The hours hastily rushed by as Jamal picked up the gear he would use on the mission and signed for his weapon. First Sergeant Pickford transferred a brand new M-16 assault rife across the booth. The sergeant carefully placed the assault weapon and a case of ammunition on the counter. His large black eyes quickly glanced across his face. He inquired, ‘Your first mission, son? You are new around here?’

‘Yes, sarge,’ Jamal replied. ‘I got here a few days ago from Fort Benning. I am assigned to C Company barracks over by the mess hall.’’

He faced Jamal again. ‘That’s good, private. There are only a few rules here,’ he announced pointing to the large laminated poster that decorated the wall to the left of the door. The poster read ‘Clean your weapon before you return it, check your weapon to make sure it is unloaded before you return it and keep track of all you ammo your are given, you will need to return it.’

Jamal departed the supply office and headed for the helicopter pad. The time on his watch had just changed to 2140 as he drove the loaded Ford into the parking lot of the base airport. Jamal opened the driver side door of the blue truck and locked it. Slowly, he reached in the back of the bed and retrieved his gear. Immediately, he heard the deep loud cry from the pipes of a custom Harley as it turned into the parking lot. Later, a black 2000 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup pulled into the spot right next the Harley.

Jamal threw his backpack over his shoulders and began walking toward the far south hangar on the base airport. This was the sector where the base new heliport had been constructed. As he arrived at the halfway point between the parking lot and the hangar, the guy on the motorcycle had caught up with him and touched him on the shoulder.

As Jamal turned to see who had touched him, the young Irish American soldier replied, ‘Hey are you the new recruit that Captain Jab was looking for this morning.’ Jamal barely nodded his head and abruptly continued to walk.

By the time, he reached the hangar both men had caught up with him. They entered the opened door of the hangar. The hangar was illuminated by about a dozen four feet long florescent light fixtures that had been suspended from the ceiling. A small table and five chairs had been grouped in the center of the hangar. Jamal noticed that two of the chairs were already occupied as they walked closer.

The captain and the sergeant major had arrived a few minutes before them. ‘I am glad you gentlemen could make it this evening,’ Captain Jab sarcastically expressed.

After some quick introductions, the captain continued, ‘For a while, I thought that Wilson and I would have to do this mission.’ The captain smiled at each of them and directed them to sit at the table. He placed four folders that had top-secret stamped across them on the table and strolled to the dry erase board on the north side of the table. ‘Okay, gentlemen, this is the mission’ he said.

For about the next hour, Captain Jab steadily detailed the mission to them. They will be flown by helicopter out into the Gulf of Mexico to the small Caribbean Island nation of Tilfar. The island was about four hundred and twenty miles south by southeast of the Texas coast. Tilfar had been a semi hostile nation since the 1965 ousting of King Rafaela. The Cuban government funded the militants and assisted them in defeating the small Tilfarian army. Since then, the diplomatic relations between our two countries has been very strained.

The mission was clear. Their team will penetrate a secret weapon laboratory on the island. The sergeant and the corporal were assigned the job of breaking in and hacking into the computer system. Jamal never could comprehend what had disturbed him. Maybe, it was the assignment as a lookout. Maybe the comment the sergeant major had made earlier was still bothering him. Either way he said very few words during the whole mission.

The team meeting concluded about 2300. The Army green Chinook helicopter was setting on the helipad waiting for them. The pilot was performing his final inspections as they walked up. Sergeant Milton and Corporal Richardson sprung into the cargo area of the Chinook. Jamal finished loading the gear they had and sat down opposite the corporal.