One SEAL, one trident

It was about 2100 hours when we got home from dining at the Silver Oak, we literally fell asleep as soon as we hit the rack. I woke up at 0600 hours the following morning to the lovely sound of the horn of Pauls car in my driveway. I forgot he said he would be coming to pick me up, but he was never known as an early bird either. I texted him to just come in instead of honking in the driveway. The horn was silenced, and Paul exited his car, in his Navy NWUs. His boots were perfectly bloused, too. I could never get a perfect blouse on mine. I sensed jealousy within me. I heard the door open and paul calling for my name, almost yelling.

I threw on some jeans and a shirt and rushed downstairs, “shut the f**k up! The kids are still sleeping, d****t!” I hiss.

His voice went from a yell to a whisper, “oh, s**t, sorry. Didn’t know you had kids.”

“Bullshit! I told you about them when we were out in Iraq!” I hiss again.

“Are you ready to go yet or what?” He asks, almost inaudibly.

“When do we have to be there?”

“1200.”

My eyes widen to the size of golf balls, he must have been f*****g with me. “Dude! You expect me to walk out of my house and into your car to drive three f*****g hours to a Navy base at 0600, are you insane??”

“Yes!” He answers.

I heard a yawn coming from upstairs. The stairs began to creek a little as I go to investigate who was making the yawning noise. It was Carmine, and Paul woke her up prematurely.

“You woke up Carmine.” I say to Paul.

He giggles a little bit. “Calm down, its not like she’s pissed off or anything like that.”

“Don’t jynx yourself.” I warn.

I look back over to see Carmine walking toward us from the stairs, in her pale blue night gown, rubbing her eyes trying to wake up. She opens her eyes a little and looks upon Paul, who she knows very well, and shares my sarcasm for as well.

“I was woken up, because of you?” She sarcastically asks.

Paul looks at me. I smile. “Hm, I wonder where she gets it from.” He proclaims.

“She knows you well enough to behave like that around you.” I answer.

I led Paul towards the kitchen, and sat him down at the island. Carmine walks back up to her room to finish her beauty sleep. He looks at me with a comfortable smirk on his face. He was glad he could take a break from driving. I would be too.

“F**k dude, give me some scoop! Whats going on with the promos?” I begin.

“Well you’ll never f*****g believe this, but O’Hara came back with some Rangers, and noticed he didn’t have the whole team with him. He spent only 10 seconds on his radio, then jumped back out there and got the rest of the boys back to the Azimuth. 3 of them were thought to be KIA, but they were just wounded. He was just about the get himself killed out in the field, after about 7 minutes of tactical planning and combat, when he got the idea to throw out a radio decoy to trick the enemy combatants into thinking that O’Hara and the Rangers relocated. He’s supposed to get a promo to Lieutenant and a Conspicuous Gallantry award or something like that.”

I never thought the kid would be getting to full LT, nor did I ever think he would be getting an award of that kind of merit. “What about Germany?” I ask.

“Harrison II? I’m not sure what he did exactly, but hes supposed to be going from LT to Lieutenant Commander, no Conspicuous Gallantry award for him. I think its because that he got in his last tour and waited his time to get put on the LT Commander list. Out of our whole team, only they’re getting promoted and awarded. The other guys from Team 3 and Team 7 are going to Macdill Air Force Base to go on deployment.”

“S**t, dude. Haven’t they been on leave for like, 2 weeks?” I ask, curiously.

“I think so. They had double time off, so they probably have to work a little longer than usual, which means we won’t be seeing them on the next rotation to Afghanistan.” He replies.

“What are we doing in Afghanistan?”

“We’re keeping some baby SEALs company at a new firebase in the Khost Province. Captain Flint is already there, probably ripping each of them a new a*****e. We aren’t operating as far as I know, it’ll be a small tour there, unless Captain Flint cooks up a suicide mission for us juniors.”

“I thought the Khost Province was taken by the Taliban?” I ask.

“Marines recaptured some of the area about 3 months ago, so we can at least walk out on the front lawn without getting shot at. We erected the firebase there so the spec ops guys can be closer to the enemy than the rest of them.”

I raised my eyebrow in interest. “Who built the firebase?”

“Marines.”

“Holy s**t, they’re fast.” I denounce.

There was a slight, and awkward, pause in conversation for a little bit, and I knew that it only takes 5 seconds of silence to become an awkward conversation, so I ignited a new topic...out of the blue.

“You want anything to eat, man? I can cook you up something real quick if you want.” I offer.

He smiles for a little bit, “No, im good. I had some garbage before I left.”

I laughed for a minute. He always used the term “garbage” as a reference to military food, which served the same purpose as prison food. there was almost no flavor to anything, but it gave you a whole lot of calories to burn. The cooks were either military chefs behind grills or civilian contractors behind countertops, neither of which had super special training, or extensive training, either. It was pretty much just fuel for the day. Traditionally, we drench whatever they serve us with hot sauce or bury it in jalapenos to give us a little jump start to the day. When we couldn’t take the spice any longer, we would full-on sprint to our rooms and down a carton or two of milk instantaneously.

“What’d ya get?” I ask.

“There was a guy on the grill who fired up and smoked some chicken and omelettes. I took a big piece of chicken and ordered up an omelette, both of them were greasy and tasted like nothing, but it offered carbs, so I took it.” He answered.

“Did you really eat garbage from the trash can?” I heard from the staircase.

I looked over a little more, and noticed that Sarah was walking in sweatpants and a sports bra. She was just shy of being completely awake. She was still yawning some, but I could tell she had been awake for quite some time. I looked at Paul, and he looked at me. We both gave each other a look that said “keep quiet, say nothing.”. We give each other this look when a civilian walks into our presence, which indicates to each other that whatever we were talking about, that regarded the military and what we were supposed to be doing, had to stop.

Paul looks back at Sarah. “No, I just ate some bad food is all.”

“But you would do something like eat REAL garbage, right?” She says, almost endearingly.

Paul hung his head down a little and chuckles. He looks back up at me, and I smile. “Looks like you earned yourself a reputation, bud.” I say.

“Yeah, yeah...whatever.” He said, smiling.

I turn to look over at the young one. “Sarah, where is your sister?”

“She’s...upstairs!” She replies.

Liar.

“Are you sure you’re not fibbing with me?”

“Yes daddy” She says, giggling a little.

“Are you sure shes not...say...next to you, hiding behind the wall?” I reply, knowing for certain thats exactly where she was.

I heard giggling coming from behind the wall. Out came Carmine, still in her night gown, holding her hand close to her mouth to avoid her smile from showing, but I know well enough that it was there from the start.

“Hello little miss ninja.” I say to Carmine.

“Hi daddy” She replies.

“does she like hiding from you or something, dude?” asks Paul.

I glance at Paul for a little bit, then over toward Carmine. I smile while looking at her, while she tries to look away from me. “No...its just her way of trying to hear things shes not supposed to...but I always catch her.”

Her body switches left and right a little bit, covering her mouth from her blatantly obvious smile.

“Sometimes she finds out what shes getting for christmas, but it never exceeds one item.” I add.

“Daddy!” She almost yells, with a clear and present smile of embarrassment.

“And there was another time where she was hiding behind a wall to figure out what we would be doing for her birthday. She never found out much, though.” I continue to add.

She starts laughing along with Sarah. She couldn’t hold herself any longer, and she bursted out giggling, trying to hide her smile.

“Is this your torture method for your kids, dude?” Paul asks.

I direct my attention over to him and give him a look of humor. “Nah, they just know i’m going to call them out if I find them doing something they aren’t supposed to do. Especially in front of you because you never know what’s going on.”

“Hey!” He yells. “Not cool!”

There was a lot of laughing and joy within the house at this early in the morning. There was much racket that went about the kitchen, that which woke up Heather, who had decided to join us, clothed in a bright green night gown. She five-starred Paul in the back, that was her way of saying hi.

“Why does everyone abuse me so much?” He sarcastically asks.

Heathers five-stars always hurt the most, we never really knew why. Maybe it was because she knew a spot on the back that shot up the most pain, but we wouldn’t have a clue, she wouldn’t tell us.

“Because you’re Paul, and everyone hates you.” I answer with a smile, giving him a little reminder of our best friends status by giving him a five-star of my own, slapping him as hard as I possibly could, because best friends always abuse each other out of friendship.

“OW!! MOTHER OF…” he practically yells, his head all the way down unto the island, resting on his arms. He was groaning in pain.

We all laughed hysterically. I looked over toward the clock, mounted above the stove, and it read 0630. I knew that if it was going to take about 3 hours to get to the Navy base, we might as well get ready and leave early.

“Hey Paul, im changing into NWUs, be back out in a few.” I advise.

“Hurry up, dude. You got 20 minutes.” He replies.

I rush over to my room, and reach into the issued government backpack for my NWUs and boots. All articles of the uniform, ranging from the jacket to the underwear, were all perfectly folded and stashed accordingly inside the bag. I quickly remove the jeans and T-shirt and began to change. I almost thought I lost my uniform pants, that I placed a little under the jacket. The Navy blue digitized camouflage pattern had perfectly matched all other articles of the uniform. I double checked my PO1 rank placement, making sure it was placed to match. It was easy slipping into the pants, equipping the belt, undershirt, and jacket. The hard part was blousing the boots, which I never seemed to do as well as Paul did. I tried once more by tucking in the pant leg into the socks and pulling off all the wrinkles when I tied the boot laces together. I stood up and looked into the mirror, and yet again, I managed to pull off an Army boot tuck.

“Ugh, whatever.” I whispered to myself.

I snatched my wallet and phone off the nightstand and rush back downstairs. I looked over at my watch, only 10 minutes have gone by since I went up to change. Back at the kitchen, where the sounds of pain and abject misery were present, Paul was in a basic headlock at the hand of Carmine and Sarah, while heather is standing aside, trying her hardest not to laugh.

I walk in the kitchen and stand in disbelief. “I leave you unattended with Paul...for TEN MINUTES...and I come back to see him in a headlock?”

“yes!” the girls scream.

“Carmine...Sarah…” I almost whisper.

They both look at me, releasing Paul from the headlock. “Yes?” They both said.

“Good job.” I admit.

“Wh-what!? Are you serious right now??” Paul complains, yet far from angry.

I look at him with a smile. “No. Are you ready to leave?”

The girls are laughing uncontrollably and Heather is standing in the same place, hiding her smile from the world. Paul looks over at me and nods, as he rushes his way out of the house and into his car. Carmine and Sarah are in pursuit. I look over from the trails of fire in the girl’s wake of pursuit over to Heather, who had just finished up laughing.

She confronts me with a look of satisfaction on her face. “Where is Paul taking you?”

“To the Navy base, we have an awards ceremony to attend to. Are you guys coming?” I reply.

Her smile disappears a little as she looks up at me. I already know what the answer is.

“I can’t drive there, I have to work. The girls will not be able to come either. Will you be gone all day?”

“No, just for a couple of hours. If nothing happens, I will be back by 7.” I reply, hoping she will be okay with it.

“...okay. Do you want to bring the girls with you?” She requests to know.

I hear a shout coming from the driveway, as the girls make their way back inside. “DAVID! LETS GO!!”

“I can’t, they won’t be ready in time. Call me if anything happens, okay?” I advise.

“Okay, have fun. I love you.” She says.

“I love you too” I say, as I pull her in to kiss her before I left. I gave my kids a goodbye noogie and walked out the door and into the car that Paul had occupied. I shut the door and look at Paul, who is staring at the house. He slowly turns his head over towards me, then begins laughing automatically.

“Your kids are relentless.” He admits.

“You’re just a dumbass.” I reply.

“...calling me a dumbass, what the fu…” He whispers under his breath.

I laugh hysterically as Paul pulls the stick shift on his car into reverse and pulls out from the driveway. He punches the gas pedal a little bit as we begin to make our way to the Navy base.

“Okay dude, we gotta talk serious here.” Paul begins.

“What about?” I ask. I wondered if there was anything that needed my attention immediately.

“Command set up a new op for us. Its supposed to be a raid in the Khost Province. Remember the rotation I told you about?”

“Yeah.” I reply. This was the right time to get serious.

“Well Taliban were found smuggling big crates in the back of some pickup trucks, thats when intel decided to take a look at where they were going. Thats when they found a possible W-M-D.”

A very sinister chill shot directly down my spine, and it felt like my heart was beating out of my chest. In a situation like this, WMD was not the letters you wanted to hear from anyone about anything. That would mean that the entire US Military and its allies would be practicing extreme safety measures while being deployed to Afghanistan, trying to find and kill anyone connected to the threat. This would also mean that all units on leave would be taken off and sent back to base, this was priority 1.

Paul continues. “They believe that they will go in and strike the US with this bomb. The Pentagon is already at DEFCON 3, ready to go to DEFCON 2. Air Force pilots are sitting next to their planes all day and all night, waiting for the call to mount up and take off. The Navy is mobilizing their SSBN’s and interceptor radar networks, and Admiral Dawson is taking command of all SEAL teams until the situation is under control.”

Paul speeds up a little bit, making a few turns and driving onto an interstate. A few dark clouds were forming on the horizon, and it was clear that rain was present, but it was far away. He looked at his watch a couple of times, probably wondering when it is that we are going to get there. I spent my time wondering what else I could say in counteraction to his statement. I couldn’t think up of anything, I was speechless. I was worried on what might happen if this situation go any worse than it already is.

“Dawsons gonna f**k us all…” Paul ends with

I backtracked a little bit to what he talked about while he was visiting us back at home. “What about the operation you mentioned back at the house?”

“Thats gonna be called Operation White Wings. Theres gonna be three SEAL teams consisting of two operators, a Sniper and a Spotter. You and I are gonna be Team 2, O’Hara and Harrison II are Team 1, and Captain Flint and Commander Harrison is Team 3. We’re gonna be spending the better part of 3 days out in the field, with enough ammo and grenades to last us about 20 minutes. We’re pulling out from the firebase in the Khost Province and flying out on some MH-60s some 95 miles away, where radio communication will be at a minimum. We can’t risk having our position telegraphed by the Taliban because of communication over usage.”

The GPS spoke up and said that traffic would be at a bare minimum, we would be getting to the Navy base a little early today. “Good, because I didn’t feel like hitting the lunchtime traffic thats probably behind us at the moment.” Paul said.

I looked behind us to see a s**t ton of cars in a cluster of metal and lights. When he said that there was the lunchtime traffic behind us, he wasn’t kidding. I felt a heavy sense of tire and soreness engulf me, and noticed that I hadn’t gotten much sleep, either. Maybe 5 hours at the most. I need at least 7 hours...and a break from Pauls complaining.

“Yo, I see you’re a little tired. You should take a rest until we get to the Navy base.” Paul advised.

“Yeah, I think i’ll do that.” I agreed.

I reached for the seat lever and pulled it up, allowing the seat to bend all the way back, to make it somewhat of a bed. The seat consisted of comfortable leather, it felt as though it was easy to fall asleep on it. I pulled my Navy NWU cap to my face and closed my eyes, readying to fall directly asleep, and fast-forward the 3 hour ride to the Navy Base.

Author's Note

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