Authors: Rising Sun [jagrslc@yahoo.com]
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Rated: PG-13
Classification: JAG Story
Summary:
Harm and Mac finally go on their honeymoon, but the action finds them anyway.
Disclaimer: JAG characters portrayed belong to JAG, CBS and Paramount Television. No copyright infringement intended. All other characters depicted are purely fictional and any similarities to actual people are purely coincidental.
Author’s Note: Bud’s Case is based on a letter by the Commanding Officer of the USS Skipjack dated June 11, 1942
Permission to archive: Permission Granted
Feedback: Yes please
Story Written: August 18, 2002
JAG HQ
“Commander do I have to order you to take your wife on her honeymoon?” The Admiral demanded.
Mac looked at her husband with great anticipation and a gleam in her eye.
“No sir!” Harm replied.
“Mmmm” AJ said and left.
============================
ORIENT EXPRESS
The sound of the train wheels hitting the track was soothing. Mac snuggled up to Harm “Webb seems to be mellowing in his old age.”
“Isn’t he just? I can’t believe he funded this.” Harm pulled her close and kissed her. “Have I said recently that I love you?”
“Yes but don’t let that stop you saying it again.”
“Well then just for the record Mrs. Rabb I love you.” He pledged.
“Love you too.” She reciprocated.
============================
Lt. Bud Roberts stepped out of the elevator and made his way to the bullpen. The flex foot he had been fitted with functioned beyond his expectations. His gait was almost normal.
The commotion his arrival created brought the Admiral out of his office.
“Attention on deck!” Gunny ordered.
“As you were!” AJ corrected. “Lieutenant! Welcome back!”
“Thank you sir.” He grinned. He felt happy. Harriett had stood by him though all his ill temper and he planned to make it up to her. His prosthesis was a miracle of modern medicine and now he was back at JAG.
The Admiral had indicated to PO Tiner to collect a file from his desk. Once passed Tiner called the bullpen to attention.
AJ began “While on assignment in Afghanistan Lieutenant Bud
J. Roberts in an effort to save a child from an anti-personnel mine field with
no thought to himself or his safety saved the child and in so doing lost his
right leg. This is in keeping with the best traditions of the Untied States
NAVY. Lieutenant Bud J. Roberts therefore
is herby awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.” He finished reading, stepped
forward and pinned the medal on the young man.
He stepped back. “Lt.
Sims!”
“Sir?”
“I assume that you want to be the first to congratulate your
husband?”
“Yes sir!” Harriett
stepped forward and kissed Bud gently on the cheek.
Once the congratulations were over Bud reported to his CO. “Have a seat Lieutenant” AJ waived Bud into a chair. “Have a case for you.”
“Yes sir.”
AJ handed him a file “The skipper for the USS Watertown has a unique complaint. Apparently they submitted a requisition for one hundred and fifty rolls of toilet paper almost twelve months later they are still waiting. See what you can do for them as he seems to have exhausted all avenues.”
Bud grinned, “This is a joke right sir?”
“Do you see me laughing Lieutenant?!” AJ barked.
“No sir!” Bud sobered up instantly.
“Dismissed.”
“Aye sir.”
============================
LVIV
It hadn’t taken much entreating on Mac’s part to get Harm to temporality leave the train and end up in the Ukraine. Why Mac wanted to go there was beyond him but if it pleased her then that was all there was to it. They ended up at an air show.
He was like a kid in a candy store “Did you know that this was going on?”
She winked at him and said nothing to confirm or deny. “Its a free air show to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the local Air Force Unit.”
Neighboring US forces had joined in the celebration. All in all the show was proving to be a success as both US and Ukraine Planes did complicated maneuvers to the crowds oohs and aahhs.
The
newly married couple seated on a hill for maximum viewing were treated to an
spectacular air show that in a split second turned into a horror show that was
to become the world's worst air show disaster.
As the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 began performing another set of complex
aerobatic maneuvers it clipped some trees. It went on to hit the US F-15 that
was paired with it, then cartwheel across the ground and crash creating in a
huge fireball.
From
the safety of the hill top Harm watched and relived his own air strikes as Mac buried
her face in his shoulder. He empathized as the two-pilots from both craft managed
to eject, but the jet had hit the crowded stands, and instantly scores of
bodies were strewn across the tarmac. Bodies
flew up into the air and with hands and legs soaring all around.
The
screams and the sounds of pandemonium would haunt the two for years to come.
============================
The Secretary of the Navy waltzed into AJ”s office with no ceremony. “Have you seen this?” He slammed a newspaper onto the Admiral’s desk.
The headlines screamed: JET CRASHES AT UKRAINE AIR SHOW
“Yes sir I have seen the news.” AJ assured him.
“Well what are we doing about it?” The man demanded.
“My people are on it.”
“What people!”
“Mackenzie and Rabb.” AJ replied.
The SECNAV swallowed hard. “Why am I not surprised? Those two have a knack of being where the action is.”
“I prefer to think of it as being where they are needed when they are needed.” AJ defended his team.
Then the SECNAV remembered “Aren’t they on their honeymoon?”
“They were.” AJ confirmed.
============================
LVIV
“Aren’t we on our honeymoon?” Mac asked, as she stood still shocked by the scene that unfolded before her.
“We were.” Harm confirmed. Somehow the Admiral had tracked them and as the Senior JAGs in the area their honeymoon had been cut short and they were assigned to the case. No mention had been made of them working together.
“Well you are the pilot of the family what do you think?” It was three days later and she was picking her way through the debris praying that all bodies had been accounted for.
A soldier challenged their presence. There was some exchange as Mac explained who they were.
“I didn’t know you spoke Ukraine.” He marveled.
“I don’t. But before the break up of the USSR it was ensured that every one spoke Russian. As a result anyone of our generation can speak it. They only choose not to.”
“Handy.”
“Found anything?” She returned to the reason they were combing the disaster site.
“From where we sat it looked like engine failure.” He replied mirroring her actions and thoughts. “What needs to be understood is that Ukrainian Air Force is cash strapped and cannot afford to buy spare parts for these ageing jets. As a result the equipment might have been exhausted beyond its limits.”
“That is some theory.” She challenged.
“I may be a lawyer Mac but I know the aviation world.” He defended.
“I know you do. I was only playing devils advocate.” She explained. “And by the same token I am no pilot but I’ve been around you and planes enough to know that somewhere in this debris is the answer to that theory.”
“Actually we are not here to conduct the investigation for the Ukraine Military but to make sure that our pilot was not to blame.” He repeated their orders.
“Harmon Rabb you surprise me!” Mac replied. “What happened to the truth no matter what?”
“In this case it’s the one and the same.” Of that he was sure.
============================
Bud leaned back and read the print out.
From: JAG Corps, Falls Church, Virginia
To: Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, California
Subject: Toilet Paper
Ref: (a) (3507) USS Enterprise (5148) USS Watertown
req 69-41 of 30 July 2001
(b) SO NYMI cancelled invoice No. 161726
Encl: (1) Sample of cancelled invoice
(2) Sample of material required.
1. The USS WATERTOWN submitted a requisition for
150 rolls of toilet paper on July 30, 2000, to USS ENTERPRISE. The material was
ordered by ENTERPRISE from the Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, for
delivery to USS WATERTOWN.
2. The Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, on
November 26, 2001, canceled Mare Island Invoice No. 161726 with the stamped
notation "Cancelled -- cannot identify." This cancelled invoice was
received by WATERTOWN on June 10, 2002.
3. During the 23 months elapsing from the time of
ordering the toilet paper and the present date, USS WATERTOWN personnel,
despite their best efforts to await delivery of the subject material, have been
unable to wait on numerous occasions, and the situation is now quite acute,
particularly during depth-charge attacks by the "back stabbers."
4. Enclosure (2) is a sample of the desired materials
provided for the information of the Supply Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island. The
Commanding Officer, USS WATERTOWN, cannot help but wonder what is being used at
Mare Island in place of this unidentifiable material, once well known to this
command.
5. WATERTOWN personnel during this period have
become accustomed to the use of "crests," i.e., the vast amount of
incoming non-essential paper work, and in so doing feel that the wish of the
Bureau of Ships for reduction of paper work is being complied with, thus
killing two birds with one stone.
6. It is believed by this command that the stamped
notation "cannot identify" was possible error, and that this is
simply a case of shortage of strategic war material, the WATERTOWN probably
being low on the priority list.
7. In order to cooperate in the war effort at a
small local sacrifice, the WATERTOWN desires no further action be taken until
the end of the current war, which has created a situation aptly described, as
"War is hell."
Lt. Cmdr. Bud J. Roberts
If that didn’t get them the toilet paper then nothing would!
============================
NAVY YARD, MARE ISLAND
CALIFORNIA
Lt. Commander Cox stood before Captain Twoft. The man was
not happy. "Cancelled -- cannot identify!" He raged. “How in hell can
some one not know what toilet paper is!!!”
He waived the letter at the junior officer. “CORRECT THIS!”
“Aye sir!”
“Dismissed!”
============================
Tiner announced the SECNAV who had already waltzed through the office doors. “As you were. Continue.”
Mac picked up where Harm had paused. “The Su-27 is comparable to our F-15. These Russian planes have been in service since 1985. Ukraine's military is short of cash and cannot afford the maintenance regime needed for the jets.”
Harm continued. “It would seem to be a straight case of mechanical failure of the Russian plane. Neither the Ukraine Pilot or the American Pilot were to blame.”
“People died in that crash people. People will want a scapegoat.” SECNAV informed them.
“What would you have us do sir?” AJ asked. “Court martial the man for walking away alive from that hell?” AJ was indignant “… Sir?”
“No I suppose not.” He admitted grudgingly then looked at the JAG team before him. “Why are you here? Don’t you have a honeymoon to be on?”
END