Chapter Seven - part three

  General Patrick Michael Hodges remained seated. He sat there in silence just looking at James. He did nothing. He said nothing. He just sat and watched this young man who stood before him. His mind had been dead set against this young hotshot pilot from the start. He was certain of what he would be like. They were always the same when you looked close enough. Those hotshot hero's just chased the glory and the casualties could be damned; as long as they weren't personally among them. But somehow that wasn't the impression he was getting this time. In fact the more he had seen and heard the more doubts he had about what kind of man James Cooper really was. This guy didn't look much like any of those hotshots he had known before. He didn't sound like them either. But looks and words could be deceiving. Still one thing did ring true about James. It had rung true, loud and clear, during everything. That was his faith. This young man really did believe. He believed in his duty. He believed in his nation. He believed in his God. Hodges wasn't sure how he felt about that last one, but he knew how he felt about the first two. Pat Hodges believed in his nation and his duty to that nation too. As he sat there he had to ask himself if he believed in those enough to stand up for them once again. Should he stand up with this man in order to do his duty to the nation he loved? Could he stand up with this man? That was the question he had just been asked and question still in his mind now. Could he put everything else aside and do his duty no matter the cost? Was this actually his duty at all?

   James stood waiting and watching as the older man sat watching him. He knew what he had asked of this man. He had asked him to put all his personal beliefs aside and do what needed to be done out of a sense of duty. James knew how hard that could be. While James couldn't imagine actually putting aside his faith in God, he did understand putting aside his own best interest to do his duty for God. It had been tough enough being asked to stand up with faith even with God standing with him. He knew that he was asking this man to stand up alone with only his own personal faith; his faith in duty and honor to support him. He knew that just as he had been forced to do things he hadn't wanted to do or enjoyed, this man was being asked to do the same things in the name of duty rather than God. While duty and God went hand in hand for James they didn't always go together for other men. James had no certainty of how this man felt about God, but he knew how he felt about his country and his duty. General Hodges was a man of honor who had often made great sacrifices in the name of duty for his nation. General Hodges had spent a lifetime proving his faith both in and to his nation, but now he was being asked to prove it once more. Only this time by standing with a man he thought was a fool! James wasn't sure if he could do that himself, but he had just asked this man to do just that.

   Finally Hodges took a slow breath and spoke very softly. "If I do this... you need to understand that I won't sacrifice my men. I will never let you waste their lives trying to prove that you know best. I will help plan things and I will help execute operations, but if I am convinced you are wrong I will be no part of it." James smiled and nodded his head as he spoke. "That is fine, but you need to understand that though I am just a Colonel, the President has given me this command. I will have the final word and you will obey my commands even though you outrank me. I need you to plan and execute the operations, but I want you to coordinate those with me. Together, I believe we can do what must be done without any more damage and death than is absolutely necessary. The first time you refuse my orders I will have you removed. I also expect you to step aside without disrupting my command if you no longer feel you can be a part of what I am doing. I will have your word on that right now or I will send you back to the President and he can decide what to do with you."

   Now Hodges smiled for the first time as he stood up. "You have my word on that. I would never intentionally disrupt any command structure I was ordered to work under, even if I do outrank the man in command. Now what exactly do you have in mind for me. If it seems reasonable I am ready to offer you all the help I can, but first I want to hear what you have in mind to do." James offered his hand and as they shook hands he spoke quickly. "That all depends on you. The first thing I need you to do is put together a list of people you want to help you coordinate all of the operations to restore order in the cities. You should have a lot of them already in place, but we will need more. For now I will give you some of the best people I already have to assist and brief you on the current situations we face, as we know them, in the area. As you probably know my area of operations has suddenly increased rather dramatically. We went from the west coast states to the entire area west of the Mississippi River. We are still trying to sort a lot of things out on the supply side of things. I think I have the right people in place to handle the supply side, but I am depending on you to bring in the people we need to restore order and then maintain that order. Unless we can maintain the supply side while we are trying to restore order we won't have a chance of success. This has to be a two sided operation, but both sides have to work together." James had picked up a phone and spoke quickly into it. Within moments the room was filling up with people and information. James looked at General Hodges and grinned as he spoke to him again. "I need that list of people by the end of the day and I want a rough plan of action from you by tomorrow. This room is now your temporary planning center. Now if you will excuse me I have work of my own that needs my attention."

   James turned and was out of the room before Hodges had a chance to say anything. He looked at the door James had just walked out of and then turned to look around a room that was very quickly becoming a planning room for him.  Shaking his head he stepped forward to take charge. He still wasn't sure about any of this, but he had committed to help. That young man might prove to be a fool in the end, but he was clearly a leader, regardless of anything else he might be. James had shown a bit of temper and it was easy to see the signs of a man with such a tremendous burden of responsibility resting on him, but neither had diverted or distracted him during their confrontation. Hodges smiled as he considered what he had expected, and how much different it had turned out to be in the end. Maybe he would prove to be a fool himself in the end, but for now he was willing to stand and to walk with a man who might not be as foolish as he had believed him to be after all.