Page 11 of Confessions of an Apache Pilot

“What if he’s my customer? Who's allowed on the radio then?” I asked. This got a laugh from the room.

“He’s not allowed to get hurt, can’t risk one of these assholes getting on the radio.” This came from the one that seemed to be in charge.

Sheppard pointed to the man, a mountain with legs, and naturally—a beard. “This is Captain Peralta, the team leader. Then you have Jeremiah, Jaguar-one-one, explosives expert and carrier of all heavy things. The weapons sergeant there is Dozer. Then Doc here is the medic, next is The Ginger, our communications geek, Sneaky Pete, the sniper, Derek or D for short and finally Max, and his dog… Where’s the dog?”

“She’s in her kennel, tucked in for the night,” Max answered.

“Oh, well, forget him then, he’s only interesting when he has his dog.” Sheppard gave him a dismissive wave. Max gave him the middle finger as a response, but laughed when he did it. “The rest of the guys must be at the gym.”

“Why doesn’t Max have a nickname?”

“Max is my nickname. Every team has to have a guy on it named Max. If it doesn’t, someone gets assigned the name.”

I blinked a few times trying to make sense of what he said. I gave up and just said “alright.”

They all stood silent for a moment, sizing me up or checking me out? I hoped they were sizing me up, although it didn’t make me any more comfortable.

“She going to make us do the three-hundred-meter dash like Dickface did?” This was asked by Ty, and directed at Sheppard.

A clue about some of the current hostilities between our teams?

It irritated me that they were talking around me like I wasn’t there, but honestly I was used to it. Until you gained their respect you couldn’t earn their trust. That wouldn’t happen until they saw me fly.

They weren’t disrespecting me because I was a female. No, this happened to everyone, man or woman. These men went into the most dangerous situations and they counted on you to get their asses out of an active shooting zone and patch them up. Trust was important to them and they didn’t give it easily. It sounded like Ross and Nick hadn’t managed to earn it. Worse, it sounded like they did something to piss them off. Which meant it would be even more difficult for me to earn their respect.

Now Sheppard turned to me and sized me up alongside them. It was very unnerving. My anger boiled below the surface, but I kept it in check. Blowing up on them would be the quickest way to have them dismiss me permanently.

Before Sheppard could respond, Laura spoke up. “She’s solid.” They all turned to my friend, then simultaneously nodded.

That’s it? Two words and they were done judging me? They were willing to trust me just based on Laura’s recommendation? I was grateful that my friend stood up for me. She didn’t have to do that. I would’ve eventually proven myself to them—would still have to, really. The fact that they took her word without question...they certainly respected her.

I leaned over to Laura and whispered “Three-hundred-meter dash?”

“Don’t worry about it right now.”

They all looked back to Sheppard, then went back about their business. D and Ty moved closer and the five of us made our own huddle as they started peppering me with questions. The interrogation to prove my worth wasn’t over yet, but they were at least being nice about it now. The conversation had dropped down to normal chit chat, which was a bit easier.

“Where is your team deploying from?” D asked.

“Fort Hood, Texas. Other than Nick, my whole team is from there.”

“I’ve been trying to get stationed at Hood for years. I grew up in Austin, my dad and sister still live on the south end, in the suburbs.” This was from Ty.

“Hood is huge; they won’t let you get back there?”

“Not if I want to stay on the Green Beret teams. I have two options, go where I’m told or get off the team. Right now these slugs can’t handle me leaving, so I stay with them.”

“Are you still here? I thought we left you on the last mission? I thought we agreed to ditch him?” That came from The Ginger.

Ty smiled, “See, completely lost without me.” I glanced at Sheppard, who had been watching me interact with these guys. He smiled at Ty’s comment, it made me nearly lose my breath. I shifted my attention back to Ty, before a blush could set in. I wanted to stay and keep talking. This group was so much more relaxed than you would expect, especially considering the introduction.

Surprisingly, it was Laura who interrupted the fun. “Time for me to be the adult, we need to get back. We have more planning to do. We’ll catch you at the next brief before the mission starts.”

With that, the three of us left and dispersed back to our respective Command Posts.

CHAPTER 6

Mark

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