Kombat Kids by GhostRyder
Chapter 47: Gotcha

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The de-briefing for the exercise only took about an hour; the Special Forces troops occupied a small portion of the available chairs in the Cavern. The Green Berets displayed the demeanor more closely associated with teenagers than adults. Pissed off, embarrassed and just plain unhappy about how the exercise had gone down.

On the other side of the isle the four boys who had acted as the 'bait' for the ambush looked to share the same feelings as the 'Berets.'

Jap sat on the isle chair, slouched down with his arms crossed in front of him. Jap was as pissed as the adults. He had been unable to get off a single round from his rinky dink .22 before he was rendered ineffective. Thinking back on the ambush, he could only blame himself for the outcome.

Jap, Jacky, Mitch and Justin had returned to the same spot they had used the night before. About a quarter of the firewood still remained, so with the new quarter cord of cherry wood, the boys had started a larger fire. After Mitch had made his radio check on the Handy Talky they were using as a prop, the boys broke out snacks and soft drinks and sat around the fire. At 23:40 the boys all heard the three clicks in the earpieces of their concealed squad communication radios. Jap waited for another twenty minutes before he got up and walked over to the 'Piss Rock' to take a leak. After pulling his crank out and while he was peeing, he whispered; "Good job guys, we didn't even know you were here until you 'clicked' us."

The same voice as the night before answered; "Thanks, now will you please find someplace else to take a leak?"

Jap giggled softly thrusting his hips forward, he shook his dick at the unseen Squadie and replied; "Nope." Stuffing his dick back in his trousers, he turned and walked back to the fire.

As with the night before, time passed slowly for everyone. At 02:15 the Squadies ear pieces came alive; "All personnel, standby." Five minutes went by before they heard; "Be advised, ten bogies inbound to your location. Bogies are approaching from the southwest and are one klick out . . . Over."

The only response to the information was on the radio, a series of single clicks as the individual transmit buttons were pushed and then released. The boys around the campfire continued with their bullshit secession acting as if nothing was going on. Time continued to pass, forty five minutes later Jap stood up and looked towards the south side of the arroyo. He appeared to be searching for something, something he couldn't see. He bent over and was reaching for his rifle when the boys heard; "Stop right there son, nobody move."

The other three started to go for their rifles when ten men in Army BDU's, their faces covered in camouflage grease paint stepped into the light of the fire. Four of the men were carrying silenced MP-5 sub-machineguns, three had M-M4's and one had an M-240B SAW. The last two were unarmed and were wearing black armbands signifying that they were Observers. Mitch slowly stood up and started to back towards the north side of the arroyo while pulling his shirt open. The leader of the group stepped forward and pointed his MP-5 at Mitch; "Stop moving, now."

Mitch stopped, then he oriented his body towards the main group of soldiers, smiled and held up his hand. The Soldiers looked and saw a clacker for one of the Unit's claymores. As the men were watching Mitch, Jap made a grab for his rifle and was hosed by one of the soldiers with an MP-5. His Miles gear started alarming immediately, which caused everyone to look at him. Mitch started backing up again and slipped on a rock causing him to close his hand on the clacker and activate it accidentally; the devise strapped to Mitch's chest went off, along with an artillery simulator about a meter and a half behind him, causing five of the men's Miles gear to alarm.

When the simulator detonated, the boys on top of the northern bank of the arroyo popped up from their hides and opened fire. Unfortunately, Justin and Jacky were caught in the cross fire and rendered ineffective. The remaining Green Berets were taken out, but not before getting four of the previously concealed ambush force.

Jap started to cry, he stamped his foot, turned to Mitch and yelled; "You fucking asshole, why'd you set it off early for?"

The Green Berets all looked at Jap, his crying they thought they could understand. His calling his buddy an asshole totally mystified them.

One of the Observers lit a red flare and tossed it on the ground in front of him that was the signal that the exercise was finished.

Each of the men and boys with alarms sounding went ahead and deactivated them.

One of the oldest of the four boys that had been sitting around the campfire rushed over to the short redheaded kid and wrapped him in his arms and whispered quietly in his ear. After a few seconds, he calmed down and stopped crying. After wiping the tears from his eyes, he walked over and hugged the kid who had the claymore. Unnoticed to everyone else, the kid had been crying also.

Jap spoke softly to Mitch; "Hey man forgive me for spouting off like that, I shoulda known you wouldn't do something stupid. What happened buddy, did you slip?"

Mitch nodded; "Yeah, a fucking rock made me lose my balance. If I had my regular boots on, it never woulda happened. Sorry man, I just couldn't help it."

Jap looked up at the taller boy and smiled; "You know what Matt always says; ‘Oh well, shit happens.’ Besides, even though it did get a little messy, we got them all."

While everyone calmed down and the alarms were being shut down, Clint Davidson was talking to CIC. "Yes sir, yes sir . . . . All eight of them . . . . Two were observers . . . . Yes sir will do. Ambush One out."

Turning to face the assembled boys and men, Clint walked over to one of the Observers, a Captain, and saluted. "Sir I'm Squad leader Davidson, Mr. Bateman requested I tell you that he has dispatched transport for you and your men." As Clint finished his statement, the sounds of several vehicles could be heard approaching. Six HUMVEE's and two Crew Cab Ford pickups stopped just short of the men and boys.

The Special Forces people were put in four of the HUMVEE's and driven to the house. While several of the Squadies helped the 'Bait Boys' load their gear in to the pickups, the rest gathered up the Ghilley blankets. After everything was loaded up, the boys clambered into the HUMVEE's and pickups and were driven to the house.

When the boys got back to the house, they turned in their firearms to the arms room and went to the EDF. By 03:40 the 'Bait Boys’ were sitting at a table drinking Coke. Jap was slouched down in his chair, staring at his Coke can, thinking about how things had gone. Jacky had been watching his boyfriend and was worried about him. Moving his chair close to Jap, Jacky put his arm around his shoulders and just held him. At 04:15, Matt came over the 1-MC (General Announcing System) and requested all personnel to move to the Cavern for the de-briefing.

As Jap sat next to his boyfriend, he was depressed and disheartened over the results of the exercise; Jacky once again moved close to him and hugged him. The hug did not go unnoticed by some of the members of the Special Forces Team.

About five minutes after the men and boys were all present General Stanton, followed by Matt, James being pushed in his wheel chair by Jesse, Colonel Dalton and all of the Observers entered the Cavern. Gunny Mcnaughten called out; "Attention on deck."

After reaching the podium the general looked at the participants of the exercise and said; "As you were, be seated." The General waited until everyone was settled before speaking; "The exercise held tonight, or rather this morning is number eight conducted so far this summer here at the Unit One Facility. I hope you men from the Washington State National Guard will think about what occurred out there in the desert. I know that all of you are feeling unhappy about the outcome. Well gentlemen, welcome to the club."

All of the SF people looked at the General a bit closer after his last comment.

"Take a look around you; this is a privately funded facility, as is the Unit One membership. These boys and I call them boys, only because they are all less than eighteen years of age, are highly trained specialists in their own right. I ask that instead of seeing only children, you see their innate professionalism and the capability to perform as well as most professional soldiers, sailors and airmen that you will come in contact with. If you leave here with nothing more than the fact that you were all rendered ineffective by a bunch of school kids, that's fine with me. But if you leave here with the fact that if they could do to you what they did, then so could an enemy with live ammunition, we will have done our job. I'm finished preaching, I'll now turn you over to the Senior Observer, thank you for your attention."

Major Johnstone approached the podium, after thanking the General he turned to the men and boys. "When I arrived here Friday, I made a comment about a 'Child' being present during the arrival briefing. The error of my ways was pointed out to me and after getting over the ass chew . . . I mean the counseling secession, I thought about what was said to me. After observing the Unit One Squadies, I realized that everything that I was told was correct, actually what I was told was just the tip of the iceberg." The Major stopped for a second before continuing; "At any rate, the exercise this morning commenced at 02:15."

The de-brief lasted until 05:25, after which the men and boys were dismissed. Jacky and Jap headed up to the arms room, followed by several other Squadies. The arms room was open and Keener Webb was waiting for the boys. "Hey guys, nice job tonight." Complimented Keener.

Jap gave him a dirty look and pulled the .22 Marlin down from its storage rack. After opening the bolt and checking to make sure it was unloaded, he moved to the workbench, and pulled the bolt for cleaning. Unlike his Barrett, or his M1A, that was the only disassembly required to clean the rifle. Using the cleaning gear, he quickly performed the required post action checks and cleaning procedures. After replacing the bolt, he put the .22 back in storage. Jap was still depressed and only used grunts and simple yes and no answers to any of the questions he had directed at him. Moving to the chair beside Keener’s desk, he sat down and waited for Jacky to finish. While he was waiting, the E-9 (Master Sergeant) from the Guard Unit entered the arms room followed closely by a Staff Sergeant. Walking over to Keener; "Morning Staff, would it be okay if we used your facilities to clean our weapons?"

Keener looked up at the Sergeant and replied; "Sure Top, use whatever you need."

The Master Sergeant smiled and thanked Keener then he and the Staff moved over to a couple of empty spots at the workbench. The Sergeant looked at Jacky across the table from him and said; "That was a pretty neat ambush you guys set up for us. Of course we were told that we would be going against a group of young civilians and thought it'd be a cake-walk. I guess you could say we were surprised."

Jacky looked at the name strip sewed to the right breast of the BDU's and said; "Thank you Sergeant, if you'd been just a hair faster, I think some of you could have broken contact. I know I wouldn't want to go looking for you without any NVG's (Night Vision Goggles)."

As the man and boy were talking, Jap watched the Sergeant strip down the MP-5 and start cleaning it. The man was good; he was experienced and had very little lost motion. It took him about ten minutes to thoroughly clean and re-assemble his weapon. When Jacky's .22 was clean and had been returned to its storage rack, Jap got up and the two boys headed down to the EDF. After getting their breakfast and finding a table the boys started discussing the exercise. Shortly after they had sat down Mitch and Justin joined them.

Jap looked at Mitch who seemed to be unhappy about something; "Mitch, I'm really sorry about yelling at you out there. I was so pissed off at myself for getting taken out so easy that I jumped in your shit for no good reason."

Mitch gave Jap a wane smile; "I know what you mean buddy, I felt the same way about flubbing the claymore."

After finishing breakfast, Jap and Jacky went to their room and stripped to their skin. Too tired to do anything else, the two spooned up and were asleep in a matter of minutes. What seemed to Jap as only a minute or so after he fell asleep, he was awoken by someone pounding on the door. Getting out of the bed as quietly as possible, he staggered to the door and opened it. In a loud whisper he asked; "What?"

When his eyes finally focused and he wasn't blinded by the light from the hallway, he recognized Bill Tilden standing there. Bill looked at Jap and said; "How about pointing that thing some place else?"

Jap looked down and saw his five inch hard on pointing straight up. Quickly he got behind the door so only his head and shoulders were visible and blushed a bright red. "Sorry about that, but you woke me from a sound sleep and I'm still not tracking too good. What time is it anyhow?"

Tilden chuckled; "It's time to make money my boy, it's time to make money. Oh yeah, its 14:30 and you need to get dressed and drag your skinny little ass out to the range."

Jap knew that Tilden had set up some kind of a scam to separate one or more of the doggies from their money. "Okay, I'll be there in fifteen or twenty minutes."

Taking care so as not to wake Jacky, Jap got his shaving kit (Author's Note; laughter would be appropriate here) and went to the head to take a leak and brush his teeth. Once back in the room, he quickly pulled on the Wally World Specials, grabbed his old tin pot and headed up to the range, making a quick stop at the arms room for his .22 rifle.

Once he got to the range, he was surprised to find James sitting at one of the benches firing an AR-15. After shooting the rifle dry, Jesse Stevens dumped the magazine and inserted a fresh twenty rounder in the rifle. There was an Army Lieutenant and two Staff sergeants watching James shoot. Jap walked up to the bench next to James and set his rile down. Looking through the spotting scope that had been set up on the bench, Jap whistled. "Hey James, that ain't too bad a group for being gone so long. I bet you'll do a lot better when you get your new arm."

James looked over and smiled at Jap; "Thanks Jap, I think you're right, if it weren't for the bi-pod though, I'd have a hell of a time hitting anything."

One of the Staff Sergeants snickered; "Yeah, not bad shooting. Is BB here your shooting coach?"

Jap turned to the Staff and checked the name strip on the right breast of his field jacket, ’Baldwin’; "Excuse me? What did you just call me?"

The Staff smiled at him; "BB, that's what some of your friends called ya. Come to think of it, it fits, what with your size and all. Don't worry, you still got lots of growing to do, some day you might even be able to handle a real rifle."

Jap turned red, but before he could get fully spun up James said; "At ease Jap he doesn't know you so back off."

Turning to face the Sergeant, James said; "Before you go insulting someone, you really should make sure you know what you're talking about."

As the range was hot, the Staff picked up his A-4 and fired at his target on the 100 meter line, most went in the black, but not all. Turning back to James, he smirked; "I think I pretty well know what I'm talking about. Sir." The sir came out of the Sergeant’s mouth sounding like he meant to say 'Shit.'

Jesse saw James go pale, before it went any farther, Jesse spoke; "Okay that's it, we're done here." Turning to the Lieutenant, Jesse asked; "Do you always let your men insult people like he just did?"
Turning to Jap he said; "Do me a favor Jap, when you come back in, take James' rifle to the arms room for me, please."

Jap nodded his head, keeping his eyes on the big Staff Sergeant as Jesse pushed James back to the house. Before Jap could open his mouth to tell the Staff what he thought about him, Bill came up to him and asked; "Hey Jap, you mind if I look at your new rifle?"

Looking away from the smirking Staff Sergeant Jap turned to Tilden; "Go ahead Bill, it's just a cheap Marlin, but it is pretty accurate. At least for someone who knows how to shoot it."

Bill inspected the rifle; "You’re right Jap, it looks like it would be a good shooter."

The Staff sergeant laughed at the Marine's last statement; "Are you fucking kidding me, that piece of shit isn't good for anything."

Tilden looked at Jap and then turned to the Staff; "I got a hundred bucks that says Jap here can out shoot you and your fancy M4 with it."

The Staff Sergeant laughed and took out his wallet, pulling out two fifties he placed it on the shooting bench under the corner of an ammo can. The other Staff asked; "You got any more you want to lose?" Before the shooting started, Bill Tilden had $700.00 riding on Jap’s shooting ability. Everyone agreed that the Staff would get one twenty round box for the 16 and that Jap would fire twenty .22 caliber rounds from his bolt action rifle. They flipped a coin to see who would fire first, the Staff won the toss. The Staff got in the prone position and fired his twenty rounds; all of them went in the black. After the Staff cleared the shooting station, Jap also got in the prone position and started firing; his rounds were mostly in the black, however two ended up in the white.

Bill looked stricken, that is until he saw the small smile on the redhead’s face. The Army pukes picked up their winnings and the Staff said; "Anytime you want to lose some more, look me up."

Jap looked at the Staff, without taking his eyes off him, he asked Tilden; "Hey Bill, how much money you got?"

Tilden looked in his wallet; "I got another fifteen, sixteen hundred, why?"

Jap smirked at the Staff, then looked at the Sergeant's M-16. Turning back to the Staff he asked; "Is that your primary weapon Staff Sergeant?"

The Staff smiled at the kid; "Yeah, why?"

"How bout we try it again and I use my primary weapon and we'll shoot long distance? I'll even get one just like it for you so we'll be even, huh, what da ya say Staff Sergeant?"

Once again the Staff smirked at the kid; "Now why would I want to do that?"

This time Jap smirked at the Sergeant; "Because Bill here has sixteen hundred dollars and I'll throw in another $1,600.00. Of course you'd have to add another thousand to what you got, but that shouldn't bother a big strong guy like you. After all, I'm only a little kid."

The Sergeant had dollar signs floating in front of his eyes; "How do I know you got the money, where would a kid get that much money?"

Unbeknownst to the men and boys on the firing line, Matt had arrived at the range looking to kick some Green Beret’s ass. After settling James down in his room, Jesse found Matt and told him what had happened. Hearing Jap talk his shit to the Staff Sergeant, Matt knew exactly what Jap had planned. Matt walked over to Jap and asked; "What's going on Jap, any problems?"

Looking up at Matt, Jap saw the sparkle in his eyes; "Yes sir, I hate to ask you, but could I borrow $1,600.00, I'll give it right back, I promise."

Matt laughed, playing along with Jap’s little boy routine he said; "Gee Jap, that's an awful lot of money."

Jap went deeper into his little boy act and started crying; "Come on Matt, please. I promise I'll give it back to ya."

Matt appeared to think about it; "Okay, on one condition, if you lose your bet, you have to wash all the Unit's vehicles once a week for six months."

Jap gulped; "That's kind of harsh ain't it, how about two months?"

Matt and Jap dickered back and forth until Jap agreed to four months. Matt pulled out his wallet and handed him sixteen one hundred dollar bills. Tilden counted out another $1,600.00 and gave it to Jap. Placing the $3,200 on the bench, the SF troops added their $2,400 to the pile.

Jap turned to the Staff Sergeant: "Okay, wait here and I'll go get the rifles and ammo." Turning, he ran for the house and down to the arms room. The door was already open and Keener had the two Barrett's sitting on their bi-pods waiting for Jap. Jap smiled and said; "Thanks Kee, I guess Matt called you huh?"

Keener nodded; "Yeah he did, let's get this up to the garage and we'll use a HUMVEE to haul it out there."

The Staff Sergeant ignored the arrival of the HUMVEE, that is until Jap got out and opened the tailgate. Keener helped Jap carry the firearms and ammo to the firing line. The Sergeant’s eyes bugged out at the sight of the two Barrett’s.

Jap looked at the Sergeant and said; "Just to be fair, you can pick the one you want to use."

Acting like he wasn't worried a bit, the Sergeant picked the Barrett closest to him, Jacky's Gargon. To add insult to injury, Jap said; "If you want to see how he shoots, go ahead and fire up the target at the 100 meter line."

The Sergeant looked at the rifle studying how the safety worked and where the magazine release was located. By the time he was ready to fire, a large crowd of men and boys had materialized. The story about Jap messing with the SF guys had spread throughout the Unit like wildfire and everyone wanted to watch. The General, Colonel Dalton and the Gunny had gone into the range building and the Gunny had turned the closed circuit TV monitor on so they could watch the hits on the targets. After setting up the closed circuit TV system for the officers, the Gunny went out to firing line, just to keep things on the up and up.

After firing five rounds at the target at 100 meters, the Sergeant put the firearm on safe, he stood up and they flipped a quarter to see who would fire first. Once again the Sergeant won.

At this point, Gunny Mcnaughten got into the act; "Jap I don't much care for you shooting for money."

Sergeant Baldwin decided that the old Marine was getting ready to pull the kid’s chestnuts out of the fire for him. "Hey Sarge, he had a chance to back off, but he let his alligator mouth overload his canary asshole. I don't know if the punk can even hit with the Barrett at 100 meters, but I intend to teach him and his buddy here a lesson."

The Gunny stared into the Staff's eyes until Baldwin glanced away. Looking at both Baldwin and Jap, he nodded his head; "Okay, this is my range and you both will follow my rules as long as you're here." Turning to Jap he asked; "What range and how many rounds?"

Jap looked at the big Staff Sergeant and smiled before turning back to the Gunny. The next words he spoke shook the shit out of Staff Sergeant Baldwin. "I want the 1,500 meter range and twenty rounds of ball."

The Gunny nodded and then looked at the Staff; "You got any problem with that Staff?"

"Well . . . a . . . no . . . I . . . no problem Gunnery Sergeant, that's fine with me."

Baldwin got into the prone position and started firing after the Gunny went through the firing line litany. Even with an unfamiliar rifle, Staff Sergeant Baldwin was a very good shot, only in this case very good didn't hack it.

Jap didn't even bother trying to spot the hits as Baldwin shot, after firing his last round he cleared the Barrett and stood. Looking down at Jap; "Okay hot shot, your turn, or you can just give up now, don't matter to me none."

Jap smirked at the man; "In your fucking dreams doggie."

Moving to the firing line, Jap took up Bert, luckily Sergeant Baldwin had picked Jacky's Gargon. Jap first checked that both of the magazines had ten rounds in each and that they were in fact live rounds. After seating his first magazine he nodded to the Gunny.

Gunny Mcnaughten really didn't like his young protégé shooting for money. But this asshole needed to get his dick caught in the wringer, if for no other reason than how he acted towards James.

He watched Jap inspect his weapon and ammunition and then don his hearing and eye protection. Jap looked at the Gunny and nodded that he was ready. The Gunny checked that everyone close had on hearing protection or at least had their fingers stuck in their ears. Turning back to the line he went through his rote procedure for Jap to commence firing.

Before Jap chambered his first round, he whispered to Bert; "Okay buddy let's show this prick what shooting is all about."

Jap took a breath, let it out, took another breath; slowly let it out while at the same time taking in the small amount of slack in the Barrett's trigger. As always when Jap was in the 'Zone,' he felt no recoil, heard no report from his rifle or took any notice of the activity around him. In a little over a minute and a half, Jap fired all twenty rounds; all twenty rounds went to the center of the black. After the last round was fired, he safed his weapon, dumped the magazine and stood. After stretching, Jap walked over to the bench and picked up the money, turned around and started to police up his brass.

Baldwin looked at the little redhead and couldn't believe the kid had picked up the money and shoved it in his pocket. "Hey you stupid little fuck where you going with my money?"

Jap looked up at the royally pissed Staff Sergeant; "Your money? I don't fucking think so asshole."

Just as the Sergeant was about to rip Jap's head off and shit in the stump, the Gunny intervened. "Jap hand me the money." Turning to the Staff; "And you Staff Sergeant, back the fuck off. NOW!"

Survival instinct kicking in, Baldwin backed off and just glared at Jap. Jap handed the money to the Gunny with a small smile on his face. The Gunny glared at Jap, which only made Jap's smile get bigger.

The Gunny moved towards the range shack, indicating that Jap and Baldwin should follow. Once inside Baldwin saw General Stanton and Colonel Dalton studying a big TV monitor. As the three entered the General turned towards them. Jap, knowing that he had beaten the doggie was in a happy mood, looking the General in the eyes he spouted off with; "Afternoon General, how they hanging Sir?"

Before the General could even attempt to reply, the Gunny stepped in front of Jap and yelled; "Ten-Hut!!" Bending over, getting right in Jap's face, the Gunny commenced a world class ass chewing, ending with; "If I ever hear any shit like you just spouted, I'll have you running JJ's for the next six years, you read me Squadie?"

Jap, at attention, pale and sweating replied in a high puberty cracking voice; "Yes Master Gunnery Sergeant!"

While the ass chewing was in progress, both the General and the Colonel turned back to the monitor and tried to control their laughter. When Jap answered Gunny, they almost lost it completely.

Gunny Mcnaughten stepped up behind the two senior officers and waited for them to turn around. When they felt they had themselves under control they turned to face the Gunny. The Gunny standing at attention apologized; "General, Colonel, please accept my apology for the disrespect shown to you by one of my men, I guarantee it won't happen again." Both the General and the Colonel nodded, not trusting their abilities to maintain a straight face. And, keep from laughing.

Looking at Jap and Baldwin, The General spoke for the two officers; "After studying the results of the shoot, both the colonel and I agree that Jap is the winner."

Baldwin couldn't believe what he was hearing; there was no way that this skinny kid could out shoot him. The Colonel seeing the look on the Staff Sergeant's face gestured for him to come forward and study the monitor. Baldwin moved forward and looked at the two targets, his looked good; only two rounds out of twenty were outside of the black. Then he looked at Jap's target and almost shit. Every one of the rounds had impacted in an area not over eight inches in diameter (the target used for the sixteen hundred meter line had a bull's eye a little smaller than .66 meters in diameter). Baldwin shook his head and thought about claiming it was all a set up, and then thought better of it. Turning to Jap, he took a deep breath and in loud clear voice; "I concede, you out shot me, no that's not true. You pounded my ass into a mudhole."

Jap looked startled at the Sergeant’s statement. Moving forward he held out his hand and said; "Thank you Staff Sergeant, and I'm sorry for any derogatory comments I made about you."

The Sergeant took the offered hand and shook it, resisting the temptation to crush it. He turned to the officers and the Gunny; "Thank you sirs, Gunny." After doing an about face, Baldwin marched out of the range shack.

Turning to the Officers, Jap was about to say how sorry he was when the Gunny raised his arm and pointed to the door, saying just one word; "Out."

As he left the building, Jacky came up to him and hugged his dejected looking lover. "What's amatter buddy, are you okay?"

Jap was crying now, he pushed his face into Jacky's chest and sobbed. "Why do I always fuck up?" Jacky hugged him tighter as his boy continued crying with gut wrenching sobs. "Why?"

Jacky held Jap closely and whispered into his, telling him to relax, nothing he could ever do would make Jacky, or any of his other friends love him any less.

Jap said, still sobbing; "I embarrassed the Gunny in front of the General and Colonel Dalton. I got so fucking cocky and shit just spewed from my mouth. Fuck, I feel so fucking bad and there's nothing I can do to change it."

Jap cried for a few more minutes, and then straightened suddenly. Breaking free from Jacky he didn't look at his lover; "I gotta go, I'll talk to you later."

Without another word Jap ran towards the house and then down to his room in the berthing area.

Jacky was about to run after him when Bill Tilden grabbed him gently by his arm; "Don't, let him have some time alone. I don't know what happened, but you and me are going to find out."

Two hours later, Jap placed an envelope on the kitchen table. The envelope had 'Matt' written on the front of it. Jap left the building and got in his dad's car, and left for home.

By 19:00 all of the Squadies had left for home, they all had to get ready for school in the morning, an occurrence none of them were looking forward too.

Matt entered the kitchen to get some beer for him and his military visitors. As he started to place the beer bottles on the table he saw the envelope.

Closing the refrigerator door, he picked it up and opened it. Inside, he found a note, obviously typed on a computer;

Dear Matt;

I am terribly sorry for all the times I fucked up while I was in the Unit. You and the other guys have meant more to me than anyone other than my family.

I can no longer be apart of the Unit; I know that now. My actions this afternoon showed me I was not worthy to be a part of the Unit.

Thank you for everything you have done for me, I'll always remember your kindness and friendship.

I have left all the gear and equipment in front of the supply door in the Cavern,

Good bye.

Sincerely

Joshua Allen Peterson