"Yes, Gunny, I mean, First Sergeant."
"Let"s show our colors, son. Uncase the guidon!"
"Aye, aye, First Sergeant."
Duke watched as Joseph pulled the cover from the unit guidon that his wife, Claire, had sewn for them.
The guidon was finished with a st.i.tch from each of the wives, sweethearts, mothers and sisters of the company members in their heartfelt wish for their loved ones" safe return. It was a new tradition in the making for their new Corps. The bright scarlet color of the swallowtail pennant with the rich gold of the globe and anchor on its center added a festive touch to the formation as it fluttered in the early afternoon light.
Satisfied, Duke nodded again to O"Keefe to give the order to start them on their way to the city and an uncertain future. "Scouts, Post! Detachment . . . belay that. COMPANY, column of twos, by the left, Forward HOOO!"
First Sergeant Hudson then spurred his horse forward to take his place at the head of the column.
Gunnery Sergeant O"Keefe and the guidon bearer followed, as they led A company of the 1st Marine battalion into the City of Magdeburg for the first time in the new Corps story.
Acknowledgements: A work of fiction has many helpers apart from the main author. In one where the author is trying to write in a second language, the helpers are crucial. So, to everyone who provided his or input at work or in the bar, a heartfelt thanks. Particular thanks go to Cindy Ridgley.
Last to my editor Paula Goodlett, who kept me on track with her corrections, suggestions and insights, this is a lot better work than the story that I originally started, many thanks.
Elizabeth
by Ernest Lutz and John Zeek.
Frank Jackson took a swallow of beer and settled back in to his chair. "Ah," he said. "Nothing better than beer on a summer day. Now, about the transportation problem we were discussing, Dan, we"re going to have to support a larger army in the field. We"ve done pretty well with the vehicles around here so far, but they aren"t going to be enough."
Dan Frost took a sip of his own beer and nodded. "I know it"s a problem, Frank. Do you have any ideas
on how to fix it?"
"Well, the obvious choice is to start building wagons," Frank said. "But if we do that we"re going to need a lot of them. And that doesn"t include all of the horses we"d need. Not to mention the equipment we"d need to outfit them, and the feed the horses will need when deployed."
"What about trains?" Dan asked.
Frank shook his head. "We"re nowhere near ready with the rail lines we have right now. And with all the
infighting going on with Quentin Underwood and company, I don"t know when we"ll ever finish the line to Halle. Torstensson is in town and one thing we discussed was the slow progress of the railroad."
Dan thought for a moment, letting his gaze travel around the room. His eyes lit on a Military Police
lieutenant and an idea began to grow. "You know, Frank, there might be a way. Hang on a second, let
me get someone." Dan waved and shouted, "Lieutenant Pitre, come here for a sec, will you?
"I think you need to talk to this Lieutenant Pitre," Dan said as the young woman made her way to the table. "She showed us some pictures the other day that may be a start on a solution to your transportation problem.
"Elizabeth, have you ever met Frank Jackson?" Dan asked.
"I think we talked a couple of minutes at Rita"s wedding, sir. I know your wife, though," Elizabeth said, nodding at Frank.
"Frank, this is Elizabeth Pitre, New Orleans" gift to the Ring of Fire, MP lieutenant, and paratrooper,"
said Dan in introduction. "Elizabeth, General Jackson was talking about the problems we"re going to have with keeping the armies supplied in the field. We don"t have anywhere enough trucks to go around and we probably won"t have enough for years. Would you tell him about the railroad your grandfather works on in England?"
"Well, sir, Granddad Spencer volunteers at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, north of London. He works on a narrow-gauge railway that was standard in the British forces from WWI up into the 1960s.
Besides a couple of paperbacks my granddad gave me, I"ve a bunch of pictures on my computer."
"Why don"t you come over to headquarters tomorrow morning around ten? You"ve got me thinking and I
want to bring a couple of other people to see your pictures," Frank said.
"Sir, I"ll be there. I just need a few seconds to set up and plug in my laptop. I"ll bring the books my grandfather gave me, too," Elizabeth said.
Elizabeth showed up at headquarters in a neatly pressed set of BDUs. She wore the black bar of a first lieutenant on her right collar, and the crossed pistols of the Military Police on her left. Instead of standard army boots, she was wearing black rubber riding boots.
General Jackson and two men were waiting in his office. One of the men was an older up-timer and the
other was a down-time officer. She didn"t know who either of them was.
"Elizabeth, this is General Lennart Torstensson and Charlie Schwartz. Charlie worked on the railroad link to the coal mine and helped to build the steam locomotive. He also worked on the B and O for more years than he likes to admit. General Torstensson is the captain general"s chief of artillery," Frank said.
"Gentlemen, this is Elizabeth Pitre, who, I"m told, might just have the makings of a solution to our transport problem. Why don"t you set your computer up on this table and you can talk us through your pictures."
Setting up the laptop and getting to the right place took a few moments. Elizabeth began her presentation, "Sir, this picture is of a Simplex twenty-five horsepower gasoline powered locomotive pulling four cars at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. It is on a six-hundred-millimeter gauge railway, which is very close to two feet. This was the standard size light railway used by all sides during the First World War."
Elizabeth continued showing pictures, "The beauty of this system is that you use prefabricated track you can lay virtually anywhere and very quickly. You can also move a great deal of material over one of these systems. Most of the freight cars were rated to carry a ten-ton load."
She showed pictures in a WWI diorama setting. "Another good thing about this gauge is that it is small
enough to run through a trench close to the front lines."
Torstensson asked, "You said they could carry a lot of weight, can you carry big things like cannon on one of these little trains?"
"Yes, sir," Elizabeth said. She pulled out a small paperback book t.i.tled Narrow Gauge at War and showed them a picture of a railcar carrying a large fieldpiece and then another picture of a standard gauge railway gun being hauled over several cars.
"How hard would it be to build some of these trains?" asked Torstensson.
"Charlie, what do you think?" Frank asked.
"You know, I bet you could use a garden tractor for a locomotive on something like this," Charlie
Schwartz answered. "I think we might just be able to come up with something that would work, but track is going to be the problem."
"Would you try to build something like this for us?" Frank asked.
"I"ll be glad to help and advise, Frank. But you really need to have a unit to experiment with this and figure out what will and won"t work," Charlie said.
"Would you command the unit, if I authorized the formation of it?"
"Frank, I said I"d be glad to help and advise, but I"m too old to command something like this. You need a bright young officer to take charge of this. I"ll teach him everything I know," Charlie answered.
"Excuse me, sir," Elizabeth said, "Why don"t you appoint Mr. Schwartz as a chief warrant officer? It
would give him the rank and authority he needs to train everyone in this unit."
"Chief warrant officer? What is that?" Torstensson asked.
"Chief warrant officer is a rank used in the U.S. Army for technical experts. A lot of army pilots had that
rank, back up-time. It"s like what you do with master gunners in your artillery," Frank answered.
"Elizabeth, that"s a perfect solution. That is, if Chief Schwartz has no objection?"
"Hmm, Chief warrant officer, I think I could live with that," Charlie said as he looked at Elizabeth with a twinkle in his eyes. "But I need a really bright young officer to teach and to lead this unit. I originally said I"d teach him but it could very easily be a "her.""
Jackson and Torstensson looked at the young woman standing in front of them. They could see the obvious intelligence in her eyes and that she knew what was coming next. Torstensson had a question first, "Lieutenant, what is that device you have on your uniform above the words U.S. Army?"
"Sir, those are jump wings. That means I jumped five times out of a perfectly good airplane with a
parachute and lived to tell about it," she said.