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ntry and ordered, “Pope! We need to be there yesterday!”
Sergeant Bobby Nellis started off with smoking tires.
“Sir, are you going to tell me what the Situation Five is?” Colonel Caruthers inquired.
“Would you believe me, Colonel, if I were to tell you the President of the United States and Commander in Chief of its armed forces is about to land at Pope?”
“Sir, I would have difficulty believing that.”
“Why?”
“He’s been here before, sir. The Secret Service and the press always start arriving three days before him. And there has been no ‘heads-up’ that I’ve heard.”
“My thinking exactly. Have you ever heard, Max, that great minds follow the same path?”
“No, sir. But I will write that down so that I won’t forget it.”
[SEVEN]
Base Operations
Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina
0625 15 June 2007
Sergeant Nellis slammed on the brakes, threw the gearshift in park, then erupted from the Town & Country and raced around the front of it to open the door for General McNab.
He didn’t make it. McNab was already out of the van.
“A little slow, weren’t you, Bobby?” General McNab inquired.
Colonel J. Charles DuBois, USAF, rushed to the van, saluted, and said, “You just made it, General. There it is!”
He pointed to an aircraft just about to touch down.
“That’s not Air Force One,” General McNab replied. “That’s a C-37A.”
“Sir,” Sergeant Nellis said, “any aircraft with the President aboard is designated Air Force One.”
McNab turned and glowered at him.
“Sorry, sir,” Nellis said, deeply chagrined.
“Sorry won’t cut it, Sergeant. I’ve told you and told you and told you: Sergeants don’t correct generals even when generals say something stupid!”
“Sir, it just slipped out!”
“You’ve got to learn not to let corrections of general officers just slip out. Colonel Caruthers, just as soon as we get to the bottom of what’s going on here, cut the orders! It’s Officer Candidate School for the loudmouth here.”
“Yes, sir,” Caruthers said.
“And just to cut off the Avenue of Escape and Evasion Sergeant Loudmouth is thinking of—flunking out of OCS and going back to an A-Team—call Fort Benning and tell them if he flunks out, he’s to be sent to the Adjutant General’s Corps!”
“Yes, sir,” Colonel Caruthers said.
“Not the Adjutant General’s Corps, sir, please!” Sergeant Nellis begged.
“Why not? They’re always trying to correct honest soldiers. You’d be right at home with those paper pushers. Say, ‘Yes, sir.’”
