From my Novel SPEC OPS thriller. Constructive criticism please.
basskatkas
Published
04/06/2012
Mitch had found him almost completely by accident. He was picking up some intel on a current op the NSA was monitoring. The op was basically a fact finding mission on a group of Non-Commisioned Officers's from Fort Bragg that were reported to have been selling weapons to latin gangs that in turn were moving those weapons south of the border and possibly into terrorist hands.
That's when he saw a junior analysts computer screen that showed a young Army Staff Sergeant's photo, SSG Wolfgang Grant.
The thing that caught Mitch's eye were the big bold letters USASOC below the name.
USASOC was an acronym that stood for United States Army Special Operations Command. Mitch winced noticeably and said "Shit, don't tell me that's one of the guys we're looking at? A spec ops guy is selling weapons to a cartel?" Mitch knew that the special operations guys had access to a good amount of artillery that the regular Army didn't.
Tom Brockert, was a short stocky man that had landed a job with the Army Criminal Investigations Division as a way of paying off his law school debt. He only had 3 more years on his contract before he no doubt went to the private sector and got rich. But, his father was a retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 that served in the famous 82d airborne division until his knees gave out CW5 Brockert pulled some strings so his son could serve the base he so dearly loved.
Tom answered Mitch's question without looking up. "No, that's a guy we're looking at because after he did a tour in Bogota, he came home then returned to Colombia a week later on leave to get married." "So?" Mitch said, "Those boys go down to South America all the time and come back with wives." Mitch was understandably curious as this troop did the same thing thousands of soldiers had done probably since army's have existed. Get deployed to a foreign country, meet an exotic beauty and fall in love. Shit, that's how most of the Korean, and Japanese immigrants Arrived in the U.S.
Tom answered, "That may be true but not a spec ops guy who holds a top secret clearance with a sensitive compartmentalized information caveat." "And the woman he married has a mother living in holland, an older brother that lives in China, and a younger brother applying for Canadian citizenship."
Mitch saw why the intel community had seen a red flag and started probing. A wife with Relatives in multiple countries and a special ops guy who no doubt had been part of many operations who's after action reports had since been blacked out with a magic marker and filed away in a deep file room in some basement at Langley. They were right to have suspicions, but then Mitch saw the file next to the analyst's computer. He could only see the cover page which showed Staff Sergeant Grant's enlisted records brief. Or ERB, as an acronym. Grant had joined the army at 17 years old with parental permission less than a year after the 9/11 attacks. He had dropped out of high school a month after the attack and immediately got his GED. Within a month of getting his high school equivalency he had visited a recruiter and enlisted.
Mitch read on and saw that after 4 years, one of those being at Salerno Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan, Grant had gone from a light infantry unit where he was selected above his peers for a spec ops assignment. He had passed airborne school in the top 10 percent of his class. He had already completed 2 combat tours supporting the elite Green Berets since arriving at USASOC. He had been promoted to Sergeant in his 4th year of service, which was very quick even in a military that was promoting quickly to meet the demands for qualified leaders in an army at war.
That was all before his 5th year in service. He was now a Staff Sergeant, with 8 years in the military and had done countless deployments with spec ops. He had also, between deployments, graduated the U.S Army Jumpmaster school as the distinguished honor graduate and earned his Ranger tab at the brutal 9 week school on Fort Benning. A school that had a 75 percent attrition rate.
Mitch turned to Brockert and asked if he could have a copy of grants military jacket. He thought with luck Staff Sergeant Wolfgang Grant could fill the last spot on his newly created clandestine, antiterrorism unit.
That's when he saw a junior analysts computer screen that showed a young Army Staff Sergeant's photo, SSG Wolfgang Grant.
The thing that caught Mitch's eye were the big bold letters USASOC below the name.
USASOC was an acronym that stood for United States Army Special Operations Command. Mitch winced noticeably and said "Shit, don't tell me that's one of the guys we're looking at? A spec ops guy is selling weapons to a cartel?" Mitch knew that the special operations guys had access to a good amount of artillery that the regular Army didn't.
Tom Brockert, was a short stocky man that had landed a job with the Army Criminal Investigations Division as a way of paying off his law school debt. He only had 3 more years on his contract before he no doubt went to the private sector and got rich. But, his father was a retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 that served in the famous 82d airborne division until his knees gave out CW5 Brockert pulled some strings so his son could serve the base he so dearly loved.
Tom answered Mitch's question without looking up. "No, that's a guy we're looking at because after he did a tour in Bogota, he came home then returned to Colombia a week later on leave to get married." "So?" Mitch said, "Those boys go down to South America all the time and come back with wives." Mitch was understandably curious as this troop did the same thing thousands of soldiers had done probably since army's have existed. Get deployed to a foreign country, meet an exotic beauty and fall in love. Shit, that's how most of the Korean, and Japanese immigrants Arrived in the U.S.
Tom answered, "That may be true but not a spec ops guy who holds a top secret clearance with a sensitive compartmentalized information caveat." "And the woman he married has a mother living in holland, an older brother that lives in China, and a younger brother applying for Canadian citizenship."
Mitch saw why the intel community had seen a red flag and started probing. A wife with Relatives in multiple countries and a special ops guy who no doubt had been part of many operations who's after action reports had since been blacked out with a magic marker and filed away in a deep file room in some basement at Langley. They were right to have suspicions, but then Mitch saw the file next to the analyst's computer. He could only see the cover page which showed Staff Sergeant Grant's enlisted records brief. Or ERB, as an acronym. Grant had joined the army at 17 years old with parental permission less than a year after the 9/11 attacks. He had dropped out of high school a month after the attack and immediately got his GED. Within a month of getting his high school equivalency he had visited a recruiter and enlisted.
Mitch read on and saw that after 4 years, one of those being at Salerno Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan, Grant had gone from a light infantry unit where he was selected above his peers for a spec ops assignment. He had passed airborne school in the top 10 percent of his class. He had already completed 2 combat tours supporting the elite Green Berets since arriving at USASOC. He had been promoted to Sergeant in his 4th year of service, which was very quick even in a military that was promoting quickly to meet the demands for qualified leaders in an army at war.
That was all before his 5th year in service. He was now a Staff Sergeant, with 8 years in the military and had done countless deployments with spec ops. He had also, between deployments, graduated the U.S Army Jumpmaster school as the distinguished honor graduate and earned his Ranger tab at the brutal 9 week school on Fort Benning. A school that had a 75 percent attrition rate.
Mitch turned to Brockert and asked if he could have a copy of grants military jacket. He thought with luck Staff Sergeant Wolfgang Grant could fill the last spot on his newly created clandestine, antiterrorism unit.
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