Case:Black - 21. Chapter 21

Camp Shelby

Hattiesburg, MS

July 16, 2016 1900CST

Bill Sherman had spent two hours at Shelby’s Administrative Headquarters getting Taylor’s team members paperwork jammed through the system. In peacetime such an exercise would take months. With a declared emergency, experienced soldiers were asked are you in shape? Yes? Draw your gear and fall in.

Sherman was on his way to being a lawyer but hadn’t quite made it quite yet. He day job was that of a Rankin county sheriff’s deputy. Ole Miss Law School was expensive and one semester on and two off to pay bills was slowing the process. Everyone that knew him just assumed that he would succeed: Sherman had the patience and self-discipline to stick with it.

The next member of Taylor’s old squad to arrive was Johnny Two-Eagles. Named Bear by his squaddies, the big hulking Choctaw from Neshoba county was a massive man. Bear never said much but if he did, it was worth listening to. No one had instincts like him except for maybe a real bear.

Sean Nash arrived in his old Toyota. Since the Big Sand, he had gone back into his family lands north of Biloxi and stayed there. Of the group, Nash had seen a little too much. They all had, but it showed on Nash: his hands still shook and he had that 1000 meter stare. He brought his own 50 caliber Barrett sniper rifle in a storm case and began the process of gearing up.

The last member of the team showed a short time later. Joey Bernardi parked his Nissan truck and went to find the rest of the group. Joey’s family had owned an Italian restaurant “under the hill” in Natchez for three generations. For many years that had been a marginal thing until the casinos moved in. Benardi’s was now quite simply the best restaurant in a booming casino town.

After getting everyone geared up, the four old friends ate at the base canteen and caught up on the past few years. None of them missed “the Big Sandbox” nor were they in love with the Army. This wasn’t Afghanistan or Iraq. There was no moral ambiguity. Their country was in serious trouble. This is what they had all signed on for.

Around eight o’clock the four veterans pulled out of the camp motor pool in a Humvee as part of one of the caravans heading north for the four and a half hour drive to Southaven.