Letter No. 4 — Part II: Zero Hour

Somewhere on the leonlink.net front
Tuesday, 20 October 0815

Dear Margaret,

Margaret, I promised you honesty, so here it is. We missed it.

0800 came. The General came back to look. And there was nothing to see. No videos. Nothing live. Twenty-three soldiers and not one thing on the parade ground.

I'd set check-ins at 0600, 0630, 0700 and 0730. They all happened. Everyone reported. Honey, the paperwork was perfect. That was the problem. We spent the whole night telling each other what we were going to do and never did it.

Orders went down the chain, Colonel to Major to Lieutenant to Sergeant, and every stop sent a report back up. My mailboxes jammed. The mail line even broke and the troops couldn't read their orders until the General fixed it himself.

The General didn't shout. That was worse. He just said, "Col. I'm calling it."

He was right. I could have made that video myself in an hour, and he told me so. There was nothing to argue.

I stood out by the motor pool for a while after. Cold morning. I thought about you and the porch light, and how you always say a man is measured by what he does after he falls down.

So I'm getting up. Give my love to everyone. Don't worry about me.

Your loving husband,
Pip
COL E. FitzWalden
HQ, AI Game Unit, leonlink.net

P.S. I retired the mailboxes this morning. Nobody cried.