Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 16:11:52 -0500
From: Gstrdr15 <Gstrdr15@msn.com>
Subject: KOMBAT KIDS 22

Disclaimer; If you are under 18 years of age, or material such as this is
illegal in your locale, please do not continue reading. All persons, places
and thing depicted in this story are purely fictional, any resemblance to
people, living or dead, past or present, places or things is purely
coincidental.  However, I will admit to there being a Washington State.



Kombat Kids
By; GhostRyder15

Chapter 22
The Corps Weekend



	The three buses from Whidbey Island arrived a little after 15:00,
large MSI coaches capable of carrying 60 people in relative comfort for
long distances.  The busses were similar to the ones used by Greyhound and
Trailways for transcontinental bus service. Instead of sporting the bright
colors, stylized corporate logos and chrome of their civilian counterparts,
theses buses were all painted in a uniform olive drab. Each bus was driven
by either a Lance Corporal or Corporal, with a Staff Sergeant acting as the
escort officer.  James and Matt greeted the Marines and invited them into
the house for coffee or a Coke.

	The senior Staff Sergeant, Sergeant Parsons asked; "I don't mean to
be snoopy, but what's all this about, this is the first time I've been
involved in transporting a bunch of civilians to the camp?"

	"James and I started the Unit to provide the boys in this area an
alternate to various religion based groups, to give them a chance to fit in
with a group of boys that wasn't going to give them a line of shit because
they were short, fat, dark, light or different from the norm.  Last year, a
fifteen year old boy was given so much trouble by the members of the Boy
Scouts that he couldn't take it any more and committed suicide.  General
Stanton's nephew was the charter member of the Unit and was here for our
Thanksgiving party last year; he liked what he saw so much he was able to
get us sponsored by the Corps.  If you're really interested, Matt and I'll
give you a tour of the place, it's our home as well as the Unit's and we
like to show it off.

        Sergeant Parsons was briefed by George Babcock on what to expect
when he got to the Bateman place and to lessen any shock he might have when
he found out that the Batman Brothers were gay.

	"George Babcock and I have known each other since we joined the
Corps, we went through boot at Pendleton and I went to his wedding.  I want
to thank you for what you both have done to pull him out of his slump, if
you hadn't helped him, I don't know what would have happened.  George told
me about your place, being his friend I hesitated calling him a liar but I
still found it hard to believe."

        An hour and a half latter, found the six Marines, Keener and the
Bateman brothers sitting around the kitchen table drinking coffee and soda
pop.  "Jesus guys, if I hadn't seen this place I never would have believed
it."

        "You think the place is something, wait till you meet the kids, the
first time they walked in here I thought they were the youngest Marines I'd
ever seen.  Fact is, they make some of the regulars I've worked with look
pretty lame in comparison.  We got one kid, Japs' his name, who's better
with a .50 cal Barrett than most of the guys in my last company were with
the 16." Keener bragged.

        As Keener was bragging about the Unit's kids, the front door opened
and six boys decked out in MarCam entered the kitchen.  The regular Marines
looked at them with a mixture of surprise and disbelief, the kids in Mar
Cam ranged in height from about 5' 3' or 4" to around 5' 10".  All of them
looked like regular marines except for their obvious youth and the Unit 1
patch on the left shoulder of their blouses.

        "Hi!" said the tallest of the group; "we decided to show up early
in case you guys needed some help."

        "Thanks Phil, right now there's nothing going on, but I'm glad you
showed up anyhow, we were just briefing these gentlemen on the Unit."

        Jap looked at Keener; "Can I take Wilber with us, I haven't had a
chance to work with him lately and thought maybe I could get some time with
him over on the coast."

        Keener chuckled a little; "No I don't think they'd appreciate you
bringing Wilber with you, in fact they'd probably have a cow."

         Sergeant Parsons looked kind of confused; "We were told to take
anyone you guys authorized to come, so I don't see any problem with him
bringing his buddy along if you guys say it's OK."

        James, Matt and Keener all laughed; "Jap, why don't you go get
Wilber and introduce him to the sergeant."

        Jap's face lit up; "OK Boss, be right back."  With that he turned
on his heal and ran out of the kitchen.

        Sergeant Parsons knew something was up but didn't know exactly what
was going on, he had the sinking feeling that he was about to find out.

        Five minutes later, the little redheaded kid known as Jap walked
back into the kitchen lugging the biggest fucking rifle the sergeant had
ever seen, the damn thing was almost as long as the kid was tall.

        The rifle was a Barrett Arms .50 caliber single shot bolt action
rifle with a Leopold telescopic sight mounted on top and a fold down bi-pod
on the bottom of the barrel.  The rig must have weighed close to 30 pounds,
but the little guy handled it with easy familiarity in a safe manner that
let the sergeant know he was highly experienced in its use.

        Jap had a big shit eating grin on his face; "This here is Wilber,
him and me have been buddies since I first joined the Unit."

        "Holy fucking shit" said one of the Lance Corporals; "What the fuck
are you doing with that hog?"

        "Jap looked a little pissed at the marine's statement; "I'm one of
the Units two snipers, it's my weapon of choice and I'm good with it."

        The Lance Corporal snorted; "Yeah right kid and I'm John Wayne."

        Phil standing behind Jap said; "I don't fucking think so, besides
being about a foot too short, you're too fucking ugly."

        "Stand easy Squad leader!" James said to Phil. There's no need to
jump salty here, he hasn't been around the unit, so he hasn't any idea what
out capabilities are."

        James looked at the Lance Corporal; "You really shouldn't bad mouth
someone you don't know, Jap here will probably be going to Camp Perry this
year and participate in the long distance shooting match this summer.
While this is his personal favorite, he's also highly skilled with one of
the Unit's mach grade 7.62's"

        The Lance looked skeptical, but didn't say anything.

        Keener sighed, looked at his watch and turned to James; "We got a
couple of hours still, let's take the Doubting Thomas here out to the range
and let Jap put on a show."

        James looked at Matt and shrugged; "Fine with me, but there'll be
no side bets, you understand Keener?"

        "Damn, all right James, but damn you take all the fun out of life."
Keener's last statement caused the Squaddies to laugh.

        Ten minutes later the Marines, Squaddies, Keener and the brothers
were all on the range and Jap was getting set up.  Seeing as how his
spotter hadn't arrived yet, Phil Martin stood in for him.

        While they were setting up, the Lance Corporal started grousing;
"so what's the big fucking deal, if I couldn't hit the target at a hundred
meters with that set up, I'd quit."

        Keener was starting to get pissed; "What's this shit about a
hundred yards, Japs shooting at the 1,500 meter target over there."  Keener
pointed at a place off in the distance and it took the Lance a few seconds
to realize there was in fact a target way the fuck out there.

        "Yeah right, you really tryin ta tell me this little redheaded
kid's going to hit that from here?"

        James and Matt were standing behind Jap and were far enough away
that they couldn't hear Keener when he said; "Not only hit, but he's going
to put all his shots in the black, and I got fifty bucks that says he'll do
it too."

        The Lance didn't even hesitate; "You got yourself a bet, I always
love ta take money from you wise ass civilians."

        Keener who was wearing blue jeans and a dark blue flannel shirt
just smiled, and nodded his head.

        After everyone had donned hearing and eye protection, Jap sat down
alongside Wilber and just looked at his rifle for a few minutes.  Taking a
deep breath and letting it out he got into the prone position and nodded
his head at James.

        James looked around; "Ready on the right? Ready on the left?"

        Jap said "Ready"

        All ready on the firing line?"

        Once again Jap sang out; "Ready."

        "Commence firing"

        Jap's first shot sounded two seconds later.  Then for over a minute
he continued to fire a round every five to six seconds until he had shot
off all 14 remaining rounds.

        James called out; "Cease fire, cease fire, the range is cold,
firearms down actions open."

        Jap looked a little pissed: "Damn James, I think I threw that last
round low."

        James chuckled; "Don't worry about it, let's go take a look and see
how you did."

        To the surprise of the Marines, the Squaddies and Unit's leadership
all turned and headed into the range building, not knowing what was going
on the Marines followed them.

        Matt when to the computer keyboard mounted to the side of the large
screen plasma monitor and punched in a series of commands.  After thinking
about it for a few seconds, the computer displayed the 1,500 meter target
that Jap had been shooting at.  After hitting the target with fifteen half
inch diameter bullets, the center had just about disappeared.  Matt studied
it for just a second and said; "You're right Jap, it looks like the last
round was low."

        Looking at the monitor everyone could see that one round had missed
the other fourteen round group that Jap had made by about one inch, but it
was still well with in the black by at least three inches.

        Lance Corporal Tilden didn't know what to say, he reached in his
pocket and pulled out his wallet and started to take out the money he had
bet Keener.

        Keener laughed; "Keep your money, it was a sucker bet.  Jap here
was taught by his father and has been coached by Gunnery Sergeant
Mcnaughten for the past couple months.  I've been watching him shoot every
chance he gets and knew he'd put them all in the bull.  By the way, I'm
Staff Sergeant Webb, I'm here TAD to support the unit's firearms and act as
the shooting instructor when Gunny Mcnaughten isn't around.

        Tilden looked at Webb, shook his head and turned to Jap; "Jap, I
really hate when I have ta eat crow, but that was some of the finest
shooting I've ever seen, please accept my apologies for being such an
asshole."

        Jap grinned; "Thank you Lance Corporal Tilden, that means a lot to
me, especially coming from a regular Marine."

        Jap took Wilber back to the gun room and performed a quick but
thorough cleaning on him.  After placing Wilber in its gun rack, he secured
the gun room and went back up to the kitchen. All the marines smiled at him
when he entered and congratulated him on his shooting.  While Jap had been
busy in the gun room, more of the Squaddies had turned up and had gone
downstairs to the Cavern.

        Lance Corporal Tilden was down there when Jap entered the Cavern;
he motioned for Jap to come over.

        "So Jap, how come you call your piece `Wilber', I mean when a guy
names a piece, he usually names it after a female?"

        Jap looked at him for a second; "A bunch of us read a story on the
internet, one out of the `Nifty Archives' called `Somerset Farm' written by
a really cool writer by the name of Jamie Haze." "One of the characters in
the story, who happened to be a gazillionaire, decided that all his boats,
airplanes and other toys were males and should have male names."  "We kind
of liked the idea so we started to do the same thing with our stuff."

        "Geez little buddy, that sounds kinda queer don't it?"

        Jap looked at Tilden for a second and started to cry; `I'm sorry, I
thought you knew."  Jap turned and ran out of the Cavern.

        Webb who noticed Jap running out, went over to Tilden and asked;
"What's wrong with Jap?"

        "Shit I don't know, we were talking about how he came about naming
his piece Wilber and when I said his reason sounded queer, he started
crying and said `I thought you knew' and ran out of here.  What the fuck is
going on here?"

        Keener sighed; "I thought you guys had been briefed."  He then went
on to tell Tilden about how the Unit came about, how the majority of the
Unit was gay and how much effort the kids had been making to be the best
they could be.  "So you see, Bill, when you made that `Queer' remark, it
was like slapping him in the face."

        "Ahh shit man, my uncle is gay and I never woulda said anything if
I'd known."  "I feel lower than whale snot, that kid really impressed me
with his shooting and I had no idea he was gay."

        Bill Tilden wasn't a bad person; he just let his alligator mouth
overload his canary asshole sometimes, now being one of those times.
Heading upstairs, he stopped on the third deck and saw the door to the arms
room open.  Walking over to the door, he heard Jap talking to someone, when
he got to the door, he found Jap cradling Wilber softly sobbing and
whispering to the large rifle.

        Tilden knocked softly on the side of the door and asked; "Hey Jap
can I talk to you for a sec?"

        Jap started, then quickly rubbed the tears from his eyes before
saying; "I think you made it clear enough before about what you think.  I'm
sorry if I offend you, but I am gay and I can't do nothing about it."

        "Jap, listen to me, it's true I didn't know you were gay, if I had
I wouldn't of said what I did.  My uncle is gay, and he's one of the nicest
persons I know, I have more respect for him than I do for my father.  Once
again I have to ask you to forgive me for being such an asshole; I didn't
mean to insult you or to hurt you."  As far as I'm concerned, you can wear
a dress and high heels and it wouldn't make you less a man in my eyes, so
please don't cry anymore or you're going to make me start."

        Jap looked at Tilden and realized he wasn't trying to blow smoke up
his ass, he really meant what he said.  "Thanks Lance Corporal, I guess I'm
still kinda thin skinned and I thought you were bein a gay basher.  We had
a couple of our guys spend time in the hospital cause of some homophobes
and it just scared me when you made that comment about bein kinda queer.
I'm sorry if I acted like a baby."

        "Hey man, it was my fault for saying such a dumb ass thing, can we
just start over, besides knowing how you shoot, I plan on making some money
off you this weekend.  There's a whole bunch of guys back at camp who think
they're hot shit with a rifle and I can get some good odds on you when we
take you to the range."

        Jap smiled for the first time since Tilden made his comment and
just nodded his head yes.

        18:00 came about and the Unit's members and families started to
load up the busses.  By 18:30, the three busses were moving down the road
towards the coast, minus of course "Wilber."

        At 23:00, the three busses dropped the family members off at the
motel and then proceeded to the main gate of the Whidbey Island Naval Air
Station.  Master Gunnery Sergeant Mcnaughten, a Marine Light Colonel,
George Babcock and the twins were waiting for them at the barracks that had
been set up for them after they cleared the Main Gate. Lieutenant Colonel
Thompson from the Public Affairs Office greeted them and showed them into
the barracks.  He then got with James and Matt and briefed them on the
schedule for the next two days. By 24:00, everyone was in a rack and
sleeping soundly.

        Reveille went at 06:00 to a lot of moaning and groaning from the
Units members, James Matt, Keener and Gunny Mcnaughten made their way
through the bays making sure the boys were all up and moving.  James, Matt
and Keener all enjoyed the morning display of teenage wood that sprouted
like a forest in the barracks, the Gunny just laughed and told the boys to
watch what they were doing or they'd put someone's eye out.

        By 07:00, the boys were all dressed and ready for the new day;
Keener had the Unit fall in, in front of the barracks and marched them to
the Enlisted Dinning Facility about two blocks down the road from the
barracks.  When the boys arrived at the EDF, they received an awful lot of
stares from the active duty Marines already there. James was talking to the
mess sergeant when they arrived and instructed them to sign their name and
to write "Unit 1" in the block that was titled "Organization" on the sign
in sheet.  The boys, being typical teenagers, put away an enormous amount
of food. What surprised the mess sergeant and his mess cooks was when
several of the older Squaddies came up to him, complimented him on the
quality of the food and then thanked them for the job they did preparing
it.

        After breakfast the Squadies were marched back to the barracks and
given a chance to take a dump or attend to other personal hygiene
requirements and then formed back up.  Keener marched them over to the base
auditorium and they spent the morning attending lectures and hands on
training for first aid, CPR and survival techniques.

        At 12:00 they were once again marched over to the EDF where they
did their imitation of a swarm of ravenous locusts.  Phil Martin smiled
when he heard one of the mess cooks comment on the fact that they wouldn't
have any leftovers for midrats (Midnight Watch Rations, meal fed to the
members of the watch that was on from 23:30 through 03:30) if this kept up.
At 13:00, the unit was loaded on the busses and taken to a large athletic
field where a "Fast Line" demonstration was put on by members of the Recon
Platoon.  The demonstration consisted of several Blackhawk helicopters
swooping in and hovering over the field while thick lines were thrown out
and fully equipped Marines dropped to the ground by rappelling down the
lines.  After the Marines were down and in a defensive position and the
helicopters were gone, the entire Unit stood and applauded the Marines.
The Marines were recalled and formed up into squads and then released to
mingle with the Unit to answer questions.

	Jordan Littlelk was talking to one of the Marines; "It gets you
down in a hurry, but it seems awfully loud, aren't you worried about
letting them know you're coming?"

        "Naw, we would normally have a couple of Apache's do a suppression
run first to keep their heads down, then they'd stand off and provide cover
fire as needed."

        "That's neat, but wouldn't it be better to go in quiet?"

        "Yeah it would, but you'd either have to go in on foot or jump in
if you wanted quiet."

        "I don't know, I think I'd rather jump in than fast line it, that
way I'd at least have a chance to pick my own landing zone."

        The Marine looked at Jordan a little funny; "Jumping in is not as
easy as it looks in the movies kid, if you don't know what you're doing you
can find yourself in a world of shit."

        "I hear what you're saying, but still I think a HALO insertion is
better."

        "What do you know about a HALO insertion kid?"

        Jordan heard a patronizing note in the marines voice; "Right now
not that much, but in two weeks me and my buddies are going to start
jumping from 4,500 meters, and by July, if we can get the aircraft, we hope
to be up to 9,500 meters."

        The Marine looked at him; "Are you shitting me, what kind of scout
troop are you guys with?"

        Jordan bristled; "WE are NOT a scout troop, WE ARE Unit 1 and WE
WILL jump from 9,500 meters by the end of the summer."

        Saying that, he turned away from the startled Marine and walked
away, visibly pissed.

         That night while the boys were watching a movie at the base
theater, Gunny, George, Keener, Matt and James were sitting around a table
in the Staff NCO Club drinking a beer when a Gunnery Sergeant came over and
asked; "Mind if I join you?"

        Gunny looked at him and smiled; "Have a seat Gunny, gentlemen I'd
like to introduce you to Gunnery Sergeant Oliver Johansson, he's in charge
of our fast line teams.  Oly, these are James and Matt Bateman, Staff
Sergeants George Babcock and Keener Webb.  James and Matt are the men who
started the Unit the boys belong too."

        "Good looking crew you got there, and a whole lot of proud.  I was
talking to one of your kids at the field after the demonstration today,
Littlelk was his name."  The Marine laughed; "He was telling me that he was
going to do a HALO from 9,500 meters this summer, I guess I kind of hurt
his feelings when I chuckled at him."

        "Yeah I guess that would have pissed him off." Said James.  We'd be
doing it sooner, but I'm having a hard time lining up an aircraft that can
let the boys jump from that altitude."

        The Marine looked at James like he had two heads; "Are you trying
to tell me that you are actually going to let the kid jump from that
height?"

        "Sure, why not, he and the other members of the team are ready for
it, it'll be awhile before we try night jumps from that high, but a
daylight jump won't be a problem."

        "God damn, their parents don't have a problem with them jumping, I
mean I'm not sure if I'd let my son jump from 2,500 meters, let alone
9,500."

        "Our kids are hard corps; our jump team is made up of 20 guys,
fifteen of which are under seventeen years old.  If you think they're bad,
you should meet my swimmers." Matt said.

        For the next hour and three more rounds of beer, the Unit
leadership told the Gunnery Sergeant about the different skills and
training the boys of Unit One were gaining.

        "Shit man, if the kids can keep up the pace you're setting for
them, we could deploy them to Iraq by November."

        The guys laughed at the Sergeants left handed complement; "Yeah
they could, but we got more important things to do than busting caps at a
bunch of A-rabs." Stated Keener.

        Gunny Mcnaughten looked at Keener; "I think that's enough beer for
you tonight Staff Sergeant Webb."

        Keener glanced over at the Gunny and saw he was pissed off; "Sorry
Gunny, I didn't mean to say that."  Saying that, Keener stood up, Told
Gunny Johansson it was nice meeting him, said good night to the others and
left the club.

        Johansson seeing the interaction between Gunny Mcnaughten and Webb
got really quiet; "Sandy you want to tell me what's going on here?"

        "Not really Oly, maybe tomorrow after I talk to General Stanton, I
can't say anything on my own.  I will say that if you or your guys run in
to any of ours, it'd be smart if you didn't flip them any shit."

        Johansson heard the key word in the Gunny's statement, "ours" Gunny
Mcnaughten left unstated that ours also included General Stanton being a
part owner of the "ours" statement.  "No problem Gunny, but as a
professional courtesy, I would appreciate knowing what exactly is going on
when it's cleared by the General."

        "Sure Oly, I'll give you this much though, come out to the long
distance range tomorrow around 08:00.  I think what you'll see will be
worth getting out of bed early on a Sunday morning."

        Shortly there after, everyone headed back to the barracks to get
some sleep before the last day of the Unit's weekend started.

        "Reveille, Reveille, all hands heave out and trice up, the smoking
lamp is lit in all authorized spaces.  Now reveille."  The standard
announcement that was heard in all U.S. Naval and Marine units woke the
members of Unit One.  Moans and groans and morning wood vied with each
other for supremacy in the barracks.  Webb and the Gunny walked through the
bays banging on shit can lids (garbage can lids to you civilian types)
yelling at the boys to `show a leg' and get ready for breakfast.

        "Hey Gunny?" shouted Jacky Hoffman; "What's this stuff about
showing a leg, you coming over to our side?"

        Gunny laughed; "You fucking wish you little wise ass, it's an old
saying that was started back when the Navy and the Corps first started."

        "What'd it mean Gunny?" Asked Jap.

        "Back when the U.S. started the Navy and Corps, when a ship came
into port it anchored out in the stream and didn't grant Liberty to the
crew.  The only members of the ship allowed ashore were the officers and
working parties supervised by senior petty officers, N.C.O.'s and
Midshipmen.  You can imagine what it was like on board the ship after being
underway for a couple of three months, there was two, three hundred men
kept on board the ship, most of whom weren't much older than you boys, and
most of them walking around with morning wood all day.  Anyway, the ship
would allow females to come onboard and service the crew, they'd sleep in
the mans' bunk or hammock that they were with, so when reveille went, one
of the Master At Arms would go through the berthing compartments and if he
found anyone still in their rack and couldn't tell if it were a man or a
woman because they were covered, he would say `Show a Leg'."  "Even though
the women back then didn't shave their legs, it was readily apparent if the
leg belonged to a man or a woman."

        Jap got a nasty grin on his face; "Did you ever get in trouble back
then when you showed your leg?"

        Standing behind the Gunny, Webb laughed; "Well Gunny did you?"

        Gunny, smiling, used Webb's favorite sayings; "Aww, I don't have to
take this shit."  Turning he started to leave the barracks, but not before
taking a swipe at Jap."



End of Chapter 22 Next; Chapter 23 What's Mine is Mine, What's Yours, Well
it's Up For Grabs




I'd like to take a moment and thank Jamie Haze, Author, Mentor, and Friend
for the encouragement he has given me in the writing of this story, and
editing it for me.  I encourage you all to read Somerset Farm, Dooby Rhymes
With Scooby and Apartment 141 by Mr. Haze.


Comments are eagerly requested.  If you feel it necessary to flame, go
ahead, but don't expect an answer.  Address all comments to Gstrdr15
<Gstrdr15@msn.com>

One more thing please let me know what state you live in, I like to know
where people are who take interest in my story.  Thanks all.

If you're interested, check out;
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/snoqualmie/default.aspx?imgparam=6
This site provide rapid updated video of Snoqualmie Pass and the east an
west approaches.  It is best viewed after sunrise and before sunset.



     I'd like to say thanks to the following new readers;

Jay in Sidney Australia
Tony in West Sussex UK
Jim in Pennsylvania USA
Gary in Indiana USA
JW in Indiana USA
Dave in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Tim in Chicago Illinois USA
Justyn in Phoenix AZ USA
Scott in Wales UK
Gary somewhere near Toronto Canada
Andrew in Virginia USA
Shawn in Winston-Salem NC USA
Sam in Montreal Quebec Canada
Danny in Australia
Andrew in Mississippi USA
Calvin in Kissimmee Florida USA
Andy in France
Ace in Pennsylvania USA