Chapter 5 - The General
Major General Raymond Owens was the commanding general of Fort Sill.
He was fifty-eight years old. He had been in the Army for thirty-six years. He had been a field artillery officer his entire career. He had commanded a battery, a battalion, a brigade, and a division. He had been in Desert Storm and in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He had been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with Valor, and the Purple Heart. He had lost two soldiers in Afghanistan in 2011 and he had personally written letters to both of their mothers and he had kept the letters in his desk drawer.
He was a man who did not like cover-ups.
He was also a man who understood them.
Brooke Carter walked into his office at 10:00.
She was in her duty uniform. She was carrying her range safety flag. She came to attention three feet from his desk and she said, "Staff Sergeant Brooke Carter reporting as ordered, sir."
The general said, "At ease, Staff Sergeant."
Brooke said, "Thank you, sir."
The general said, "Sit down."
Brooke sat down.
The general said, "Do you know why you are here?"
Brooke said, "No, sir."
The general said, "You are here because I want to personally thank you."
Brooke said, "Sir?"
The general said, "Staff Sergeant Carter, I have been in the Army for thirty-six years. In those thirty-six years, I have seen soldiers do a great many things. I have seen soldiers run toward gunfire. I have seen soldiers stand their ground when everyone else was running. I have seen soldiers save lives. And I have seen soldiers — very few, but I have seen them — stand in front of a full colonel at a live-fire range and refuse to give up a flag. Not because they wanted to make a point. Not because they wanted to embarrass the colonel. Not because they wanted to be a hero. Because they were doing their job. You did your job, Staff Sergeant. And eleven people are alive because you did."
Brooke did not say anything.
The general said, "I want to tell you what I know. I know that two civilian vehicles entered the north gate of that range at 10:31 on the morning of the incident. I know that they were authorized by Major Thomas Hargrove, who is currently in pretrial confinement at the Naval Consolidated Brig at Miramar. I know that Hargrove was acting on a pattern of behavior that had been going on for eighteen months. I know that Hargrove had been quietly allowing civilian hunters to use the north access road to reach a lease adjacent to the range in exchange for cash payments. I know that Hargrove had been keeping the range control office out of the loop and that he had been falsifying range access logs and that he had been — on at least four previous occasions — allowing vehicles to enter the range during live-fire exercises without notifying anyone. I know that on three of those four previous occasions, the vehicles did not enter the impact zone. And I know that on the fourth — on the morning of the incident — they did."
Brooke's blood had gone cold.
"Sir," she said, "were there people in the impact zone on the previous occasions?"
"There were people in the impact zone on every one of those occasions, Staff Sergeant. There were hunters in the impact zone. There were also — and this is the part that I am going to tell you because I want you to understand how close we came — there were two Army soldiers in the impact zone. Two soldiers from the range support detachment. They were there to check the target pits. They were there because Hargrove had authorized them to be there. They were there because Hargrove had told them that the exercise had been cancelled and that the range was safe."
Brooke's hands had gone very still.
"Sir," she said, "if I had not called that ceasefire—"
"Then the next volley would have impacted at grid 7-4-1," the general said. "The two soldiers were at grid 7-4-3. The next volley was going to be a battery of six rounds. The dispersion pattern of a six-round battery on an M777 is approximately eighty meters. Two of those rounds would have impacted at grid 7-4-3. The two soldiers would have been killed. The two civilian hunters in the trucks at grid 7-4-2 would have been killed. The four civilian hunters walking in the impact zone at grid 7-4-0 would have been killed. And that — Staff Sergeant Carter — is eleven people. Eleven people, Staff Sergeant. And every single one of them is alive this morning because you stood in front of a colonel and you did not give up your flag."
Brooke was crying.
She did not know she was crying until she felt the tears on her cheeks.
She was not ashamed of the tears. She was a soldier. She had been a soldier for twelve years. She had learned a long time ago that the crying happened when it happened, and it was not something she could schedule.
The general stood up.
He walked around his desk.
He stood in front of her.
He held out his hand.
She stood up.
She took his hand.
"Staff Sergeant Brooke Carter," the general said, "I am going to recommend that you be awarded the Soldier's Medal. That is the highest award the Army gives for heroism that is not in the face of an enemy. You did not face an enemy on that range. You faced a colonel. And you did not give up your flag. The Soldier's Medal is the right award for that. If you have any objection to receiving it, I want to hear it now."
Brooke looked at him.
"Sir," she said, "I do not have any objection. But I want to say something."
"Say it."
"Sir, I did not do anything any other range safety NCO would not have done. The reason I did it and the reason I did not give up my flag is not because I am a hero. It is because I am a staff sergeant. The Army taught me to be a staff sergeant. The Army taught me that a range safety NCO has one job. And the job is to stop the world if the world is about to hurt somebody. That is the whole job. That is the whole thing. If the Army wants to give me a medal for doing my job, I will take it. But I want the Army to know — I want you to know, sir — that I did not do it for the medal. I did it for the two soldiers at grid 7-4-3. I did it for the four hunters at grid 7-4-0. I did it for the two drivers at grid 7-4-2. I did it because I am a soldier, and because I am a staff sergeant, and because if I had not stopped the world, eleven people would be dead this morning. And I am not going to spend the rest of my career being told that I am a hero. I am going to spend the rest of my career being told that I am a staff sergeant. Because that is what I am."
The general let go of her hand.
He walked back around his desk.
He sat down.
"Staff Sergeant Carter," he said, "you are a very good soldier."
Brooke said, "Thank you, sir."
The general said, "You are dismissed."
Brooke said, "Yes, sir."
She came to attention.
She saluted.
The general returned the salute.
She walked out of his office.
She was still carrying her flag.
May you like
She was still crying.
And she was still a staff sergeant.
