Kombat Kids - 52. It's Hard to Soar With the Eagles, When You're Surrounded by Turkeys

Looking back at the events that shaped the Unit and the party that was almost two weeks ago, James stood in the hallway watching as the last of the Squaddies followed Matt to the third deck and the arms room. He squared his cap on his head and headed up to the first floor and on to the range, remembering both the good and the bad times he had experienced since the Unit came in to being. Sighing, he climbed into a HUMVEE and drove out of the garage and out to the rifle range, a slight smile on his face. Reaching the range, he eased out of the HUMVEE and limped up to the range office. Entering the office, he found the Gunny sitting at his desk working his way through the stack of paper work that never seemed to get any smaller. James smiled at the older man and said;"Tell me you didn't know about this 'Turkey Shoot' Matt has set up for today."

The Gunny looked up and smiled at James;"Actually I did, Matt reminded me about it around 19:00 last night. I figured you knew all about it and were ready for it, was I wrong?"

"Yeah ya were" James nodded. "Matt blindsided me this morning, him and the rest of the Unit. He and the kids were about ready to drown me as I chased him up stairs after he woke me with two gallons of ice water. I swear ta God I felt the ice cubes hit my back when he dumped that bucket on me while I was still sleeping. That's okay, he'll get his, he won't know when or where it's going to happen, but I guarn-damn-tee you he's going to get his."

The Gunny was laughing so hard he had to grasp the arms of his desk chair to keep from falling out of it. "Now James, you wouldn't really hurt your only brother now would you?"

James smiled for a minute before replying;"Naw, but I'll still figure a way of getting back at him when he least expects it." James gave the Gunny an evil smile before continuing;"So Gunny, what's my rotten little brother have set up for the 'Turkey Shoot?'"

The Gunny smiled back and said;"Nothing much, it's going to be a standard '100 yard' competition, with one exception." Gunny Mcnaughten gave a nasty little chuckle as he turned to the three boxes stacked in the corner of the range Office. Picking up the top one he laid it on the desk and began opening it. Much to James surprise, it contained a Marlin single shot bolt action .22-caliber rifle, just like the one Jap had used when he was part of the ambush they'd pulled against the National Guard Green Berets. Before James could ask, the Gunny said;"Matt and I figured it would be unfair to the other guys to let Jap, Jacky and the James boys use their own, or even a standard issue rifle. This way, the other guys at least have a chance of winning."

James started laughing, when he was able to get himself under control, he asked;"Does anyone besides us know we're gonna make them use the .22's?"

The Gunny got that nasty grin on his face again;"Nope, we figured we'd surprise them, kinda let them think they had it in the bag and then spring these on them. Course, I plan on standing as far away from Jap as I can when Matt tells them that they gotta use the .22's, but hey, what the hell, Matt's a big boy, he should be able to handle one skinny little redheaded thirteen year old." The Gunny's smile turned in to a frown;"At least I hope he can."

James smiled at the Gunny's frown, shook his head and asked;"Anyhow, has Matt briefed you on what's going down today, if so how about cluing me in. Like I said, the last thing I heard about this was last March and I'm totally in the dark about what he's planned."

"It looks like it'll be a standard hundred meter shoot, forty rounds total, ten rounds each from the prone, sitting, kneeling and standing positions. Best groups from all four shooting positions win. He's got some . . . . shall we say . . . . unusual prizes for the winners. I like the way he's going about it too, nobody can win more than one of the positional prizes and he's set it up for first, second and third place overall winners. The thing is, I think he's got a prize for everyone of the Squaddies, and one special one for Jap. The overall winner will be the one with the combined highest group score and rifle range score. Matt wants to make sure that everyone does his best in both the individual and group competitions." The Gunny said.

James smiled at the Gunny's last comment;"What exactly did my scatter-brained little brother get as prizes, and, I hesitate to ask, what kind of special prize has he got waiting for Jap?"

Gunny Mcnaughten chuckled then broke out into a belly laugh before saying;"Follow me." With that said, he stood up and led James out of the range office and over to the rear of one of the Unit's HUMVEE's. As James approached, he opened the rear door of the cargo variant HUMVEE and James saw a very large metal cage. Moving closer, he found the cage contained the largest turkey he had ever seen. After staring at the turkey for a few seconds, he turned to the Gunny and was about to ask where he'd found the giant bird when he heard a HUMVEE pull to a stop at the front of the range office. Instead, he said;"Sounds like things are getting ready to start, let's go and try to get this circus on the road."

After closing and securing the rear door of the HUMVEE, the two men walked over to the HUMVEE and greeted Matt, Keener, George Babcock and Gunnery Sergeant MacCarver as they were climbing out of the cargo configured HUMVEE. "Well, it looks like my baby brother's got everyone involved in this 'Chinese Fire Drill,' how come I was the last one to be reminded of it?" James asked.

The three Marines tried to maintain a look of innocence on their faces, but failed miserably. George Babcock cleared his throat before saying;"Well you see James . . . “

Matt broke in laughing and said;"It's my fault, I told them not to say anything, I thought I'd be fun to 'fuck' with you a little bit. I guess I shouldn't have done it, but this is the first time I been able to pull one on ya for a long time and I couldn't pass up the opportunity."

James smiled at his little brother, "Okay."

Matt blinked at James and asked;"Okay. That's all you got to say is 'okay?'"

James smiled at him again, a rather evil smile if the truth be known, and said;"Yep, I can't think of anything else to say right now, maybe later I'll come up with something, you know, special."

As he finished saying that, Squaddies started arriving, the first was Bobby Bauer, followed closely by his boyfriend Marty Morton. Phil Martin and David White arrived close behind them. Shortly, in groups of three or four, singly or in pairs the membership arrived and waited quietly (for them) broken down by squads or sub-groups. Matt, James and the four Marines moved to the front of the assembled boys, Matt holding a wireless microphone. Bobby Bauer, Matt and James’ Aide-de-Camp (ADC) yelled out;"Attention on deck." The Unit came to attention, all talking and movement ceased as they waited for Matt to speak.

"Morning troops, ya'll ready to pop some caps?"

The boys all responded with a variety of calls;"Hoo, Yah, brrrrrrp, haw-yoo and the like, all picked up from the various members of Army, Navy and Marine Corps that they had interacted with over the previous year and a half.

Smiling, Matt continued speaking;"We've got a lot of activities to get through today, besides the turkey shoot we're going to have competitions at the confidence course, the vehicle test track, and the 'JJ Course.'" Matt stopped talking and thought about how he was going to continue;"Some of the competitions won't be the 'Traditional' type that we've done in the past, ya'll have to compete in all of them to have a chance at the grand prize though. So do we have any questions before we start?"

Naturally several hands shot up, knowing he might as well get it over with, he pointed to Jap first. "All right Jap, what's your question?"

Jap looked at Matt for a second before he asked;"Whatcha mean when you say the events won't be 'traditional'?"

Matt smiled at the little redhead and said;"You'll find out when you get to the specific event, until then, you'll just have to wait."

Marty Morton was next;"What's the 'Grand Prize' sir?"

Matt smiled again before saying;"That's for me to know and you to find out." An implied 'neener, neener, neener' type smirk was displayed on Matt's face when he finished his answer.

Marty just shook his head and threw his hands in the air;"Sure, be that way. Just remember sir, what goes around, comes around."

Matt just laughed at him and told the Squaddies to fall in, after everyone was in ranks he said;"Okay guys, this is the way we're gonna run it today. Squads One and Two will start on the 'Confidence Course,' Squads Three and Four will run the three mile 'JJ' track twice; Five and Six will be on the rifle range. Snipers, their spotters and security detail will run the long distance 'JJ' course. Jumpers will swim twenty-five laps of the outdoor pool while the Divers will be taken by helicopter halfway to the airstrip, fastline to the ground and make the fastest possible transit time back to the range. Questions?"

Bobby Bauer raised his hand;"How are we being judged on the different activities?"

Matt smiled at the boy;"Good question Bobby, when everyone's cycled through the different courses, the squad times will be used to determine the winners of the grand prize. The scores recorded during the shooting range portion of the activities will determine the overall winner of the 'Turkey Shoot." Matt looked at the assembled boys for a few seconds before asking;"Any other questions?"

Justin Stanton raised his hand, when Matt pointed to him he asked;"What do we wear when we're swimming the twenty five laps Sir?"

"Another good question." Matt said;"You can wear anything from skivvies to MarCam, or nothing at all, your choice."

"Anything else?" Matt asked. When their were no other questions asked, Matt yelled out;"Unit One, ten-hut, Divers to the parking lot for pickup, all others to their designated courses, oh yeah, make sure everyone uses the hydration stations on each course. Fall out."

The Divers double-timed it toward the parking lot in front of the house, half way there; a Marine CH-53 could be seen landing. General Stanton had 'loaned' the large aircraft to the Unit after Matt had contacted him and explained what was happening that weekend. As the Divers rounded the corner of the building, they almost ran over the General as he was about to enter the garage to pick up a HUMVEE. Barton Fisk, the Divers Squad Leader hurriedly called his squad to a halt. Facing the General he saluted and started to apologize;"Sir, please excuse us, we had no idea you were here until we rounded the corner and . . . " Was all he could get out before Phil Stanton smiled and said;"No problem Squad Leader, I should have known you'd be en route' and took a different way to the garage. You better move out, the chopper's waiting for you and your Squaddies."

Barton let out a sigh of relief before responding;"Aye aye sir." He saluted the General and turned to his squad and yelled out "Detail, forward march." After the squad marched four paces he then yelled;"Squad, double time, march!" The squad took off at the same pace they had been going when they almost ran over the General. As they approached the rear of the copter, the crew chief of the big helicopter signaled for them to move up the rear ramp and find a seat. Inside the copter, there were six other Marines dressed in MarCam, one of whom was Gunny Johansson. When the Divers were all seated, the 53's crew chief closed the rear ramp and notified the pilot the ship was ready for launch. As the helicopter was lifting off, Gunny Johansson started to brief the Unit One boys about what to expect over the dedicated team intercom.

While the Divers were boarding the helicopter, the Jumpers had started swimming their 25 laps in the outdoor pool, while the rest ran the two JJ courses and the confidence course.

Jap and Jacky were on the long JJ course (eight miles) running side by side. The two boys were maintaining an eight-minute mile, Jap kept up a running conversation with his boyfriend as they ran;"Sure am glad they didn't make us wear our rucks, this is almost fun."

Jacky snorted at his lovers' last statement;"Yeah, I imagine you'd like this, after all the times they made you run JJ's with a full ruck, I can see how this is almost a stroll in the park for ya."

Jap glanced at his friend as they continued to run, shaking his head he flipped him off;"Fuck you, if I didn't love you so much, I'd kick your ass."

Jacky started to laugh and suddenly doubled over and fell to his knees with his arms clutching his sides and his head nearly touching the ground, his whole body shaking as he appeared to be gasping for air. Jap, his and Jacky's spotters and the sniper security detail all rushed over to see if he was okay.

Jap dropped to his knees alongside his boyfriend, wrapping his right arm around Jacky's shoulders, with a look of concern on his face he cried out;"Jacky, Jacky, what's wrong? Are you hurt, what can I do . . . . . please Jacky, talk to me?"

Tears were dripping from Jap's eyes, a deep look of concern on his face as he kept asking his lover to talk to him, to tell him what was wrong. The rest of the guys in the group were clustered around the two boys, all of them with concerned looks on their faces, all of them wanting to help but none knowing what to do. Jacky stopped shaking and straightened his body too an upright kneeling position, using the heels of both his hands, he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked at his lover before gasping out;"You, you, ha, ha, ha, you whip MY ass?"

Jap's mouth dropped open; he stared at the larger boy for several seconds. During the time he stared at his lover, his face got redder and redder until it was almost the same color as his hair. Sputtering and growling out dire threats, no promises, of great bodily harm, Jap started to reach for the larger boy's throat with both hands all the time becoming more and more pissed. Jacky didn't give his little man a chance to strangle him, before Jap could throttle him he was on his feet hauling ass up the trail as fast as his feet would carry him.

Jap jumped to his feet and sprinted after the larger boy, slowly gaining on Jacky. Jacky should have been able to outrun Jap, but he was laughing too hard. Jap closed on the man he loved, the man he intended beat the shit out of, after fifty yards, he leapt on his back and both of them fell to the ground. From the rest of the guys' point of view, all that was visible of their two friends was a dust cloud and once, or twice, a flailing arm or leg. While it was unusual to see Jap and Jacky fighting, it wasn't unheard of. Because the two boys were "Alpha Males," that is, they always seemed to gravitate to positions of authority; you know the ones most everyone else deferred to. So it was natural, actually a foregone fact of life that every once in a while, the two would disagree on a subject. With Jap's mercurial personality, nine times out of ten his disagreement manifested itself in a physical confrontation. Jacky on the other hand usually didn't lose his temper, that is usually. Even though his laughing had lit Jap off, he was just a little pissed at his boyfriend right now; Jap had gotten through his guard and had busted his lip. Jacky still wasn't pissed off enough to hurt his little buddy, but he was irritated enough to want to give him a good spanking. As the other boys in the group caught up to the two feuding guys, the dust had started to settle and the found Jap lying over Jacky's outstretched legs. Before any of the guys could say anything, Jacky had Japs' trousers and skivvies pulled down to his ankles and proceeded to spank his bare ass. “Oww! Fuck! You son of a bitch! Oww, come on Jacky stop it, damn it man, stop it. Pleassssssssssssse. I give, I give all ready, please stop.”

With Jap’s surrender, Jacky flipped him over and looked him in the eye before saying; “Ya know I wasn’t trying to hurt you, but I needed to get your attention and I couldn’t think of any other way. If you weren’t so damn hard headed we wouldn’t have to go through this shit every time you throw a tantrum.” Jacky leaned in to Jap and gently kissed him on the lips before lifting him to his feet, glancing down at Japs’ crotch, he noticed his little lover was well on the way to having a full blown ‘hard on’” Laughing a little he reached out and gently squeezed Japs’ dick and said; “Whoa dude, calm down we ain’t got time for that now.”

Before Jap could respond, Toby Bishoff, Clint Davidson, the James Brothers and Jeff Dunlop surrounded the two. Jeff sighed;"Come on you guys, you're gonna fuck up our chances of winning." Jap turned to look at Jeff, but before he could say anything, Jeff blurted out;"God damn it Jap point that thing somewhere else before it goes off and puts somebody's eye out will ya." The other guys started laughing as Jap turned bright red while trying to pull up his skivvies and trousers at the same time trying to sputter out a come back. Failing in both attempts, he lost his balance and fell on his cherry red ass. Jacky moved over to him, grabbed him under his arms and set him back on his feet while standing between Jap and the other guys. Jacky looked down at his lover and spoke softly;"Pull your trousers up little buddy, don't worry about them, I'll block their view while you get your shit together."

Jacky turned around and faced the other guys and said;"Okay, that's enough shit flipping. It's over with so let's get our game faces back on and as soon as Jap's ready we need to make up for lost time."

While Jacky was talking to the guys, Jap hurriedly pulled up his skivvies and trousers, adjusted them and took a deep breath to calm himself down. Reaching up, he grasped his lovers shoulder, squeezed it gently and said in a soft voice that only Jacky could hear;"Thanks Jack and I'm sorry I started the shit."

Jacky turned his head and looked down at the boy he loved, with a soft smile on his face he nodded his head, accepting Jap's apology. Turning back to the other boys, he said;"Okay guys let's move out, we got to get caught up or we're gonna loose our ass."

James and Matt who'd been watching Jap's 'temper tantrum' and Jacky's manner of tending to it on the area security camera, both laughed. Matt looked at James and said;"Ya know, it's a good thing Jacky's the mellow one of the 'Dynamic Duo,' otherwise we'd need a 24 hour sick bay attendant and an ambulance on permanent standby. Damn, that little redheads' gonna have to learn to control his temper better or someone's gonna get hurt."

James nodded his head in agreement before answering his brother;"The thing he does have going for him is that Jacky loves the shit out of him AND knows how to restrain him. The only thing he really hurt with that spanking was Jap's pride, and he'll get over that quick enough.

As the day went on, the Squaddies made their way through the different tests of endurance and skills, Matt and The Gunny ensured that the snipers and their teams were the last to complete the marksmanship section of the days' activities. When Jap and Jacky's team finally made it to range, they found, with the exception of four AR15's, it was bare of firearms. Jap was the first to ask the question that was on the entire teams mind;"Hey Gunny, where are our pieces?"

The Gunny smiled at the mercurial little red head before saying;"We sent them back to the arms room, we decided that you guys needed a special handicap." Turning to the James brothers, he once again smiled and said;"You two go into the range shack and drag out the boxes stacked by the door."

The James boys looked at The Gunny with a quizzical look and their faces and said;"Aye, Aye Gunny.

A couple minutes after entering the shack, the boys came back shaking their heads and carrying two boxes each. When Jap saw what they were carrying, he started to turn red, then he started sputtering, and then he started to head for The Gunny. Before he could take more than a single step, Jacky grabbed him around the waist and held him off the ground. Jap sputtered and spit and yelled;"Oh no you aren't, there's no fucking way I'm gonna use that piece of shit, it ain't fair." Matt came up and stood by The Gunny and started laughing, pretty soon everyone, everyone except Jap that is, was laughing too.

Jacky Twirled Jap around and looked him in the eyes;"Calm down now little buddy, just calm down. If you think about it, it's only fair for James boys and us to have a handicap, even with the 15's, the four of us would out shoot just about everyone else in the Unit."

Jap sputtered and spit for a couple of more minutes and then finally ran out of steam. Looking at his lover, he sighed deeply and nodded his head in acceptance. "Okay, put me down and I'll be good." Turning to The Gunny and Matt, Jap frowned at them before saying;"Just ya'll wait, soon enough it'll be my turn to laugh." With that said, he went over to the boxed up firearms and searched out the one they had issued him for the ambush of the first Green Beret unit they had gone against, pointed it down range and opened the bolt to make sure it was empty. Jap then walked over to the firing line and placed it on the carpet of one of the shooting positions and went back to stand by Jacky to wait orders to begin shooting.

So that the other shooters wouldn’t be intimidated, Jap and Jacky were scheduled to shoot last, allowing the other boys of the sniper detail a chance to shoot without having the ‘Alpha and Bravo’ shooters breathing down their necks. The six boys grabbed the .22 they wanted to use and after insuring the firearms were empty, moved to the line and prepared themselves to shoot. As would be expected the James Brothers scored the best, but everyone knew they’d outshoot most of the other boys in the Unit. Surprisingly, Toby Bishoff, the youngest rifleman on the security detail shot the best of the group with a 377, coming within five points of Marty James score, who was only two points off his brother Doug’s top score of 384.

While the other members of the sniper teams were shooting, Jap and Jacky stood back from the line and talked quietly. Jacky was the one who’d brought up the subject of winning the match; “Ya know Jap, we really don’t need ta take the match, we both know we’re good, we both know we can beat everyone else. I been thinking, maybe we should just go ahead and shoot a good score, just not as good as we could.”

Jap looked up into his lovers eyes and smiled; “Ya know buddy, I kinda been thinking the same thing. This contest don’t mean squat, we’re still gonna be the Alpha and Bravo snipers, like I said, it don’t mean squat and we can blame our lower scores on these Mickey Mouse rifles.”

They both smiled and nodded to each other, turned and went over to the status board to check on the leaders for each age group scores. Not surprising either one of them, all the Unit One shooters would have scored as being ‘Expert,’ some just barely, but none less than ‘Expert.’ Jap having turned thirteen the previous December twenty fourth looked for the highest scoring thirteen year old, who happened to be Lee Chan. Lee had shot a very respectable 342, Jap considered that to be excellent, at least he didn’t have to shoot a score that was ridiculously low. Jacky’s high scorer in the fourteen year old division was Marty James, at 395. Jacky was even happier than Jap because he would be able to shoot a higher score. When the sniper detail cleared the shooting positions after recovering their targets, Jap picked up his youth model .22 and moved to the far left shooting position while Jacky took the far right firing point. The Gunny went through the firing line litany and Jacky commenced firing immediately, while Jap took a minute to consider what he was going to do. Finally deciding what he was going to do, Jap commenced firing.

Jap took longer to complete shooting his forty rounds, a full minute longer than Jacky had taken. Once the firing was complete, the rifle placed on the carpet with the action up and open, the Gunny called the range cold. Jap and Jacky trotted the distance to the targets, removed them and trotted back, handing them both to the Gunny. After a quick glance at Jacky's, he looked at Jap's and almost choked, the Gunny looked at Jap and saw the shit-eating grin he had plastered on his face and smiled, shaking his head at the little redhead. Walking into the range shack he motioned to James, Matt, George, Keener and Gunny MacCarver to come with him. A couple of minutes after the door to the shack closed, the sound of laughter could be heard coming from inside. What the other boys, Jacky included didn't know, was that Jap had shot his rounds so that a series of 'Smiley Faces' were created in and out of the black on each of his four targets so that his final score would end up to be exactly 341, one point below Lee Chan's 342. About five minutes after the laughter was heard, the door opened and the men filed back out, all of them wearing huge smiles.

James had the Squaddies fall in and smiled at the boys. "All right guys, I'm going to announce the winners of the different age groups and the overall winners. James started calling the names of the boys with the best scores from the shooting event, the only real surprise was that Jap and Jacky weren't called to step forward. The prize winners all received 'X-Box 4's' and a number of games for them. The really neat thing about the prizes was the fact that the 'XB 4's' weren't on the market anywhere in the United Sates or Canada, and wouldn't be for at least another six months.

The overall winners of the day's events were the boys in the 'Armor' subunit, they not only won a XB 4, they also were awarded a 36 inch flat panel HD TV monitor to go with them. All the rest of the boys in the Unit were given $200.00 gift certificates that could be used in any mall in the Bi-Cities, or for that matter, in the Washington, Oregon or Idaho area. When the prizes were handed out and the boys all calmed down, Matt stepped forward and said;"Jap, front and center."

Jap, with a sense of trepidation, came to attention and marched up to Matt, came to attention and saluted, saying;"Squaddie Peterson reporting as ordered sir."

Matt returned the salute, smiled and said;"That was a really interesting pattern you shot, I don't believe I've ever seen one quite like it outside the movies." Looking over Jap's head at the other boys, Matt smiled and said;"Before the 'Turkey Shoot' started, it was decided by the 'Command Group' to award a special prize to Jap, no matter how well he shot. Sooooo, Squaddie Jap, I take great pleasure in giving you the 'Bird.'"

As he finished speaking the HUMMVEE that had been parked to the side of the range shack was backed up to about five feet from Jap and Matt. Keener and George opened the rear doors and the two of them pulled out the cage containing the giant turkey and placed it on the ground. The Unit gasped at the sight of the large Tom Turkey, and then burst into laughter. Jap just stood there gaping at his 'prize', not really knowing what to say or do. Finally he moved up to the side of the cage, looked closely at the bird for a few minutes and then turned to look at the 'Command Group' before saying;"Oh thank you sirs, I always wanted my very own live turkey. I know just what I'm going to call him too. Turning back to the cage he looked at his turkey and said in a very loud voice;"'Matt', you and I are going to get along just fine.