Every Last Mother's Child

by William J. Carty, Jr

  Chapter 7: A Place For Us.

  It had been a crummy day. Cadet Sergeant Mitchum was on the first rung of the cadet’s honor system. As first sergeant of the corps it was her duty to look over all of the demerits handed out by the cadet officers and resolve as many of the issues she could before they went to Major Atomi who was the second tier of the honor system before Lamile made her mast recommendation. About once a week she had to go through the demerit log with the School Mistress. Mitch was still trying to get a handle on her position as the First Sergeant, and trying to understand Major Atomi. Now she had to recommend to the Major that one of the kids from what was being called the Long March who had been one of her Lieutenants was on top of the mast list. The worse part of it was that Major Atomi had to be the one who had written the kid up. Mitch had been willing to give Cadet Morgan a pass, as the offense was horse play in class.

  “Sergeant Mitch,” Major Atomi had asked, “Why are you willing to give Rhonda a pass.”

  “She has only been here a couple of weeks,” Mitch began, “And the honor code hasn’t been fully implemented with the kids from your march. I think if we give Lieutenant Morgan demerits it shouldn’t be as many as horseplay normally gets. No one was hurt, and the instructor thought it was kind of cute. His words Major,” Mitch commented, “I just think coming down on her too hard may cause more problems than it solves.”

  “I let Rhonda get away with some stuff on the March that I shouldn’t have Mitch,” Major Atomi replied, “I scolded her a couple of times when I thought her methods were too rough, but she needs to understand as an officer now that she has to set the example for the rest of her company.”

  “The other reason I was giving her the benefit of the doubt was that she has quite a few demerits. This one could cause her to go before the mast.” Mitch said.

  Major Atomi said, “School Mistress display Cadet Morgan’s honor book, and request that Cadet Morgan report to Sergeant Mitchum’s office.”

  The honor book was displayed and Lamile who had not seen the book until that moment gave out a low whistle. “Mitch, I had no idea it was this bad.”

  “If this goes before the mast,” Mitch said, “she’ll lose her company. Other than her demerits, her company has the second highest grade point in the Corps. I would like to find a way to keep her from going to the mast!”

  “Okay,” Lamile said, remembering a story of her mother’s early years in the MPs. Of how her sergeant had demonstrated to her how her job was not to be just a disciplinarian; but to help make sure that promising officers and enlisted people were given a chance to better themselves. She looked at Mitch realizing that Mitch had already learned the lesson. She also realized that Mitch who should have been the corps XO or have her own company, instead of holding a grudge, had accepted the role of the corps First Sergeant without causing a fit, and had so far in the few weeks Lamile had known her, was proving to be good in the job. Lamile wondered if Sergeant Green was having some sort of influence on the girl before her.

  “You’re right; but we’re going to make Rhonda sweat a bit.” Lamile said, “We’ll make her think she’s going to lose her company.”

  It was at that moment that Jill walked into the office. She wanted to know when she was going to see the mast recommendations. Lamile answered Jill’s question, “Me and Mitch are working on it now. Jill, give us an hour and we’ll have it for you.”

  “Okay,” Jill said leaving seeing Cadet Morgan enter the office.

  “Lamile you wanted to see me?” Rhonda asked. She still wasn’t getting used to the grade her friend now had, nor her own.

  “Lieutenant Morgan,” Mitch said sharply, “The executive officer asked that you report to her. You are not meeting her to go to lunch or to have a chat. Now report to her properly!”

  “Lamile is she for real?” Rhonda asked.

  “Stand at attention Lieutenant Morgan,” Lamile snapped. The girl came to attention. “Let me see your book,”

  Rhonda reached in her cover and gave her friend her demerit book. Lamile paged through it. It backed up what had been displayed earlier. Lamile put on a show of shaking her head and clucking a couple of times. She finally said, “I should ding you for your failure to report properly.”

  “If you do she’ll lose her company,” Mitch said, “Is there some way you can see your way not to issue the demerit?”

  “I am looking at her book,” Lamile had said, “I don’t know maybe she should lose her company.”

  “Major,” Mitch said, “She’s only been here a couple of weeks, she hasn’t had time to acclimate yet to the academy.”

  “School Mistress,” Lamile said, “Is there any other cadet who has this many demerits?”

  “No, Major Atomi,” The school mistress’ image hovered next to Mitch. She presented herself as a prim and proper older woman, “There is no one even close.”

  “I see,” Lamile said, “Rhonda, I am very tempted to bust you. Bring you before the Mast and let Colonel Wilson deal out a suitable punishment. But part of Sergeant Mitchum’s job and mine is to take only seriously offenses before the honor board.”

  Rhonda had heard of the mast. The mast was held once a week after midday rations on Saturday. The company officers would deal with the minor infractions leaving the serious ones for the Mast. She had heard the Mast could render any discipline that seemed to fit the incident including extra duty and punishment tours on the anvil. So far none of the kids in her company had gone before the mast.

  “I don’t think she has done anything serious enough to go before the mast,” Mitch said, “I think that she is still getting used to the academy and that these are just settling in stuff.”

  “What do you suggest Sarge,” Lamile asked.

  “An apology to Mr. Berkin,” Mitch answered, “In front of the class she interrupted. That will remove the demerits gotten in his class.”

  “That will take her from the near probation status.” Lamile remarked.

  “Then I would suggest Duty Officer for the rest of the week.” Mitch continued. Rhonda had heard also of the duty officer; but she had not been posted to that duty so far. They were the cadet officer of the day for the entire corps. They were in effect the cadet commander for the period they were on. It was an attempt to let Jill, Lamile, and the cadet officers to attend class and to give them a chance not to be on duty all the time. She would still have to manage her company, in addition to attend class. Some classes she got out of but not all of them.

  “Rhonda,” Lamile asked, “will you accept our suggestions or do you want to go before the mast.”

  “I’ll accept you offer,” Rhonda said she could feel that Lamile and Mitch really didn’t want to cause her grief.

  “Mitch if she gets any more demerits she goes before the mast.” Lamile said.

  “Aye Ma’am,” Mitch said marking the cadet’s book.

  “Dismissed” Lamile said. Rhonda had to learn that as good a friends as they were that some things went beyond friendship.

  When Rhonda had left, Jill who had been in the adjoining office now came into Mitch’s office with Sergeant Green and Lady Hawthorne. Jill went to office door and made sure it was shut. “What do you think?”

  “We heard the whole conversation,” Lady Hawthorne said, “There were two ways to handle it. One to throw her at the mast or two, prevent her from going to the mast. I really don’t like those things.”

  “It is a failure of leadership when you have to do something like a mast.” Sergeant Green said. “It means that someone has failed. The lower level supervisor leader hasn’t communicated with the person, and the lower level supervisor hasn’t been supervised properly by his supervisor. But you know that from Gene and your trip to the mast Mitch. The question is Lamile, will she come around?”

  “I think she will” Lamile said, “She wasn’t the first kid to sign up; but she was one of the ones to convince the others. She wants to be here.”

  “Something is going on
with her,” Millie said, “She sometimes seems to know things she shouldn’t.”

  “I know what you mean,” Lamile said, “on the Long March she seemed to know what I was thinking.”

  “Well let’s see how she does,” Lady Hawthorne said.