Always Bring Them Home

“Well, I’ll be damned. Cal Stewart, how the hell are you.”

U.S. Army Captain Caleb Stewart looked up from his shopping in the military sales store at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Heading toward him was Daniel Mason, also an Army captain, that Cal had known since they were both cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Over the years at West Point and subsequent years their paths had crossed many times. They knew each other well and both respected each other for their military and leadership acumen.

Beyond that, however, both were acutely aware of their differences. Cal Stewart grew up in a small town in Ohio. Before going to West Point most of what he knew about the Army he had learned from veterans that had been willing to sit and talk with him. When Cal thought about his future, there was one word that pretty much summed it up. That word was service. Cal saw his future as serving his country, his fellow soldiers, and pretty much anyone he could help.

Daniel S. Mason, Jr. had grown up in a large city in Texas where his father was a senior executive in the oil business. The elder Mason had a tremendous future in the Army until a training accident injured him and ended his career. Most of his peers felt Mason senior would have worn multiple stars on his shoulders and commanded at high levels. Mason junior idolized his father and had every intention of finishing what his father had started. Anything less than someday having a suite of offices in the Pentagon and Dan Mason would consider his entire career a failure.

It was no great surprise to either individual that they had run into each other. Both had heard the news that they were not only being assigned to Fort Bragg, but they were both going to be company commanders in the same battalion. Cal and Dan would be working for the same boss and seeing each other almost daily.

Success in company command is essential for the officers that hope to someday command at a high level and eventually wear the stars of a general officer. Battalion commanders who are the supervisors of company commanders must rank order their subordinates. The individuals receiving higher rankings are more likely than their peers to earn future promotions and selection to prestigious assignments.

Over their first several weeks as commanders the two captains worked hard to get to know all they could about the personnel that they commanded and the strengths and weaknesses of their companies. Cal tried to meet individually or in small groups with the approximately 145 soldiers assigned to his company. It was a daunting task, but he wanted to know and understand his soldiers and their thoughts and concerns. These were men and women that he might one day have to send into harm’s way knowing that it was possible that some of them would not return. When not meeting with soldiers, Cal reviewed all his company’s standing orders and procedures and reviewed the inspection results that told him the areas where improvement was needed.

Dan Mason approached taking charge of his company a little differently. He immediately rewrote orders ensuring they fully established his way of doing business. He left little room for the opinions of those who had been in the company for an extended time. While the new orders distributed under his signature did not specifically say so, Dan left little doubt that his orders were absolute and left no room for compromise.

Dan’s and Cal’s boss was Lieutenant Colonel Greg Smith. LTC Smith had been in command for a little over a year. A former non-commissioned officer and combat veteran, LTC Smith was well respected by his fellow soldiers.

At least once a month, LTC Smith brought the companies under his command together for some friendly competition. Following the morning’s battalion run in formation where all of the soldiers completed a four mile run, LTC Smith called the company commander’s together and told them they had five minutes to select five individuals that were ready to run an additional three miles.

Both Dan and Cal decided to be one of the five soldiers from their companies to run the additional three miles. Both had a history of cross-country running and were overall excellent athletes.

The start was crowded. Dan got off to a fast start and built a lead in the first minute of the race. Cal chose a position in the middle of the pack of runners confident that he could pick up the pace later in the race. Cal passed the two-mile mark and knew he would have to pick up the pace if he was to have any chance of catching Dan who still held a sizeable lead. Cal had begun to cut into Dan’s lead when he saw two soldiers ahead of him accidentally collide and fall to the ground. One jumped up and kept on running but the second grabbed his ankle and stayed on the ground. Slowing to ensure the soldier wasn’t badly injured, Cal recognized the man on the ground as one of his soldiers.

“Sgt Jones, Are you OK?” yelled Cal.

“No Sir, I twisted it badly.”

“OK stay here. I’ll get you some help.”

“I want to finish, Sir. I’ll walk it in.”

“That’s not necessary Sergeant.”

“It is to me Sir, I don’t quit.”

“You know something Sergeant? Neither do I.”

And with that, Cal reached down, pulled Sgt Jones across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry and headed to the finish line. There was a half mile to go in the three-mile race. Sgt Jones was not a big man but with his added weight there was no way that Cal could catch the runners ahead of them. Dan finished first well ahead of his closest competitor and was applauded by his soldiers. Cal’s soldiers, after crossing the finish line, immediately turned and ran back down the course to finish the race with their Commander and injured sergeant. It will never be known if Cal could have won the race had he simply run past his injured soldier. When he chose not to leave his soldier behind, however, he gained the respect of his soldiers.

Two weeks later, both Cal and Dan were still asleep in their beds when their phones went off in the middle of the night. Both were directed to report to the Battalion Headquarters ASAP.

Both officers arrived at Headquarters at the same time and were told to report to the Commander’s office. When they entered LTC Smith’s office, he wasted no time.

“Gentlemen sit down. East of Puerto Rico is an island. You will not find it on unclassified military charts or commercial maps. For the last six months the U.S. Coast Guard has been using it as a listening station to monitor drug traffickers. They’ve also picked up some activity by pirates. That in and of itself is not particularly unusual. The Navy, however, has picked up unusual foreign submarine activity around the island that they have not been able to further identify.If all that is not enough, there is heavy weather headed towards the island scheduled to hit in about two days.I want each of you to select two of your platoons. You’ll deploy to the island to cover the evacuation of all U.S. and support personnel. Effective immediately, you are Task Force Storm. Major John Robb will be the Task Force Commander. He has been working on this for several weeks. He will be able to fill in any details you need. If there are no questions for me gentleman, Good Luck and Godspeed.

Six hours later, U.S. C-130 aircraft lifted off from Pope Air Force Base carrying Task Force Storm. Their destination was Puerto Rico where they would set up operations and prepare to transload to helicopters for the flight to the island. Since there were no air strips on the island where fixed wing aircraft could land, helicopters would be required to get soldiers to and from the island.

The off load in Puerto Rico went smoothly and two hours after arriving in Puerto Rico, UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and CH-47 Chinook helicopters loaded with Task Force Storm personnel headed for the island. Cal and Dan, flying in separate UH-60 Blackhawks were the first to land on the island. They were greeted by Coast Guard Commander Bill Gault who was in charge at the island and quickly ushered them into the temporary shelters that served as the operations center and sleeping quarters for the personnel in charge of the listening center. Realizing that time was of the essence, CDR Gault quickly briefed Cal and Dan on the number of personnel that had to be evacuated and their various locations around the island. Upon hearing the numbers both Cal and Dan were doing math in their head to determine if the number of helicopters available were sufficient to evacuate the island.

“Do you have personnel ready to depart,” asked Dan.

“We do,” replied CDR Gault. "Half of our nonessential personnel are standing by for immediate departure. They can be at the landing zone in 20 minutes.”

“Dan, lets hold the departing helicopters and fill them with those personnel. It will be a slight delay getting the rest of the Task Force here, but we can’t afford to waste the seats on the helicopters that can evacuate personnel.”

“Agreed” said Dan, “Commander Gault, can you get your ready non-essential personnel to the landing zone for immediate departure.

“Done,” replied Gault as he motioned for one of the other Coast Guard officers to notify those ready to depart.

“Commander, are all your personnel here at your headquarters?” Most of them are here. After we received reports of pirates and the unidentified submarine, I set up five two-man observation posts at various locations around the island to monitor anything that we are not aware of. All of them could be back here in one to two hours.

“That’s everyone?” queried Cal.

“That’s it,” replied CDR Gault.

A nervous looking senior chief petty officer spoke up, “Sir, there is one person currently unaccounted for.”

“Go on,” replied Gault,

“It’s Maria sir. Yesterday morning she requested permission to travel to the north side of the island. Maria was born on this island and since the beginning of operations here she has been our best native translator. She has done more for the translation and technical operations sections than any of our other translators. She’s our best and has some knowledge of our sensitive operations.”

“How many people are with her?

“She’s alone, sir. She’s also pregnant. There is a shrine on the north side of the island. Her mother had prayed there when she was pregnant with Maria. It was important to Maria to pray there as well. According to her religious customs, it was something she had to do alone. Her husband died about two months ago.

“Do we have anyone that knows exactly where this shrine is?”

“Not to my knowledge, Sir.”

“CDR Gault, Dan and I have a helicopter standing by to take us on a reconnaissance of the island. We’ll keep an eye out for your missing personnel. Please keep us posted on her status. We won’t leave anybody behind Commander.”

“I appreciate that Captain,” responded Gault, “If there is anything at all you need, let me know.”

Cal and Dan boarded a Blackhawk helicopter containing only the pilot, co-pilot and crew chief for a look at the island from the air. The departure of the Coast Guard personnel was proceeding smoothly, and Cal and Dan were considering holding most of Task Force Storm in Puerto Rico. Before they made that decision, however, they wanted a bird’s eye view of as much of the island as they could get.

Forty minutes into their flight, they were flying over the north side of the island when the crew chief spoke over the intercom system.

“Gentlemen, I see smoke on the ground out the left side of the aircraft. My guess is it is from a campfire or signal fire. I’m not aware of us having any personnel in the area.”

Dan spoke over the intercom, “Pilot is there any chance of landing for a close look?”

“Negative,” responded the pilot. “There’s no suitable landing zone close by.”

“Pilot, the Coast Guard commander, has informed us of a missing high priority individual, possibly in this area. How close is the nearest landing zone?”

“Possibly five miles over rough terrain.”

Cal spoke, “Pilot, this helicopter is rigged for fast roping. I have fast rope experience. You also have extra survival backpacks. Can you put me down a half mile from the smoke. I’ll investigate and make my way to the landing zone. Survival backpacks contain a beacon so you can track my movements. They also have radios so with any luck and if I can get to high terrain, I should be able to communicate.

“Cal, that is a bad idea,” said Dan. We can’t afford to let you go out there alone. We can have a team out here in a couple of hours.”

“We can’t wait that long Dan, if that is Marie and she is hurt, we would have to evacuate her in the dark. That’s something we can do but it is very risky. If you have no contact with me before then, have a helicopter at the landing zone at 0800 hours. I’ll be there.

Five minutes later, Cal was on the ground and silently making his way toward the smoke and the friends or foes he was likely to encounter. The terrain was indeed rough which helped conceal his presence from anyone watching. Cal got close enough to where he was confident there was only one occupant. Walking to the edge of the camp, he spoke to the inhabitant, “Maria, I presume?”

Cal’s beacon device worked perfectly. His radio did not. Task Force personnel were able to track that he was slowly making progress toward the landing zone. He covered just over two miles when the beacon stopped showing movement. Personnel monitoring his progress assumed that he had stopped for the night.

At 0800 hours the following morning, Dan and a team of soldiers from Cal’s company touched down at the landing zone and waited. Three hours earlier the beacon had begun to show Cal’s location again, moving toward the landing zone but moving very slowly. There were still no transmissions from Cal’s radio. Minutes later the beacon ceased working. The only information they had on Cal’s location was the last information from the beacon which was now more than two hours old.

Dan was beginning to worry when one of Cal’s soldiers approached him and said, “Sir, I think you will want to come see this.”

Approaching the landing zone was a lone figure. He was bent over from carrying a second individual on his back. Cradled gently in his arms were newborn twins. His soldiers quickly lifted Maria from Cal’s shoulders. Sgt Jones was handed one baby and Dan was handed the second.

Two of his soldiers helped the exhausted Cal to the helicopter. With everyone loaded on the helicopter, Dan put in a radio call to have neo-natal medical support standing by for inbound personnel. A moment later he got a return radio call asking him to confirm what type of naval support he wanted. Gathering all his patience, Dan confirmed that he did not require any naval support but did require neo-natal support.

Several days later, Task Force Storm returned to Fort Bragg. The evacuation of the island went smoothly. The possible threat from pirates and drug dealers never materialized.The rough weather did, however, strike the island with vengeance. Had the island not been fully evacuated, it is likely that personnel would have been lost. Cal and Dan were recognized with awards for the successful mission.

Cal received additional recognition for finding Maria who had fallen in the rough terrain and broken her ankle and was thus unable to walk back to base. In the middle of the night, Maria had prematurely gone into labor and Cal had delivered the infants and then carried Maria and the twins to safety.

A month later Cal received a request to speak at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College. He chose to speak on service and on the importance of ensuring that not just members of the military always return home but that our allies, and those that support our efforts will always be brought safely out of danger.

Cal received a standing ovation for his speech and the importance of what he said left a lasting impression on many in the audience that are destined to lead our military in the future.

Dan’s ambition carried him through a highly successful career. He eventually did wear the stars on his uniform that had eluded his father. His peers that knew him well late in his career, said that the one thing he never achieved with all his accomplishments was satisfaction. Dan always seemed to be wanting more.

It was Cal’s dedication to serving his country and those that make up its military that earned him great success and the high respect of his peers. Cal was frequently called upon to address gatherings of both senior U.S. military personnel and those of our allies. Books that Cal authored became mandatory reading at West Point. He always finished his presentations with what he considered his most important guiding principle, “Always Bring Them Home.”

Cal left the military at an age when he and his wife could enjoy traveling the world. Satisfied that he had served his country well, he spent many happy days playing with his grandchildren.