Read Soldier Up for Free Online Page B

Colonel returned the salute, “At ease Major.” If the Colonel was surprised by the formal report he didn’t show it.  “Welcome back I hope you enjoyed your four days off?”
                  “I did Sir thank you.”
                  “Ready to get back to work?”
                  “Yes Sir.”
                  “Alright then you’re going to be moved over to operations.”
                  “Sir does that mean no more missions?”
                  “For the foreseeable future it does.”
                  “Sir may I ask what does this really mean?”
                  The Colonel looked hard at Major Clayton, “It means Major that your butt will be in a chair for a very long time to come.”
                  John knew when he was about to cross a line so he stopped, “Yes Sir.”
                  The Colonel told him to head down to operations and that they were expecting him.  They would show him his desk and bring him up to speed on his new duties.  John came to attention, saluted and did an about face and exited the Colonels office.   He headed down the main corridor and up a couple of flight of stairs and into operations.  He looked around a bit and found the office of the OIC who happened to be another Major, Major MacCoy.
                  John knocked on the door, “Enter.” Major MacCoy said.
    John walked into the room and stood in front of the Majors desk, Major MacCoy looked at him, “Is that the way you report?”
    John looked at him, “It is when it’s another Major I do.” John said indignantly.
    Major MacCoy looked at Major Clayton for a moment, he got up out of his chair and walked over and shut the door.  “Why don’t you have a seat Major.”
                  Major MacCoy returned to his desk and sat; John went ahead and sat in the plastic chair in front of the desk.
                  “How long have you been a Major?” asked Major MacCoy.
                  “Three months or so.” replied Major Clayton.
                  “I have been one for over three years so I out rank you by time served as a Major.”
                  John couldn’t argue with that it was true if he had really been a Major for three years.
                  “Look.” Said Major MacCoy. “We can get into a pissing contest about Major this and Major that and I really don’t want to.  I am the OIC of this Department so unless that changes and I hope to God it does soon, I apologize for how I came off I shouldn’t have said what I did.”
                  John respected a person who stood up for their own faults and owned them, “No problem I get it, this caught me by surprise this morning, I was hoping to join my old team.”
                  “To be honest we don’t get many operators here, it’s not their thing.  They might check in for a few days and are out of here as soon as they can.”
                  “Where do they go?” John was curious.
                  “Depends, we get both Officer and Enlisted.  They either find a job they like back where they came from such as Group or Rangers, or they resign or retire.”
                  “What would my duties be here?”
                  “Honestly not much right now, your butt on a chair eight hours a day.  You would review reports from the field, find out what the teams need and back fill them with materials or personnel. “
                  “Sounds pretty low speed low drag.” Said Major Clayton.
                  Major MacCoy smiled; he had heard the same phrase a hundred times from the operators who came through here.  “Yeah it is, when we leave here look around, look at the uniforms of the men and woman here.  There all jump qualified to be sure and maybe