Chapter Seven - "Turn in the Barrel"

Chapter 7 – "Turn in the Barrel"

Naval Station Yokosuka, Japan, September 5, 1994, 2135hrs

It had been a long flight from the TR to Naval Station Yokosuka in Japan. After all, the COD was a slow aircraft and it had to have several refueling stops along the way. The first being in Okinawa, the rest on the islands of Japan from south going north; eventually culminating with a helicopter ride by SH-60 Seahawk to Naval Station Yokosuka; which took a while since Gunny Enders stated that he was going to shove Commanders Lindsey and Campbell over to NS Yokosuka first and they would wait for the SH-60 Seahawk to return and they would fly the rest of the party over to Yokosuka. Naval Station Yokosuka was the headquarters of the US Navy's Japan Fleet and it was shared with the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force.

Commander Campbell was furious. Who did that gyrene think he was anyways? Campbell had been a bully all his life in school. He'd had size and weight on his side in high-school, but when he had joined the Navy; all of that went to naught. His size didn't matter, his weight didn't matter and the physical training that he'd had in AOCS had melted those pounds off. Most of his size was bulk; if you were big and fat, they were less likely to pick on you because you outweighed them by a good sixty pounds…it was not muscle and he wasn't successful in getting that weight back in muscle. So he was even more annoyed when others whom he'd been able to intimidate were now bigger and tougher than he was. It was easier to bully someone when you had bulk and were able to throw your weight around. But the Navy ran on being physically fit and thus he had to stay fit to stay in. If he didn't he'd be cashiered out and then he'd have nothing to fall back on. So Commander Campbell suffered from little man syndrome. Asians were supposed to be small and weak and Campbell had loved to pick on them; they would cower like the little rice-eating monkeys that they were. But Nakamura was an exception. 5'10" and was built like a brick shithouse; and had the physique of a fighter pilot/linebacker, with a thick neck; wide shoulders and well-defined muscles; the kind of guy that all the women fawn over; the guy that seemed to spend most of his time in the weight room honing his body into the shape of a Greek God… Well, in Nakamura's case it was probably a Greek God with slanty eyes. And the rice eating gorilla had the temerity to challenge Campbell in front of the CAG. How dare he?

At least he hadn't lost his cunning and deviousness. He'd make that miserable Commander Nakamura pay. Commander Nakamura was everything that Campbell wasn't. Tough, honorable, a consummate officer and one who had chips fall his way. And Campbell resented the hell out of him. Campbell had to claw his way up, kicking rivals down the ladder and making sure that his rise to the top was unchallenged; and it hadn't been, until now. The VF-41 CO didn't like Campbell, the DCAG didn't like Campbell, the CAG didn't like Campbell and the Battlegroup Commander didn't like Campbell. Frankly no-one in the entire battlegroup liked him. He'd heard the fact that he was being called a "no-load" that he didn't pull his own weight and was as generally useless as a solar-powered flash-light. He'd said that about his school-mates and had beaten them up for it. But he couldn't beat up Nakamura, he was much too tough of an opponent. In fact, Campbell was petrified of Nakamura especially after he went in to Hill 175 and the reputation he garnered there. If Campbell picked a fight with Nakamura, it was certain that there would only be one person walking out of that room and it wouldn't be Campbell. And that was why he had to play devious with the likes of Nakamura. If he impugned the man's reputation, Campbell's road to squadron CO; CAG and eventually flag-rank would be assured. To get ahead; you had to destroy your opponents and Campbell was quite willing to do that to get ahead. If you couldn't physically take a person out, you had to destroy your opponent with cunning.

Campbell was sure that he'd sown the seeds of Nakamura's destruction and all he was doing now was waiting for the seeds to germinate. He'd made both the prosecutor and the defense attorney doubt Nakamura's bravery and well the tape would seal the victory. Once the jurors heard that; they'd destroy Nakamura. With the original tape destroyed, there was no way to verify that the tape that the prosecution attorney had wasn't the actual original tape. Campbell smiled wickedly to himself. Revenge was going to be sweet. Nakamura would pay for challenging him.

In fact, Nakamura reminded Campbell of his own father; a naval aviator, tough, honorable, lifted other people up around him; Campbell hated his father. Every time he saw his father's accomplishments, he was reminded of his own inadequacy. The man was awarded the Navy Cross; the second highest award for valor in the United States Navy…for aerial feats of valor during Vietnam. He'd gone in and bombed a group of NVA who were attacking US troops on the ground. In fact, he'd even got low and strafed them. Making several passes until he was out of ammo; then he returned to his carrier, trapped, reloaded and headed back out to do it all over again. And he did this seven times until he'd broken the spine of that attack. By the end of it, Lieutenant Commander Mitchell Campbell had been in the air a total of sixteen hours and forty five minutes providing air support to a beleaguered 8th Cavalry Unit and well, he'd been called a hero; the Navy put him on a pedestal and gave him the Navy Cross and crowed about him to every one, just like the Navy was crowing about Nakamura now. Mitchell Campbell had reached the pinnacle of his career as COMNAVAIRFOR based on his own wartime reputation and David Campbell was incensed. He hadn't had a war to help his career though whether the younger Campbell had the internal fortitude to fly combat was seriously in question. He had gone into the Navy in the early seventies when there was no war happening; he'd avoided the waning two years of the Viet Nam War by selecting stateside training as a duty station, all he'd done was deployment after deployment. Whereas Nakamura came in during the 80s when the Libyans were making a bunch of noise, then the Iraq invasion of Kuwait happened then practically right after; the Bosnian War after that which was happening right now.

Campbell smiled grimly; he was going to enjoy this trial. When it came down to it, brawn did not beat brains. If you didn't have the brains enough to outmaneuver your opponent, you would suffer and David Steven Campbell was going to enjoy watching Nakamura suffer.

When Lindsey and Campbell had arrived at Yokosuka, they realized that they needed to locate VOQ rooms. At least they weren't full up. Being first in line; they managed to get a decent pair of rooms, which they were able to get the keys for readily and set up shop in.

When the rest came in they set up on the other side of the VOQ with their side. It was better this way, since then the opposing sides in the trial wouldn't be running the risk of tainting the trial prior to it happening.

Campbell looked at his ribbon rack. He had less than two rows. No pistol expert, no rifle expert. He was pathetic with a pistol and a rifle. In fact the range-master had stated that Campbell, if he tried to commit suicide, would probably miss his brain even if he had the gun-barrel to his head. He did have a national defense service ribbon with one bronze star indicating that he'd served up to the Gulf War. Campbell wouldn't admit it but he was a coward. He'd managed to get out of missions by faking that his aircraft was down when it actually wasn't. And he hated night carrier operations. As XO he managed to write himself off night carrier ops; except when qualifying and his qualifying scores were low greens to high yellows, he barely managed to get aboard safely. If he was honest with himself, he was pathetic as a naval aviator; but at least he could still fly the F-14 which meant that he was above those who flew any other type. The rest of the ribbons were campaign ribbons; they'd flown over Bosnia and the Gulf War… (There were two ribbons for that) and a sea-service that had three stars. So basically Campbell only had five ribbons on his entire rack for the entirety of his twenty-three year career in the US Navy. And when Campbell looked at Nakamura's ribbons, he stewed in jealousy.

Nakamura had managed to garner two Distinguished Flying Crosses for his two kills, A Navy/Marine Corps Medal for protecting a Marine Ground unit from being over-run by strafing the Iraqi Republican Guards unit that was attacking them; two Air Medals with V and a 7Flight device; A Presidential Unit Commendation and a Meritorious Service Commendation; Navy E award, because the squadron he was in before had won the Battle E; he was able to wear the gaudy Saudi Arabia Service with the palm device because he'd been one of the initial squadrons to mount attacks over Iraq and he had both SW Asia Service and Iraq Liberation Ribbon ribbons. He had the National Service with one star; He had the Sea Service with two stars denoting three cruises completed, and he was an Expert Pistol and Rifle marksman. Four rows of ribbons to his pathetic five ribbons. What was even worse to Campbell, was that Nakamura was so brave that he went toe to toe with the Iraqi's leading ace in an aerial battle and downed the man twice, the second time killing him. It made him a two time MiG-Killer (1 MiG; 1 Sukhoi); then he nailed two Jap aircraft one F-15J; the other a Mitsubishi F-2A; one a kill; the other a probable in the spitball war against Japan. Was it any wonder why Campbell was stewing? Campbell knew that he could never match Nakamura's valor and that was why Nakamura needed to go down. There were five days to go before the court-date that would see Nakamura's career destroyed and he was going to enjoy every bit of anticipation for it. When the final verdict came in, he would see Nakamura crumble.

And to see Nakamura this morning; had really raised Campbell's ire. The Battle-group Commander had turned around and given Nakamura a battle-field promotion for the encounter on Hill 175. Nakamura had disobeyed Campbell's orders. Well Campbell had told himself that he'd given a lawful order until he'd started believing it and was going to push that until he either won the case or he fell on his sword. Nakamura had come onboard the COD in his shining summer whites; his new shoulder-boards with his new officer's cover and he looked like the heroic naval aviator. Well, Campbell was going to tarnish that image for him. By the time Campbell was finished Nakamura wouldn't have a career left.

However he did wonder who that guy was that was with that female JAG officer. And what was in that briefcase? No matter, he'd find out at the trial but nothing they tried would work. Campbell had thought of all the eventualities and he'd walk out of there the victor. With all the preparation that he'd put into the eventual demise of Nakamura, there was no way that he was going to lose. And Nakamura's Medal chances were going to go up in smoke too. They'd never award the Medal to a person whose reputation was the slightest bit murky. Oh, he was so going to enjoy destroying Nakamura. The Navy's Golden Boy wasn't going to know what hit him.

US Navy VOQ Room 311, NS Yokosuka, Japan 2240hrs

Animal was relaxing in the VOQ; it had been a long day and he was hoping to relax before he fell over. He was tired and hot; after spending the better part of ten hours in an aircraft including a one hour layover in Okinawa while the C-2 refueled and got ready to head for the Japanese mainland, it was an extremely exhausting trip. And having to share it with that miserable Campbell didn't make it any better. Gunny Enders kept an eye on Campbell to make sure that Campbell didn't try to start anything and Animal tried his best to ignore Campbell's hateful glances his direction. The guy definitely had a problem.

They had all managed to get rooms close by each other; with the exception of Campbell and Lindsey who were on the other side of the compound. It was best to keep No-Load Campbell away from him.

There was a brief knock on the door. Animal went over to the door, "Who is it?"

"Hey, It's Meg…" Meg was on the other side of the door when he opened it.

"Hi…" Animal grinned at her.

"So…you know what? We didn't eat throughout that whole trip. So what do we do for dinner?" Animal wasn't sure…and Meg was pondering as well.

Harm came by and said "…well we need to get something and then bring something back for Krennick and Uncle Ollie. The two are in Krennick's room strategizing on how to take Campbell down. They figure the best way is to let them state their case…show their evidence and then we come in and destroy them on cross. Then present our evidence to show just how the prosecution is putting up tainted evidence. And we have an air-tight copy of the transmissions that night. It means that Campbell is going down and he's going to go down hard once we finish with him."

"So what do you suggest for food?" Animal asked Harm. "I take it the galley isn't twenty-four hours like back in the States."

"We can always check…" Harm said, "but we could also call a place close by to the base and have them deliver to the front gate…and we can pick it up from there."

"Do you have what Krennick and Uncle Ollie want." Animal thought to ask.

"They're fine with sushi…" Harm said.

"It works…" Meg agreed.

"Well…shall we figure out what to order?" Animal ushered them inside his VOQ room. "Yellow Pages is on the table… guess we look under restaurants?"

When they finally figured out what they wanted and picked a restaurant that was close by; they called to find out if they could make an order. Evidently the places near the base had staff who were able to speak heavily accented English, so they did manage to be able to make an order to be delivered to the NS Yokosuka main gate where the three officers would meet them. Meg was dressed in civilian clothes now, and so were Animal and Harm. They were told that it would take about forty-five minutes so they spent twenty of those talking.

Meg was pretty confident and so was Harm so Animal tried to draw off their positive energy and boost his own spirits.

"So what do you plan to do when you get back Stateside…are you sure that you want to stay onboard? The sooner you get a jump on your physical therapy; the sooner you could get back to the cockpit." Meg said to him.

"I'm still kind of on the fence because I don't want to leave my squadron mid-lurch like that. They're in the middle of a deployment and I feel like I need to be there." Animal told her. Harm nodded, he understood the feeling of not wanting to leave the camaraderie of the squadron. "Plus, I'm also an O-5…even if I am an extra set of silver oak-leafs hanging around, they might have need of me even if there isn't an O-5 slot on the boat that I can slot into."

"Even if it delays your recovery?" Meg was looking at him wondering why.

"It's tough to put the feeling into words…" Animal told her, "It's just the feeling that you let your buddies down if you don't stick with them the rest of the way through the deployment."

Meg asked, "Why don't you put it to a vote? Call a meeting and ask if they would rather have you hang out with them on the carrier and finish off the tour or go back to the CONUS and get a jumpstart on getting rehabilitated?"

"But am I going to really get the truth out of them and not just what they think I want to hear?" Animal asked.

"What makes you think that they don't want you to get better and get back to flying?" Meg played devil's advocate.

"I guess when you put it that way…" Animal replied looking at her.

Harm grinned at Animal… "Look; the sooner you get your wing looked at and get started therapy, the sooner you end up being able to spell those buddies off on zero-dark-thirty patrols and then they'll really love you."

Animal looked over at him, "Oh…Christ…I hate zero dark thirties. They get me all squeamish and stuff. Hey, you ever had the turn in the barrel? Harm…" Meg looked at him with a confused expression.

Harm nodded, "Yeah…I had a turn in the barrel once." He went sober…looking out the VOQ window; then at Meg. "It cost me my RIO Mace; He tried to eject…but we were too close; he died, I survived." He looked out the window again; his voice was shaky as he continued, "It was pitch black as Satan's armpit, blanketing rain, ceilings practically at 500 feet. You were in the scud till you dropped out at 500 feet and hell you had to pop gear and hook and try to get on board. Marshal was in the soup. Platform wasn't much better…and by the time you were three miles…you had to hook down, gear down and hope you popped out of the scud before you pan-caked into the spud locker. That was when my vision went all blurry; I knew I couldn't go-around so I spotted the deck on my final go around and crashed into the fantail; that's what cost me my wings ten months later. You were there…Animal…you know how bad it was that night." Animal nodded silently; he remembered Harm's crash all too well. All too many times, it cost both the crew their lives and by some miracle, Harm managed to survive the ramp-strike but just barely. Animal remembered what a vigil that night was and the fact that he was on the phone with Patricia, Harm's Mom a lot, letting her know how Harm was doing in terms of what little life-signs he had.

"I'll tell you my own tale when we get back from picking up the order from the front gate. When you've been flying as long as I have in high performance jet fighters; you pick up a lot of experiences…some that will just send chills….down your spine." Meg and Animal got off Animal's bed and Harm got out of the chair and they all headed out the door to head for the main gate.

"Evening, Sergeant." Animal hailed the Marine Guard at the gate. "Waiting for a Sushi order to drop-off."

"Evening, Sir." The Gate guard said. He had on a sidearm and access to an M-16A2 and looked the part of a stern looking gate guard.

Eventually a set of headlights showed up stopped just short of the gate so that he could turn around and head back once he finished delivering the order. "Fi-fu Ordah Sushi? Fifu Ordah Tempura? One Miso Shiru? One Sukiyaki? Tsu Ordah Sashimi…Ordah come to…oh…six zero nine fifu yen…"

Animal had exchanged money for Japanese yen…and had the proper amount, "Hai…roku sen kyuju go yen. Domo arigato gozaimasu…" and bowed in the Japanese way.

"Hai…arigato, yoroshiku onegaishimasu…sayonara." the man nodded as he bowed back.

The sergeant looked at Animal, "Sir, I didn't realize you spoke the language."

"Helps when the family is Japanese." Animal replied. "You have a good night, Sergeant. Have a safe duty shift."

"I hope so, sir."

When they delivered the required food to Krennick and Uncle Ollie, they were thanked and Animal was given back the monetary portion of their order that he'd coughed up at the gate. Then Animal, Harm and Meg headed back to Animal's room.

In between mouthfuls of Sushi and Sashimi; Animal sipped his miso soup and said, "Well, I guess it's my turn to tell my turn in the barrel story. I was a nugget with my first tour with VF-41; right after RAG. Pitch black…as Satan's anus." Meg giggled. "Raining like Noah's flood. Bluewater ops, no divert; you either trap or splash; Could barely see out my HUD because of the rain tracked up my windshield. Canopy wasn't much better, so I was flying instruments. Couldn't do Mode II Coupled cause the deck is bobbing up and down; had to fly it all the way in. Boltered my first attempt, didn't even touch the deck on my second. Every goddamned time, I was either high or my hook bounced off the no-skid. I remember my RAG instructor having told me Nakamura; you never make a varsity play for the deck, it's a good way to plant yourself into the fantail. I swear to God, I kept making high passes and bolters for pass after pass and I figured, I'm getting nowhere meanwhile the ass end of the boat is going up and down like a, pardon me, Meg, a prostitute on a waterbed and I figure…you know what…fuck it, I either plant myself or I splash. So I figure, I'll make a varsity play on my next pass and I find out that I'm fucking low… so I say my hail marys cause I know I'm going nose-first into the spud locker and making avgas French-fries…and that's when the boat hits a trough and that deck goes byebye… I just hit power, my wheels skim the fantail, my hook skips across the deck and I catch the number one…hit power…and the jet gets yanked to a screeching halt. I swear to God, I sat in the cockpit shaking like a leaf thanking every deity in the known universe that I got my ass back aboard the boat in one piece. And of course a lot of guys drop their wings after something like that, but hell, being twenty four and brain-dead, I got back up on the horse and went up there the next night and well…trapped on my first pass. Sometimes shit happens."

"Damn that was a scary one…" Harm commented.

"Yeah, my RIO was pasty white, like he'd seen a ghost and I probably wasn't much better, so yeah…every aviator has their turn in the barrel story or two…if they're really unlucky they may have more than two…"

Meg looked like she had stars in her eyes with Animal telling tales of his flying and Harm was looking at her and rolling his eyes. Two alpha male aviators and their tales of their aviation prowess; well Animal had been flying a lot longer and well, he had quite a few more tales to tell. It was about 0100 before they decided to head off for bed. It would be an early morning.

The next morning…Animal got up…after another restless night…the nightmares kept coming…and it seemed like he really needed to talk to someone about it, so he decided that he'd talk to someone at the base hospital, if he could find a counselor to talk to. Meg noticed him heading out so she told him, "I'll come along." As they reached the base hospital she looked at him.

"I've been having flashbacks…at night, Meg…back to Hill 175 and in every single one I'm a little too late to catch one of the guys comin' after me…I either get shot or I get stabbed…and I wake up shaking." Animal admitted to her "…and you told me that there are things that I can't deal with alone…so I'm taking your advice and getting help…" Meg looked over at him with a smile, thankful that he was heeding her advice.

"I'm glad you're taking my advice…sir…" Meg said, they were in civvies…it really didn't matter since their officer's IDs in their wallets would identify them as officers to the hospital staff. "When did they start happening?"

"As soon as I came out of the anaesthetic…"

"You were having them in the hospital?" Meg asked worried, concerned for Animal that he was suffering like this, "Did you tell Doctor Conrad…"

"Yeah, he thought that it was just a symptom of post traumatic stress and that I should see someone about it…and then it started happening more and more frequently. The worst one was the night before we came here." Animal admitted. "I got gut-stabbed…by one of the North Koreans. I could smell his breath; and see the open hatred in his eyes…it wasn't how it happened in real life though as you're pretty much aware, my stomach is intact and well… after I finished blowing off the other guy's head off with the M-4…I saw him out of the corner of my eye, twisted, grabbing my M9 and putting a 9mm bullet through his right eye into his brain. He didn't get a chance to come at me with his knife." Animal said.

"Yeah, I think we need to have you go see someone here…" Meg said sympathetically… "I think you may be suffering from post-traumatic stress and survivor's guilt…but I'm not a psychiatrist…"

"I can't have them down-chit me from flying because I'm a mental case…" Animal said. "My career is going to go down the tubes."

"I doubt they'll try to cut you off from flying, they'll counsel you and help you see the reason why you survived and why you did what you had to in order to come home. And they'll help you come to terms with what happened." Meg put her hand on Animal's right arm. "You need to do this…and heal yourself before you go back to flying…you need to be whole."

Animal looked deep into Meg's eyes and they both looked at each other. "Thanks…" Animal said softly. "Harm's lucky to have you as a partner…because you're a treasure…"

"Well…sir…" she softly said, "There's always room…for another friend…" she said… "Now…let's get you inside and find you someone you can talk to…"