Chapter 6 - The Allies
The allies came slowly. They always do.
The first was Major Teresa Ochoa. She had been the officer who had relieved Audrey of her duties on the night of the incident. She had been the officer who had told Audrey that she was going to see her at the inspector general's office at 08:00 the next morning. She had been the officer who had personally read Audrey's log and who had said, "This is the most thorough supply log I have seen in twenty-two years of service."
She had written a memorandum for the record on the night of the incident. The memorandum was dated the sixteenth of October. It said, in careful language, that "in my twenty-two years of service, I have never encountered a situation in which a captain was required to choose between the mission and the law. Captain Mills made that choice. She chose the law. She chose the families. She chose the truth. That is not the conduct of a disgraced officer. That is the conduct of a soldier who has been trained properly and who has retained that training under pressure."
The memorandum went to the inspector general.
The memorandum also went to the adjutant general.
The memorandum also went to the state judge advocate.
The second ally was Colonel Ricardo Delgado.
He had written the legal opinion that had determined that Audrey's refusal to obey Ward's order had been lawful. He had written it in four hours. He had signed it at 07:30 on the twentieth of October. He had delivered it by hand to the adjutant general at 08:00.
He had, in the weeks that followed, become the most vocal defender of Audrey Mills in the California National Guard. He had spoken to reporters — on background, on the record, and in the privacy of the state headquarters — about what had happened at the depot. He had said, in an interview with the Sacramento Bee, "The conduct of Captain Audrey Mills on the sixteenth of October was not insubordination. It was the exercise of a soldier's legal obligation to refuse an unlawful order. She should be commended, not disciplined. And if the California National Guard does not commend her, then the California National Guard does not deserve her."
The third ally was Luis Moreno.
He had not testified yet. He would testify in March. But he had done something else in October. He had walked into the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District headquarters and he had asked to speak with the fire chief. He had told the fire chief what had happened at the depot. He had told the fire chief about the blanket. He had told the fire chief about the warehouse. He had told the fire chief about the families in the gymnasium.
The fire chief had listened for thirty minutes.
Then he had said, "Captain Moreno, I have been in the fire service for thirty-one years. I have seen a lot of things. But I have never seen a firefighter walk into a warehouse and buy back a blanket that had been stolen from a family. Not once. Not until you."
Luis Moreno had said, "Chief, I did not buy the blanket back. The blanket was never sold to me. It was sold to me by a thief. I paid the thief four dollars. The blanket is not mine. It belongs to the family it was supposed to go to. I am bringing it back."
The fire chief had said, "Then bring it back. And bring the fire department with you."
The fire department had brought a truck. The truck had 400 blankets donated by a hardware store on J Street. The blankets had been delivered to the depot. The blankets had gone to the families.
Luis Moreno had stood at the loading dock while the blankets were unloaded. He had watched the families receive them. He had watched a woman in a stained sweatshirt wrap a blanket around her daughter. He had watched a man in a work uniform wrap a blanket around his sleeping toddler.
He had watched a captain in a National Guard uniform hand out blankets that had been donated to the families by the fire department of the city of Sacramento.
He had thought, at that moment, that this was the best thing he had ever done.
He had been wrong.
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The best thing he had ever done had not happened yet.
The best thing he was going to do was going to happen in March, when he walked into a federal courtroom in Sacramento and testified.
