04 June 2010
Shrapnel
(Bit of cold steel, shredded in 1966)
We were at Willow- it is the Admiral’s first venture out since his left arm has turned back to a normal color. We secured the little sitting area at the end of the bar and relaxed.
There was a lot to catch up on. The Admiral is still a player, even if he is ninety years old- he just hosted four women at his condo across the street at The Jefferson.
“In my experience,” I said owlishly, peering through he heavy leaded glass of my Absolute and cranberry “The number of women any guy can make happy is .8.”
The Admiral chuckled. “These women were my daughter, two granddaughters and on of their friends,” he said. “My odds were better.”
Jake and Dave bantered about business stuff, since there is an attack looming on our business sector. Dave is with one of the think tanks that provides a holding pond for the once-great of the Community, and Jake leads our merry band of beltway bandits.
Peter-the-bartender kept the table topped up with Bloody Mary’s, beers and vodka as Willow’s dark paneled bar filled up with people after work.
Dave cleared his throat. “I heard Secretary Gates announced that he is going to tell OSD and the Military Departments to identify a bunch of money in the existing program to pay for the Iraq close-down and current operations in Afghanistan.”
"I sat in on the VTC with Kabul this morning at the Pentagon," I said. The Bad Guys are trying to disrupt the Peace Jurga with suicide bombs and VBIEDS."
Dave leaned forward and lowered his voice. “That is not all that is under attack. I heard that the goal in the FY-2012 POM is $7 billion in cuts and efficiencies, rising to $37 billion at the end of the FYDP in 2016.”
“Jeeze,” I said. “That is bigger than what the whole intelligence community budget was ten years ago. Where are they going to find that kind of money.”
“He will run another BRAC round, closing and consolidating military bases, and cancel a handful of weapons systems,” said Jake.
“The point is to save enough money in management overhead, personnel policies and logistics to guarantee 3% percent real growth each year, beyond inflation, in the Operations and Maintenance accounts,” Dave said. “they are only forecasting one percent, after inflation in the current plan.”
“They are going to go after management and personnel, overhead, logistics and base operations, and support missions,” responded Jake slowly. “I don’t know if intelligence will take it directly on the chin, but you can bet the Military Intelligence Program is going to get hit pretty hard, since it is not protected from the OSD Comptroller like the National Intelligence Money that funds the Big Four agencies.” He frowned. “There is going to be a fight about that, too, but it is a separate issue.”
“Us retirees are one of the most expensive parts of the overhead,” I said bitterly. “So stand by. This is going to hurt our health care and commissaries along with the F-35 and the ship-building programs.”
“Health care costs are eating the Department alive,” said Jake thoughtfully. “But this was a deal we made when we signed up. There is going to be hell to pay if they shred our benefits just when I actually will need them.”
The Admiral chuckled again, clearly happy to be retired from three careers, two of them paying jobs and one as a volunteer. He pulled something from his pocket and put it on the table.
“I have been meaning to give this to you,” he said, as Dave and Jake discussed the details of the 25th anniversary of our little professional organization.
I looked at the dark twisted bit of steel. It had wicked sharp little claws in the folds, and it had clearly been exposed to great heat and violence.
“Shrapnel?” I asked slowly, marveling at how something so small could be so sinister.
The Admiral nodded. “I used to travel to Saigon frequently for TDY in the years before Tet. US troop strength had risen to around 236,000 that year. I found this in the wreckage of the Victoria BOQ in April of 1966. The VC detonated a bomb at the entrance in Cholon a couple blocks from where I was staying. It happened just as people were coming down for breakfast. The first three floors were shredded. Estimates the bomb must have been around five hundred pounds, the size of a Mark 86 aerial bomb. Three Americans were killed, along with three White Mice.”
“Holy smokes,” I said. “You have had this all these years?”
The Admiral smiled enigmatically. “When I hear that things are bad, I always look at this bit of shrapnel and consider that things can always be worse.”
We all nodded, and decided to have one for the road.
(Victoria BOQ, Cholon district of Saigon, April 2, 1966)
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Subscribe to the RSS feed!