He might be injured and not able to take the field but he’s still part of the team. Still his Coach’s Jock. He still workouts with the Team, trained with the Team. Serves the Unit along with his fellow airmen. Being on the wounded list doesn’t change who or what he is.
After their talk with the Sgt everything felt a bit hazy and their thoughts were a bit muddled but they knew they were meant to belong to the Unit. That they needed to report to him and await their orders. And when he handed them their uniforms they knew they wouldn’t feel right until they were wearing them. Working to earned them and the right to belong to him.
He hadn’t expected his Owner to show up, hadn’t known his man and the Sgt knew each other but none of that mattered. When his Owner told him to strip off his blouse and shirt obeyed. And when he was ordered to flex and show off…he loved every moment of it.
The Sgt knew who his next target for recruitment would be the moment he read his file and observed him. The Airmen was hard working, brave, tough, and drifting without a long term goal. The Sgt could use all the former and give him the later.
He eyes and mind focused on the Sgt he couldn’t wait to get out into the field and get to work as soon as his fellow Airmen finished getting his gear squared away.
He didn’t know why the Sgt had ordered him to report to the far edge of the base but he didn’t question the command. He was too well trained for that, or so he thought. After spending the afternoon with one of the Sgt’s trainers he would learned just how much more training the Sgt had in store for him.
As he lowered the visor over his eyes he felt the shift. He no longer felt like a man complete on his own but felt the loss of his plane. He felt small, grounded, limited, he wanted, no needed, his body. To soar, hunt and obey.
Despite thursday’s suicide bombing (three detonations, 170 civilian deaths, 13 US personnel KIA), evacuation at Kabul Airport carries on: In the past 24 hours, 35 US military flights and 54 coalition flights evacuated 12,500 people from Kabul. 105,000 people have been airlifted from the Afghan capital since August the 14th.
Republic of China Air Force Cadets, on their way the USA for training, compare instruments with American Coast Guardsmen. They are aboard a US Coast Guard manned transport off the coast of India.
Coast Guard Combat Artist Joseph DiGemma has his violin while two of the cadets hold the Chinese instrument Hu-chin (also have seen spelled Hu-ching). Seaman First Class Arthur Witt is the other Coast Guardsman while the Chinese cadets are unidentified.
Description: Captain Ross M. Smith (left) and an observer of the Australian Flying Corps, No. 1 Squadron, analyse a document together near a parked Bristol F.2 Fighter plane at an airfield in Mejdel on February 1918.
