The Rangers Are Coming (15 page)

Seacrest looked over the group, “Have I lost anyone who is not willing to meet this requirement?”  Nobody spoke up.

“Good, you will not be explorers as the ad said, at least not in the beginning.  What we are doing is recruiting a professional army that will be carefully trained and equipped with very special weapons to defeat the entire British Army and allow us to form an American nation.”

There was a buzz of talk over this announcement and Seacrest let it go on for several minutes.

“When you complete your training, you will be the best fighting army in the world.  You remember our ad said we were looking for the brave, the proud, and the few?  With what you learn, and the weapons we will provide, we can defeat any army in any country with a single reinforced Brigade of 3,000 men.

              “Moreover, when we finish with the British in the colonies, we intend to conquer Canada, Mexico, Central America, and all the islands of the Caribbean.  The new United States will be the largest and most powerful nation on earth.”

              “All of this is being done with the knowledge and support of your greatest leaders.  Your commanding general will be George Washington.”

              “Obviously, we must build and train this secret army without the British, or any country finding out.  We will also defeat the French, and the Spanish.  When all of this is completed, we will be a free country, where every man and woman will have the liberty to go where they wish, say what they want, worship God in any fashion they like.  It will be a country, unlike any other.  The power to govern will come exclusively from the people, not from a King, or any legislative body.  The government can function only with the consent of governed.”

              Willis put up his hand, “Your ad said you would educate us to read, write, and do numbers, is that still true.”

              “When we are finished educating you, it will be the same as graduating from Harvard.  You will be that advanced.”

              “How long will this training take,” asked another man.

              “We have less than six years to turn you into the fighting force we need.  During that time, you will live at a place called Fort Independence.  You will be paid 8 dollars a month in silver coins throughout your service, including training.  You will receive comfortable quarters in which to live,  three meals a day, and we will provide you with all your uniforms and equipment.  However, make no mistake about it, your education and your training will be very challenging.”

              “This is even better than I thought it would be,” said Charlie Arthur.

              “I’m glad you feel that way Private Arthur,” said Seacrest.  He picked up his shoulder bag and pulled out a stack of papers and a Bible.  “For all of you who are still willing to volunteer for this career, step forward and sign or make your mark on your enlistment papers and swear on this Bible that you will keep our secrets and willingly face the tough job ahead of you.”

              The men surged forward and signed their papers and made their oaths on the Bible.

When it became Robby’s turn, he signed the paper, put his hand on the Bible and said, “I so swear.”

All 36 men did the same.  Seacrest had not expected anything less.  He didn’t have a doctorate in Psychology and Human Behavior for nothing.

Seacrest pulled a small black case off his belt and spoke into it, “Ready for pickup.”

He then turned back to the group and said, “Follow me men, your transportation to Fort Independence is on its way.”  He walked through the forest of trees until he came to another meadow.  It was not very big, perhaps a hundred feet across.  “You might just as well get your first lesson in how advanced this army is going to be.  Wait for it.”

Robby stood next to Willis while Seacrest took his lantern out to the meadow and turned it up.  It was a very bright light.  In the background, Robby could hear the faint sound of a thumping that grew somewhat louder in the next couple of minutes.  Then he looked up and saw a huge machine descending onto the meadow.  Later Robby would learn that the machine was a C-48, “Chinook” transport helicopter coming in on whisper mode.  At the moment, he just watched in wonder as the big chopper came to rest light as a feather on the meadow.  The rear ramp augured down and the men climbed aboard.  Men on the craft guided them to seats and showed them how to fasten their seat belts.  Then the helicopter took off and Robby caught his breath as the ground fell away and the adventure began.

Fort Independence, Virginia

              The flight to Fort Independence took almost two hours.  As much as Robby wanted to look out and see the countryside from the air, it was night and there was very little to see.  He finally dozed off.

              He was roused when men in fatigues came walking along the rows waking people up in preparation for landing.  Robby looked out the window and could see a blaze of lights coming from a large, busy place below.  There were row after row of long buildings surrounding a central complex of bigger buildings and a big parade ground at one end.  He could see that other helicopters like his were also landing and taking off.

              As they came to a stop on the ground, the rear doors opened again.  Men in fatigues rushed aboard wearing masks on their faces, but yelling loudly through them.  “You men line up six wide, and line up behind the man in front of you.  The troopers did the best they could to accomplish this simple formation, and were shoved around by the men in fatigues.  When they were grouped in a square of men six wide and six deep, one of the men, who had three stripes of his shirt yelled out,  “Come to attention, stand up straight.  Now we’re gonna march to the infirmary.  Start walking with your left foot when I say ‘March’ and stay in step.  Ready, forward, march!”

              The formation lurched forward and didn’t get the step right until they’d walked 200 yards, then they marched in somewhat good order, until the sergeant bellowed, “Prepare to Halt, ready Halt!”

              Of course, some of the men didn’t halt and the formation became a logjam again.  “First row, go through that door on the left, then each row follow.”  Robby and Willis, who were standing next to each other near the center of the formation made their way through the door and into a brightly lit room where a number of men and women wearing white coats and all wearing masks directed them to lines in front of several large stations that contained all sorts of strange equipment.

              A women wearing a mask came up to Robby and Willis  sitting next to each other and said, “Relax, boys, you’re in the infirmary at Fort Independence.  The reason why this is your first stop is to make sure you stay healthy.  The first thing we do is to draw a small amount of blood from your arm to be tested for any diseases.  Then we give you a dosage of a wide number of vaccinations for things like measles, mumps, chicken pox, tuberculosis, influenza, yellow and scarlet fever, polio.  After you have this vaccination, you will immune from all those diseases for the rest of your life.  We also do a full body scan to make sure you don’t have any tumors or a large number of other things.”

              She drew the blood, placed a flat gun-like instrument on their arms, and pulled the trigger.  The shots only hurt a little.  Then she vaccinated them for TB, and had them lay flat on a table that moved them into a large tube and vibrated.  As they came out, the nurse pulled a sheet of paper out of a machine and read the results of the blood test.  “Healthy as a horse, both of you, any problems with your teeth?”  Both men said they did, and were directed to another room where they sat in a chair and a masked man checked their teeth.  He called off numbers to a nurse who was writing them down.  “Both of you are going to need some work, but nothing that can’t wait.  Give them an appointment.”  The nurse looked at a calendar on a screen, and wrote a day and time for their next appointment.  They added the paper to the large envelope that they had gotten back at the meadow with their enlistment.  Now the envelope was filling with medical records.

              The next stop was a room with more chairs and barbers cutting hair.  The process of removing all the hair on their heads took about a minute and both Robby and Willis ran their hands across their heads in wonder.  Next, was a large room with a lot of semi-naked people in it.  A man came up, also masked, and said, “Remove all your clothing then go through there to the showers.  A little sheepishly, they took off their clothes, which were taken away in a rolling basket.  They got towels and went into the showers, where they were told to hang up their towels and step up to the showers.  A man showed them how to adjust the temperature and handed them a scrunchy blob.  He showed them the button to push for shampoo and the other for soap to put on the scrunchy.  “Make sure you wash thoroughly,” said the man, “then dry off, wrap the towel around your waste and go through that door.”

              Neither of the men had ever had a shower before, so the experience was unique.  They were careful to follow the instructions to wash thoroughly, although Willis said using shampoo on a nearly baldhead seemed like a waste of time.

              The next hall was noisy and filled with people, both recruits and men.  None of them had masks.  The man at the desk looked them over and directed each of them into two different lines.  They went through the lines and got a big bag that began to fill with boxer shorts, socks, t-shirts, a bar of soap, a toothbrush, and toothpaste and finally to a man who did quick measurements with a tape.  He then rummaged through racks of green fatigues and pulled out two pairs of uniforms for each man.  He had them try on the shirt and pants, and Robby was surprised how well they fit him, maybe a little big.  The other uniform went in their bag and they moved to the next station.  Here they stood on a foot measure and were given brown boots.  They sat down, pulled out a pair of green socks, put them on, and then slipped their feet into the boots.  The boots were stiff, because they were brand new, but they were the right size.  The men laced them up and the man handed them a couple pairs of blousing rubbers.  He had them put on a pair and then roll the bottom of their pants under the stretchable bands, just above the boots. 

              The final station provided them with a wide, webbed belt, with lots of metal clasps on them, and a green beret with an emblem of a flag on the front.  They were asked their last names and a machine printed a cloth tab that said Pierce and Grant on them.  Some kind of strange material attached them firmly above their right pockets and they got another tab that said U.S. Army on it.  It attached to the funny strip above their left pocket.

              The door opened to the outside and the fresh recruits followed a real soldier whose fatigues looked ten times better than theirs to a big mess hall, where they got trays and utensils, and walked through a cafeteria line choosing from a wide selection of food.  They got large cups, real ones this time, of coffee, and cold water with ice cubes in the glass.  The novelty of that amazed them both.  Robby spotted Charlie Arthur sitting along a table with several other men and he and Willis made their way over.  The men at the table made room for them.  Everybody introduced themselves.  Robby learned a lot of last names, because they were on the uniforms, but forgot most of the first names.

              The food was hot, tasty, and plentiful.  The men had not eaten since lunch so they were famished and ate with gusto.  They all talked about their experiences and especially the wonderful machine that flew them to the Fort.  Robby rubbed his arm where he’d gotten the jet spray of vaccines.  It was a little sore.

              Presently a soldier with two stripes came up to the table.  “You guys came in from Boston?”  They said they had.  “OK, if you’re finished eating, I’ll take you to your quarters.  Pair up, these are two man rooms.”  Again, they went outside and across the street to a long row of two story barracks buildings.  The corporal stopped at the third one and went in. “Since you guys, are among the first to arrive, you get barracks close to the mess hall, and the ground floor.  Move in and pick a room.  Doesn’t matter which, they’re all the same.”

              Robby and Willis turned into the first room on the right side of the long hallway.  They opened the door and stepped inside.  The room was dark.  The corporal reached around a corner flipped a switch and a light came on.  There were two bigger than single beds with a wide cabinet between them and a light with two flexible arms pointing at the beds.  There was a desk and chair on both sides of the room with lights on top of the desks.  At the back of the room was a closet to hang clothes and a chest of drawers in the middle, with six drawers.  The walls were painted a light blue and there was an attractive rug on the floor between the beds.  The rest of the floor was tiles.  Attached to the walls next to both desks was a bookshelf.

              There was a bathroom with a shower and two sinks, plus a strange looking appliance with a seat and water in the bowl under the seat.  Towels hung on racks on the wall, and there was a mirror across the whole front over the sinks.  On the wall was a cabinet, which opened to hold toiletries.

              The Corporal finished getting everyone in their rooms and came back to Robby and Willis.  He pointed at the door with two plastic sleeves on it.  “You put your last names in these sleeves so people can find you.  That’s all for tonight.  Reveille is at 5:50.  You will hear the bugle on the speakers outside.  When you hear that, you have ten minutes to get up, make your bunks, get dressed in the uniform of the day, which is what you have on now, and fall out for the morning meal formation.  Don’t be late for the 6 AM bugle.  It’s not going to be pleasant if you are.

When he left, Robby and Willis realized how big a day they had just experienced. 

“Does it seem cold in here to you?”