Faithful Valor by Isabella

Author:Isabella [Isabella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapphire Books Publishing
Published: 2019-12-15T07:00:00+00:00

“Claire?” Nic tossed her hat and briefcase on a chair and started untucking her shirt. “Claire?”

Nothing.

Her first month of teaching had gone as well as could be expected. Most of her students were seasoned officers from all branches of the service and other countries, with a few of what she would term “newbies.” Her classes were on the counterterrorism track with insight into how to work with ethnic factions in country.

Today though, she’d been invited to give a talk to the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at a local high school. Claire’s student teaching gig was at a high school down the valley, and Nic had been offered up so the students could interact with a female Marine officer. Claire thought it would be good for the girls in the class to see a woman in uniform, and Rod, as the JROTC coordinator, agreed.

Staff Sergeant Montanez was a retired Green Beret. This had been her first and only interaction with Montanez as she surveyed him and his office. He was squared away with his dress uniform and beret, and his office was impressive with a set of crossed 9mm Berettas with pearl handles. A gift from a grateful unit. ArComs—Army Commendations—and unit citations lined the wall and didn’t have a speck of dust on them. He explained that he’d grown up in the Salinas Valley and running the JROTC program was his way of giving back to a community he felt needed the structure and discipline the military had given a lost kid like him.

She liked talking to young people about military service. It had been a stepping-stone out of a small town and small-minded family that would have made her life miserable until she acquiesced and married someone they approved of.

It had been an eye-opener when she walked into class. Young men and a few women, barely older than children, dressed in Army-green uniforms sat in neat rows. They all stood, ramrod straight, at the same time, and saluted the minute she walked into the room. She looked at them all, uniforms with razor creases and shined low quarters. They didn’t even look old enough to drive, let alone think about enlisting.

“At ease. Please, sit down.”

As a group, the students relaxed and sat down. She introduced herself and told the students a little about what she did for a living. She played the college ROTC card heavily. It was her own experiences as an ROTC cadet that had given her the ability to go to college. Finally, after talking about flight school and giving them the quick version of deployment, it was time for Q and A.

“So, who has questions?”

Every hand in the room shot up. She pointed to a young man who looked rather reserved. She liked to pick those students because she could see her younger self in them.

“Colonel Caldwell, have you ever seen a terrorist?”

“Well, I’m not sure. I’ve seen men who I thought were friendly to the United States do some bad things at a base I was at in Afghanistan.

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