Chapter Three
A Nation Changed
They were finally
headed back home, well back to America. James and Sarah had never actually had
a 'home' of their own together. They had simply lived in base housing wherever
they had been stationed. Sarah had spent over two years stateside while James
had been stationed in Syria. Then they had both spent the next three years
deployed in Europe and the Middle East, in an effort to provide at least some
security and stability to the region. James had only been back to the states
for a few weeks at a time for over seven years now. He was anxious to get back
and spend some real time in the nation he had sworn to protect and serve. James
had served for a total of almost 8 of the 13 years he was required to serve
after graduating. Sarah had served 10 of those 13 years since she had graduated
two years earlier. They were both now in their thirties. They had been talking
about starting a family for a while. Now that they were both back stateside the
timing finally felt right to them.
They were both
stunned when Sarah tested positive after the first time they tried. They were
also very excited. The military allowed women to take 6 to 12 months of leave
during and immediately after pregnancy and the same for the father, but most
men took far less. Sarah planned to stay on duty as long as she was physically
able. She wouldn't be allowed to fly after the first trimester due to the
rules, but she wouldn't lose her pilot slot as long as she was back flying
again within 9 full months of the day she stopped flying or slightly longer
with a medical extension of the time. Their families were all very excited too
and the time passed swiftly. James spent most of that time trying to get ready
for a new kind of life. Both he and Sarah were now Majors, but he actually
outranked her due to his earlier promotion. James spent a lot of his time
working on improving the pulse cannons in the F/A-48 and taking classes. The
United States had increased the numbers of F/A-48's ordered and production
speed as well. The F/A-48 was being called a game changer. The many different
conflicts in the world had stretched the entire United States military almost
beyond its limits. If not for the tremendous advantage the F/A-48 gave the Air
Force and Navy, few people believed that all out war could have been avoided in
several locations. They were, even now, still very close to all out wars in
several spots in both Africa and Asia. The F/A-48 was given credit for stopping
it from being that bad in Europe and the Middle East too. The United States and
its allies wanted many more of those planes available as quickly as they could
get them, in the hope of holding on to what little peace there was to be found
in the world.
As a pilot who had
extensive experience in the F/A-48 and with using those unique pulse cannons,
James had a good understanding of what was good and what wasn't so good about
them. He had already spent a lot of time working with the air crews to improve
performance and correct problems with the cannons while deployed and flying
missions almost daily. Now his skill at engineering and his ability to get the
most from those around him had been noticed. He was in charge of the ongoing
design upgrades on the F/A-48 despite only having the rank of Major. His focus
was on a variable modulation of the frequency of the energy pulses. James had
seen a very real possibility of using a variable modulation to vastly improve
the destructive capability of the energy pulse cannons. He had found that if
you could modulate the frequency to match the resonance frequency of the
material it hit that it would vastly increase the damage the pulse did. He had
been toying with that idea since his time spent working on the cannons at the
Academy, as part of his senior year field work. He had been able to vastly
improve the power of the cannons then and now he believed given some time and
the proper funding; he could do even more. That would also be the focus for his
work towards his PhD. in electrical engineering, even though he was still
working to complete his Masters.
Sarah was spending
most of her time working with politicians.
Political Science had been her major at the Academy, so she was well
qualified. She was also a natural at politics. Adding her record as a pilot to
her looks and skill at diplomacy, along with her connections in D.C. made her a
perfect choice for advocating for the new F/A-48's. She had helped to get the
funding approved James needed for his improvements. Sarah had also helped to
get James noticed by some key people while she did it. A lot of folks were very
aware of James as an outstanding pilot or because of his strong faith. Not all of them realized that James was also
a very talented young engineer too. Sarah knew all too well that unless the
right people saw the right things... James could easily end up a forgotten hero.
She was too good at politics and people to let that happen, especially to the
father of her children and the man she loved.
She also proved to
be very good at convincing people of the need for more and improved F/A-48's
regardless of their high cost. Those new jets along with a stronger military
now seemed to be the only apparent hope left in the world for any real
stability. Russia and China had both been building, or rebuilding in the case
of Russia, massive militaries. The Russian and Chinese Armies were each far
larger than the United States Army. Together they were several times larger
than America's. In fact the Chinese army was nearly as large as the top ten
other armies in the world combined, excluding Russia's of course. China's
population was still growing faster than it wanted it to grow. In fact there
was an average of three men for every woman in China now. One simple solution
to the lack of women was to put a large majority of the young men into that huge
Army. China kept that huge army supplied with a large number of women acting as
'paid partners' to keep those unattached men happy. Both China and Russia now
had a Navy that was larger than America did too. The only advantage America had
left was it was so far ahead in most of the technology used in war. The others
had the numbers, but America was decades ahead of them in technology. The new
F/A-48 was the leading edge of that edge in technology and gave America almost
undisputed control of the air, for now.
The world had
changed and was still changing, but James was seeing changes at home too. James
had noticed a lot of things had changed since he had left, but he hadn't really
paid close enough attention to know how much, not until he took leave for the
birth of his first child. That had happened at the base hospital, but once the
baby was born James had taken some additional leave to be home with Sarah. They
had gone to see his folks as soon as she could travel safely with the baby
since they were so nearby. Sarah's folks had been practically living with them
a month before the baby was born anyway. It was a boy and his name was Joseph
Paul Cooper. Sarah and her mom both thought he looked like James. James just
knew he had his mother's beautiful green eyes. It was while they were back on
the farm with his folks that he really began to notice just how much America
had changed. Even inside the military it had changed greatly, but it was
outside the military where the greatest changes had happened. The short visits home
had mostly been during the holidays for the last 12 years. This time there was
no holiday when he went home. James was shocked at the lack of people and the
general lack of business or even interest in anything to do with business
around his hometown.
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