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.The rest have gotten transport out or bunked off.But there's the Nepos, you see."I did see.What he was telling me was that there were a bunch of foreigncivilians left on the base with no way home.What to do? It wasn't like I could just kick them out.The Nepalese are notIranians.They couldn't get integrated into the society.And things werecoming apart, fast.Hell, there was still, technically, a government in Tehranbut if it controlled anything past the city borders I'd be very surprised.Kicking them out into the wilderness Iran was quickly becoming would-bemurder."Vaccinations?""Up to date," he said, handing me more fucking paperwork."Good chaps.Willing.Couple of them speak English.Sort of.Don't suppose you've got aGorkali speaker?""No," I said, coldly.We had one translator, an American born Iranian who'dbeen raised learning Farsi.He'd grown up in L.A.and really wanted to gohome.He also spoke a smattering of Arabic.I'd been told by one of theIranian officers I met that he was very nearly incomprehensible in Farsi.Basically, what he spoke was the Farsi equivalent of Ebonics."And?""I can't be sure we'll survive, much less your 'Nepos,'?" I said."But I'll doeverything I can to keep them alive.""Thank you," he said, clearly moved.It was apparent he liked his "Nepos" andfelt like shit leaving them behind.Well, there was a lot of that goingaround."Good luck, old chap.""Same to you."Well, I learned why he liked his "Nepos" over time.Pretty quick I started tolearn but it took more time to truly learn.If there was ever a race destinedfor greatness who just ended up at the wrong place and the wrong time, it'sthe fucking Nepalese.I've dealt with lots of cultures and races in my time.Most of them I don'tcare much for.Arabs are lazy as hell, Iranians are arrogant.But Iraniansdon't have a touch on the French and probably work harder even if they fuckmuch of it up.(Call it the Active/Stupid culture.) Kurds and Americans getalong pretty well, all things considered, but Kurds treat their women likeshit.If there is a finer group of non-Americans than the Nepalese I have yet tomeet them.They're some of the hardest workers I've ever met, tend to befairly intelligent, have got a very broad sense of humor and are just tough asfucking nails.Disciplined, too.Ghurkas, who are some of the finest infantry in the world, are drawn from someof the Nepalese tribes.Our guys weren't (mostly) Ghurkas.But working withthem I learned why Ghurkas are so highly regarded.If the Ghurks are betterthan my Nepos, that's pretty fucking scary.But at the time it was another pain in the ass I didn't care for.So about that time Butterfill stopped by."Yo, Bandit.What did the Limey want?"He was a captain now.He could call me Bandit."He couldn't get out his Nepalese.They're ours now.""Well, that's the mess section settled.""So, what are you going to do?"It was a big question.As in, square miles and umpteen billions of dollars ofgear big."I have a very complete action plan provided by the battalion commander.Actually, the S-3 working from the BC's concept plan.""Uh, huh."The S-3 was a pretty good guy.But if he had to create a plan from the BC'sconcept, it was unlikely to be good."We're to maintain continuous three-man roving patrols around the perimeter,"Page 73ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlButterfill said."Six of them, which means a platoon on patrol all the time.And one platoon on standby for reaction."I winced.What he'd just said.Well, there were so many things wrongwith it.First of all, three-man patrols in uparmored humvees or Strykers were justwaiting to get picked off.Attackers weren't going to hit us near the mainbase.They'd wait until a patrol was on the far side, separated from otherpatrols, and set off an IED or burn in with RPGs and light them up.In a high-threat environment, and we were a very big and juicy target whichwas going to make this a high-threat environment, you did not send outthree-man patrols.The other thing was, there was no downtime built in.Eighteen guys on patrolmeant a full platoon on duty at all times.They could do that for twenty-fourto forty-eight hours, max.Another on "standby" and covering internal guardingmeant they weren't exactly getting downtime.It would be better than being onpatrol duty but not much.And there was stuff that would have to be done.Technically, we were supposedto keep up with training.I figured that was out the window but still.Andthere was maintenance.Stuff did not run itself.We'd been left with one"support" platoon, most mechanics, to keep stuff running.But they didn't haveenough hands to do it all.And, hell, if something broke it's not like wecouldn't go out and find a replacement.But there was work other thanpatrolling that was going to have to be done.Nobody would have so much as a day of downtime.Of any noticeable degree.Andif we got hit by a big attack, we'd have a third of our unit scattered to fuckand gone.If the attackers were smart and put in an attack on a patrol, pulledout the duty platoon."And your opinion of that, Captain?""Six patrols aren't going to be able to prevent pilfering.""Pilfering, hell," I said."I'm worried about getting fucking overrun.""And then there's that."Even the core base was too large for one company to secure in the event of aheavy attack."Technically," he added, causing more heartburn, "You're in charge.""You're in charge of security," I pointed out."I'm in charge of the supportsection and 'responsible,' fuck me, for inventory of all this crap.""You're the senior officer.""Oh, thank you very much.""So if you have any.alterations you might suggest, I'd be under ordersto implement them.""Putting me in the position of violation of a direct order.""There is that.On the other hand.""I don't want to end up as a trophy for some fucking RIF."Well, hell, all that material was just sitting there.The whole camp was protected by berms.But you can climb a berm.Teams of guyscan climb a berm and "pilfer" quite a lot of stuff.Like weapons.Andammunition to go with the weapons.Berms weren't going to keep the majority of them out [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]