Firestorm - 19. FS Chapter 19

Leaving them to sort out that task, I headed downstairs, and Angela had finished cleaning up after breakfast, and Tom was sitting at the kitchen table, doing school work. “Yesterday, before all that drama happened, Corporal Gregson and I had come up with an idea to build a frame and wooden roof over the two tents, to provide rain and sun shelter, I was just wondering if there was anything else that you would like us to build, while we have a little bit of spare time before the camp happens” I said to Angela.

“Maybe you could build a bigger stove, that can be a fireplace on the other side, maybe built out of stones, with some bench space, on either side of the stove” Angela said to me, “I am sure we can do that, but I will need to go into Toodyay to get some bags of cement and grave” I replied with a smile. After rolling up the awning on my vehicle, I drove down the hill, and after a little bit of searching, I found a good amount of rocks, and I put a large pile into the back of my vehicle, before heading back up the hill.

When I arrived, I saw the jeep was gone, and Angela was supervising Tom with his school work. “They have gone to the main complex to get some supplies, they will be back in a few hours” Angela said to me as I began to unload the rocks from the back of the vehicle. Once I had the rocks offloaded, I suggested to Angela, that they join me for a trip into town, so they are not on their own, and Angela happily agreed to the idea.

Half an hour later, we arrived in town, and we went to the back-loading yard of the hardware store, where I purchased a few bags of concrete, plus two bags of soil and two bags of gravel, I also bought another large cooler esky and had them loaded into the back. Next, we went to the main supermarket, where we did a major shopping trip, before we made the journey back to the Army training facility.

The three corporals had returned, and I could hear some activity happening upstairs in the tower, and they soon appeared at ground level. “Hey guys, how are things going up topside?” I asked when they arrived, “All good Staff, we have the side wall in place, and we put the tables along that wall, and we managed to find a spare whiteboard, which is up there as well” Corporal Hays said to me.

“Sounds good, I will check on that later, I have had a chat with Angela about improvements to the camp site, and she suggested to a bigger camp stove and fireplace, that is what the rocks are for near the bush seats, but firstly, can you unload the new esky, and help get all the shopping into the kitchen area for Angela, then you can help me to gather some more rocks, and start building a better camp stove and fireplace on the other side” I announced.

“Sure, that sounds good, are we going to build the roof shelters for the two tents?” Corporal Gregson responded, “yes, I thought we would make that our second project” I replied, and we got to work to get the groceries sorted, before the corporals went to get some more rocks, while I began dismantling the current fireplace, and I laid down the concrete base for the new stove and fireplace, that will be a rectangular shape, and I had completed the base, just when the lads returned with a huge load of rocks.

“Marc and Amos, how about you guys grab the chainsaw box, and go and find some fallen logs, to start making the supports posts and cross beams for the tent shelters, and cut some thin planks for roof shingles” I said to the corporals, who looked a bit shocked that I used their first names. “Err, yes sure that sounds fine, Staff” Marc Hays replied, and I chuckled, “Just call me Mitch, while there is no one else around, since we are working together for a few weeks” I said, and I turned to face Troy Masterson.

“Now, Troy how about you and me start building this stove and fireplace” I suggested and Troy smiled and nodded his head, and with that, we all set off to do our assigned jobs. With no stove available, Angela made sandwiches for all of us for lunch, and Angela suggested that we build a small table between the two bush seats, to put food and drinks on, and I smiled and nodded my head in agreement, as I continued to eat.

By the end of the day, we had the posts and cross beams above Angela & Tom’s tent completed, and we had the stove and fireplace half built. “I was thinking that we could build a narrow lean-too, over the camp seats, with a back wall for weather protection. I am glad that you guys made the tent shelters, ½ a metre bigger than the tents” I said with a smile, as we had enjoyed sandwiches for dinner, since we still don’t have any operational stove for cooking.

In the morning, as we were enjoying a relaxing breakfast, my mobile rang, and the caller ID said it was the CO, “Go morning sir, how can we help you” I said with a smile, “Well you could tell me where you are, as the caretaker has no idea where on the property where you are located” the CO said, alerting us to the CO being at the facility, “Sir we are on Tobruk Hill, we wanted to limit the number of people who knew where the command post is, for safety reasons mostly” I replied, “Ok, I will be there in twenty minutes” the CO said before ending the call.

“Right, the CO is on the facility, and said he will be here in twenty minutes, but I suspect it will be half of that time, so let’s get breakfast finished, and get the stove and fire place finished, so we can get cooked meals again” I announced and as Marc and Amos was mixing concrete, Toby and I were laying the stones into place, and we were almost finished with the main part of the construction, when we heard a jeep approaching.

“Squad, CO is approaching” I shouted out, and we quickly gathered near the jeep and snapped to attention, as the CO’s vehicle appeared and came to a stop nearby. The CO climbed out and took a look at us, before ordering us to stand at ease, which we did. “Ok Staff, how about a tour of the command post, starting with up there” the CO said to me, as he pointed upwards, and I led the way up the stairs of the tower.

At the top, the CO looked around the command post, seeing the topographical map on the large white board, the radios, a number of files and two binoculars on the table, and he picked up the day binoculars, and scanned the area, stopping for a moment when he spotted something, then continued scanning. When he finished looking, he put the binoculars down on the table.

“You have a good set up here, Staff Sergeant, and I noticed that you can see some of the navigation paths from here, as well as the front entry and caretaker’s residence, plus a little bit of the main complex, and a bit of the north complex, how far away are you from the centre of the property?” the CO said to me. “Well sir, the hill known as Wewak Hill, which is about two kilometres north west of here is the closest hill to the middle” I responded, suspecting that the CO already knew this information.

“So why choose this hill, instead of Wewak? The CO asked me, “Mainly the easier vehicle access and with it already being partly cleared at the top” I replied, and the Lt Colonel nodded his head at my response, and he headed down the stairs, and I followed, where I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, while the CO looked around the camp site. When Tom saw the CO, he stood up and snapped to attention.

I saw the CO give a small smile, “At ease young man, return to your studies” Lt Colonel Harding said to Tom, “Good morning sir, can I get you a cup of tea?” Angela said to the CO, “Yes please Ms Parker, that would be nice, black and strong, no sugar, thank you” the CO replied, and a few minutes later he had a cup in his hand and he walked over to the camp seats and sat down. “I approve of what you have done here, but I suggest limiting it to what you have done so far and no more” the CO said.

“Very well sir, we just wanted to make it a bit easier for Angela and Tom, while they are here” I responded, “That leads us to why I am here” the CO said as he stood up and faced the kitchen, “Ms Parker, if you can come here for a moment please” the CO continued, and Angles glanced at me, and I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing what this was about. “I am pleased to announce, that I have arranged for you to be employed as a part time civilian catering contractor, so you are now here on an official basis” the CO announced, and I smiled.

“Well sir, this is a surprise, and I accept your offer with many thanks” Angela said in response, and the CO handed over two new ID cards showing the change of status, from official visitor to Army Contractor. “Give me the receipts for any food that you buy, and I will make sure that you are reimbursed, and I will keep Staff Sergeant Benning as your Army supervisor, since you will be here for a while.

You have access to anything on the facility, including more blankets, cooking equipment and anything else that you need” the CO said to Angela, before turning to me again, “Now, Benning, I have arranged for the Cadet officers to arrive earlier, regarding the cadet officers from the country units, they have been given half a day off on Friday, and they will travel to the city that afternoon, and be up here by noon on Saturday, as will the city-based Cadet officers” the CO announced.

“That is good, it gives us a full two days of training for the cadet officers, before the rest of the cadets arrive” I responded, “Ms Parker, I would like to ask you to cook for the cadet officers, at the compound for the two days, before the other cadets arrive, and there will be a catering team to take over after that, so you can concentrate on cooking for this mob” the CO stated.

“Yes sir, that will be fine” Angela replied with a smile, and the CO placed the empty cup on the table before walking back towards his vehicle, stopping just before it and turning to face me, as I followed. “I will be back when the cadet officers arrive, along with one of their unit leaders, tomorrow at noon.

Let’s start training for them at 1300 hours once they have eaten lunch” the CO said as he entered the jeep and slammed the door shut. “Very well sir, we will be ready for them, have a safe trip back to the city sir” I replied as I stepped back, and let the CO drive off.

“Congratulations Angela” I said with a smile, once the CO’s jeep was out of sight, “Thanks Mitch, for everything you have done for us, I don’t know what we would have done, if we hadn’t stumbled into camp where you were” Angela said to me” and I smiled before replying, “you are most welcome”. The lads had got back to work to complete the stove and fire, and using the chimney tube as an inner lining, they built a stone chimney around it, to complete the job, with the whole thing looking spectacular.

“Well done guys, I am sure Angela will be pleased with this” I said, and I looked around at the remaining pile of rocks, “We will leave those for something else later, let’s get this tent shelter completed, then we can get started finalising plans for the cadet officers” I said to the three corporals, and we got to work cutting the shingles for the roof, and securing them into place, and it was all completed just before lunch time.

During lunch, I let Angela know the timetable for when the cadet officers and their unit commanders are here, “meals are, breakfast will be at 0630, lunch at noon, and dinner at 1800 hours, plus some supper at 2030 hours, which will be just hot chocolate, milo or tea and biscuits, on the second night, we will be having night manoeuvres, so the supper will be a lot later, at 2230 hours” I announced to Angela.

“Sounds fairly easy, how many will there be?” Angela asked, “there will be 48 including the unit commanders, it will be nearly 200 when they all arrive on Monday morning, you are lucky that you only have to feed us four, for a week, after Monday breakfast” I replied, and Angela just smiled. After lunch, I asked Amos, Troy and Marc to grab some water and their backpacks, as we were going to do some hiking, and while they were doing that I grabbed my hydration pack, backpack, compass, one of my hand-held UHF radios, compass, and a smaller folded map of the region from my vehicle, before dashing up to the tower to turn on the UHF base radio, and turning it to channel 12, with the volume up a little higher than usual.

I let Angela know that we would be back for a late dinner at about 1900 hours, which was six hours away, before we set off down the hill, following the access track, before turning west towards the properties main access road, which was a good 5 ½ km’s away from the top of the hill, which we achieved in just 45 minutes. From there we walked south towards the main entry gate for 900 metres, till we reached a small track on the left, which we followed for 100 metres, till I came to a stop, and the other three behind, not expecting me to stop suddenly each marched into the person in front of them, as if it was a comical sketch, and I chuckled as it happened.

“Ok you lot, this isn’t a three-stooges show, smarten up” I said in a serious tone, “Sorry Staff” the three corporals chorused, before they saw the big grin on my face, and we all laughed. “Why the sudden stop Staff?” Troy Masterson asked me, “look around and tell me what you see?” I asked, and I saw them look around, with Amos spotting it first. “Navigation marker staff” he said to me, and I handed him the navigation sheet, which is the same as the cadets will have next week, before handing Marc Hays my compass.

Amos read out the code on the marker, and looked at the navigation sheet, “900 metres at a bearing of 105 degrees” Amos announced, and Marc quickly got the bearing on the compass, and started to pace the distance out, and we all followed him, as he counted out the paces out loud. When we reached the distance of 900 metres, I motioned for Amos to hand the navigation sheet to Troy, and Marc to give the compass to Amos.

This time it was Marc who spotted the marker, and he read out the code numbers, and in reply, Troy announced “850 metres at a bearing of 150 degrees”, and once Amos had the bearing he began to pace out the distance. The first section took us approximately 20 minutes to complete, and the second section was just two minutes shorter, and by the time we had reached the final marker which had “End” written on it, we had completed 5 ½ kilometres, and it took us nearly two hours to complete it.

“Where the hell are we staff?” Marc said to me, scratching his head, as we stood on a disused track, and I chuckled as I walked up to him and pointed to the spot where we are on the map, just 350 metres south of the track that leads to Tobruk Hill, and a further 1.3 km’s east of the main access track, and I called for a rest break before we continue on, and all three corporals collapsed to the ground, which made me chuckle. “Looks like I have been making things a little too easy for you, maybe we should do a long hike every morning from now on” I suggested, “If you wish Staff, but we can keep going now” Marc replied, as he struggled back to his feet.

I let them rest for another fifteen minutes, before we hiked east towards our camp for just 1.25 kilometres, then headed north for another 2 km’s, till we reached another “T” junction in the small track, near the top of a small hill, where we stopped once more. I was about to ask the squad to locate the next first marker, when a voice came over the radio. “Tom to Uncle Mitch, over” and all three corporals chuckled. “Yes Tom, receiving you loud and clear, over” I replied, after retrieving the radio from my belt.