Chapter Two - part one

Chapter Two

 The 
           Changing                                              World

            The week spent with the Saudi King was interesting to say the least. King Mitab was very impressed with Sarah's courage. That she was a pilot had impressed him, but her going back to fight when she was almost out of fuel had really amazed him. By the end of the week, both Sarah and James had a standing invitation to return to visit him anytime. It seemed that the details of exactly what had happened still weren't known to most of the world. Iran and Iraq didn't really want to talk about it, not after losing so many jets. Turkey had its own internal affairs to deal with. Syria was screaming about being invaded by everyone around them, but nobody was paying much attention to them. The United States was downplaying the incident as much as possible too. Nobody outside of the very highest people in the militaries that were directly involved actually knew most of the details. Those details would get out eventually, but for now other things were getting all of the attention. The big world issue at the moment seemed to be the internal affairs of Turkey.

   One good thing seemed to have developed out of everything. The rebels taking over Izmir had backfired. That had crippled tourism and all the people of Turkey had suffered because of that. The rebels had suddenly made it very apparent how much Turkey really needed westerners to be involved in their affairs. Only a few weeks time without tourism cash flowing freely had crippled the economy. The rebels had tried to make it about the war and say that it would be fine once they were in power.  But all the people knew was that for them, it was suddenly much worse than it had been. It hadn't been easy for many of the people before, but now many more were going hungry.  They blamed that on the rebels and especially on those who wanted Muslim rule and no more westerners allowed. A suddenly growing pro-western movement had become far more outspoken and powerful in just a few weeks time. It might quickly turn back around, but for now the rebels were being pushed aside to make room for those promising a better economy. It looked like Turkey might soon have a two faction government in place. The ruling party in favor of all the western influence they could get inside of Turkey and a smaller party trying to limit that influence without losing out on the benefits it brought.

   James and Sarah made a huge hit when they arrived at his home unannounced. They spent a week there and then flew out to spend a week with her folks. They still couldn't talk about things with his folks, but Sarah's parents were another matter. James took a major butt chewing from Mary on the first day they were there. Sarah thought she had gotten off easy until they were about to head back to Virginia for the last week of leave. Mary had waited until then to unload on her daughter. The yelling and lectures had been much the same ones she had given James. It wasn't until Mary Jane had broken down and bawled her eyes out that it had really gotten to Sarah though. She told James that she had never seen her mom cry like that. It took Sarah most of the next week to get her own emotions back in order. She had finally asked James if he had ever really considered dying in combat. James had just smiled and told her that he thought about that before every single mission, but that once the mission briefings started he stopped thinking about it. James told Sarah that the way he dealt with it was simple. He could think about it until it was time to start the mission, but then he had a job to do. He just focused all his attention on that job and let God handle all the other stuff. James said as long as he did his part, well he just figured God would do His part and bring him home. James didn't tell Sarah that he sometimes wondered which home it would be, the one here or the one in heaven.

   Another week of leave was gone almost before they knew it. It was back to base and back to the air, at least for Sarah. They were a little over halfway done with this deployment. James didn't report back though. It was time for him to be rotated out on his scheduled break. He soon had something else to do anyway. He was called back to Washington, D.C. with Sarah, Major Hawks, and Lt. Colonel Wilson for a ceremony. After a week of news releases, a formal ceremony was held and the four of them were presented with their commendations. It seemed that the politicians had decided America could use some genuine heroes. What could be more heroic than fighter jets on a simple patrol attacked without reason, followed by more pilots and soldiers rushing in to aid and defend one of them who had been forced down in hostile territory. Adding in the fact that those actions took place against two nations that weren't friendly to America only made the story better. The real story though was two young, married, pilots who had been given credit for seven confirmed 'kills' between them in that action. Their story was finally out and it made headlines worldwide.

   James and Sarah spent those two weeks doing interviews about it all. They couldn't discuss details, but they could confirm what had officially been released. Mostly it was about how many aircraft had been involved as well as the restrictions against deadly force that they had to break to survive. The press was very curious as to how they had shot down all of those planes. They tried to get more details, but James and Sarah simply smiled and shook their heads when asked. All they would say was that they had used deadly force, but only under threat of their own death. James did cause one added stir when he had mentioned that Corporal Matthews was his friend from high school. The reporters went nuts when they heard that. They had never bothered to research personal history on everyone else involved and it made a big splash that two young men from the same small town had rushed into danger together. It made an even bigger story when they learned that neither of them was aware the other was involved until the major part of the battle was over. They eventually found out that it was James and Tony who had held the ground forces at bay, with their sharp shooting skills, until more help arrived. James was relieved when the interviews finally came to an end. He was able to spend a couple more weeks with Sarah in Riyadh before returning on his next duty rotation.