The Storm

he had any idea what this was about and if he had heard anything at all. He answered me with a 'NAM, probably, but don’t know for sure.'" "We all loaded our gear. I counted 20 not including the flight crew. We got on the aircraft, stowed and secured our gear, and strapped into fold-down seats in the cargo area. With no rest or sleep, we flew out into the night sky. Hours later we re fueled while in flight and were still headin. east, as far as I could tell. We were served a fairly good supper and settled in for the rest of the flight. No one talked much, other than the usual banter of guys sniffin' out each other like a pack'o wolves." "You're always testin' the psyche of the team around you," Gunny said, "and tryin' to catalog their personalities and their awareness. Usually, nicknames come quickly after certain conversations. We had been trained to show no fear or skittishness, and always to play your cards close to the vest, as they say. We were trained to be highly suspicious to new inserts and did not reveal much of anything to any of the other men. This would change soon enough, as we learned to trust eachother with our lives. In a team it is imperative to know eachother's strengths and weaknesses." "We dropped in altitude, and I rotated my jaw to unstop my ears from the change in air pressure and prepared for our landing. A decent landing in a heavy aircraft was always appreciated, and I hoped that this one would be without event. A man doesn't need to go through Seal trainin' and end up scattered all over a runway before he gets to go on mission, because of some flamin' accident or pilot error. The welcome

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