Militia Read Free Page B

anything to make you more comfortable?” The Colonel asked sarcastically.
    Mike sat down without saluting or responding to the Colonels sarcasm. “What do you need me for sir?” Mike asked.
    “I just figured that I’d give you a chance to tell me what happened before you brief a room full of your superiors tomorrow. I know that you are in a bad mood and I don’t expect you to play the Army game right now, but I need to know what happened out there and I need to know that you are all right.”
    “I’ll be ok, sir. My men won’t though. The enemy was just setting up waiting for us. We didn’t see any trace of them until their sniper took out Woods. We tried radioing back here but nothing was going through. The mortars started and I found the guys a cave to take shelter in. It looked secure so I told the team to stay put and I went out to try the radio again. That’s the last thing that I can remember before the chopper showed up.”
    Colonel Thomas looked very understanding. Mike knew that he had a lot of combat time for an officer and had severed most of his time as a Ranger. “Ok, Hoffman, I’m going to need you ready to give a room full of officers that you could rightly give a shit less about a briefing on your mission. For now have my driver take you back to your room and try to get some sleep. We have all lost men in this war but it sounds to me like you did everything right. It’s going to be hard, I know, but keep your head up kid. My driver will be back to pick you up at zero eight tomorrow so make sure you get chow before then.”
    Mike stood up and saluted the Colonel before leaving the office. He actually felt kind of bad for not saluting when he entered after the talk they just had. The driver was still waiting for him and Mike hopped back in without saying a word. Apparently the kid had already been told where to take him because he never asked which way Mike’s room was and drove straight there. A few minutes later they came to a stop and Mike hopped out.
    “Hey sergeant, the medics stopped by while you were with the colonel and asked me to give you this.”
    Grabbing the small box, Mike turned without giving it a second look and walked into the room that until today he had shared with Woods. When he sat down on his bed the first thing that he noticed was the picture of Wood’s girlfriend back home that sat on a shelf at the end of his bed. Woods would always talk about Sarah and told Mike everything about her. Right before they had left for this last mission Woods had confided in him that he was going to ask Sarah to marry him as soon as they went on leave.
    Mike got up and went through some of his dead roommate’s things before finally finding what he was looking for. There was a small notebook that Woods put all of the phone numbers and addresses that he needed in. On the first page was Sarah’s number followed by his parents and other friends and family contact information. He had already made up his mind the second he saw Sarah’s photo that the first thing he would do after the briefing would be to call Sarah and inform her of what happened.
    He took the small pad of paper over to his makeshift desk and set it inside his hat. Making this call was going to be hard but it had to be done. Mike had almost forgotten about the box. He sat back down on his bed, grabbed the box, and opened it. Inside was a pile of dog tags. For a second he just stared down at them and then slowly reached in and pulled them out one by one reading off each of his soldiers’ names and pertinent information. Mike Hoffman stared at these metal reminders of fallen heroes, buried his face in his hands, and wept.
    The next morning Mike awoke just before five in the morning like usual. He got dressed and then headed to the rooms of his other soldiers, rummaging through their stuff just enough to find phone numbers for their friends and families. He skipped breakfast, having no appetite and knowing that if he got hungry