 Denton Rd, Denton WA 99356.

For the first time since entering the Bateman home, the General smiled; "Matt this is brilliant, however you know the Gunny would never take anything that smacks of charity. You're going to have to convince him that you were going to advertise this position before this shit about diabetes came up."

Matt smiled; "Got it covered, in fact the only reason I didn't offer the position to the Gunny is because; 1. He still had two years on his current enlistment, and 2. It felt like I was poaching your troops. I had the Gunny, George and Keener help me write this ad, in fact, the Gunny suggested the part about being able to work with kids and on-site housing."

The General smiled; "I really have to tell you, having the Gunny working with you takes a major load off my mind. I owe him so much more than I'll ever be able to repay, not just for saving my life, but helping with Justin and Ted. The boys adore him and he's kind of an idol to them, they'd do anything for him and I mean anything.”

Matt had noticed how the twins had bonded with the Gunny and whatever he said was the gospel to them. He was also glad that the Gunny knew what was going on and went out of his way to make sure he never hurt or disappointed the boys. He was sorry that the Gunny had been diagnosed with diabetes and that he was being medically retired, but he was overjoyed that the Gunny would, in all likelihood, be working with him and James for a long time.

The General broke his chain of thought; "Now that I feel a little better about the Gunny's situation, you want to tell me what a bunch of squids are doing hanging around here?"

Matt laughed; "The Gunny kinda let the cat outta the bag when he had a few beers with Senior Chief Bailey over at the shipyard. Chief Bailey came over a week or so ago and then observed the last exercise we ran last weekend. The Senior Chief is the Training Officer for SEAL Team 7 over at the yard and he wants to send some of his Boat Crews through here. Besides, he kinda bribed us."

The General chuckled; "Kinda bribed, what's that mean?"

Matt looked a little embarrassed; "To begin with, he got two Barrett M107's with NVWS-6 Day/Night scopes, I swear, Jap and Jacky almost came in their pantaloons when they opened the shipping containers. That was just the start, he's sending down a multi-station, rapid recharging unit for our SCUBA tanks, and get this, two 33' SOCR (Special Operations Craft Reverine) boats. He only had two HUMVEE'S available this weekend so he just brought some of the support gear and electronics for the boats, plus the Barrett's and their gear. If you guys keep bringing us stuff, I'm going to have to hire more people and build a fucking warehouse.

Matt looked at his watch and said; "Ooops, it's 07:50, I got to get below and start the morning meeting." Both men rose to their feet and headed down to the Cavern, by the time they arrived, the Color Guard was forming up, Matt walked to the front of the Cavern and requested; "Please stand for the posting of the Colors." The Colors were posted and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

After the Color Guard retired, Matt went about introducing the Naval Contingent and told the Unit members of the upcoming exercises involving the SEAL Teams. This excited everyone, especially when he told them about the equipment, weapons and the boats the Navy was supplying.

The last item of the briefing was the hardest for Matt; "As of 10:00 yesterday, Launy Prince and the seven other boys involved in the attack of two of our members were released from jail. I have had my lawyer request a restraining order against the entire Prince family and the boys who were involved in the attack. This restraining order requires the persons listed in it to remain at least 500 feet from any member of the Unit and their families. This also means that the Unit members and their families must also honor the 500-foot separation distance. If anyone feels this is too restrictive, we will add a codicil to the restraining order excluding them from the order. Please contact me if this is the desire of your family and I will have it done immediately.

After the briefing was over, five of the Squadies asked what they had to do if their parents wanted to be excluded from the restraining order. When everything was explained the Squadies went to their assigned duties.

Matt and the General went over to talk to the Senior Chief about the upcoming exercises. Phil asked, "So Senior Chief when you plan on having your first Boat Crew come through, we've already got a team coming at the boys next weekend and it's a little late for us to cancel."

Not knowing who Phil was, but being smart enough to know he didn't, he wasn’t about to piss off anyone in the Corps, so he responded politely; "I can understand that, if at all possible, I'd like to run the first team through here at least by the middle of July."

The General thought about it; "Alright Senior Chief, I think we can get this straightened out, if you'll give me your contact information, I'll have my ADC contact you on Monday and work out how we can both use the Unit to our mutual advantage." After shaking hands with Matt and the Senior Chief, General Stanton found his boys on the rifle range, hugged them and left for the coast.

Back in the Cavern the Senior Chief asked Matt; "Correct me if I'm wrong, but that guy Phil wasn't an enlisted man was he?"

Matt had to laugh; ""You got that fucking right, I guess I should have given you a heads up that was General Stanton, Deputy Commander U.S. Marines, Eastern Pacific."

"Oh shit, oh dear." Chief Bailey moaned; "Thank God I kept my mouth shut and didn't flip him any shit, I'm too old to be Seaman Apprentice pushing a paint scrapper."