Chapter 11 - The Aftermath
Audrey Mills stayed in the California National Guard.
She did not ask to be transferred. She did not ask to be reassigned. She stayed at the state headquarters. She served as the state's deputy director of emergency services. She deployed to the Camp Fire in 2018 and to the Kincade Fire in 2019 and to the Glass Fire in 2020 and to three floods and one earthquake. She was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 2031 and to colonel in 2034. She was selected for brigadier general in 2037 and retired from the California National Guard in 2039 at the age of fifty-five.
She had served for thirty-one years.
She had been a captain and a major and a lieutenant colonel and a colonel and a brigadier general.
She had been the first woman to serve as the state's deputy director of emergency services.
She had been awarded the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the California National Guard Commendation Medal, and — in 2037, in a ceremony at the Pentagon — the Distinguished Service Medal for her work in emergency management during four fires, three floods, one earthquake, and one pandemic.
She lives now in Sacramento. She lives in a small house near the fire station where her husband, retired Captain Luis Moreno, served for thirty years. She has a garden. She has a dog. She has a photograph of her mother and a photograph of her father and a photograph of herself in her dress uniform that hangs in the hallway.
She volunteers at the Sacramento Food Bank on Wednesdays. She reads to children in the library on Saturdays. She teaches a class at California State University Sacramento on emergency management every spring.
She does not tell her students about the incident. She does not tell them about the empty box. She does not tell them about Colonel Ward. She does not tell them about the families in the gymnasium.
She tells them about the work.
"The work of emergency management," she says, "is not about the logistics. The logistics are important. The logistics are the reason the blankets get from the warehouse to the gymnasium. But the logistics are not the work. The work is the moment when a captain stands in front of a colonel and says no. The work is the moment when a soldier chooses the families over the paperwork. The work is the moment when you look at a line of eleven hundred evacuees and you realize that each one of them is a person and each one of them is depending on you. That is the work. The rest of it is paperwork. The rest of it is logistics. The rest of it is forms in triplicate. But the work — the real work — is the moment when you decide whether you are going to be the kind of officer who does what he is told or the kind of officer who does what is right."
The students look at her.
They do not fully understand.
They will understand. They will understand when they are in a uniform in a disaster zone and a senior officer is telling them to do something that is wrong. They will understand when they are standing in front of an empty box and a line of evacuees. They will understand when they are asked to choose between the paperwork and the families.
They will understand.
And when they understand, they will remember the woman at Cal State Sacramento who told them about the work.
They will remember that she said the work is the moment when you decide.
They will remember that she said the work is the moment when you choose.
And they will choose.
Because that is what an officer does.
May you like
That is what an officer has always done.
That is what an officer will always do.
