Close Enough

Chapter Two - Deployment

At three-thirty the next morning, the phone rang.

"Sergeant Waters," Mark answered fairly alertly, considering the hour.

"Staff Sergeant Jackson here," said the voice at the other end.  "We have a recall in progress.  Notify the next soldier on your Alert Roster and report to your unit no later than zero five hundred hours."

"Understood," Mark replied.  He hung up the phone, got out of bed and started getting dressed.  Bonnie sat up.

"You have to leave right now, don't you?"

"Yeah, sweetie, I do.  We talked about this, remember?  Division could decide to let the duty day start normally, and then call the alert, or they could start things early, sort of help us get our heads into the game right from the get-go; I guess they chose the latter."

Mark finished lacing up his boots, then stowed his keys, wallet and loose change in his pockets.  As he walked into the living room to stuff his shaving kit into one of the duffel bags, Bonnie handed him his favorite travel mug.  Wisps of steam and a hint of cinnamon escaped through the drinking slot, and Mark gave her a kiss as he accepted her 'bon voyage' present.  Bonnie made a great cup of coffee, making this a wonderful start to what would be a very long day.

"Thanks, hon; I really appreciate the coffee.  The mess hall doesn't do a bad job, but they don't come close to your coffee."

Bonnie beamed with pleasure at the compliment.  "I was wondering," she said, "if you thought you might be able to call me maybe once or twice."

"Well, I can't say for sure about today," Mark replied, "and I expect we'll be out in the woods most of the time we're in Germany but, if we have some downtime and are near a village or town, I'll try to get to a phone booth for a very short collect call.  I'm told the charges can add up pretty fast, and then there's the D-Mark to dollar exchange rate to think about."  He took a few sips of his coffee, then said, "Hey, I know what we can do!  We can set specific times to think about each other, sort of send 'good thoughts' each other's way."

"That's a wonderful idea, honey!" Bonnie exclaimed.  "You told me it's a seven hour time difference between here and Germany, so how about seven in the morning and seven in the evening?  All the sevens will make it easy to remember!"

"Sounds like a plan, sweetheart!" Mark agreed excitedly.  "That way, we'll each get to say a little 'middle of the night prayer' for the other one: me in the morning and you in the evening."

Just then, a short beep sounded from out front.  Mark pulled the living room window's curtain aside, peered through, and then waved. 

"Okay," he said, "there's Sergeant Jeffers.  He's my ride."  He put on his cap and grabbed his duffel bags, both of which were weighted down with uniforms, socks, underwear, spare boots, and all his tactical gear.  Bonnie walked him to the door, then leaned in for a farewell kiss.

"Remember to use the checklist, honey, and don't be afraid to call First Sergeant Williams' wife, Betty, if you have any questions," Mark reminded her.  "She's been down the deployment trail a couple dozen times, and will be more than glad to help.  Never forget that I love you; see you in a couple of weeks."

He strode down the sidewalk to the car, put his bags in the trunk, then got in on the passenger side.  As he waved goodbye, the car drove off.  Bonnie watched, until it disappeared around the curve, then went back inside and lay down.  It was a long time, though, before she finally fell asleep.

***

When they arrived in the battalion area, Sergeant Jeffers and Mark headed for their respective units: Jeffers to Headquarters Company, and Mark to A Company.  Alpha Company's Orderly Room was a whirlwind of activity, with First Sergeant Williams right in the middle directing traffic.  Mark signed in at the desk, showing his ID card and dog tags to confirm he had them with him, then started toward his platoon's area.

"Sergeant Waters!" called the First Sergeant.  "Your wife all squared away?"

Mark walked over.  "Yeah, Top, she's all set.  I sure appreciate Mrs. Williams making herself available to Bonnie, letting her "jump the Chain of Command", so to speak."

"No problem, Sergeant; Alpha Company takes care of its own.  She's new to the Army and it's her first deployment, so Betty'll make sure she keeps herself together."

"Thanks again, Top," Mark said, then headed down the hallway to 2nd Platoon's area.

The platoon's morning proceeded as was usual for an alert: equipment checks, the issuance of weapons from the Arms Room, and so on.  The big difference, though, was that no one was down in the motor pool turning over engines.  The battalion's vehicles had all been rail-loaded two weeks ago and taken to New Orleans for transport.  The soldiers would be reunited with their vehicles there, and then the most interesting convoy most of them had ever been in would cross Western Europe, traveling just under three hundred miles from the initial Assembly Area in Ghent, Belgium to a point just short of the border between East and West Germany.

Just before eleven o'clock, Mark walked over to battalion headquarters to attend a briefing.  His platoon sergeant, Sergeant First Class Carlson, had gotten hung up in another briefing down at Division Headquarters, and had directed Mark to "take copious notes".  He entered the conference room just ahead of Lieutenant Colonel Harriman, the Battalion Commander, and took a seat along the rear wall.  The commander greeted the assembly and gave them the same short update on the battalion's readiness, that he'd just delivered to the 1st Brigade Commander.  He outlined the remaining pre-deployment activities, the boarding of the aircraft that would ferry them to Belgium, and the basic route the battalion would take.

"Division has designated three Exercise Training Areas for us: AHAB, PEQUOD and WHALE.  Sounds like someone at Division's a Melville fan," he noted wryly.  Soft laughter rippled around the room.  "We'll converge at ETA AHAB for final checks.  On Deployment Day 3, Alpha Company will move on to WHALE and Bravo will occupy positions in PEQUOD; Headquarters and Charlie Companies will deploy in AHAB.  Barring something unusual, the next update will be at fifteen hundred hours.  Dismissed!"

***

Briefings, equipment and personnel checks--and the occasional meal--came and went.  Mark hadn't had a chance to call Bonnie, but he had taken a moment to think about her at seven that evening.  Finally, a line of buses formed on the north side of the battalion area and started ferrying troops to Robert Gray Army Airfield out at West Fort Hood.  To the soldiers' surprise, they boarded civilian airliners flying under contract to the Army.  Mark, for one, was glad to see them.  He hadn't been looking forward to facing backward for eight or nine hours, as would probably have been the case on an Air Force bird.

Preflight briefings completed, the aircraft engines spun up and, one by one, they took the active runway and climbed into the night.  The 2nd Armored Division was on the move.


Chapter 2 word count = 1232 words
Running total word count = 1545 words