Jack could see Freddy had already arrived at the squadron as he pulled into his marked space. Lt. Col. Jason “Jackknife” Diggs had been recently put on the pavement, and the white paint could clearly be seen by all. “Well, being a commander isn’t all bad,” he thought.

Freddy walked out the front door and down the steps. “Man, I’m so sorry about Janet telling Debra about our orders. I just assumed you had told her.”

“Oh, that’s okay. It’ll blow over. It’s just hard for all of us right now,” said Jack. They turned to walk up the steps, knowing that the plans they were about to start would rock a lot of worlds, and not in a good way. “I brought the coffee. Did you get the donuts?”

“Sure did,” said Freddy. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you about that new kid, Tidwell.”

“You mean that cocky little son-of-a-bitch who took off alone with my Kate?”

Laughing, Freddy slapped Jack on the shoulder and said, “Yeah, Jack. That one. Hey listen. I was at Osan while he was at Kunsan. I never heard a bad word about the kid. In fact, he got Top Gun Dive Bomb for three months in a row. He’s a damn good stick, Jack.”

“Good to know. I still don’t want him anywhere near my daughter. And I’m serious here, Freddy.”

“You can’t keep her 17 forever, Jack. She’ll be 18 by the time we get back and then you’ll have to deal with this thing rationally if they still want to pursue a relationship.”

“Not while she’s still living under my roof, I don’t. She’ll still be in High School. Well, she should be, if we redeploy when they say we’re supposed to. But I don’t want to start talking like that now and jinx it.”

“I know what you mean. Let’s get started. We’ve got a lot to do before we spring this on the guys tomorrow.”

“No shit,” said Jack.

I've been working on a little something for a while now, so I thought I'd show you a little snippet. You won't see much of this....but this is one of the parts I thought might be worth sharing. The characters are purely fictional, but the scenario and feelings described are very, very real.

Shout out to all those pilot wives married to senior level guys who must carry the torch while their better halves are out there fighting for our freedom.

Here goes...

*********************************************************************************************************************

Debra made one more quick check in the visor mirror to be sure she’d removed all traces of the crying jag she’d just allowed herself to have. It wasn’t often that she let stuff like that get to her, but this time it was just such an unexpected shock her emotions got the better of her. “Chin up, girl. You can’t let him know you know.”

As she got out of the truck to unload her groceries, Debra did her best to not let her hurt show. But as Jack glanced up from edging the lawn, he knew something was up. Debra was moving like she did any time she had received bad news. Shoulders sort of slumped, head down. “Oh, shit. Someone told her,” he muttered. As he walked over to the driveway, Debra glanced up.

“Dammit, hold it together!” she told herself. But it was no use. As soon as Jack got close, the tears started to roll down her face. She turned toward the truck, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

Jack grabbed Debra’s shoulders and turned her around, pulling her in for a big bear hug. “I’m so sorry, Deb. I wanted to tell you last night, but there was just no good time with all the guys there.” Debra’s shoulders shook with her silent sobs. “Who told you?”

After a few minutes, Debra’s composure began to return. “I ran into Janet Kruger at the Commissary. She just assumed I knew since Freddy told her least night when he got in. Just when were you planning to tell me?”

“Oh, Geez. I’m so sorry. I had to tell Freddy because we need to meet later to begin mission planning for the deployment. I was going to tell you after lunch when we had some quiet time. What can I do? How can I make this up to you?”

“Jack, I know you can’t control when your squadron gets deployed. It just would have been nice to be the first to know so I would be prepared for questions from the wives. That’s all. I know you didn’t want to spoil dinner last night. But next time, please tell me as soon as you know, okay?”