Excerpt
"Hey, Sergeant Elsas, is this trip really necessary?"
"Of course. You heard Sergeant Greybull. Any boundary markers that existed are gone. We've got to draw our own lines in the sand."
"What a way to run an Air Force. I can't believe we've just been dumped out here to construct a bomb site. Where the hell are the construction people? Civil engineers or somebody that should be doing this job. Not us poor peons."
"You're a natural born pisser, Alcocke. When have you had it so good.? A pleasant drive in the sunshine, out in the country. Fresh air. Do ya' good."
"You don't mention chocking in all this dust, busting our ass every time this clunker hits a hole or hill."
"Can't have everything. You could be doing this in Koreawith some nasties shooting at you all the while."
"Yeah, yeah. Speaking of nasties. These two guys riding up on horses are friendlies?"
Just stopped at the six mile point out from the center of the north road, they watched the riders approach. "Don't look like Chinese or Koreans. Russians maybe."
Fritz Deutsch and Basil Tree reined up to look at the Airmen sitting in the weapons carrier. "You dudes lost out here in the wilderness?" Deutsch said.
Elsas squinted up at him. "No, as a matter of fact, we're just establishing some territory." To Kline and Priebe in the back, "Okay, troops. Here's were we plant that stakeon that little knoll."
As Priebe and Kline jumped out, Deutsch said, "Hey, hold on a minute guys. What do you meanyour setting out your territory? You gonna piss on that stake like a damn catamount?"
Elsas grinned at Deutsch. "Ain't necessary. What's it to ya' cowboy?"
"Damned if he ain't a smart ass, Fritz." Tree rode around to the other side of the carrier. "Want me to teach him a lesson in manners?"
"Back off, Basil. What its too me, is you're trespassing on my range land. I don't cotton to you settin' any boundaries on my property. Now you just draw that stake back up and get the hell out of here!"
"This is government land, cowboy. We're gonna build a bomb range out here. If you got stock out here, you might want to move them somewhere else."
"I'll be god-damned if you ain't a sassy one. Basil pull up that stake!"
Forcing the airmen aside, Tree rode his horse up to the stake. He dropped his rope over it and galloped off to pull it out of the ground. When he stopped, he coiled his rope in, broke the stake over his knee and threw it down.
"You guys are crazy! You don't think you can stop the Air Force from building this site do ya ?"
"Yeah, well the whole damn Air Force is not hereand you guys git too." Deutsch drew his pistol and aimed at the front tire. "Now you can get while ya' still got wheels, or piss me off some moreand you'll be walking back to town."
Alcocke, the shortest of the men out there, stood and piped up. "You're some hero with your gun cowboyLucky we're not armed or you wouldn't strut so big!"
Elsas told Alcocke, "Sit down and shut up. This ain't our inning"
Deutsch laughed and cocked his pistol. When Elsas started the engine, Deutsch uncocked his weapon and reholstered it.
The smoldering Airmen were silent all the way back to the north road. As they turned south, Priebe said, "What we gonna do now, Sarge?"
"Finish the job, naturally. By the time we get back to that stake point, those clowns should be long gone. Just because they had the upper hand back there, damned if they're going to stop us."
Back in West Layover, Lorena helped her mother with the laundry. "Doesn't Sergeant Greybull look sharp in his uniform?"
"Yes he doessurprised me. I thought they didn't have to wear uniforms while working on this job."
"Usually they don't. I heard him talking to Lance. They were going over to the Ordnance Depot at Ft. Peck."
Dorris Gilman caught her breath. "Oh?I wonder why?"
"Sounded to me like they were going on a scrounging party."
"I suppose. They need everything you can think of."
Strain in Dorris' voice, "Did you hear them saywho they would see over there?" While folding a sheet, silently she wondered if Captain Munson could be stationed there again. I hope they don't run into him.
"No. I guess they'd see some officer, don't you think?"
"Probably have to report into someone. I don't know how the Army and Air Force work on things like this."
"It's been a long time since you were over there, Mom. Do you know anyone who could help them?"
"Not anymore. I'm sure that anyone I knew is long gone."
"Weren't you kinda sweet on that Captain?"
"No, no. He was just very kind helping me take care of all the details with your dad being killed. It took a long time to get everything straightened away. It seemed to take forever to get all his records corrected, and get his body back from Germany." In the past, her bittersweet memory of Captain Munson made her weep. By the end of two years of death activities, she and the kind Captain became lovers. Only after he left did she learn he was married, and had a family back in Illinois, told to her by Lieutenant Fester, his replacement. She concealed her affair with the officer from town folks by never being seen with him off of Ft. Peck. Still bitter over the way that individual treated her, she didn't let herself get involved with any local civilian men other than at church socials.
"It wouldn't be hard to be sweet on Sergeant Greybull would it?"
"Oh stop it Lorena. I don't need you to be my marriage arranger."
"Well, it's okay for you. But I'd like a daddy. You're young enough. You could even have a baby. It would be nice to have a younger brother."
"Oh dear God! That's enough. You don't know how much trouble men are. That reminds me. Don't be hanging around with any of these young airmen. They're too old for you."
"Hah. They're just kids. I'd like a real man like Sergeant Greybull."
"That'll be the day. Do your self a favor and forget about men until you're older. Much older."
"Oh phooey."
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