Chapter Three - part six

   James had lowered his head and began to shake it slowly as she was talking. When she stopped he took a deep breath and looked up. She was watching him and only him. James slowly let out his breath and then nodded before he spoke a single word question, "And?" That was all he said. Now he watched her as he waited for the answer he knew would come. She began to smile. "And... I need you to be both a warrior and a diplomat. I understand that you have studied Chinese?" James laughed softly and he nodded. She continued. "I will be sending you out on the normal missions which you came here for, to patrol the Sea of Japan. However, your missions will now be greatly extended... to cover the East China Sea! You will be charged with patrolling the Sea of Japan, but your point of focus will be the area surrounding and even directly over South Korea. The stealth ability and added firepower of a squadron of F/A-48's should be a big deterrent. I still fully expect you to need all the diplomacy you can muster to pull this off, because stealth or not you will be noticed. In fact you must be noticed for this to work. I firmly believe that you are the right man for this job. The only question in my mind is what you think. Do you think you are the right man? Can you do this job and discourage the Chinese from looking at South Korea for me?"

   James took a deep breath and slowly stood up. He actually paced across the room a few times before he returned to stand behind Sarah. With his hands resting on the back of her chair he slowly began to speak. "General, I must admit that in the back of my mind I was wondering why the 77th had been sent here and why I had been given command. Now that I do know, I am not happy about it. That said, I do think I understand why you asked for me instead of Colonel Wilson. Can I do what you ask? Honestly, that will depend on what you actually expect and what the Chinese actually intend to do. I am a warrior, as are all of the men and women of the 77th. We can and we will fight to defend ourselves and our allies against any and all threats, but I cannot promise what the outcome of a fight will be. As for the added diplomatic part of this, that will also depend on the Chinese and I suppose on the Koreans as well. You ask for answers that I can't give you. I will do my duty to the best of my ability. Beyond that ability I have only my faith." He paused for a long moment and then with a firm nod, answered her question. "Yes Ma'am, I can and will do the job. I won't promise to get the results that you may have in mind, but I can do the job you have asked me to do. I can try to discourage further pushes from China in South Korea."

   Brig. General Samantha Johns smiled, but didn't move. After a moment she looked at Sarah and spoke. "Tell me, is he always like this? Does he just speak his mind and stand there daring anyone to say different?" Sarah laughed and James frowned. Sarah stood up and moved to stand beside her husband. Then she spoke for the first time since first coming into the room. "Not always, but when he does speak like this... people listen! You have asked him if he can be both a warrior and diplomat. The answer is yes he can... but?  That but depends on many things. He will be diplomatic when he can be, but when diplomacy fails he will always be the warrior he must be.  You know his call sign is Ironman and you know how he earned that his first year at the Academy. What you and many others don't know or understand is that he truly is man of iron. He has a will of iron and faith of iron. He may bend, but he won't break. If you wanted a diplomat first you may be in trouble, but if you wanted a warrior first and diplomat second then he is the man you need." Brig. General Samantha Johns nodded her head and stood up. Then she simply dismissed them both.  There would be another time to discuss other things that had to be worked out when any new squadron arrived, for now she just wanted time to think. They also needed to do the same. But she was convinced that she had made the right choice. Very few men impressed her. Almost nobody did during the first meeting. However Lt. Colonel James Andrew Cooper had done exactly that.