Chapter 75

Janice Thursday 19 January 0530

I got up and dressed for morning PT. None of us girls had done any serious workouts since taking this job. CSM Nelson was harassing Wilber and Hernandez about being an out of shape old man. And challenged them to morning PT and run. Us girls decided to join in after CSM Yoyo accepted the challenge. I checked on Elizabeth Anne who was still sleeping. Johanna, Eloise, and Roseland, Christine, Cassidy and I went out the front door and met Wilber Rotuman, Hernandez Martinez, CSM Nelson, CSM Arthur William Smith, and CSM Yolanda Zulu. We did Twenty minutes in a PT circle, a Three-mile run, and finished with a quarter mile wind sprint.

I just beat Wilber a man twice my age and he and Hernandez just laughed as they caught their breath. Hernandez said what till I get this online the mighty Wilber finally meets his match in a girl. Wilber replied she beat you also, Hernandez replied I am used to getting beat by you, we are all used to getting beat by you, but a woman ran you down and over you, that is history.

All I could do was smile and try to catch my breath. I turned and said I was an all-state in track before I joined the Army and before I got this job, I ran 10Ks every weekend. I am out of practice. That made Hernandez laugh even more and all the rest of them joined in on the laughter.

Yoyo spoke up that all her HHC people will start morning PT and run M, W, F at 0530 until the command was dissolved. The memo would go out today and apply to all personnel including the MGen. If she could be drafted, so could he. No one would ever call anyone in her command out of shape and she does not except excuses, she just corrects the problem.

Nelson, Wilber, and Hernandez said they were not part of my command and CSM Smith said I will correct that problem after the morning meeting and add the draft is back.

0700 back to the house to shower and breakfast. All Six of the principles were in a corner table chatting away. By the door someone had placed a walker painted Black with a sippy cup and box of Depends and had added Wilber’s name to it. The room got quiet as he and Hernandez walked in. He reached down and adjusted the walker for his height and folded it up.

Wilber

I got caught off guard this morning at the wind sprint quarter mile ending of the PT run. I was beat to the finish line by Janice Lincolnshire. The fact she was Twenty years younger than me, a runner of 10Ks, and it was only by a step had little baring on the fact I was beaten for the first time in years. I will be prepared for the next PT session.

The harassment started immediately, first from Hernandez, then from the rest of my generation. It culminated with a walker painted Black with a sippy cup and box of Depends placed in the Breakfast Room where I normally sit.

After I adjusted the walker height to my needs, I picked all the stuff up and carried it to the coat area near the front door and told the Hall Boy I would pick the items up later. Returned to the Breakfast Room, got my breakfast, sat and started to eat. Spoke to no one in particular but said reprisal and retribution is best served cold and finished my breakfast.

Robert

The morning report was showing10 Kilometers of barrier wall completed and now that the learning curve was complete, 2-3 Kilometers a day was projected. The Stream crossings were taken care of by digging a moat around the perimeter and damming the streams where they had previously entered the property and diverting them around the outside the barricade wall. Eight crossings were made by large culverts under the roads that crossed over the new stream course.

The old stream bed inside the wall became part of our retention pond system as all the drains in the area were already emptying into it.

The delivery of ICV had started and by 0700 Sixteen were on the ground and being inspected and prepared for duty. The Marines would finish driving school by 1200 today. The money packets were completely assembled and stacked on pallets with Six sets on each pallet for movement to the issue point. The ICV we had on hand were being assembled and repainted with new control numbers and unit designators to reflect their assignments. Crews were matched with vehicles and unloading was rehearsed. Art had an idea that teams or individuals would like pictures of them holding the cash. I agreed to bring up a cash pallet of Six bundle sets up to our one of our large hangars and each team would have, starting at 0900, Fifteen minutes to have pictures taken, and take pictures with Five Million in cash. No people would be allowed to carry a phone or recording device with them on the deliveries to help everyone to keep their focus on the mission. The reaction teams had been assembled with equipment and ammunition staged. After the delivery teams were finished with pictures, they would have the same opportunity for pictures. Then anyone on Wolverine Field, Wappinger Nation would have an opportunity for pictures. A Marine MP took a pallet of the cash and moved the bundles around to form a Thirty Million Dollar chair. Sitting in it and holding a Two Million Dollar bundle became the must have picture. For security reasons all understood and complied with the order do not inform anyone outside the base until after the operation has been completed.

A minor shift in the universe happened this morning I heard thru people talking and the evidence of a walker painted Black with a sippy cup and box of Depends placed in the Breakfast Room where Wilber Rotuman normally sits. Janice Lincolnshire had beaten him in the wind sprint at the end of the PT run. A Marine, Senior SNCO, beaten by a former Army Junior Enlisted now a temporary reserve USMC Captain woman. Regardless of the facts that she was Twenty years younger than him, a runner of 10Ks, and it was only by a step had little baring on the fact that he was beaten. I am glad I was not out there because I have never beaten MGy Sgt Rotuman, and the walker could have had my name on it. It is an issue Tim and Harvey have to deal with.