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  After that assignment he and his team returned to the states and once back at Campbell he applied to go to the US Army Combat Diver Qualification Course in Key West Florida and was accepted. About that time he was really wondering if he was just a glutton for punishment. By and large the Combat Diver Course was the most physical and grueling course he had done to date, at the end of it he was pretty beat down but happy that he had completed it, he vowed no more schools. Besides, he had pretty much hit most of the been there done that courses, outside of Air Assault and Sapper, if you saw him in uniform he had all the bells and whistles and the t-shirts to prove it.

  He returned to his team and was sent on another tour to Iraq, this repeated itself several times while he was with the 5th. They would return home, then train, train, train for a few more months than head off for another hot spot not always Iraq or Afghanistan. Then back to Campbell and train, train, train then back to Afghanistan or Iraq. Even that was getting old after so many years of it.

  He started shopping around for other opportunities, he didn’t want to get out of the Army, he loved it. He wanted more, but more of what he didn’t really know one day recruiters started showing up for 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. He talked to them quite a bit so he thought about it, he did have all of the qualifications, but he swore no more schools, at least voluntarily. Before he knew it he decided what the fuck and went for it. He submitted his request to attend the Delta Selection Course and it was approved, so off to Bragg he went, again.

  The selection course is four weeks and it wasn’t that tough so he thought, he was selected to move onto the OTC (Operator Training Course) which would be six months long. Thinking back through those six months he found that he made some of the best friends in his life, many among the men he was currently with. He got through the mentally and physically tough OTC within the six months and found himself assigned to a team as team Commander, although rank was seldom used.

  Operators when in the states seldom wore uniforms and grew their hair out and often had facial hair too. Going onto any Military base in the US sometimes poised problems, when entering through the main gate and showing a military ID, the guards would look at you skeptically. In some cases there were confrontations with Post Commanders who had strict policies on Army grooming and uniform standards while on “their” base. In some cases calls were made to DA (Department of the Army) to get rules and regulations clarified regarding SFOD-D personnel. In every case the Post Commanders lost.

  It had taken John a long time to get here but he had found his calling, finally.

  Chapter Five

  Dognillo had come around telling everyone to gear up they were jumping in fifteen mikes (minutes). Everyone collected their gear and chuted up, they checked and double checked each other, couldn’t be careful enough on night jumps.

  The pilot announced they were over the DZ (drop zone) and it was time to go, green light. With the ramp down the team exited the aircraft. They jumped at eighteen thousand feet, each had an oxygen mask and bottled oxygen which gave each man a certain amount of breathable air until they were at a point they no longer needed them. Chutes would automatically deploy, hopefully, just below radar detection.

  Everyone hit the drop zone successfully at a little after 0400, they gathered their chutes and buried them in so doing they also tried to make the area where they buried them look as normal as possible in case some goat herder wondered by. Why a goat herder? Because it always seems to be a goat herder that gets them into trouble.

  They double checked all their gear again and took off at a run to get to their objective a few klicks away. They still needed to set up some type of road black that wouldn’t look too out-of-place. The terrain they had to run over wasn’t too bad; it was a forested and mountainous, with lots of hills.

  It took them thirty minutes to get to the objective, once there they determined a simple tree fall across the road would be easy enough to stop the trucks and they wouldn’t know if it was an act of nature or not without getting out to check. That task was easily accomplished in ten minutes by two team members, while the rest got into positon.

  Major Clayton got into a position where he could see traffic coming down the road; they were expecting their prey within the next ten minutes or so and seriously hoped that no other vehicles would be on the road at this time of morning. They didn’t use hand signals to convey messages this time as they were too far apart, each man had a radio type headset which allowed them to talk to each other. Major Clayton checked on the team status and each man reported that they were five-by-five (ready to go).

  Major Clayton reported to the team that he could see two sets of headlights heading their way, looking through his night vision scope he could see they were trucks and looked like the trucks they had seen a week ago back in the camp. He put out the word to the team that there were two vehicles headed their way which looked to be the target vehicles and they would be at their location in about five mikes.

  The two trucks passed Major Clayton who was then able to clearly identify the vehicles as the ones they were looking for, he put out the word again and reminded them they needed the trucks, just kill the occupants. Major Clayton took off from his position to join the rest of the team on the assault on the trucks.

  The two trucks pulled up to the log that had fallen sort of at a weird angle across the road effectively blocking it. It wasn’t in the road but had fallen across the road and had lodged itself in a boulder on the other side. There were two men in the cab of each truck and the backs of the trucks were still covered but it was assumed there would be at least one man in the back of each at a minimum. The two men in the rear truck were taken out by snipers, single shot through the windshield. The sniper rifles were silenced so the only thing that was really heard was breaking glass. The two men in the front truck heard the glass and stuck their heads out to look to see what the noise was and were quickly dispatched with shots to the head.

  That now left who ever might be left in the back of the trucks, Major Clayton had arrived when they started to clear the back, as one of the rear flaps was lifted a shot rang out from the back of the rear truck. Quickly the team members cleared the back killing the occupants in each. Those men with Geiger’s climbed up to verify that the boxes in the back were still exhibiting signs of some radiological, they did.

  Master Sergeant Dognillo got a head count when they realized, where was the Major? The last anyone saw was that he was approaching the rear vehicle, didn’t anyone see him? You didn’t see anything when you got out of the back of the truck? It was still dark they said and didn’t really think to look. Dognillo chewed out their asses left and right, “You’re Tier One operators! You’re supposed to notice everything!”

  They hurriedly returned to the rear of the last truck and didn’t see anything immediately, “See I told ya.” said Teamster the Weapons Sergeant. Dognillo looked harder down the road, “Wait, there’s something in the road, bout hundred yards down.”

  “That’s some damn good eyesight there top.” said Blocker the team Executive Officer.

  They moved cautiously to what was in the road, they couldn’t tell right off whether or not it was a body, which was odd given the fact they did have night vision equipment. Within seventy-five feet they could plainly see it was a body and that of the Major.

  “Doc!” Dognillo yelled. “Get your ass back here now.”

  Doc grabbed his A-Bag and ran down the road, he found Major Clayton down on his back with a gunshot wound to his upper chest, but he was still alive. Master Sergeant Dognillo got the rest of the team members moving, they got the trucks backed up and ready to move out to the Rally Point where their ride home was waiting.

  “Doc, can he be moved?” asked Blocker. “Cuz we gotta go.”

  Docs nodded, “Yeah, let’s get him in back of one of the trucks. He’s stable now.”

  They lifted the Major into the back of the first truck as there was blood all over the back of the se
cond one. Doc hooked up an IV and checked the bandages he had applied, he was thinking, “C’mon Major you can do it.”

  Chapter Six

  Major Clayton woke up hooked up to all sorts of contraptions; he didn’t remember much other than being punched in the chest. Now he was flat on his back in a hospital bed hooked up to all sorts of what looked like monitoring machines and a big bandage around his chest.

  He found the nurse call button and pushed it, within moments a nurse came in, “Glad to see your awake finally.” She said.

  “Where am I?”

  “Landstuhl.” Was her only reply. Major Clayton understood it to mean Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, US Army in Germany.

  “How long have I been here?”

  “About a week. You were brought in from Bagdad. I’ll notify your Doctor that you’re awake now, she should be in shortly. I’m Nancy by-the-way, if you need anything else just buzz.” With that she left his room.

  The reason Nancy was so short with the Major was because they were under explicit orders to limit the amount of time with the occupant, unless accompanied by specific personnel which had been spelled out in an access list. For the medical staff, who were for the most part, in the Army too, they understood, they didn’t see this often, but when it did they knew the need for operational security.

  An hour later the Doctor came in and didn’t say a word to him, grabbed his chart and looked it over. She sort of grunted to herself a couple of times, “You’re lucky to be alive Major. An eighth of an inch closer the bullet would have nicked a major artery and you would have bled out wherever in the world you were when you were wounded. You were in surgery for seven hours while we stitched you up.”

  “Thanks Doc I appreciate it.” While thinking ‘It’s your fucking job to patch people up, what are you looking for a pat on the back?’ he then asked, “How long will I be here?”

  “Well that’s entirely up to you Major. It’ll take a couple of months for your wound to heal entirely. I don’t know whether or not you will need any rehab yet for the left side of your body. It took a pretty hard hit.”

  “I have to stay here the entire time?”

  “No, no…once I see that you’re able to travel you will be sent back stateside, to the base Hospital where you’re stationed at.” She looked at his chart. “Odd it doesn’t say your home station on your chart, it normally does.”

  “Bragg, Fort Bragg.” Said Major Clayton.

  The Doctor nodded, “Ah…probably explains why.” She went on to examine the Major, looked at all of his vitals, inspected the bandages and made sure all of connections were good. By the time she was done John had fallen asleep.

  While at Landstuhl he underwent weeks of poking and prodding, test after test. He could feel himself getting stronger day-by-day, he didn’t think he needed any rehab but they sent him to a physical therapist anyway. Then finally after four weeks of this they were sending him back to Bragg, not to his unit, but to Womack (Womack Army Medical Center). He would get on a medical transport that would apparently only carry him, and enjoy a lovely seven hour flight back home, ‘Oh joy,’ he thought.

  It was a long and very boring flight which fortunately he was able to sleep and read most of the way. When they arrived he was ushered away to Womack in an ambulance that was standing by, he was able to get into the back of the ambulance under his own power, in fact he insisted on it. In the back was a single EMT or what he thought was an EMT. He sat down and lifted his legs onto gurney, leaned back and closed his eyes wondering when this nightmare was going to be over.

  “What the fuck took you so long? I can’t take you any place anymore without you catching a bullet!” said the EMT.

  “I know that voice!” The Majors eyes popped open and he looked over to see one Master Sergeant Dognillo sitting there, not an EMT, and he smiled at his friend. “Damn glad to see you boy!” said Major Clayton.

  “I’ve got your boy right here.” Dognillo grabbing at his crotch. Both men laughed. “It’s good to see you to John, how was the vacation?”

  “If this is a vacation then I don’t want another one anytime soon. Do you know when they are going to release me back to the unit?”

  “Nope no idea when and even if they are.”

  “What do you mean if?”

  “Well as I understand it the wound was pretty close to the heart, a lot of times they don’t let guys with these types of wounds return to the unit anytime soon, if ever.”

  “Fuck that, if that’s the case I might as well resign my commission, I don’t want to do anything else.”

  “Well I don’t know what the final verdict is so don’t jump to any conclusions based off anything I said. I’m just say’in what’s happened to some guys in the past.”

  “Fine, fine…I get it, I’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “Pretty much, sorry.”

  “Not your fault, wait…maybe it is…so what the hell happened to me?”

  “Well what’s the last thing you remember?”

  They were pulling up to the hospital where the rest of the team met him, everyone was happy to see the Major. They got him checked in and escorted him to his room; they all crammed into his room as he got settled in. Then the Nursing Supervisor came into the room and told them they had to leave. All of the men looked at her with their war faces, she returned their gaze, she obviously was not afraid of them. They filed out of the room saying their good-byes to the Major and they would see him back at the team room. “Damn.” John thought. “I still don’t know what happened.”

  As the days went by John continued his rehab program and more tests. He was required to also speak to an Army shrink to determine his frame of mind. To John it was all bullshit; he just wanted to get back to work. He played along with all of the doctors; he needed the medical release to be able to return to the team. His teammates came by the hospital every couple of days; they looked like rough scruffy bunch. There were all sorts of rumors floating around the floor, considering they were treating a Major who had long blonde hair and a beard many of them were putting two and two together and coming up with Delta. Of course none of them asked they knew there wasn’t anything he could confirm or deny and if they did ask they were pretty sure they would be told to mind their own business.

  After a couple of weeks in the hospital he got a visit from the Squadron Commander, it wasn’t all that unexpected. Officers and NCO’s were expected to check up on their men and woman especially those in the hospital. It was good to see the Colonel, he hadn’t seen him in months, John got the feeling though there was more to his visit then the formal check up on one of the troops.

  The Colonel took a chair next to John’s bed, “How are you doing Major?”

  “Great Sir, I’m ready to get back to work.”

  The Colonel reached into his bag that he had brought with him, “First I wanted to give you this.” He handed over a blue box. “If you were in a Regular Army unit there were be a lot of pomp and ceremony with this, but since the op was classified so are the events on how you earned this.”

  John opened the box and in it was a Purple Heart, John starred at it for a moment, “Thank you Sir. I don’t know what to say.”

  “You don’t say anything Major you earned it.”

  John nodded and set the box down on the table next to the bed, “Sir, when can I get out of here?”

  “Well Major that’s one of the reason’s I’m here. The medical board has reviewed the recommendations from the doctor. At this time you are cleared to return to the Squadron and to an extent your team. You’re not cleared to conduct any op’s at this time.”

  “Sir I’m not sure I understand?” John was confused.

  “Understood Major, essentially you would return to the Squadron and work a staff position until they decided whether or not you can start running ops again.”

  “I see Sir.” Said John. “What exactly would I do in a staff position?”

  “Pushing papers basically, writing repo
rts, analysis, things like that.” Replied the Colonel.

  “Is that my only option?”

  “Nope, you can return to your old SF or Ranger units, but you’re a Major and odds are they are going to put you in a staff position too.”

  “Is that it Sir?”

  “Yes Major that sums it up. There ready to release you today, you can then take the next four days off. Then come back into work on Monday.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “It’s good to see you Major I’m glad to see your alive, see you on Monday.” The Colonel stayed a bit longer and they engaged in small talk, he finally excused himself and said he had meetings to attend to that afternoon.

  Chapter Seven

  John was let go that afternoon from the hospital and was picked up by Boomer one of the team NCO’s. They were good friends and had spent a lot of time partying together and been on the team together for the last two years. Boomer and the rest of the team had been taking care of his house while he was in the hospital; they even stocked the refrigerator with beer and food for his return.

  Boomer dropped him off, he had a date and he was running late. John told him good luck and wished him the best. He would see him back at the team room on Monday. John unlocked the door and walked into the house, it was so empty, so quiet. This is the first time that it had struck him that his life was devoid of another person to share his life with, he was thirty-two and hadn’t really dated anyone serious since College; he had been concentrating on his career so much. Besides, they were always gone and there was no way he could ever tell a significant other what he really did and where he was going. Well he could tell them he was on SFOD-D he just couldn’t discuss missions with them or tell them where he was going